Wednesday Works-in-Progress: Satin Pillow top and some Needle-Felting

First up for Work-in-Progress Wednesday: a quilted satin pillow top for a baby pillow. I started this a long time ago with some leftover satin from my White Wedding Quilt. I ran into a little bit of bad tension (railroad tracks) and put it aside to do some frogging (rip-it, rip-it!) That finally happened while I was sitting around and the Dish Network satellite guy was here...or was it one of the Time-Warner Internet guys...we have had lots of service workers here in the past month! Including the HVAC guys yesterday who finally fixed our upstairs air conditioning system. Oh, I slept so good last night!

For this little pillow, I stitched a border area...no measuring, that's just not me- LOL! I did some "piano key" borders with my magnetic lock on the Gammill, but forgot which way I was going when I rolled down. Anyway, that became a design element, so some of the stitching is vertical and some is horizontal. I promise I don't drink Margaritas before using the long-arm!

The center is just playing around with free-motion stitching.

Yesterday I finally got a call that my Bernina is ready to pick up at the shop, so maybe I can get some of my quilt backings and this pillow put together.

Since I am doing a demo with my Babylock Embellisher on Thursday night, I have been putting together some little pieces of fiber samples. Here are a few bookmarks, with ribbons and Angelina, beads and ribbons.

Some silk and Angelina on batting...

and on dark cotton (there is a piece of painted muslin in thecenter under the silk)

some silk fibers and Angelina on a piece of dyed Dupioni silk, which I found out bleeds terribly!

I did not know this fabric would bleed so bad. I bought a pack of mixed colors of the Dupioni silk at a quilt show in Illinois years ago, and have been hoarding it and using it sparingly in projects. When I did the one above, I wet the piece after needle-felting, and that's when my bathroom sink turned purple. This will probably be used for fabric postcards.

One last bit of WIP news about my Oriental wholecloth quilt: I decided I had done all I could with the piece as is, but it still needed something. I hit on the idea of making it the view out of a Japanese window. That would require some kind of borders. So I did a little research on Japanese architecture, and found out that the name Zen Garden would be incorrect for this quilt. Zen Gardens do not have water features, just stones, plants, and raked gravel. The gardens represent landscapes such as mountains. But Zen Gardens are not the ones with the bridges over ponds. So, that WIP will get a new, more accurate name.

I am off to weed some flower beds before it gets too hot, and then to drive to Raleigh again to pick up my beloved Bernina!

A Pretty Quilt and WIP Wednesday: Zen Garden

Since today is Wednesday, I'll start with a Work-in-Progress: my Zen Garden art quilt.

I have slowly been adding more beads to the gold "structure" area

and the blue "water" area. Even a little sparkly fishy!

Next up is the last of Teresa's quilts that I finished quilting yesterday. This one has lovely Moda fabrics with floral and cross-stitch motifs. I got to do my favorite kind of quilting...flowers, leaves, feathers. We selected King Tut "flax" cotton thread.

This quilt has a pieced back, with patchwork perfectly centered. I tried my best to keep it centered by pinning the top and lining together at the center, and then putting pins where I should start the top. It is really hard to keep it centered, though, because the quilting draws up the backing. It looks nice on the back, though, with the quilting really showing up.

In other news, when I walked Maggy yesterday, I discovered that my street is now a cut-through street connecting us to Rogers Road. They finally removed the barricade at the former end of the street. You can still see the bent-over red sign that warned you to stop. There are only about four houses built so far in the new neighborhood.

The new road still needs a little work, as the manhole covers are still sticking up. You rusted-fabric lovers would have fun with this one...I love the "quilty" design, and who would have thought of a manhole cover named "Dancer?" I didn't actually know they had names!

And while you were draping fabric over rusty items, there is an old rusty fence over an old family cemetery in this neighborhood. I would not recommend draping fabric there to be rusted...just not respectful...but it is a very attractive fence.

Yesterday when I was eating lunch on my front porch, I was startled to see a great blue heron fly by just beyond the porch rail. I think he was pond-hopping and was considering a stop in my little garden pond. These birds can have a wing-span of almost seven feet, and are often seen in inland ponds as well as in coastal marshes. Here is a picture borrowed from the Internet that looks exactly like what I saw from my porch rocker.

Wednesday Works-in-Progress: Zen Garden Embellishments

Do you ever have trouble deciding whether or not to embellish your quilts with beads, paint, fibers, or other objects? I already made the decision to paint over some of the quilted motifs with Shiva Paint Stiks, which has transformed this piece from a piece of quilted fabric to an art quilt. I began to see the illusion of a pagoda, fence, waterfall, creek, and flowers. I have already added some blue-green beads to the waterfall area.
I will be adding more gold beads to define the gold "structures."

If you are going to embellish, it should certainly make a positive addition to the quilt's design, theme, meaning, or appearance. What I usually do is gather my containers of beads, ribbons, jewelry, silk flowers, buttons, and fibers. I pull out anything I think might work with the current project. Then I lay them on the quilt to see if I like the project better with or without the extra "stuff."

Below is an old brooch on the left side. I like the way the aged patina of the metal looks when contrasted with the gold and copper metallic paint. I may use it.

I am not opposed to adding silk flowers to add dimension to this piece, but have decided against these beautiful coral ones because I don't like think the warm color adds to this serene piece with cool colors. I will save them for another project.

Wednesday Work-in-Progress: Zen Garden

Remember the oriental fabric that I had fun quilting on my long-arm on Monday? Here it is after quilting with light blue Signature cotton thread. I outlined some of the gold shapes in the fabric, and just had fun making feathers, flowers and vines in other areas.


Today we are having more of the gorgeous sunny, breezy, low-humidity weather that is so rare in the South in July. I decided to embellish the piece with Shiva paint sticks to bring out the gold of the fabric and some of the quilted motifs.

I am very happy with the way this piece is coming along. When the paint dries, which is not taking long in this weather, I will probably add some Tsukineko inks to some of the smaller detailed areas, and possibly even some gold pen. Then, some beads for more highlighting and shine.

Tomorrow my quilt bee is having a sew-in day at our local quilt shop, Quilts Like Crazy in Wake Forest. One of our bee members works there as their long-arm quilter. The store is going to provide lunch and drinks for us. We are going to be working on more charity quilts for the guild.

After that, Charlie and I are heading to the mountains again, where this time we will have our oldest son and two grandkids to keep us company.