Doreen Speckman's Provincial prints

Some of you have read the Crossroads Chronicle today or the Highlander and read about my meeting with Doreen Speckman a few years ago in Shannon, Ireland airport. Most of you know that she died of a heart attack the first night in Ireland. This is my memorial quilt for a dear quilter, Doreen Speckman, that I made upon returning from that trip. What a loss to the quilt world losing her!

Quilting Has Started on Amazing FLower Quilt in NC

Finally got the sashing quilted around the Dogwood block. I just quilted a quarter inch away from all three strips of the sashing. Don't want anything fancy on that as it will take away from the quilting on the blocks. I am starting the quilting of the first plain block. It will be a challenge to fill up those 4 plain blocks with quilting, but that is what I enjoy most of all. I am using just a simple 12" feather stencil that I ordered from The Stencil Company. They have every kind of stencil known to man! or woman..........ha. Once I finish quilting one plain block I'll put the picture of it on this blog. This hot weather all over the country is most conducive to sitting and quilting under the AC.........Happy Days.....B

FLORIDA FLOWER WALL HANGING #3 flower

Hi, you all,
Hope you are working hard on your flower wall hanging down there in Florida. The next flower is the Hibiscus, and wow, is it fun to do. This flower comes in many colors so take your pick. The pattern has been sent to you or will be on the Ocean Wave Quilters' website soon. Only one more flower to go and then I'll share the idea for putting this together into a lovely wall hanging.
Stay cool down there.........it's even hot up here in NC. WOW
Happy Days!

The Quilting has started/ sashing

Finished quilting the Dogwood block this past week. Had a terrible tooth problem and had to take care of that before continuing on with the quilting. Now, I am ready to start quilting the sashing around the dogwood. Thank goodness, my friend, Lois had some 1/4" tape for me to use to get the lines nice and straight; nothing worse than seeing a quilt where someone has guessed at the quarter inch. mercy!

I shall put two lines of quilting in each of the darker green strips,(hope you can see the tape on the strip in the picture) and then a decorative design in the middle strip. That will come next.

Some people do a great job of quilting the blocks, and then fudge on the quilting of the sashing. Not a nice thing. It is always very obvious to someone that it has been done that way, so don't be tempted. I shall have the next installment for doing the decorative design, hopefully this next week.

The Quilting has Started

Today is June 3rd, and I am trying to quilt on the Amazing Flower Quilt every evening for a little while. My fingers were really sore the first night, as I haven't done any handquilting since last August. With a little Bag Balm on them at night, they are getting toughened up pretty well. I buy this at Walmart in a little green can over in the "stuff for animals." Read on the can and get a good laugh. How anyone ever thought of using this for quilters' fingers, is beyond me!

As you can see in the picture, I am doing "shadow quilting" on the Dogwood, and I am trying to get one flower block done by next Monday, which is a week from when I started. I know I can't keep this up, as some of the flower blocks have much more space to be quilted than this Dogwood.

I am using 1/8" tape around the outside edges of the block up next to the sashing, as this gives the shadow quilting a place to stop. I found this tape at some quilt shop ages ago, and hope it is still available for anyone who likes to use it.

I am drawing the quilting lines with washable blue thin-line pens and washing the blue away with distilled water using a q-tip. After so much of the blue fluid gets in the water, it has to be replaced as you can see a slight hint of it still on the quilted area from last night. I shall just reapply the distilled water tonight before I go to bed and let the block dry overnight.

I am using a size 12 quilting needle which is very very tiny, but the smaller the needle, the smaller the stitches.

Don't cut thread too long...........I cut it no longer than 12" at most.

It doesn't get tangled as easily as a long long thread does.

Tonight I am watching (no, listening to a movie with Mr. Whoozy) while quilting. Great fun!

THE QUILTING HAS STARTED!

YEHHHHHHHHHH Yesterday, Memorial Day, 2010, I started quilting the Amazing Flower Quilt. It has taken me since last Thursday, four days ago, to get it hand basted for quilting. I baste every 6" to be sure that the lining and batting don't shift. I use polyester batting, Hobbs Poly-Down quilt bat, for hand quilting. It is truly the best. It is bonded and is so uniformally put together that it is great to use to sandwich the quilt. I bought it at a Hobby Lobby in Jacksonville, however, I'm sure you can find it at one of the quilt shops in the area. I used machine basting pins to secure the outside edges, first, and pin basted it all over, and removed the pins as I was basting. The pins catch the quilting thread so they need to be removed.

As you can see from the picture, I use a round 14" hoop for my quilting of any size quilt. I use Gutterman's Quilting thread in a natural color. I began in the middle of the quilt, with the Dogwood block, as it is in the center of the quilt.

I use a washable blue fine line marker to mark my quilting lines. I am "Shadow quilting" the flower petals, by quilting 1/4" away from the petal (after having quilted as close as possible next to the dogwood petal, pulling the thread very tight!) ALWAYS pull the thread tight to make the quilting show up.

After the first row of Shadow Quilting is done, use the blue marker and draw a line 1/4" away from the last one, etc. until you reach the bottom of the block. I always quilt 1/4" or 1/8" away from the sashing just to give the finishing line for the shadow quilting. I use tape to mark this line so it is very straight above the sashing. Study the picture very carefully before starting to quilt.

The blue marker MUST BE REMOVED as soon as you quit quilting for a session. I keep a little bowl of DISTILLED WATER and a Q-tip ready to removed the blue pen immediately! I let it dry overnight. REGULAR TAP WATER will not work for removing these pens. The blue will come back and sometimes the salt in the water will make the blue permanent! Also, Heat sets the blue pen and will not every come off, so keep your quilt out of the sun or away from very bright lights that get warm, while you are using the blue pens.

I've been to quilt shows and found blue pens on people's quilts. Not a good thing! A quilt with blue pen markings showing NEVER won any prizes!