Saturday, July 12, 2014

The Slug Pushes Onward

Sitting here at what is pretty close to the middle of summer, it is almost unbelievable hard to fathom how hard it is to be productive.  It is partly having someone else constantly needing or wanting something.  Partly it is the nice warm weather.  I have vacation eyes on right now, as we have a trip to Hershey, PA coming up soon.  I have been pushing through the smaller custom quilts, at an albeit slower than usual pace, but they are getting done.  I have also been doing some other things.  I have a quilt being pieced,  a little each week. Thank goodness it isn't complicated piecing!  Here's a couple client quilts I finished within the last week or two.  

This is only a 20" wall hanging - just my size!  It is pretty wool applique.  It was wicked fun to quilt.  If all my quilts could be this fun... 
 I double batted it to show off the relief, and used a nice SoFine thread.
This one will be making it's journey home come Monday.  It is 60" or so.  I definitely do love a good traditional quilt now and then.  Figuring out what to quilt just comes naturally.
 This has a wool batt too (single), and is stitched with ivory, red and green Glide threads.
 I have recently done an article about sashings (set to be published in a few months), so this quilt let me put some of the things I had thought about to good use.  These sashings are wider, and I wanted them to show.
 The feathered circles in the corners tie into the feathered circles I placed at the center of the flowers.  Choose motifs and repeat, I keep telling myself as I quilt.  This is how you bring continuity to a design.
 There are some other feathers on the ivory triangle border, but mostly it is pretty freehand quilting.
Here's a peek at a few of the "other" things I have been doing...  This is part of my daughter's quilt that she is making.  All I have been allowed to do is the rotary cutting and the ironing.  These are 8 of her 9 blocks (the center one has a piece of custom fabric designed and being printed by Spoonflower.  It has a 3" border, and will finish about 64" square.
Here's a staged layout of my next larger quilt, mostly silk.  These are the hand-pieced elongated hexagons that I started last October.  I had silk hand-dyed to match the blocks, and I am hand appliqueing the ribbon applique now.  I have just about half of it left to stitch.  It's on the larger size, a hair over 80", so the quilting will be quite time-consuming.  I haven't done one close to this large in nearly 2 yrs.
I have been also busily scribbling out quilting designs for a smaller (40") silk quilt.  That one may get started next month, as it will be faster.  You'll have to wait to see that though.

Stitch on~

5 comments:

Michele said...

The quilts look great and I like where your daughter's quilt is going so far. Summer is always a time for a change in progress and it will be over before we know it.

IHaveANotion ~ Kelly Jackson said...

All I can say is your quilting is absolutely beautiful, just beautiful!
Smiles,
Kelly

Sarah @ Berry Barn Designs said...

Curious - when you stitch a "pineapple" design on a quilt, Margaret, like in the red/cream/green one, do you trace or use a ruler? It looks so effortless when you do it!

Tami @ Lemon Tree Tales said...

Wow, those ribbons really add a lot of movement to your new applique' quilt. It'll be fun to watch as you quilt it.

Amy @ Amy's FMQ Adventures said...

I love seeing your quilting of course, but hearing you speak of how little gets done in the summer give this homeschooling mom of 3 a little perspective on why I don't get much done sometimes. I'm finally calling it enough and 2/3 of the kids are going to school this year! I think it will be good for all of us! Quilt on!