Romance in the garden (a quilt)

I take the photos.  Why do I procrastinate and not upload them for you?

Here’s some closeup photos of a recent customer quilt.  This is one of my more prolific quilters who enjoys softer beach-y colors.  This was from a pattern she called Romance in the Garden, although I can’t find any pattern online that looks quite like it (sorry!)

I chose to quilt whimsical feathers and fun spirals as the client is rather free spirited than traditional.  Had the fabric been more traditional, a background of crosshatching with formal quilt feather motifs would have been right at home on this quilt.

Close up of the applique block:

Close up of the feather block (the setting triangle is quite similar to this full version):

End of the blog drought

It’s been so long since I’ve posted, and so I owe you all an apology.  I’ve been burned out, pure and simple.  My fourth grader had a huge project, complete with a California Mission model:

For those of you with sharper eyesight than mine, may I point out the Frankenstein-esque earthquake fault line artistically drawn to the right of the door?  This mission (Mission Santa Cruz) had a very bizarre history, which made for fun research for a 9 year old boy.  The mission flooded, then was hit by 3 earthquakes, was raided by a French pirate, and had its Padre hanged by the neophytes (not to get all political on you, since this is an art blog, but this is not the proudest moment in California history).  This last bit– plus the fact that the dead Padre received California’s first autopsy– really caught DS2′s attention.  Look closely at the tree behind the mission.  That’s a noose swinging on the tree.

And you wonder why I’m tired?

and then my sixth grader had a huge project for his science class.  He researched driving distractions (uh, that would be 4th and 6th graders, sitting in the backseat, wouldn’t it?) and was chosen to present his “findings” at the Ventura County Science fair.

And you know who had to keep everyone on task, don’t you?

Plus, customers quilts, track season started (this is a big deal in the Italo household, since Dad is a Master Track runner on Team USA.  Double that deal– Mom is the Secretary AND Treasurer of the Ojai team– hah!  top that, DH!), my mother moved to town for the winter, and I had my first lecture to a big guild in January.  Phew– I’m getting tired just remembering it all.

Let’s leave all the news behind for now.  Here’s some long overdue eye candy for you.

One of my fav customers is a prolific piecer.  She lives at the beach, and her color palette reflects the soothing nature of her surroundings– pale pinks, blues, greens, taupes, creams.  Recently, she brought me this whimsical tulip applique top.  She plans to give it to one of her girls, so I brought out the feminine feathered hearts and swirls:

I’ve never figured out how to photograph the whole quilt, so this small segment will have to do!

Below is a close up of the freehand feathered heart I quilted into each alternate block.  For you non-quilters, a plain unpieced/unapplique’d fabric square can be sewn in between the pieced/applique’d squares to highlight the overall pattern.  These plain squares are referred to as “alternate blocks”.  The heart:

Below is the swirly fill I did to highlight the tulip appliques.  I did stitch around the outside of the flower, as well as along the seam separating the two parts of the flower– this served to puff out the applique.  Quilters call this “faux trapunto”!

I have more photos to share, more news to tell, but for now, I’m off to make dinner!  Enjoy, and thanks for sticking with me through this blog drought!

Antique Basket quilt

It’s been a while since I posted any quilting photos, so I thought I’d show you the quilt I’ve entered into the Santa Barbara Quilt Guild show. This particular quilt will not be judged, due to the fact that I didn’t remember to send my entry form in until the day it was due! But, my forgetfulness is a whole ‘nother issue, and this post is about quilting!

I designed the quilt pattern as a block-of-the-month pattern. For those readers not familiar with this type of pattern, each month, the quilt shop sells the directions for piecing one single block. In this pattern, each month, the quilter got directions to piece one basket block. Included in the sales price is the fabric to sew the block. Once the blocks have all been pieced, the quilter has an entire quilt! This is a fun, manageable way to piece an entire quilt.

I’ve always been drawn to basket quilts of all types, and I’ve always wanted an antique basket quilt, so for this guild show, I decided to create my own “antique”! I used reproduction fabric from the 1800′s, and my personal interpretation of a basket design.

It’s 102″ x 97″, so I couldn’t hang it to get a straight photo for you. You’ll have to take my word that it’s straight and square. It’s also not blurry in person.

I’ve photographed some of the simpler pieced baskets, trying to get a better photo of the quilting. However, I could barely see the feathers I was quilting when my nose was inches away from the quilt on my machine! The back fabric is a busy 1800′s type pattern, which also doesn’t show any of the quilting that took me days and days and days to accomplish:

What? You can’t see the quilting? No, it’s not your computer monitor. It’s not even my computer monitor! As a professional longarm quilter, I felt compelled to quilt feathers, even though the patterning in the fabrics is such that the quilting just doesn’t show up!

Here, I’ll walk you through the quilting– close your eyes and imagine: in the rusty brown and the dark brown sashing, I quilted straight parallel lines, in a quilt design referred to as “piano keys”. In the patterned sashing, I quilted a tiny feathered vine; in the setting blocks, I quilted feathered triangles; and in each basket block, I quilted a feathered heart. Phew! Lots and lots of teeny little feathers.

I named the quilt “So Last Century”, which is kind of tongue in cheek, because I can’t let anything go without poking fun at myself. The sub-title to the quilt is “the quilt of a thousand invisible feathers”.

Poke poke.