I joined this huge quilt guild (300+ members), and have been attending for about a year now. So far, I've been to some fabulous workshops (fabric painting for quilts, fabric dyeing). During all that time, various announcements have been made about the "upcoming" quilt show at the Fairgrounds, nearby in Ventura. There were opportunities to volunteer, enter quilts, and make a "challenge quilt".
The challenge was to make a small quilt with the theme of "these are a few of my favorite things". Of course, I had visions of making this fabulous art quilt - nothing trite for me. I thought of bookshelves with titles of some of the books I read, rows of tea/coffee cups, etc. The challenge, to me, was how to incorporate a lot of the things I love. I'm not just about tea and reading! But part of me is.
Finally, I made a sketch of what such a quilt would look like; my front window, with the chair where I have tea, read, and pet my cats. But my sketch didn't make a very good outline, and then I misplaced it. Finally, with only a month to go before the due date, I got my artiste daughter, Kali, to do a real drawing for me. And then I was in for the long haul.
The drawing has paint colors on it, because my first idea was to use fabric paint to make the images, and then quilt around the images. Several hours of trying left me frustrated. The colors kept bleeding (obviously, too much water). So, I decided to do what is easier for me - applique.
Goodness, this quilt took a long time. It is only 22 x 26", but there's so much detail in all the little things. From idea, to actual quilt techniques and using my new embroidery machine - it was all a real challenge for me. I started out having fun, but the deadline of turn-in was today, and I sure had to work hard to finish it! It feels like I spent 50 hours on it.
I didn't actually finish the little quilt until 11:54pm last night. There's machine quilting, hand and machine embroidery, machine and hand applique, and a little bit of felting.
On the borders of the quilt, I used my new embroidery machine to script write things that I love: i.e. rain, crochet, google, dyeing, Mozart, sewing, etc. There's an embroidered basket with yarn, a purple hat, my computer,
and two pink cats.
When I got home after delivering my "masterpiece" for the show, I got an email from the guild. What was I going to call the quilt? I've named it "And my husband too", because when I showed it to him this morning, he asked "where's my picture?" Well, of course he's one of my favorites!
Oh this is so well done! How sweet! susie
Posted by: susie | 04/13/2010 at 06:04 PM