Sunday, April 22, 2012

Quilt Along With Leah Day - Week 15



Sharp Stippling - Gradated from Large to Small

Leah put us back to work this week. She titled this form of all over design, Sharp Stippling. The primary difference between Sharp Stippling and stippling is that the Sharp Stippling design results in sharp points versus an all over gentle curve. The design reminded me of either wrenches or whales tails and it could be morphed to look like a jester's cap.

Starting with Single Points

In order to develop a comfort level with the design Leah recommended that we start with its simplest elements the peaks and valleys, eventually dividing the peaks into two peaks and then interlocking the rows. The challenge, Leah said, and I paraphrase, "is to avoid hesitating at the points and therefore creating beads of thread building up on the back of the quilt." It surprised me that this wasn't my biggest challenge. In fact I had very few hesitation beads relative to the number of points.


The Backside - Note Occasional Hesitation Points

My personal challenge was not getting twisted in the pattern. It looked simple enough. It wasn't the points where I got lost, but instead I struggled to remember the appropriate S shape between the upper and lower points and in my panic would veer even further off course.

Getting Lost in the Pattern

I began large. Very large. Then I worked my way through several midsize sections, ultimately finishing with eight or so rows of small repetitions of the design. I rather like the large flame like section from an appearance state, but I preferred working in the midsize to small range. This could be because the more I practiced, the more proficient I became with the design. However, I think that is only half the story. I find it easier to manipulate the quilt in a small area than to go tearing off for 2" - 3" at a time.

16 comments:

  1. Your sharp stippling looks very cool. Awesome job!

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  2. I love the flame look of your large sharp stippling.

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  3. Thank you, Malini. As for the cool flame like sharp stippling - just one of those happy accidents. Love it when that happens.

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  4. Great job on this one, it looks very smooth!

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  5. Hi, while I did mine, it also reminded me of a whale's tail, I think your sharp stippling looks great! Well done ..

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    1. I find it helps if I have a concrete image in mind such as flames or a whale's tail in mind as I stitch. Great minds think alike.

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  6. I like how you went from big to small. I especially like the thread you choose, gives it a neat effect!

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    1. Pat, as one of my loyal followers, you know I am a sucker for variegated thread. Of course I am usually FMQ on multi hued and multivalued fabric.

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  7. This was really nice of you to show and discuss the different sizes of the design. I'm going to practice some more.

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    1. I try to follow Leah's suggestions as to how to execute the assignment. I'm glad you found it helpful to see the individual parts as well as the whole.

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  8. I should have done the different sizes! Oh well. As always, yours looks great!! :)

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    1. Thank you, Danielle. One of the great things about Quilting Along with Leah is learning from the "students" and not just Leah. I know I am always seeing what I might have done differently. No matter how we attack a lesson - we learn.

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  9. Looks good! I need to do another practice round and I like your idea of starting large and working smaller.

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  10. Gwyned - your years of experience quilting definitely show up here! Who'd a thought about graduated sizes??!! Only an experienced quilter such as yourself! Nice job.

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    1. Thank you. I think Leah said something about practicing Sharp Stippling the same way we practiced Stippling. For me that meant testing it our in various sizes.

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