Green Shape 1 of 7

 

Back to getting my quilt done for SAT 24, it's been languishing on my design wall. You'll recall I assembled the background's five strips of grey fabric and then pre-quilted it with a different design in each strip. At that point it was quite oversized, and needed to be trimmed to the size 24"w x 36"h to meet the exhibit requirements. I didn't want to nail down where the green shapes were to be placed until I had the actual size and shape nailed down. So now that's the next step as well as the other plans I have sketched out. Including some hand-stitching, so I better get going on this to finish it in time. The super-bright neon pink Tula Pink unicorn pins are a real standout here, but no, I'm not going to add that in as a color to use.

First a stay-stitch all the way around about the un-bound un-faced edges.

Starting with the bottom right corner green shape, I did two colors of zig-zag, gone over twice for emphasis. 

Each of these seven green shapes is supposed to look like it has an opening up to the background. I first thought of using clear thread for those spaces, but I decided it wouldn't look very good in a zig-zag, so I matched the green of the shape instead.

A test piece of fabric for the grey-silver center that sits on the lower right-hand side corner of the quilt.

I'd say it looks pretty good, but I think it might need to be more substantial or of a very different texture to work. It's blending in too much with the background. I had originally thought of using my embellisher to add texture, or I may go for something like a wool instead. At least I"m working in it now.

Working Progress

Three sleeves are ready to hand sew on the backs of the Colorful Triptych. Ready for stitching during the surprise unscheduled January 6th Committee Hearing happening today. Supposedly it's the assistant to Mark Meadows, the former president's top aide. People in DC found it strange that Meadows insisted that she be included in Every Single Meeting, so this woman knows A Lot. Hopefully it will be as well-presented as the other hearings have been.

 And some actual quilting got done, the Courthouse Steps has been anchored down with quilting between all the blocks. But not in-the-ditch as you can see here. I'm still deciding on the remaining quilting design.

Bending The Calendar

More work-in-progress, which is currently titled "Bending The Calendar".  This one features the calendar portions of a vintage linen calendar towel.  The image part of the towel was already used to make a sweatshirt jacket for my mom.  It featured strawberries and was by Vera.  Which for the longest time I remember thinking it was Usna.  That's what the signature looked like to me before I could read hand-writing.  Anyways the things I continue to find in my scrapbox remain inspiring to me. Sometimes I start to question myself on keeping ALL those scraps, but if I keep finding inspiration in them and keep using them, I guess it is worthwhile.
You can see some of the machine embroidery stitches I'm using in variegated thread along the edges of the calendar.

Hole-y Jellybeans

 More work-in-progress pictures.  Maybe it is due to eating jelly beans recently, but these colors and that particular shape is saying jelly beans to me.  We'll see if that makes it into the title by the time this is finished.

Holey fabric, mistakes happen sometimes, like leaving fabric for months soaking in soda ash solution.  Whoops!  It really does weaken the fibers, the books aren't kidding.  See I did the experiment for you, now you don't have to do it yourself...
By using this fabric I am taking a risk that it will continue to deteriorate further, not a good start for quilt conservation.  But I can't resist how cool and organic that hole looks, so there it is, right in the middle of everything..

A Work In Progress

 A couple detail pictures of a quilt I'm working on, almost all done with the quilting.  No title for the quilt yet, which tells me it isn't done quite yet, usually those come right away...
 The two images are from stamps that I carved and printed on fabric.  The top one was printed on a cotton-polyester fabric and you can see how the ink pooled up and is splotchy compared to the bottom one printed on a 100% cotton fabric where it soaked right in more evenly.  It is fun to work on these things and figure out how to repeat these effects.
 This is the first time I've used zippers on the surface of a quilt and I really like how it looks, more texture, the addition of more design lines, a different weight to these lines added, and a mysterious possible functional purpose.  Do they unzip for a reason?

I decided to use zipppers so that I can incorporate something underneath that can be revealed when unzipped.  So I'm thinking up some cryptic words or messages having to do with eyes or being watchful or something.   I'm thinking that I might machine embroider them on a ribbon and then sew that in.