Quilting for Fun

I intended to work on the triptych project for my Think Like an Artist workshop today. However, my quilting muse was calling me to quilt one of these art projects. (I had just been using my Gammill for Jean's quilts for a couple of afternoons, and I was just dying to do one of my own projects.) Look at this long table, big machine, and itty bitty quilt!

In this workshop, everything is meant to be freehand and fun. That includes the free-motion quilting. Well, I am not new to machine quilting, but I have all kinds of new ideas from Pamela Allen to quilt in a few surprises. She says this is to keep herself amused and interested in the project. I think it adds some fun for the viewer, as well. For example, on Pamela's quilt featuring a bride, she quilted in a fish and some eyeballs. (By the way, this quilt is made for a novel featuring an art quilter who admires Pamela's work!) See Pamela's website for more details. I just requested this book from our library.

Well, with the fabrics and threads I chose for the front, most of the quilting motifs do not show. But check out the back!

What a happy surprise! When you are quilting on a long-arm frame, you really can't see the back until you take it off the machine. I decided in the spirit of fun to use a variety of bobbin threads, using up quite a few of those old bobbins with just a little thread left on them. I think the black designs look like line drawings.

The cursive writing at the bottom says, "freedom". I also included the word FUN on the side.

The back fabric is a Ricky Tims hand-dye, just drenched with bold hues for a relief from the stark black and white of the front.

The quilting does not have to be limited to filling in a certain shape, but can flow out from it. Thus I have a bird whose body sort of conforms to the roundness of the vase, but whose head and tail feathers stick out. Notice the cat and other folksy figures, including a fish just for Pamela.