New Works Round Two

#4 ~10x12"

#5 ~10X12"

#6 10.5 X 13.5

#6 detail

The Old Work that inspired #6, which got finished thanks to Diane's encouragement.

16.5x 17.5"

Detail showing painted fabric and hand dyed fabrics. The (acrylics) painted fabric is very stiff and each quilting stitch went pop pop pop. On a small piece like this it doesn't matter. But larger painted works are just so hard and stiff, so I quit doing that.

#7 12 x 7.25" Silk and cottons
This small piece got to me and I decided to make its layout into a larger work. I just finished quilting it this morning and is number #10. See it at the end of this post.

Detail of #7


I have a book called Paper Quilting and it is very inspiring and I often turn to it for guidance. The answers to getting simpler are in there! The author gathers up lots of paper people who are working with stitchery and collage and calls it 'quilting' so that's how I got a hold of the book. In essence it is really collage and all elegant simplicity, the work usually ending up framed as a painting.

One artist worked her magic in a grid, and that being old hat, I usually passed it by. But on this day, it looked all so brand new, so I decided to pull out all my sweetest pastels and take a day to play with the grid. I made a much larger piece than the one below, but it lacked focus, so the remedy was to cut away the distracting areas and make this the important part. I spent the afternoon and evening hand quilting and embroidering it and it feels like a bright Spring day to me. I have the leftover pieces and will make another one to keep.

#9 21 x 15.25"

Details of #9 showing schnibbles and stitchery (click to enlarge)

I don't often add all this embellishment to my work but the cheesecloth caught the eye of Deborah on a previous work and I made a mental note to play with it again later. It fairly makes the necessary statement in this piece. It is fused first, then cut, then pressed into service.

#10 32.5 x 23.25" Silks and Cottons

This one is dark and very light so the camera misses the dark edges. Please click to enlarge.

Quilting Detail

This was inspired by the layout of #7 and while I like it, I really didn't have the proper colors in my stash. Darn. I shall have to make it again after a dyeing day on Saturday. What I loved about #7 is the aqua green, cheetos orange, and turquoise in combination with a splash of violet. Yummamente.


Since I loathe bindings I have used the Escape Hatch Finish on #4-10.

This means, in short, fusing my tops to batting (Hobbs Heirloom Cotton, 80/20) and then cutting my backing fabric exactly the same size, or slightly smaller than my top. I fuse on a strip of Wonder-Under, about 2-3" wide and about 3/4 as wide as the top measurements of my quilt.

The strip of Wonder-Under is placed on the wrong side of the backing fabric and is positioned at the place where the rod pocket will eventually cover it. Then I cut a slit through this strip and the backing fabric, because I intend to turn the quilt right side out through this slit. Then I stitch all around the perimeter of the quilt, as you would when making a pillow.

At the corners of the quilt, I stitch two small stitches instead of coming to a right angle. See picture below. This prevents a wonky point and is a trick I learned years ago in the commercial world, when I must have made thousands of pillows.

Then I trim away the excess fabric and batting and the resulting corner is smoother and slightly rounded rather than peeky outty. You know what I mean!

Two stitches at the corners

Trimmed edges