Jun 30 08

New Quilt Finished and Road Trip!

I finished another quilt; this picture is actually taken before it was completely quilted because I wanted to show you that if you quilt the perimeter of the entire quilt, you can bind it while you’re still quilting it:

I usually do this if I am facing a deadline on a quilt, but this time I did it because I had a long car ride coming up and I wanted to get some handwork done during the times that I didn’t have to drive. This quilt has some trapuntoed areas. Here’s a tulip when it was just fused on:

See how boring it looks at this stage? I threw a small piece of ultra-thin polyester batting behind it and then did the EKG stitching around the edges. I like how this kind of thread work cranks things up a notch:

I flipped it over and cut away excess batting:

…and this is how the back of it looks after all the trapuntoed pieces have been decorated with thread and then the excess batting cut away:

Can you see all the areas that are stitched but don’t have batting on them? Those were free motion embroidered and I didn’t have to use a stabilizer because they were all appliquéd via fusible web, and the web acts as a stabilizer. Once you’ve got it into a quilt sandwich, you stitch around the edges of all appliqué pieces with invisible thread and this makes the trapunto pop out just a bit. BUT, this batting is so thin that it’s barely noticeable:

Fortunately, I like the background quilting a lot. This is my version of McTavishing…it’s a bit different, but I love the sense of flowing movement it creates. Notice how that movement is amplified by quilting it in subtly variegated threads. I switched thread colors depending on the background fabric color:

We drove to NC last week but we started from Cleveland, so we came via a different route than we usually do. We saw signs for Wytheville, VA, home of the famous “Batiks etc” Quilt shop, so we had to stop! I indulged myself with these fabrics:

…and these books:

As if this weren’t bad enough, the next day I had to drive to Jonesboro, TN to pick up my sewing machine from The Sewing Bee (great quilt shop and Pfaff dealer as well), and between The Sewing Bee and Tennessee Quilts, picked up even MORE fabric and thread:

It looks like I’d better get busy cutting and sewing!

3 Comments

  1. Carol Sloan Says:

    My kind of girl with the shopping! I enjoyed seeing you at FAA and just LOVE you 2 new quilts!

  2. Alice Says:

    Patsy, I love what you have done with that tulip quilt. It is stunning. A question about he EKG quilting… are you doing that free-motion or is it a stitch on your machine… or is it both.

    I was reading.. somewhere on the internet (can’t remember where), but someone was talking or suggesting that you could use a decorative stitch and still free-motion quilting. I think that is something I would like to try… but I think I am a little intimidated by it, just yet.

    What a great collection you picked up on your travels… making one’s own hand-printed cloth… one day… one day, I’ll get there. I look forward to seeing your adventures with that! I still want to try “finger painting for adults”. *grin*

    -Alice

  3. Terri Says:

    Carol Sloan was showing your quilt creation, which led me here. The quilt is gorgeous. The colors are what first spoke to me and then, well, I love anything with flowers.