Quilting can be painful....

My little helper doesn't help much when I am marking...

I ummed and ahhed over whether to use two thicknesses of batting or to trapunto this. I went with the latter (someone give my brain a nudge). I started on a box of new safety pins. Why on earth do they arrive closed? I think I probably used a few hundred pinning this quilt. Pinning wasn't so hard, I pinned them in place and sat of the sofa watching TV whilst I closed them. Opening them was the problem, I ended up with a very sore left first finger and thumb. But this is not the reason quilting hurts. I stitched round every flower, every stem and every feather with freemotion quilting using water soluble thread.  I love the effect but had forgotten that if you are planning this, then it is a good idea not to do it on something with as many elements with so many shapes.....

Then I started cutting away the excess batting. This is taking ages and I cannot do it for more than a couple of hours or so without a break.

And this is why quilting can be painful right now. So far these are the only scissors which slide nicely between the batting and the quilt top. (you have to be very careful not to cut through the quilt top, very very careful)

I end up with a red sore bit on my thumb knuckle and the gouge you can see is the bit that hurts the most. It goes back into shape after an hour or so......

These are the ones I have tried. The top stork scissors are too small, the next are the ones which hurt, the silver ones are the new Sulivans with nice big finger holes but their points want to go through the quilt fabric as well as the batting. The green handled ones are the Karen K Buckley ones, I have been told if I sand off the tips of these with an emery board, they might be OK and the Fiskars are just too big except for alongside the straightish bits like the intertwined chain on the outer border.

As I am writing this post, the postman arrived with this selection. I have yet to try them so will let you know how I get on with them.

I went shopping in Monmouth yesterday, I was bitterly cold and the ducks were all hunkered down on the river bank. I cannot imagine they are very safe from foxes here. The river has quite a bit of water in it right now and I imagine that they normally reside on little islands.

I know may of you live in Australia and the USA and don't get to see many things this old, so here is a photo I took yesterday of the Monnow Bridge right by my local supermarket. It is 7 or 8 hundred years old. It is only open to pedestrians these days. You can find out more here.

I am counting the cutting out of the trapunto as hand work and therefore to do it in the evenings (quite honestly, it would hurt too much to work on cutting it all day). So I have decided to go back to my version of Esther Aliu's Heart's Desire. It has moved house with me without me adding anything to it in the last couple of years. I love this quilt, I love the design of it but I do admit to not getting the same satisfaction on working on the design of another. I am finding the same thing with the Di Ford Mystery Quilt, it is another lovely quilt, another lovely deisgn but it doesn't give me the same excitement as working on something I make from the design process onward. So it you hear me say I will start another of another designer's work, please remind me that however wonderful it may be, I will not feel the same engagement with it. I stumbled a little on my Heart's Desire when I appliqued a top and bottom border only to find I had not allowed for the sashings in my measurements and then we moved house. So onwards and upwards, I shall finish it, not sure how just yet but I will!

Sticking them in place

In some ways this is easier to stick the trapunto shapes on the back of the top, but not on this quilt. When I've done it this way before, it's not been on a quilt where the trapunto cutting will show on the front. Even that would not be too great a problem if the shapes weren't so large, particularly those big feathers which go round the corners on the border. I'm finding I have to stick one or two down then wait a good ten minutes for it to dry enough so I can move to another area. Love these Scotch glue sticks from Costco. Although they say permanent, they do wash out. With the ironing board set up so I can watch the tennis at Wimbledon, it's quite a good way to spend the afternoons.

Remember that wholecloth?

The one with the diamond fill in between the central motif and the borders. Remember how I was going to trapunto alternate diamonds but when I worked my way round the alternates didn't match? Well after putting it away again and the third attempt also failed. I released all the trapuntoed diamonds by going over very carefully the water soluble thread with an auto paint brush loaded with water. Oh what joy, not! I can tell you it's much much easier to unpick normal thread. Still it's done now and I shall do something entirely different in this area. Perhaps more feathers. There was a time when I believed the adage out there in the quilting world, the eye should have somewhere to rest. I've been looking at the older wholecloths and it's become obvious these women had never heard of this and their quilts are wonderful, so feathers it is then.....

Water Soluble Thread

It's not often I use dark fabric and dark batting with trapunto work so I took these photos today as you can see the stitch easily. You only need to quilt with the water soluble thread outside your motif so it doesn't take as long as you might think. And you don't have to be amazingly accurate as if you go outside the line the background quilting will hold down and inside the line the other stitching in the motif will hold it in place. The exception to this is when you do shadow trapunto and then you must be as accurate as you would be with the final quilting.
The back
The front.


All done to Lou Reed, Walk on the Wildside and Leonard Cohen's Allelujah (sp?) with me singing along.
I found a neat little thing on blogger toady. If you have your home town in your profile, you can click on it and it will show you all the other bloggers in your area. 107 in Fleet. Sadly most of them abandoned, but one by a skateboarding friend of my DD and one of her school mates from way back when. Seems like I might be not only the most prolific but also the 'oldest blogger in town' (sad that, grin). Though there was another blogger building a kit car with a non disclosed age who could be older........

Good news (sort of)

I made this quilt for a competition in Patchwork and Quilting magazine. The theme was 'Square within a Square' maximum size 24" X 24" and they were looking for machine quilting.
This competition seemed to have my name on it. In this photo, it's nearly finished. Just being blocked on a foam board and I've yet to go round checking I've buried every thread (I hadn't, how is it you can look 100 times and still find one or two?).
Click on it, I think it should come up just about full size so you can see each and every stitch.


I got a phone call last week from Patchwork and Quilting and was told, 'I'm sorry you haven't won the sewing machine'. (GRIN)
I did however get one of the three 2nd place (or runner up) prizes, a year's subscription to the magazine, so that was nice.
I trapuntoed the feathers. Each corner whilst similar (they each have the same spine) is designed separately. If I did it again (which I've only ever repeated the same quilt once) would I do anything different? Yes, I would use silk thread not the Soft Touch as it's finer and I could have gone even smaller with the background fillers and the central grid (it's a ¼" grid).
It will be hanging at the Festival of Quilts on either the Bernina or Patchwork and Quilting stands. I really am looking forward to seeing the winner, to see how I can do better.
I still like this little quilt though I have no use for it. My initial reaction was to try and sell it but I'm wondering if it is worth sending it over the pond to a US Show? And if so which one?

Making test sample

I couldn't leave it alone I had to see what it would look like with various backgrounds and with the blue backing. I used YLI Soft Touch in the needle and white Bottom Line in the bobbin.
The feather and the fist two rounds of echo quilting is white and the rest of the YLI was cream.
I quite like this colour, pity the fabric is white. When I took photos yesterday morning of it pinned up, it came up white, today the camera doesn't want to play nicely.

As I suspected the white stitching looks great but the stitching itself doesn't. I do want theis quilt to be as near to perfect as I can get it, so I think it will have to have a cream or white backing.
It does however encourage me to make a quilt with white stitching on blue on the front....
So many quilts so little time....

Voldemort, child of Voldemort and I are off to Art in Action today unless the weather is totally dire.

Pinned for Trapunto

I got it pinned this morning, thankfully it took less time than I expected. Note how the pins have been left open. I cannot remember whose idea this was but I am eternally grateful. Whether you pin on a table or the floor, just get the pins in place. Then sit comfortably on your sofa with your favourite TV program and close your pins. This cuts your kneeling time or bending over time by more than half and it's kinder on your fingers as you are closing the pins at a far more easy angle.

You will see that the centre lines of the feather are not the most elegant. This happens when you trace through rather than drawing directly onto fabric. No problem, these lines are a guide not written in stone. When I come to stitch, I will follow the natural line not the marking.

Have you noticed, I'm not showing you all the quilt at once? This is so you'll stay with me on this journey. My poor friend Marion has had to listen to me going on and on when I do my large quilts. Sometimes it's just because I get bored with doing loads of background, sometimes it's just because it takes so long. This time it's your turn (grin).
The quilt fabric is 80" wide and the quilt is probably about 3-4" inside this so it's not the biggest quilt I've made but it's not tiny either.
If I can get them I buy the kingsize bats. This is because I want those left over big bits to practice on. They are also handy for smaller quilts. I put the leftovers straight back into their original packaging so I don't loose track of what they are. In this case the trapunto batting is Quilter's Dream Poly in the the De Luxe weight. This batting is unlike any other poly bats as it is made with microfibres. It feels like a lightweight felt with better drape. And it sticks to the cotton of the quilt top and the backing just like cotton if not more so.
I will use Hobbs wool batting for the quilt itself. One reason is I've found it dries so much more quickly than other bats and the other is the colour. It's cream not brilliant white. I'm hoping there will be a subtle difference in colour between the trapunto areas and the background. It should be subtle enough than you are unaware of it, but enough to draw the eye to the trapunto areas (I did say I get quite anal about some of my quilts, didn't I?)
I'm also still considering what to use as backing. I have a lovely royal blue and the white stitching could look brilliant on this. One thing is holding me back, when you do really fine quilting with really fine threads the lines of stitching on the back are not always placed exactly where they are on the front. I will stitch either side of the lines in the 'lobes' of the feathers like Diane Gaudynski recommends. This not only looks better than going over the previous line of stitching, it is also far quicker. But I noticed that when you have rows of stitching 1/16" or less apart, the parallel lines are not as parallel on the back. I have to decide whether this matters or not.
Another consideration is this backing has been prewashed as I needed to see if the colour ran. It didn't but it had to be done. I like my backings when I'm doing fine quilting to not be prewashed. It's nice if they can shrink a little when the quilt is washed and then allow a little more of the quilting to stand out on the front. This idea is from Barbara Barber. I have a roll of some truly lovely unbleached muslin but this would require a seam. I could use the same sateen on the back as it on the front, but then there would be no 2nd side. I have some cream lightly marbled fabric backs..... and some patterned ones which are totally forgiving on the back, but that would be cheating (grin) and anyway this quilt is supposed to be an heirloom so it should be worthy on both sides.
Decisions, decisions......