BLOG 114

This is an early blog because on Sunday I will be driving with a friend to the Great Northern Quilt Festival in Harrogate. I really like this show because it is fairly local and there is lots of room to appreciate all the quilts and space to enjoy the numerous traders. I didn’t look for quilting supplies at the NEC’s Festival of Quilts because it was over-crowded and there were queues at the most popular stalls. It will be a more pleasurable and tranquil experience to buy ‘stuff’ at this show.

ASIDE: My husband has just gone out to practice bowls with one of his friends. He popped on his hat and was oblivious to his passenger until I started laughing. I told him to hold still until I had photographed it. It was huge and it would probably have enjoyed an outing!!

 

                              Rog with passenger!

 This week I decided to carry on with my still life wall hanging. This was the last picture I posted of it, pointing out that there was a space yet to be filled on the right hand side.

 

                                             Still life

 I resolved this problem by adding some extra blooms on the ledge beside the blue vase. I chose red because I felt that that colour would encourage the viewer’s eye to follow through to the right of the composition.

 

                                          Space filled

 I am happy with this now and so I need to remove the baking parchment from behind the picture. It was put there to protect the ironing surface from the fusible on the background fabrics whilst I was adding vases and flowers to the foreground.

 

 

                     Remove the baking parchment

The completed picture is ironed onto cotton batting (it must be cotton to take the heat of the iron) in preparation for quilting/texturing. Fusing the layers means that I don’t need to use pins to hold the layers together.  I have not put a backing on at this stage because I don’t want to be too fussy about my stitches on the back of the wall hanging. I have chosen a fine lilac thread for the bobbin and I will use gripping gloves to get maximum control of my quilt during free-motion stitching.

 

                     Gloves and bobbin thread

 I have started at the right hand side and gone round the red flowers with an organic’ applique stitch. This is just a posh name for a wiggly stitch round the edge of the shapes! I jump from one flower to another and I have yet to snip off the ends of the thread on the front.

 

 

                        Organic applique stitch

Moving to my left, the next shape is the blue vase. I have selected three shades of blue thread to correspond with the shades in the vase. I have sewn an undulating line, to and fro, to texture the shape and to secure the fabric pieces.

 

                              Vase and threads

More of the next week…..Harrogate here I come!