Sew Cal Gal Free Motion Quilting Challenge

I have mentioned in previous posts that Darlene, aka "Sew Cal Gal", is hostessing a wonderful Free Motion Quilting Challenge on her blog. She is featuring a different instructor each month and there is loads of great information available to you. I am tickled to be the featured instructor this month and I prepared a lengthy handout with good information. Click HERE to be taken to her website. Be sure to check out the other featured instructors too! Hugs, Cindy :)

Irish Crochet Lace Collar...mmmmmm!

Get one project done...start five more. Sound familiar to some of you??? I am taking full advantage of having my feet on the ground this week and getting lots done including getting new projects started. I need some handwork projects and also need some more new things for my classes.

This particular collar has been jumping up and down begging to be in a quilt for quite awhile so of course I finally indulged. This was gifted to me by one of my students and it is a treasure. It is Irish Crochet and exquisitely done. I've had a difficult time trying to find something elegant enough to do with it to do it justice.

I was rummaging around in my lace basket and found some beautiful wide net lace yardage that I've had for many, many years. The wide top half is very delicate and has little dots that are woven in. The bottom half is exquisitely hand stitched into these beautiful designs shown here. I've decided to overall quilt my grayish/brown linen underlayment with the overall feather filler that I put in my silk scarf. I will cut the top dotted part of the net lace off and place it on top of the quilted underlayment and lightly bead it to hold it in place. I will then place the lace the collar on top of that and carefully bead it down to hold it in place. The decorative bottom half of the net lace will be placed on top of a gray silk and used for my hanging sleeve on the back. Think this will keep my hands busy on an airplane for awhile??? Hugs, Cindy :)

Silk Scarf...Finally Finished

Last March a student shared a product that she loves...Bosal woven stabilizer...and highly recommended it for some of my linens. So to put it to the ultimate test I selected a very wiggly embroidered silk scarf to experiment on and was thoroughly thrilled with the results!

I shared a blog shortly after I started this piece to share my process and am tickled to share that I finally got it done. Even though I used the stabilizer, and pin/straight basted, it still managed to wiggle around. See the very uneven edges? I wasn't overly concerned as I had already planned on cutting the double thickness hem off and this would allow me to square it up.

Once the quilting was finished I soaked this piece in warm water for about 30 minutes in order to dissolve the water soluble Superior Threads' Vanish Lite thread (I use this for my straight basting). I then pinned this soaking wet piece to my design wall and pinned it flat. I wasn't concerned about making it square as that was impossible...I just wanted it flat.

Once dry I lightly pressed it to set the block...put it on my cutting table and squared it up. And it turned out marvelous. I've added a wide beautiful net lace for my rod pocket on the back and am searching for a beautiful quotation to sign it with. Any ideas??? Hugs, Cindy :)

My "Ophir Side"...Not Quilting Related!

I have been very lucky to have been married to my husband, Kent, for the past 36 years and one of the very cool things he does is play the trombone for the Ophir Prison Marching Kazoo Band. He has been involved with the band for 38 years (except for the few years we lived in South Dakota). When they have an event to play it's a chance for all of us with the band to get away from life stuff for awhile and have a really good time. We always spend our Memorial Day weekends in Old Sacramento where the band plays for the Jazz Jubilee. It's non-stop music from bands from all over the United States. This weekend we kidnapped our granddaughters, Chloe and Samantha, to spend the all day Saturday with us. They had on their special dresses and got to march behind the band during the parade and got to dance their hearts out at each concert. They were also gifted a parasol from one of the onlookers and the magic never ended.

The girls are old enough now (5 & 6)that special times like this will be remembered. As much as I try to snap pictures to capture some of the special moments on film, it's the pictures that are captured in my heart that I'll never forget.

Both girls were utterly exhausted at the end of a very long, fun-filled day...I had to take a picture of Miss Chloe sound asleep on the way home surrounded by the festivities of the day. :) Hugs, Cindy aka "Nana Cindy"

Introducing Szabone Marika...from Hungary!

One of the true pleasures of hosting a blog is meeting fellow quilters from all over the world. I recently became acquainted with Marika a few weeks ago and it's even more special that she lives halfway around the world from me...in Hungary! It is a delight reading her letters as the English-Hungarian translation is very interesting but pictures speak a thousand words...in any language. Marika sent me some photos today of her linen wholecloth quilt and of course I had to share with all of you... Beautiful job Marika! Thank you for sharing with all of us. You may visit her blog by clicking HERE. Hugs, Cindy :)

Featuring Karen Azevedo...again!

I have featured Karen Azevedo on my blog many times...we met through my blog posts and have since become very good friends. She is an obsessed linen wholecloth quilter and does all of her quilting on a longarm and it just takes my breath away. Last year she was kind enough to let me stay with her during a teaching engagement and I gifted her a beautiful linen as a thank you. She sent me pictures today of the finished product and I asked her to share her story with all of you. Thank you Karen...AMAZING WORK!!! Hugs, Cindy

The center linen was a gift that Cindy gave to me. I placed it on an extra wide piece of cream sateen that I had in my stash. I had always intended on using the sateen as a wholecloth for my bed. I had read once that it was good luck to start a new quilting project on January 1. I'm sure some quilter just made it up along the way in order to be able to spend New Year's Day quilting. But, never being one to test my luck, I started this on January 1 by pinning on the linen. The center of the linen was blank - no embroidery, no design. So I added a vintage doily that I had in my collection to add more interest. Once it was pinned, it was a matter of deciding what to do where, what to mark. In some areas I just drew a blank and figured I'd just "wing it" when it came to the quilting or design. Inspiration sometimes comes late to me and rather than seeing the whole quilt at one time and getting things all muddled in my head, I find it's better if I just load it on the longarm and see a smaller portion of it as I get to it. It's at those times that the light comes on and I figure it out. I try not to let the entire quilt overwhelm me which it can do just due to the size alone. Since the linen was from Cindy I really wanted to make it special and I wanted to quilt it "Cindy-style". So keeping that in mind I just kept quilting. But then it's queen-sized so I had to use some self control otherwise it would have been too heavy and stiff. I kept my cross-hatching to a half inch apart rather than go smaller and put a fill in areas that I thought would help to show off the linen as I wanted it to be the showcase of the quilt. When I wanted to add beads, as "Cindy-style" always includes beading, I knew that the daisy-like flowers would be a good area to start. One pearl in each petal or 96 beads. I also added a few of the same size pearls in the center of the quilt to balance it. Next step was the cross-hatching around the middle of the quilt within the linen area. Now I really had to ask myself if I wanted to tackle that area. I used a #11 Delica seed bead in a cream and started stitching them on. I didn't count the number of intersections but at the time I purchased the beads I was told there were approximately 1100 in a tube. I used all but about 20. I didn't knot each one so if one breaks about 20 might come with it. But that's easy peasy to fix once you've already stitched on 1100. What's 10-20 more? I hope I've made Cindy proud! She is my inspiration.

Featuring Linn and Linda!!!

Last March I taught my Design Workshop at the Superior Threads Education Center in St. George, Utah. I was lucky to have Linn and Linda from Florida in my class and they were in charge of the Entertainment Committee...they did a fabulous job! They were SO much fun and they had southern accents that you wouldn't believe :) I have several exercises for the students to work on while they learn to design. These two just sent me pictures of their finished pieces and they are FANTASTIC!!! They even embellished the quilt bags I gave them with one of their smaller projects. I just had to share with the rest of you...congratulations you two on an over-the-top job. By the way...you may remember these two when I featured them during the class with their water bottle gifts and crazy socks.

Hugs, Cindy :)

Border Work

Each morning I am indulging in about 30 minutes of time working on my silk scarf...what a cool way to start my day! You've probably already figured out that I LOVE little detail work and there is no lack of it here.

This piece was so wiggly and out of square it required wiggly type quilting designs. That is the main reason for choosing the all-over feather filler in the middle. The border needed to be the same way. Using Bottom Line thread and a Topstitch 70/10 needle I am going around every single motif four times...once to ditch it right next to the embroidery and then echoing around each one three more times with very tiny spaces in between...probably about 1/16th of an inch-ish. I am then filling in any remaining open areas with little tiny circles. Most quilters refer to the little circles as pebbles...these are "sand".

I love repetitive line background fillers and am doing this to finish off the outside edge. In order to keep me straight and honest I draw straight lines about 1/2" apart and then just free motion tiny repetitive lines. The marked straight lines help keep me from listing from one side to the other. I free motion the lines so they are a bit wiggly and uneven as that gives me the texture. Once this piece is done I will square it off and use the unquilted rolled edging on the scarf for my binding. I'll share when it's all done! Hugs, Cindy :)

More Class Samples...

I have had this beautiful embroidered silk piece in my stash for quite awhile and after discovering the new Bosal woven stabilizer I felt confident to quilt it. I wanted to show you a couple "before" pictures prior to being quilted. It was obviously very wiggly and paper thin. I carefully ironed the Bosal stabilizer to the back...added a wool batting and a beautiful Jacquard fabric to the back...and then went to town on the quilting.

I am using Superior threads #100 filament Kimono Silk thread for the quilting. I decided on an overall feather filler background that I discovered on Leah Day's website. The hardest part of quilting this piece is stopping...I am thoroughly enjoying quilting this beautiful background. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to do the flower border but will share that when it happens.

I am also creating some class samples for my design workshops and for another "up and coming" event. I am teaching my students how to divide and conquer a space using simple lines. The feather started with a simple "S" and then I made it my own. I divided the background into smaller units using the 45 degree mark on my ruler and then filled it in with various background designs. This piece was created from a smooth Dupioni silk that I purchase from my retreat vendor, Fabric of Vision. I always support her economy at every retreat and LOVE this silk. I am using my smaller scraps, piecing them together, and creating these wonderful pieces. I have another one in the works that I will share later. My next project is getting ready for my Free Motion Quilt Challenge that will be featured on Sew Cal Gal's blogspot next month. I will be teaching "The Basic Three" designs and showing you how to use these to create almost any design. I'll also be showing you how to start/stop your quilting lines, get your "humm purr" and have lots of downloadable handouts to boot. If you're not familiar with this Challenge be sure to check it out...it's full of great information from some amazing teachers. Hugs, Cindy :)

Getting Ready for McCloud

It's hard to believe that the first retreat of the year is only 2 days away. I'm nearly ready but I always seem to wait to the last moment to do my "Grand Prize" gifts. On top of having daily prize drawings I have three really nice gifts to give. Each retreat in the past four years I've given away a framed wholecloth miniature. This year is a bit different as I'm going to give away two...my traditional 5x5" and I'm adding another little one 2x3". The other difference is that I decided to quilt a hankie corner instead of starting from scratch. A student recently gave me a set of four beautifully done hankies. I'm showing a "before" and "after" picture. I fused the Bosal linen interfacing to the back of the hankie to stabilize it and then ditch/echo quilted every detail with Bottom Line thread and added bubbles for the large background filler I went back in and added little beads and mini freshwater pearls. I think it turned out fabulous...I kind of hate to give it away. Oh well...there are three more in this hankie set so I might just have to make one for me :)

I also wanted to show you the pincushion....there's a story here. A couple of years ago I was invited to speak for an amazing guild in Orange County, California. Joyce was the president at the time and she had chicken pincushions that she awarded to those guild members who had gone out of their box to learn something new and challenging...her chickens were her "Brave Awards"...very cool idea. I have picked up her torch and am passing it forward to my retreaters. If there is a particular retreater who was especially brave and went way out of her box she is awarded the "Brave Award" and it is a special pincushion. I have either purchased it or created it...this year I am creating them out of small linen coasters. I have mounted these to cotton fabric, beaded and embellished, sewn them together...filled with crushed walnut shells from the local pet store...and then signed and dated it. I don't always give these out and they aren't always for brave quilting stuff...it can be for conquering a special life challenge, etc. I promise to take pictures during the retreat and share everyone with you. Hugs, Cindy :)