Monday Mini Quickie Quilt Catch Up

Sorry about no posts lately. I rarely get the chance to be on the "big" computer and have no pictures on my new laptop. Plus it has just been too darn hot to sew much.

On the homefront, my son, Jake, is moving back home. I've missed him a lot (we are a lot alike) and I'm glad he'll be around again. BUT. I had made his old room my studio and have had to move back into the tiny room I had before. Isn't it funny how we expand to fill any and all available space? Oh well, the move has been accomplished and I even found some things I was missing! About the only sewing I've been doing is my Monday mini quickie quilts. This one is from several weeks ago. I used fusible thread to stitch around the spiral stamped motifs then hit them with foil. Not enough bling so I loosely placed some fusible threads on top of the piece and foiled those. Better, but not much control.

On top of that I put a sheer embossed with metallic stars and stitched around the squares along the stamp outline. Then I cut away the sheer inside the squares. Better. Finally I added a fused curved-cut binding.

This piece was gelatin printed on a hand dyed mauve fabric with a rainbow of paints on the gelatin plate. The mauve (one of my least favorite colors) showed way too much so I put a green sheer on top and stitched around each leaf and added veins. Then I cut away the sheer outside the leaves and satin stitched the stem.

I've been wanting to try "rice stitching" by hand. It's supposed to look like grains of rice scattered on the surface. I don't think it was ideal for this piece, but it's all about learning what works and trying new things. I like the effect, but now I know it takes longer than I expected and more embroidery floss too! (I ran out and had to substitute another color.)

Finally I wanted to try fused squares on point for the binding and this piece got that treatment. Again, not ideal for this piece (I think it overpowers the quilt itself), but I'm still learning!

This week's piece was a pretty gelatin print, mostly turquoise with brush strokes of purple and pearly white. I was intrigued by some quilts that Melody Johnson did awhile back so I tried her fused matchstick technique in a MUCH simpler manner. The technique I used to get the circles was too difficult and not very successful, but I think I know a better way now so look for this again.

The circles weren't showing up well enough so I machine trapuntoed them. Then some of the matchsticks were coming loose (some of that old bad WonderUnder) so I covered it with netting and quilted it using a new-to-me quilt pattern of E's and M's. Needs more practice, LOL, but again, it's all about learning, stretching and trying new things.

No binding on this one, just a pillowcase turn followed by some really close-to-the-edge stitching.

I'm off to Long Beach tomorrow for the show so no posts until I return. If you're there look for me and my new jackets! My Bernina ensemble, Da-Doo-Ron-Rendezvous, should also be on display or at the informal modeling. I will be demoing at the Embellishment Village booth on Saturday. Hope to see you there!

Lisa