Jan 31 09
Hyperquilting ABC’s, Thread, and SALE!!!
I’ve gotten some emails from people who are wondering what this “hyperquilting stuff” is and what’s so much fun about it, so I figured I’d do a post that is a primer on hyperquilting. Hyperquilting is a technique where a motif is free motion quilted in thread #1. After switching to a second thread color (and this would deliberately be a high contrast decorative thread), a secondary design is free motion quilted right on top of, or inside of, the first quilted motif. It sounds confusing, but it’s not! Here’s an example of the most conservative hyperquilting design I know of; I call this “Inlining:”
If we look at a close up shot, you can see that all I did was to initially stitch a feathered wreath (in this case, it was stitched with a size 12 pearl cotton hand dyed embroidery thread) and then I went back in with a gold rayon thread and stitched smaller plumes inside the original plumes. There are also some echo lines in another rayon thread just outside the wreath to ad a halo of color, but that’s not really part of inlining:
You can see that this technique really changes that feather…it makes it appear more complex, adds some more color, and just kind of subtly jazzes things up just a bit. In this next example, called the frond embellished feather, the same technique is used, but because the hyperquilting design is different, the effect is quite different:
…and here’s a close up shot that shows it is just 2 fronds that curve in a way that mirrors the shape of the plume:
This last one is my favorite; it’s the splay embellished feather. Notice that the feather’s spine has been highlighted by this embellishment. It’s almost as if we’ve electrified the spine:
…and here’s a close up to show that I stitched a series of 3 splay lines per plume, each echoing the curve of the plume:
All of the above hyperquilting was done with Robison Anton rayon thread and the color is called 24-karat gold. That is my favorite gold thread and I go through spools of it like water! Compare all of the above to the baseline quilted wreath below and you can really appreciate the effect that hyperquilting has:
It is killing me not to show any of them on my blog yet, but I’ve come up with all kinds of new hyperquilting designs for feathers that will debut on the next DVD in a few months. Trust me, if you’re into hyperquilting, these new designs will really rock your world!!
Now, hyperquilting is not limited to feathers, you can hyperquilt all kinds of motifs. Below is an example of a hyperquilted basic vine. In this case, it is actually free motion embroidered instead of quilted:
If you look at that vine closely, you can see that the original vine was stitched with empty leaves and it was on my second pass that I added the vein lines and the grapevine curly cues. If this stuff excites you, get int he habit of breaking designs down into component parts when you look at them. When you start thinking in this way, you’ll come up with all kinds of hyperquilting ideas!
I am excited to tell you that we are now carrying some lines of Superior Threads, and to celebrate, we are having a sale on the threads, the flexible curve rulers, and the bendable bright lights. The first thread pack is called Super Brights and this is my favorite thread to do inlining of vines and leaves. The colors are incredibly vibrant and will showcase your thread work. The second thread pack is called Rain Forest and the third is called Flower Garden. These last 2 packs are all luscious colors developed with Ricky Tims and you can use them in subtle ways or in eye catching ways…they have wonderful sheen that is ooh-la-la! Enjoy them all; sale prices are good through midnight next Saturday night, 2/7/09!
Absolutely fabulous as always!
Wauv, it’s absolute stunning. Can’t wait to get the DVD.
now I get it, and I think I am going to love to try this on my new machine! next week or soon.
like #2 Laila says, absolute stunning!