Quilting Again

 

Yes, quilting again!  A deadline approached and I entered the Forbidden Room with Oliver where he camped out nearby to help me with a quilt project.  Marking is never fun, but new markers and an old clamshell tool from www.thimbleworks.com did the trick beautifully.  Oliver knocked the markers off the table several times and watched me search and retrieve with that intensity only a cat can have.

 

Two weeks ago as summer finally arrived I realized that the small quilt I promised to make for this year's AAQI Celebrity Auction is due very very soon, yikes.  The auction will be online this November; I'll give you the details later when I make sure of dates, etc.  But trust me, from the list of names making quilts I know you will want to bid and bid early and often so you can claim one of the beautiful quilts.

 

 

Above, my 15" square miniature quilt, marked, layered, and pinned.  Ready for the machine!  The top is a beautifully luxurious gold silk dupioni with minimal slubs, very smooth and pretty, and I used YLI #100 silk thread for the quilting, which is tiny and exacting, and yes I needed a magnifier. 

 

I used Pellon Legacy wool batt, and a scrumptious perfect dusty teal Moda cotton from the Wuthering Heights 3 Sisters Collection.  I'll try and get a photo of the back of the quilt, as I like it equally well as the front.

 

I did make a small prototype, practiced my feathers, checked thread colors.  I'll write about that a bit later when I get more photos taken.  It helps so much, not only showing you in real life how the thread color looks, the one you were planning on but now can see isn't quite right after all.  My muscle memory woke up, and quilting was easy and beautiful, the best news I could have after not working on a real quilt for over a year.  This skill does not go away. 

 

Oliver got into more trouble, hiding from me and making me search the house for half an hour, wondering if somehow I had let him outdoors?  I sensed his eyes on me when I went into the kitchen, turned, and saw the white spot of his fur in our wine cupboard that for once had an empty shelf!  Perfect spot to fit his body, a 2009 Oliver, smooth and sweet with that hint of smoky naughtiness!

 

 

I quilted a few hours a day for a little longer than a week.  There are designs marked on this miniature quilt, the vines and animals, but I did all the feathers freehand as always.  It is based on my miniature quilt A Visit to Provence.  My sketch of the feathers and vines in that quilt has been lost so I referred to my photo and came up with something similar, with the addition of my Rabbit, and signature sleeping cat instead of the urn from the original.

 

There was no room for an outer border so I filled the corners with delightfully tiny clamshells, 1/4" Diane-shiko, and some very tiny stippling for the odd spaces.

 

It is bound and finished, titled Return to Provence.  I love it.  I look at it and like to keep looking at it, for me the true test of a successful design.  I hate to ship it off for the auction and say goodbye, but I know it will go to a good home and give others pleasure.

 

Below are some details of the quilt, and I'll post the full photo soon when my camera battery recharges.  I used one line of echo quilting around the main designs with Sparkle Silk thread for a hint of gleam.

 

 

Clamshells in upper right corner, above.

 

My hands are sore, but better, and it was wonderful to be at the machine again.  I hope to make more small projects soon, in a leisurely way.  Thanks for all your comments on "retirement" - it's good not to have the travel and pressure of teaching, but I do miss seeing all those talented bright funny students.  I hope you are all doing well with your work, sneaking in some quilting time when you can. 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.....

Diane



 

Observations while quilting.....

Hello everyone, it's nice to be back on the grid, although there are always changes at Blogger and now I have to re-learn a few things, and remember my password too, eeeek.

We've had severe drought, over 100-degree temps, miserable miserable summer days here in Wisconsin and most of the Midwest.  It is a temperate 80 today and a bit of green coming back from a recent rain.  A failing AC finally died and we had to wait for repairs during some of the hottest nastiest times ever, wondering how we ever survived in the past without it. 

We LOVE our wonderful repairman who had it fixed within 20 minutes, cool lovely air flowing in again.  Oliver didn't know why he was so miserable, but soon he was bouncing around again.  We were too.

After that, a deadline for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative and their celebrity auction fast approached, so I closeted myself in my sewing room with Oliver settled on the comfy chair stacked with my old quilts, and made a small quilt for this event.  I shall post links and info when it is all online, as the quilts will be amazing by fabulous quilters you know and love. 

The quilt, above and detail with a penny below, is a version of an old one called "Joy," and this small 17 1/2" square quilt is titled "Joy Remembered" and is in honor of my mother, Erma Hinterberg, who died in 2008 from Alzheimer's.  I miss her every single day.  I began the quilt on July 9, her birthday, and quilted a bit each day until it was done.  It was a joy to do. 

While I was working, I thought of the classes I will be teaching this fall and pondered what I have learned over the years, observations, things I might not remember unless I am at my machine and working:  

• Sometimes I get too impatient and find I run the machine too fast, and my machine runs very fast indeed.  For the first time ever, I used the option it has to slow down the motor speed, and took it down a notch to 75% of power.  It was wonderful, and I did not even notice it after a moment or two, but it kept my speed in excellent control.
• One thing I forgot to do is stitch in the ditch between the center panel and border with water soluble thread to stabilize this seam before quilting the designs and backgrounds.  Instead I used a neutral silk thread that was a permanent line of stitching, and that was fine.  However, there were many times I quilted up to this ditch from both sides and traveled on it, ending up with just a tad too much thread in that ditch.  The initial line of stitching would have washed out had it been water soluble, top and bobbin.  I use this thread for a lot of stabilizing quilting and ditch work.
• If the music is too loud you can't hear the machine and get a nice rhythm.  Turn it down.  Darn.
• Wind extra bobbins.
• Use the same color top and bobbin, never mind what the backing color is.  I used gold in the bobbin and top for the gold border, and the back of the quilt was a deep murky green/gold Fossil Fern fabric, and the gold quilting looked beautiful on it.  In the past I would have used one thread in the bobbin, a deep murky green or neutral tan to match/blend.  It was easier to get a balanced stitch using same color top and bobbin, plus the back looks really, really pretty.
• I added a row of quilting around the motifs using YLI Sparkle thread to add a soft halo and definition, and some richness.  I like just a touch of this, but go ahead and play with threads and colors to tailor your quilting to the ideas and images in your head.  I quilt slower with specialty threads with better success.
• Don't let cats NEAR your thread trims.  Oliver loves to eat silk thread and I have to be ever so careful.   He also likes to eat any kind of sticky tape, from painters' tape and masking tape, to packaging tape that is very sticky.  He gets way too happy when he finds any on incoming packages.  And now.....the excitement of fresh corn and corn silk, just like thread, oh no.
• I've never had the need to use gloves or hoops or any aids to move my quilt smoothly and evenly.  My machine bed is not sticky, and I use the Supreme Slider with extra tape on the corners just to be sure it doesn't move with the quilt, and make sure the choice for backing fabric will move smoothly too.  Some are sticky and don't move easily, so check that out before you layer your quilt.  I pre-wash my fabrics and that helps immensely.
• If you have issues with getting good thread tension, try different bobbin threads.  Sometimes switching from one fiber to another, such as from cotton to poly, poly to cotton, silk to cotton, cotton to silk - will help!
• Different designs require slight tension adjustments.  When I was quilting bananas as background on the border, I switched every now and then to groupings of circles or "froth," and did remember to lower the top tension for these.  Otherwise the top thread pulls too tightly, and stitches become tight and distorting on top. 
• I used 3 upper tension settings in the gold border, one that was tighter for the Diane-shiko and feathers, a bit looser for the Bananas, and the least amount of tension for the Froth.  Don't start quilting without checking tension and making sure it is set where YOU want it.
• Remember to check the back of the quilt every now and then and make sure all is well there too.  Bad things can happen in the basement.
• Love my magnifier.  And yes, I need an eye exam soon.
• If you are using #100 silk in the top, BEWARE the fan blowing on you as you quilt.  My thread actually blew out of my machine guides a few times.....
• Do a more difficult type of quilting after you've done something that is easier for you.  I did my tiny circles or "pearls" in the spines of the feathers when I was warmed up and feeling confident.  I did them all with short breaks to keep consistency.
• If you've always done one type of background, try something new.  Alas, I wanted to use one of my new backgrounds but the border area was too small for it to work.  It was a partial section of what should have been a fully developed design, so it simply didn't work.  I switched and was happy with the result and it was easier.  Don't be afraid to change plans.

Hope everyone is enjoying all the things summer can bring, despite the unprecedented heat.  I hope to see many of you this fall in Des Moines at the AQS show, Oct. 3-6 and in Septemeber at WI Quilt Expo.

Meanwhile, stay cool, and keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day...

Diane

Quilt Auction!

We are in a heat wave here in Wisconsin, today going to 97 with high humidity so it will feel like 110.  Ugh.  I know many of you have it worse than this, so I hope everyone can stay cool. 

Oliver doesn't like the closed curtains, extra fans, sleepy days.  He is protesting by sleeping all day.  Soon he will be two years old and is becoming quite a cat now, no longer a kitten playing with abandon.  Now he is more purposeful, thinking out his attacks, waiting to strike.

He and I have not been quilting.  It is too hot.

The photo, above, is a detail from my quilt "Mourning Too Soon," made in honor of my mother, Erma Hinterberg for the "Alzheimer's:  Forgetting Piece by Piece" exhibit, organized and curated by the amazing talents and dedication of Ami Simms.  The exhibit travelled for five years and more than 300,000 people had a chance to see it, were moved by it, and were encouraged by it as well.

It is a strippy style quilt, chocolate and lilac silk dupioni, "almost" wholecloth as it is "all" quilting, with original designs and a cable design in the chocolate strips.  It includes a Mourning Dove, one of my mother's favorites, who cries for the sadness we all feel for losing our loved ones way too soon to this disease.  It is a beautiful quilt.

After the exhibit ended I donated my quilt for auction, along with other quilts in the exhibit.  Please go to:  http://www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction.html  to see the quilts. 

The auction is August 1-10, and the link is:

http://www.benefitbidding.com/listings/categories/index.cfm?category=965774286

I hope they will raise many dollars to go to this cause.  This disease has touched us all, and continues to devastate families.  We need research, a cure, help.  This is a great chance for any of you who have wanted to purchase one of my quilts to get a lovely piece, with my heart in it, to have in your own life and support a great cause at the same time.

Please make a bid on my quilt. I am a huge supporter of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. They are an all-volunteer national charity whose mission is to raise awareness and fund research. They spend no money on fundraising and all their profits fund Alzheimer's research. They have raised more than $550,000 for research...one quilt at a time. Help me help them.

And a very special thanks to SewCalGal for her wonderful write-up of my class!  It was an extraordinary group and experience, and the interaction in the class was terrific.  Everyone benefited and it made my job so much easier.

Hope you all are enjoying summer, the heat, and maybe just a bit of quilting.  And thank you so much in advance for supporting this cause.

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day,

Diane

Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope

Last week I cleared away the dregs of projects and layered my next one for quilting. I volunteered to quilt one of the many quilts made up of strips of purple fabrics with names of those with Alzheimer's disease.

These quilts will all hang as part of the next traveling exhibit entitled "Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope." You can read about this at www.alzquilts.org/alil.html and see the style of these quilts. Perhaps you signed a strip of fabric on the reverse, faded side, in honor or memory of someone, and perhaps it is in the quilt I received.

As I unfolded the quilt top, long and narrow, about as long as I am tall, the impact of the long string of names, all in different handwriting, struck me so hard. Lovely names, strong names, whimsical fun names, but all with the common thread of Alzheimer's. Behind each name I knew the terrible story, the suffering from this disease each person had.

Somewhere in one of these quilts out there to be quilted is my mother's name, Erma Hinterberg, that my sister signed when she attended the MN quilt show in Duluth last year. When the exhibit is finished and on tour I will look for it.

Some of the names were bold and strong, some one name only, some mentioned a relationship like Mom or sister. Seeing these names hit me so hard I knew I could not proceed that day, it was just too emotional, and I had to step away until the names became familiar friends.

I layered that quilt, did some stitch in the ditch between each signature rectangle, and then decided rather than an allover quilting design I would treat each name as its own little quilt, and try to do a motif on each to honor each name, and to reflect what I was imagining that person might like.

Melvin and Milton have strong straight lines of quilting. Viola is on a solid lilac fabric, first name only, and she has a pretty feathered vine. Louise, Lu Hamilton - Grandmother, and Bunny. Clamshells and bubbles, Diane-shiko or simple wavy lines, I varied the motifs, and loved seeing the names become little quilts before my eyes.

Below, three of the rectangles I signed and sewed on to the long strip of names, one for my husband's Aunt Rita, one for my uncle Milt Woolson, and one for a friend's mother.

I used silk thread rather than a heavier one which probably would have worked better on these fabrics, but I didn't want to obscure the names. The quilting takes back seat to the names.

I now will ship this to yet another volunteer for another volunteer to bind, sew on the label and sleeve, and add it to the growing number of quilts exactly like mine that will comprise the exhibit. They will all be quilted by different people, in different threads and styles. I feel like these names are now "my people." I have spent hours with them. I know they will be seen by many over the four years of travel they will have. I hope they raise awareness and funds for research to treat and eventually cure or prevent this disease.

Please visit Ami Simms' site, www.alzquilts.org to read what is going on and for more information.

After the next snowstorm I will gently fold and pack this quilt up with the label for it, with my own signature as the quilter. It will be part of history now, and I hope it can help enlighten the world.

Keep quilting, you never know when your skills may be needed.
Diane

On the Radio!

Ami Simms, founder of the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative, will be on public radio today at 11 a.m. or listen to her interview on your computer. She deserves huge accolades for what she has done to fight this terrible disease, with so many of you out there helping as well. Here is what she says:

"I'll be on PBS radio WVIA-FM at around 11 am today talking about the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Listen on your computer at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wvia/ppr/index.shtml It will be available by podcast some time on Tuesday and rebroadcast at noon on Sunday.

Alzheimer's: Forgetting Piece by Piece will be exhibited this weekend in Lewisburg, PA, hosted by the Susquehanna Chorale. They have just commissioned an original piece of music about Alzheimer's which will be performed on October 9th."

Give a listen,
Diane