Tuesday, April 2, 2013

A New Level of Quilting? Got Any Tips or Advice?


Yes, I have done it......bought a long-arm.  These are pictures taken this morning.  My studio is in our unfinished basement but as you can see I have lots of windows and light.  My Tin Lizzie was delivered and setup last Thursday and I have been trying to get in some practice everyday.  I have gotten pretty good at free motion quilting with my Juki QE but this is a whole new ball game.

I had the frame set up at the whole 12 feet since I have the room even though I have never made a quilt bigger than 5 feet wide.  I am hopping to get good at the long-arm and use it for most of my quilting.  Since I mostly do art quilts I also hope to be able to use this for thread painting.  Do any of you fellow long-armers have any tips or advice on how to get up to speed.  Do you have any books, videos, websites or other sources of training you can recommend?  Thanks!.

Friday, March 29, 2013

A Little Bit of Catch-up

I know it has been a while since my last post (this is an understatement!) so I thought I'd start where I left off.  Here are my last 3 12x12 challenge quilts created for my art group.


 This first quilt is called 'Inca Man'.  The theme for this challenge was Mexican and I was not inspired by the subject so of course I waited until about 3 day before it was due. I got out my Stewart Gill paints and here is the result.  I did a little hand stitching and added a pile of beads for the eye.

This next piece is called 'Strata' and the challenge was metal.  My idea was to create a quilt that showed the source of gold under the earth.  For this I started with the 'slap and stitch' method.  I put a piece of backing on the table and covered it with batting then started slapping scraps of fabric on top that reminded me of earth.  I then free-motioned them in place.  Then I added gold leaf, melted tyvek and lutradur that I painted. Finally I added some hand stitching and more quilting. 

This last piece. is called 'Regatta' and the challenge was to use one of the elements of water, wind, fire or earth for inspiration. We used to own a cabin on a lake and on Sunday mornings a small sail boat club would meet.  We would sit on the dock and watch them.. I started this by digging in my scrap bin for any fabric that looked like sky and/or water.  I cut them in stripes and pieced about a 14' x 14' block.  Then I cut it in 5 random widths, staggered them and pieced them back together.  I then placed the sailboat reflections, covered them with a little Angelina fiber and a layer of organza.  Next some quilting and then a layer of tulle and more quilting.  I then put the sailboats on  top and stitched them down.  Finally a little yellow glitter paint for the suns reflection and hand stitching in the sky.

Stay tuned for more updates.