Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Glamping Quilt

A and I both got our bindings on our glamping quilts.  They both look adorbs!  Both quilts have glamping fabrics from Riley Blake Designs, from about four years ago and from 2021.  The 2021 fabrics are called Joy in the Journey.  They all go so well together, and we are both pleased with how they came out. 

This is my "Glamping Quilt".  It has cute little mid-century travel trailers on it, with bicycles, tents, and cats and dogs wearing their best glamping sweaters.  So much fun!  The pattern we used for this quilt is one we adapted from a doll quilt pattern in a book, my quilting niece sent me for Christmas; Civil War Legacies III, by Carol Hopkins, Ellie's Tea Garden, pgs 27-29. 

This is the doll quilt in Carol Hopkins' book.  We love how the design translated into a big people quilt.

Friday, April 1, 2022

My Spiral Art Quilt

My friend, D, gave me an art quilt class from Susan Carlson.  I finished it yesterday!  I was not sure, at first, if I wanted to make a quilt that used glue to attach the fabric pieces, but I decided to just go with the flow.  I am so glad I did!  It was so much fun, even though I had some gluey fingers to take care of now and then.  I really enjoyed the process and the outcome.  I think I may do another one.  Please view the slide show, just below.  Give it a few seconds to start and click on the icon on the lower right to make it full screen:

It was an on-line course, that I could access as often as I wished, so I could run wild, then decide to see what was next or go back and see if I missed something.  It is actually a quilt.  It has the top, batting in the middle, and a back.  I stippled it myself and added a traditional binding.  

This is a close-up, so you can see my stitching and how the colors blend together.

Besides needing something to glue your fabric scraps to (I used an old piece of sheet because I did not have any muslin on hand), batting, and a backing fabric, it requires only a few other supplies.

I used a 2' X 2' piece of foam insulation board that you can obtain at Home Depot.  It is nice to keep your project flat and easy to stick straight pins in.  You need a basket of light and dark scrap pieces of fabric that are whatever colors/tones you wish to work in. I used tweezers to move my small pieces and hold the edges up, of the bits I already glued down.  Yes, they are unicorn tweezers, and they are the best.  I used a Frixion pen to trace the edge of the curved area onto my other pieces; easier than guessing what the curve is. I used varigated polyester thread to do the quilting, as it works better in my machine for stippling than cotton thread does.  I used my sharp Singer scissors, as I do not have a pair of duck bill scissors.  I think Susan Carlson's classes are very popular, so the duck bill scissors are available locally.  My scissors worked fine, but it may have taken me more time to make my small intricate cuts.  I recommend her Spiral art quilt course, as it is worth being able to see her process and learn from her and go back and revisit all the info she has packed into the course.  I admit, I was not keen about using tule over my quilt top, but it saved me from a ton of gluing little edges down and it makes my quilt look amazing.  I used the pale blue shiny tule.  I also bought a yard of the pale pink matte finish tule, which I decided against.  I like the shiny! 

It is 24" X 24" and is hanging on the wall in my quilt room.   Thank you, Daria, for the wonderful gift.