Week in Review 2013 - 01/11

The goals I set and how I met them for the week ending January 11, 2013:


1) Shore's Edge:

a) Begin the beadwork on the beach panel.

Bead work has begun on the beach panel.

I love beading. It takes me back to the days when I used to quilt by hand. The repetition is so soothing.

b) Baste the ocean panel and thread paint the seashells.

The ocean panel is basted and the seashells have been thread painted.

2) Pictorial Painting Class:

a) Practice the painting techniques one more time.

Practiced painting the leaf from the Calla Lilly project.

I am pretty pleased with how this turned out. I felt I got the right blend of blue/green and yellow/green paint  for the fabric I chose. I managed to create a sense of shadow under the veins and one side is slightly darker than the other, suggesting a light source.

b) Start painting the Calla Lilly.

OK, so I missed one of my goals. Each practice piece has me more and more comfortable about how to blend and apply the paint to achieve what I want. They also show areas where I need more practice.

3) Leah Day assignments:

Express Your Love was marked, basted and the marked lines quilted.

a) Mark the quilt.
b) Baste the quilt.
c) Quilt along the marked lines.

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I could actually see well enough through the black fabric to trace the lines of Express Your Love.

I promised I would share tips this year. Here is one. I have taken to hand basting my quilts before machine quilting. Why? Although it is more time consuming, I believe it has three advantages. First, I find that the shifting between the top, batting and backing is less than when I pin baste. Second, without pinmoors or safety pins the quilt is more pliable for manipulating under the machine. Finally, I like the control I get since my hands rest on the quilt with no pin interference. I find it very easy to snip the hand basting as I come to it. Those odd turquoise threads, predominately on the left side of the quilt are the areas that are still basted.

I actually accomplished more on Express Your Love this week than I thought I might. I opted to thread paint my mantras in script. Leah Day, designer of the quilt, used block letters. I felt the curvilinear flow of the quilt suggest cursive and it also gave a more gentle, less dictatorial sense to words. The next step was to echo quilt the mantras. I opted for micro-stippling instead. Why? Once again I felt it softened the message.

My goals for the week ending January 18, 2013

1) Shore's Edge:

a) Add the beading to 14 more shells on the beach panel. I am under deadline pressure with this!
b) Machine quilt the ocean panel.

2) Pictorial Painting - paint the leaf for real. No more practicing!

3) Express Your Love - Do the echo/foundation stitching in the globe.