Monday, August 31, 2020

Binding with piped edge

One of my friends recently completed a top with a tiny piped edge and I really liked it.  She learned the technique from Ricky Tims several years ago.  He credited the original method to Sherri Driver, who in turn learned it from Debra Wagner.  So credit is being given where credit is due.  Don't you find that you pick up hints and tricks all the time?  Not too many of my techniques are original.   Some are derivatives for sure.  But most are things that I've learned and wanted to pass along to you.

I used the #10 and the #32 feet on the Bernina, size #3 pearl cotton embroidery thread for the cording, cut the piping strips at 1" wide and the binding strips at 3-5/8" wide.


The first step was to insert the piping inside the piping binding.  This is where the #32 cording foot was used as well as moving the needle 2 positions to the right.


The second step was to attach the piping to the binding.  The same foot and needle position were used for this step.  I also placed some painter's tape at 1-5/8 inches to the right of the needle (keep the needle in the same position and measure from that spot).


Then you need to press the binding so that the piping sticks out.  Here it is on the back side.


And this is what it looks like on the front side.


That is how the piped binding was prepared.  The way to attach this to the quilt is in the next blog post.

So stay tuned!

Monday, August 24, 2020

Reflection at Nehalem Bay - Part One

I took a picture of a fabulous reflection at Nehalem Bay State Park a few years ago.  It was just dumb luck of being at the right place at the right time and I snapped this photo with my Iphone.  The beach is one of those lovely wide, flat, sandy beaches and when the tide is going out or coming in, you get this thin layer of shimmering water, which is perfect for reflections.  At this state park, you do have to hike out to the end of the spit and then walk back on the beach (or visa versa) and sometimes you see campers riding horses, which is just fabulous.  My husband and I liked  the picture so much that we converted it to black and white and had it enlarged and framed; it is now hanging on one of our walls.




Since I have painted so many small pieces of flowers and bees on flowers, I wanted to challenge myself to paint a much larger piece.  So, this was the one that I selected.  I traced the picture as an    8-1/2" x 11" size.  Then I took it to my favorite blueprint shop, Rose City Blueprint and had it enlarged to 32" x 43".  I used the blueprint (which is actually not blue anymore but black lines on white paper) to trace the design onto prepared for dying (PFD) fabric.  This was mounted onto a large sheet of foam core board and taped securely around the edges.  Side note:  In order to get foam core in this size, you have to go to a store that carries the larger size, such as FedEx Printing.  My husband was able to find a piece that was 36" x 48", which I believe is used for marketing posters.

I mixed up a bunch of blue, white, and brown fabric paint and dived right into the painting.  It took 3 days to get the painting done and when it dried, it bowed up the foam core board.  Here's a picture of it after the paint was dry.



The foreground was way too vivid, as I suspected that it might be.  So, I mixed up a gray wash and went over the foreground.  Here it is after the gray wash.  It's much better, don't you think?  If you do painting like this, you must let the first layer dry.  The watery wash will stay where you put it then; otherwise it will wick and feather out into the adjoining areas.



I had success in a previous quilt using organza to give some shine and to further dull a foreground.  So, this one got a layer of a light gray organza to give it the watery effect.  Here is a picture after the organza was sewn to the watery bottom.  It's hard to see the shine in the picture, but seen in person, it definitely has some sheen.



I hope you like this piece so far. I'm off to get it quilted next.


Monday, August 17, 2020

Turtle wall hanging

My sister Jeanne started to make her first foundation pieced wall hanging for her daughter.  She did a fabulous job of piecing the turtle top, but found that the quilting was just a little beyond her skill set.   So she mailed me the top, the backing, and some extra fabric for the binding.  Here is the top that she sent to me.



She had made some markings of where she was going to quilt the piece but said that it was up to me whether I wanted to follow the markings or quilt it a different way.  I did like the way she had the turtle marked and used that as a starting point for the quilting.  The background was quilted in the same amount of density, but with meandering stitch.

Here is the completed quilt.  It measures 36" x 36".



I hope both she and her daughter like the results.

Monday, August 10, 2020

Lime green 3-D quilt, Final

This is the final blog about the making of the lime green 3-D quilt.

The quilt needed to have lines that enhanced the 3-D effect, and I liked using just plain old gray thread.

Here it is in progress;





And the final quilt.  There's a very skinny pop of lime green piping just inside the border.  It's 51" x 51".



I hope you like it.


Monday, August 3, 2020

Lime Green 3-D quilt, Part Four

This is a continuation of the posts about the making of the 3-D green quilt.

I next turned to the background for the globe.  Since I wanted to use fabric that I already had, I used a gray grunge dot fabric.  I wasn't sure if that would be enough for the background, or if I still needed to add lime green circles.  So, I made a few of the circles and pinned then in place.  Here's the before and after pictures showing the difference.






I decided that I liked the plain background the best.  So, I stitched it down and the top was all ready to quilt.

I hope you agree that it didn't need a ton of lime green circles on the background.

P.S. I know that the original intent was to reduce my lime green fabric stash.  But alas, I had to buy 2 yards MORE in order to do the binding technique, which I'll talk about later.