Friday, January 13, 2017

Week in Review 2017 - 01/13

Cat's eye view into the guest room
where my quilts are stored. They
are laying horizontally, one on top
of another on the bed.
Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

A question I see asked and answered by other fiber artists and quilters is "how do you store your work?" I'm impressed with people who opt to roll their work around pool noodles, slip the rolled work in a muslin bag closed with a drawstring, and hang a label on the bag. Some even go so far as to maintain an inventory sheet with a spot to mark where the quilt is located. Organization may be my middle name, but when it comes to storing work I am much, much looser than this system. With the exception of the 14 pieces I have hanging on the walls of our condo, 100% of my work is stored on top of a bed in a guest room off of my studio. The work is stored Princess and the Pea fashion with the oldest and or largest work on the bottom and the newer and smaller work on the top. Rarely do I need to go digging deep into the pile, since the majority of the time the only work I need for exhibition is on top or only a few pieces down. I cover everything from dust, cat fur, and light with spare bedspreads. Simple, effective and most importantly, it works for me.


All elements seen here
are permanently stitched
into position!
This is precisely how I approached my work this week. If it works. Don't mess with it. Since the deadline is fast approaching on the Call for Entry I will be submitting Where Have All the Flowers Gone? to, I simply pressed forward, as you can see:

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song - Some day, but not this week.

2) Free motion quilting practice - Not this week

3) Continue working on Where Have All the Flowers Gone? - Done!

a) I reworked where the vines should cling to the tombstone, cut them to length and stitched them down.
b) I stitched hexagonal flowers together and stitched them in place.
c) I worked out the layout for the yo-yo flowers and stitched them together.

4) Pot(s) made this week - Done!

A field of yo-yo blooms tacked together
and ready to be stitched to the quilt
next week.
It was another week of learning what not to do, or more precisely wishing I could discover a better method. Stitching the yo-yo flowers together was a nightmare. I researched how to do this first by hand sewing and then by machine. Since yo-yos are circular and I want to sew them together in staggered uneven rows, keeping track of which yo-yo needed to be sewn to which yo-yo and where the junction should be was extremely difficult. I was more than happy to whipstitch them together by hand, I just couldn't keep track of the joints. I found a tutorial on using a "tack" stitch (not available on my machine) or very short length of satin stitch. It is was recommended to use a monofilament thread. Hate that stuff, but I did use it as my top thread and a blending, Bottom Line thread in the bobbin. Instead of tying off the threads or burying them in the yo-yos, I opted to stitch the tack and reverse stitch the tack, then trim the thread. If a few tacks unravel it won't be a big deal. There is no stress on them and even when I did pull tacked yo-yos away from each other, the stitching remained. Close enough. 

I'm really looking forward to putting those yo-yos to bed next week. The next step is to secure them to the quilt. That I can do! Maybe I will have time to get to a few more items on my list, too. I hope so. Here is the list:

1) Continue working on Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

2) Pot(s) made this week

3) Free motion quilting practice

4)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song

I am now linking up to two blogs on Fridays. The first is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays and the second is Free Motion Mavericks.

3 comments:

  1. I also store non-displayed quilts in a pile in the guest room. As I've started to make more dimensional/crushable stuff though I'm going to have to figure out an alternative! Good luck finishing Where have all the flowers gone- it's so fun to see your progress. I'm desperately trying to finish a piece probably for the same call and I always feel like there aren't enough hours!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for sharing, love the way you store your quilts :-)

    ReplyDelete