DONE!!!!

Several more stacked heart areas done... a couple of which are shown here.

I loved every thread I used on this but perhaps my favorite was this variegated RAINBOWS by Superior. I loved the every inch color change.

It's always a good feeling to finish a quilting effort.... This quilt will now return to the owner Janmarie Halliday for binding. This was absolutely a pleasure to work on and use so many of those multicolor threads that I wasn't sure when I'd ever use. They were perfect for Janmarie's quilt..

Other than Gloves

I'm working in fairly small, tight areas on this border, so I am using a money sorting product for finger tack... no gloves needed. I like that much better though I will use lighter weight gloves sometimes. I've been using this product (found at stationary stores) for many years before the quilter industry came up with their own product to do the same thing. This type product is cost efficient and easily found at a Staples or Office Max. I asked the bank teller the other day if its a problem to leave it open all day. It might be different in other areas of the world/ country... I don't know, but bank tellers in California seem to be able to do it. I may give up my habit of opening/closing every time I want to use it during a quilting session.

Playing With Hearts

The black pinwheels in this quilt have small colorful hearts scattered throughout the black fabric. I thought it might be fun to sprinkle hearts in areas of the border using different color threads area by area. It is amazing how bold a 40 wt thread looks on black while the same thread can look very thin/hardly noticeable on the black and white small scale print used in the inner border area by the quilt top maker.

Now to move about the outer border and vary thread colors for this same stacked heart fill pattern.

Checking Out The Frixion Pilot Gel Pen

Just because something has been out on the market for a while, and I've heard a couple people say nice things about it, I'm not comfortable using it on someone elses quilt til I've made a test on it's stated erasability. ( I'll cut to the chase and say it works.) I am looking to draw/quilt straight lines that run from light fabric to dark. My Sewline white chalk pencil works great on dark... I plan to use the Frixion Erasable Gel Pin on the light.

Now the test... Using a Frixion pen, I drew 4 parallel straight lines on light fabric.

I then quilted rows 1 - 3 and stopped mid way on the fourth line (blue) and backed off. When I ironed over the drawn line (on cotton setting)... "Voila".... the drawn gel pen line is gone. I'm lovin it!

The Spin I'm In... part 1

I offered to quilt this piece for a dear friend. You probably all have seen this pattern of interlocking pinwheels.

So many that make this pattern make a smaller wall hanging. My friend made a good sized piece so there are so many pinwheels, I don't want to know how many there are. Before beginning visible stitching, I outline stitched in the ditch around each black pinwheel. I want to create a quilting pattern that doesn't require marking. (As an art quilter, I seldom do that anyway). So I broke the pinwheel down to 4 same elements and treated each triangular(ish) element the same.

ONE. Using the outside seams as the initial visual point of reference for needle drawing, I began at the center of the pinwheel and free motion straight line stitched toward the outer end of the pinwheel, then turned the corner stitching toward the opposite side edge. (NOTE: Kindly ignore the in-progress batting fuzz seen in close-up views. I will be cleaning this up at the end.)

TWO. Another right angle turn and stitched downward toward the center stopping about 3/4 inch from the pinwheel center seam .

THREE. The next step is to stitch again toward the outer end paralleling the first stitch line and also stopping short from the end of pinwheel stitched line again by about 3/4 inch.

FOUR. Now turn again with a short curved hook stitch pattern.

FIVE. And finally head back to the pinwheel center seam of origin with right angle stitch lines pretty much going right through the middle pf the channel created by previous stitch lines.

SIX. Back to the seam of origin where a short distance stitch in the ditch will get you to the next pinwheel element.

Another facing technique.... I adore the work of Melody Johnson and own a couple of her fused quilts and painted canvas pieces. She is creative in ways of finishing quilts....
click here to go to Melody's tutorial on her way of facing an already quilted piece.

http://fibermania.blogspot.com/2012/02/facing-quilt.html

Where HAVE I been?

No teaching moments for blog readers on this effort. I've been in my long arm room ( aka garage) for several days working on bartered quilting this piece for friend Mary Lou Ripper. Some while back, Mary Lou "gave" me a wool bed rug for my mountain home bed in exchange for quilting one of her quilts.
So on the frame it went Monday.

I used Pam Clarke's quilting within the lines marking method for the plain blocks.

...then simple ditch outlining on the floral blocks.

I enjoyed a free motion unplanned leaves and circles around the rick-rack vine border.
finally, it's done and on it's way to Mary Lou tomorrow.