Hexies and hugs

Job number one after basting is stitching closely around

the perimeter of the quilt, or stabilizing. I'm always surprised

at the resistance to this crucial step from students: "Why do

I need to do that?!" THIS is why. You can't quilt a ruffle. 

This grandmother's flower garden quilt was so much fun to quilt. Anne, my client, was so easy to work with. She had drawn a diagram of the quilting she wanted, which I really appreciate. But I know my strengths and limitations, and as a freehander, I couldn't deliver. So, we regrouped, opting for feathers. The morning I was going to start quilting them, I woke up with a plan: small plumes that alternate direction. Apparently, my subconscious had been working on it in my sleep. I've learned to act on such ideas for best results.

In the printed fabrics, I quilted a ribbon candy design in the outer rings, an echoed pumpkin seed in the inner rings, and a simple flower in the centers and in between the prints, for continuity. Quilting the prints stabilized the quilt, and the echo quilting around the feathers nailed down what the ribbon candy did not.

The rewards of custom quilting are more than just monetary. When a happy client hugs me, I know the magic happened again.

In this case, the client intended to forgo a traditional binding and just turn the ends of the top

and backing under and hand-sew them closed. So I couldn't quilt closely around the edge.

Instead, I pinned the edges down and quilted up to a quarter-inch from the edge.

The nearly finished quilt. Most of the background fabrics have the sheen of cotton sateen,

which makes the feathers leap out of the quilt. The quilting added a lot of movement.

I quilted the prints in gray thread and the background with bright white polyesters, a thinner one for the echo quilting. 

Rally Day With Kimberly Einmo

One of Kimberly Einmo's modern quilts that she used

to illustrate her point that quilting plays a really

important part because of the ample white space.  

Kim explained how Judy Madsen's heavy quilting with double batting and
labor-intensive ruler work can take 40 to 50 hours' worth of work to complete,
thereby raising the price considerably.  

I went with a couple of friends to the Dallas quilt guild meeting Thursday to hear Kimberly Einmo talk about sewing rooms and creative spaces.

On the way back to Fort Worth, I was wondering whether this what Dallas typically looks like on a Thursday evening. Flashing lights of police cars downtown and lining Interstate-30 through Grand Prairie and Arlington. Such a delightful evening turned a sad, shocking corner with unspeakable ... I don't have the words. Grace and love to Dallas.

So, after too many hours watching the news (I worked in newspapers for 20 years), I was really in the mood to go to Rally Day, which is put on annually by the Texas Association of Quilt Guilds, this time in Mesquite.

We got a chance to buy tickets for so many local guilds' donation quilts, win prizes, shop, visit, laugh and be together.

The speaker, Kimberly Einmo, was so cheerful, informative and entertaining. We were treated to a trunk show, not only of her quilt designs, but inherently to the work of a range of machine quilters: her usual quilter, Birgit Schuller of Germany, Leah Day, Judy Madsen and others.

She emphasized the importance of quilting in modern quilts, whose ample white space naturally sets the stage for over-the-top quilting. She did us longarmers a favor, encouraging quilt toppers to "get out your credit cards" and take those stacks of tops to quilters for hire and get them done -- and come to grips with the cost of labor-intensive work.

Kim's Website is at kimberlyeinmo.com

A lot of ruler work here by Judy Madsen on another of Kim's simple but striking quilts.

Kim was kind enough to pose for a photo with me. Thanks, Kim, for a wonderful day.

Primitives on exhibit

This gorgeous wool applique quilt will be part of a special exhibit of primitive/folk art style quilts at the 2016 International Quilt Festival in Houston. Fine Feathered Friends by Jolene Mershon of Mansfield, Texas, was one of 22 quilts chosen for the exhibit.

This quilt is alluring for many reasons, chief among them  the woolen fabrics. I could tell right away they'd been culled from clothing, not just purchased in quilt stores. The backgrounds are Daiwabo Japanese taupes. The combination of wool and yarn-dyed cottons create a textural feast for the eyes -- and a different kind of challenge to quilt.

I outlined quilted the applique, and quilted in some details in the larger applique pieces. Leaving big pieces unquilted is bad for a quilt. Uneven quilting will not only appear unsightly, but it creates weak spots, areas where the elements will pull and wear. For example, in the photo below, see the benefit of only a small amount of quilting in the orange flower, leaves and the eggs in the nest.

Where the background fabric already had textural pattern, I quilted along the pattern, not against it. And one of my favorite things: diagonal rows of channel quilting in the border. Three rows of lines close together, then a channel of unquilted space, make for a sensational traditional border design.