Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Quilting "Topsy"

The fun of quilting "Topsy" has begun and I have done, I think the first 10th  at the top of the quilt.
Lots of colour changes and I am really trying hard to sew in the thread ends as I go along.


 It's s-o-o-o hot here in Durban at the moment that I am only quilting for a couple of hours early in the morning. I have given up trying to quit at night as the studio has heated up during the day and, even with the fans running full tilt, I can't concentrate.

Here is the first photo:

Detail of "windows"
Each "window" has to be stitched in the ditch around the outer edge before quilting the centre. The stitch in the ditch is done with a ruler and a fat foot and the centre is done free hand.

Some of the "windows" now quilted

The "sky" has been quilted and that was the easy bit! Now its stop and start and change thread colour every couple of inches. You might remember the individually hand printed fabric pieces which we did for the National Festival in July. I have used one in the construction of the "Windows" and found that the big print was just right. 

The top layer of "windows" are now completely quilted and I cant go on until I have completed the sashing in between and each side.That's to stop the entire quilt from waving when it comes off the frame.

I have the feeling that somewhere along the line, I will have to take this quilt off and turn it.

Let me know if you like what you see.









Thursday, January 05, 2012

Immediate Challenge 2012

My immediate challenge is how to quilt my "Topsy " quilt.- it still doesn't have a name  but I can live with that.

I have found the backing- a glorious moody piece of dark blue with orange highlights and that is now sitting on the long arm. The top is currently pinned to the design wall for lining up and trimming.  Its really important to  make sure that the quilt is square before it goes onto the frame as it can be very easy to distort if one isn't meticulous.The last thing I need is a skew quilt! Oh, and before anyone wants to know what there is a great big gap at the bottom right hand corner, it has been filled.  I just didn't have a new photo handy.

I have marked in some of the quilting lines but I suspect that there will be a bit of " quilting by the seat of my pants"!


So-o-o-o its time I stopped procrastinating and just got on with it.

I'll up date with photos as I go along.