How to get everything done on time…

not. I have 2 quilts I have to finish by Tuesday so obviously my brain doesn’t want to play ball and I end up taking half the day off. Hmmm. Not really what I was looking for. This morning I was pretty productive and the second of the three nude is finished. I convinced myself that a pipe cutter was an essential quilting tool, bought one and used it, so the hanging rods are now the right length and together. I realised that by putting on two sleeves and a label I was covering up the back of the quilting which is a shame I really like the look of it. I have tried to take some photos but being black on black they haven’t come out too well. I’ve also put in a close up of the front of one of them that shows some of the quilting at least. This is very similar to what I tried to do on Miss Baltimore.

So I suppose that brings me to what distracted me. The picture is a clue For some reason this quilt just had to get out NOW. You know how some ideas are, they just refuse to wait their turn. I think the top is finished but I might change my mind when I have time to quilt it. Hopefully I can now get back to what I was supposed to be doing and finish these nudes tonight.

4 of 6

The nudes are well on their way to being finished now. I have 4 of the 6 sleeves on, one top and bottom on each of three panels. I’ve even put on one of the labels. I have to admit hand sewing is not my strong suit. I can make it look good but it takes me a long time and makes my shoulder ache. Still I’ve got the evening off. I am going out for dinner. Rather good planning, I can let my shoulders rest ready to finish the sleeves and labels tomorrow.

Miss Baltimore tops up her tan

Who would have thunk it? I really like the quilting on her bikini bottoms, they look much better. I settled on the micro stipple for the banner which I also like. Having checked samples of all the fabrics I used I don’t trust 2 of the reds to get wet, or her eyes. I managed to buy two very large blocks of polystyrene which I have 200 mph taped (duct tape to the rest of the world) together to make a big blocking surface that will fold to fit in the car or through doors.

Given I didn’t want to get her wet all over I decided to lie her on the blocking surface and spray her with water, which meant working outside. She looks pretty good now and after lying for an hour in the sun was dry enough to for me to stand up without fear of water getting places I didn’t want it. So she is now standing in the back room drying and hopefully setting in her new flat state.

Back to the nudes.

Aged Miss Baltimore

This is where she got to last night. Complete with wrinkles. My first job today is to go and find a board I can pin her to to block her and hopefully remove some wrinkles. Although before she gets streched I will quilt her knickers and banner.

Where to see my quilts in person

Given quite a few of my quilts are or will be out and about I thought this would be a good place to list when and where.

National Quilt Championships – Sandown – 29th June to 2nd July

• Miss Baltimore
• Loki
• Ginko Typography
• Chrysler – South West Challenge touring
• Delta Blues – Spring Challenge touring

Festival of Quilts – NEC – 17th to 20th August

• Union Jack
• Nudes Triptych
• Tread Lightly
• See Sound
• Pair of Gems – 2 person entry with Robin

Great Northern Quilt Show – Harrogate – 1st to 3rd September

• Peek-a-boo
• Harrogate Spa
• Wild Africa

There will be more coming but these are the ones I have finalised so far if you want more information about any of the quilts or shows leave a comment and I will see what I can do.

Hmmmmmm

I hate this phase in the project. I take the quilt and hang it up, then all I can see are faults. Right now I hate Miss Baltimore. I needed to take it off the frame and have a look at it so I could see what more I have to do, but I wish I didn’t have to. On one hand it is the first time I have see the whole thing in one go. I don’t have anywhere big enough to lay it out so I have to wait until it is safe to hang. I think overall the concept works but…

I had to press the quilt once it came off the frame which has flattened it a bit but it still doesn’t hang well. It needs blocking, but to block it I need a space to pin it out on. I don’t have one I think I will also have to quilt her bikini bottoms. It’s a shame I would have liked them to sit loose as though they were covering her form. I think to do that I would have had to have quilted all of her, including the area they cover and then have added them at the very last moment. I think I may try that when I do my next clothed figure. I also have some wrinkles I don’t like. They are just from pressing and again would come out easily by blocking. I wonder if I can get some sort of board from Homebase that I could make into a big pressing/blocking board, and if I do where on earth am I going to store it.

The only significant problem is the quilting on the face. I feel it needs more but I don’t know what sort. Inspiration hasn’t caught me up yet. The banner I think will either be parallel (in the loosest sense of the word) lines to emphasize it’s movement or a micro stipple. Given I can’t decide now I guess it is a good time to work on the hanging sleeves for the triptych of nudes.

APQS Success

Well when Myrna Ficken says she will do something you don’t get half measures. I had asked her to get me an allen key so I could tighten up a part on my long arm. Being American the machine doesn’t like UK allen keys so I figured that getting an American key was going to make things a lot easier. Well today I received a box. A whole kit of tools for looking after my machine. I didn’t even think such a thing existed but Myrna found one. Fantastic. So as soon as I get Miss Baltimore done I can clean the machine and sort out the loose collar.

Miss Baltimore is coming on. I’ve done almost half of the background now and her second arm. I managed to wiggle things just enough to do the arm without turning the quilt. I am debating risking her boobs by rolling them and saving myself from having to turn the quilt. Really I think that is just lazy and I shouldn’t take risks with the quilt but…

Committed?

I am, or maybe I should be. Karen McTavish in her DVD says that deciding to do any sort of dense quilting is a commitment. Yup she’s right. OK I had guessed she was but it is different when you find out first hand. I’ve done all the quilting I can get at on Miss Baltimore herself. Because her bra is padded I can’t roll it onto the take up roller, so I will have to do half the quilt then turn it round. No it isn’t the approved method but then I doubt most people has needed to quilt a full bra either. On Miss Baltimore I just need to quilt her left arm and the chair. Of course with my abilities with left and right that could be her right arm

Anyway back to the should I be committed. I thought it would be a good idea to use my curly background filler for everything that is not her (well except maybe the banner I haven’t decided yet). I tried other fillers but they are either too common or I am not good enough at them. I like my filler and I think it is fairly quick. Or should I say thought. I’ve been working on the background for over 3 hours and I have got from the top of her head to about mid thigh level. It looks great but at this rate I have anther 2 hours to get to her feet where I can think about turning the quilt. If I decide to do as much as I can before turning, probably a good idea, it is going to be more like 4 hours. Then I can turn, and quilt her arm and the chair, then another 3 hours at least to finish the background. It’s going to be a long hard day tomorrow. Still with the guys out and the house to myself I might get there. Either way with a deadline looming I think I probably should be committed.

There is one other small technical problem with this quilt. I don’t like the quilting I have done on her face. I’ve asked for other opinions and we are all in agreement. Something isn’t right. However we aren’t sure what and of course have no idea how to fix it. Hopefully inspiration will strike over night.

One arm and one leg aren’t moving

Yay not only is the chair done and the quilt on the frame but I have managed to quilt one arm and one leg. I’m so pleased. I’ve also managed to get the photos off my phone and onto here. I use the phone a lot when I am working on picture quilts. It is hard to see the image when you are concentrating on one aspect of it so throughout the process I take pictures. The camera is very good at showing anything that is really wrong and making the good bits look better.

Sorry the pictures aren’t very well laid out, I need to do some more research to find out how to move them around.

So can you tell that the same fabrics make her hair and the chair I don’t think it is too obvious which is good.
You can see in some of the pictures that there is a guide sheet to help me lay out the pieces. I take a tracing of my master design and then pin it in place over the section I want to work on. It also gives the impression of colouring in an image which can make it easier to see what you are building before it reaches a stage where you can recognise it.

For the letters I tried a slightly different technique. I used steam a seam 2 and built the whole banner on a teflon pressing sheet before applying it to the backing. It worked fine for the banner but I think it would be very fiddly and make a very think quilt if I used it for the whole of the image. The rest of the pieces are held in place with 606 adhesive. It becomes a fusible web when it dries and it can then be ironed in place. I wouldn’t trust it to permanently hold anything, but for things like this that will be heavily quilted it is great. It doesn’t add anywhere near as much weight as the steam a seam.

Tomorrow I hope I can finish the quilting, but I will have to take it easy. I am concentrating too much and hunching over the machine which is no good for your shoulders and neck. On the bright side if I have to take a lot of breaks I end up reading a lot.

Hair = wood

Well I have a surprise interlude so I thought I would fill it by writing here. I am trying to finish the Miss Baltimore quilt top. All I have left to do is the chair she is leaning on. I thought about trying to redraw her arm but I am not good a drawing so I decided it was easier to just leave it in. Most of the chair can be made from the same fabrics that I used for her hair but I don’t have the darker shades I need. Given I painted the hair fabrics anyway I’ve just gone over one of them with a little more dark brown and I just have to wait for it to dry.

I got a package today which is always a good start to the day. Even better it is the nomex thread I ordered last week, good going given it came from the US. It means that I can now repair the pocket on sir’s race suit. I know that in theory I could get away with using standard polyester thread but I don’t like taking risks with safety gear. The problem with the polyester is that it would melt in a fire, which would leave the wearer with bits of polyester stuck to them. More importantly it would also leave holes in the suit and that would result in a line of burns. So for the effort of ordering the right thread I can do the job properly. It also means I can replace a zip in another suit, which is far more critical to get right. I suppose I should start hunting around for a suitable zip now.