Tag Archives: Textile

Feb5

Day Two at Retreat

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It’s happy Tuesday at Retreat today! Bonnie has finished her One Block Wonder Quilt – we named it THE FINGER! She is working on her second quilt top built from the special Creative Grids ruler, the 4 1/2″ quarter square triangle…Looks like it will be really neat!

Carole has been slaving over her blocks for two days now…maybe a glass of wine for dinner. She is one of the happiest quilters I know!

Sally gave up on her workshop project for a while and has resorted to crocheting. Grandbaby coming soon so she has an excuse. Can you tell she doesn’t want her picture taken – she hasn’t “styled” her hair yet!

Sandy finished this great quilt today. Looks really great especially the opposing corners!

Last, but not least, is our esteemed crew Captain – Judy! Her baby quilt is coming right along – a disappearing 4 patch.

The bright project is my finished top from a workshop several years ago. It is a Cara Gullati pattern only I made it with all of my hand dyed fabrics – super happy!

So…busy Retreat -lots of laughs and sewing and fun!

Until later…BE HAPPY

Karen

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Jan31

TESTING A MACHINE APPLIQUE TECHNIQUE

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I have been wanting to test this machine applique technique for a long time. I also have wanted to work on this quilt “Red Delicious” by Esther Alieu. It is all done in multiple red prints and I just love the finished product. That being said, however, I just don’t have the time to needle turn applique and have watched Sharon Schamber use this technique of applique on most of her award winning quilts. The pieces are prepared with a specific foundation and edge turned with Elmer’s Glue. Here is the biggy…using monofilament you machine stitch a very small blanket stitch around all edges. As a prep Sharon instructs you to wash all of your applique fabric but NOT the background fabric. After completing the machine stitching you soak the block – this disintegrates the foundation into a soft fibre – and let the block dry. The background fabric, because it has not been prewashed, will shrink just a tad and thereby pull the stitching under so that it is completely invisible. Thats how it’s supposed to work anyway. I will soak my block tonight and let you know tomorrow how it does. I hope the picture of the bird is close enough for you to see the stitching before it is soaked. On this bird I was experimenting with the stitching. I started with a simple zig zag stitch but wasn’t happy with the way the thread pulled to the top no matter what tension adjustments I made. I then changed to a very small blanket (1.0/1.0) and it looks lots better. We will see tomorrow…..

Meanwhile, off to lunch with some good friends and then to the local quilt shop to deliver a couple of quilts.

Until later, BE HAPPY!

Karen

Jan4

ICE DYED FABRIC EXPERIMENT EXCITING!

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Well, I finally managed to get the five pieces of fabric out, rinsed, washed and ironed.  They are really very cool – I wish the colors showed as well in the picture as they do in person.  Take a look….    It is definitely a do-again, although not as much control for color the results are fantastic!  Here are the pictures, straight out of the dryer.  I am anxious to use them in a design class with David Taylor next month…of course, though, I’ll have to try some more before that!

Easy Street Top is finished, borders and all.  I’ll post a picture of that tomorrow.  Until then…BE HAPPY!