30 Reds on 30 Whites

30 Reds on 30 Whites
by Ilene Atkins

 This one is about 16" x 16", and is part of my red and white heart series of quilts. I had quite a few hearts left from other projects, and when the President's Challenge came up at our guild last year, I put those red hearts into this small quilt. It was the 30th anniversary of our Waterloo County Quilters' Guild, so we had to challenge ourselves to use 30 fabrics in our small quilt.

I was also experimenting with a quilting style that is more heavily stitched, and this is the result.

30 Reds on 30 Whites, detail
by Ilene Atkins

These hearts are glue-stick applique.  This is where you glue the  edges of the applique down onto the back of the pieces, and then they are quick to hand stitch, in this case, to the background. These pieces can also be machine stitched to the background.

My inspiration for this technique is from Kathy K. Wylie, when she was at our guild for a presentation. I wrote about her visit here, when she showed us her fabulous appliqued quilts.

A Fine Finish

Magnolia Quilt
Back

Magnolia Quilt
Front

I think all of you have been waiting for the big finish on my Magnolia Quilt. Well, I can say at last that it is finished. I was away on holidays last week, and was able to get the hand sewing done on the binding. And this week, I have been doing all the tying in of loose threads left from the quilting. I had a lot of them, since a lot of my straight lines met another one in the middle, and I wanted all those ends nice and tidy.

Magnolia Quilt
detail

A couple of decisions early on had me changing my quilting plan into these straight lines, but I like the way it all turned out. There is something to be said for simple, read quick, quilting. Also this week, I took off the middle circle, and replaced it with a different fabric. The first one was the background ivory colour, and seemed too stark. The new one was a bit creamier, and fits in better with the purples and greens. I'm embarrassed to say it was also off centre, so that had to be fixed up in any case. It was a bit tricky to get off after the quilting was done, but I carefully cut it away.

I had this quilt at quilt guild the week before for show and tell. I spoke about the "modern" side, then asked the white glovers to turn it over, and a hundred quilt ladies gasped when they saw the dresden side. Very satisfying, indeed.

Linking up with Freshly Pieced, here, and Work In Progress Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network, here, and over at Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, here.

Quilt Sandwich for Lunch

I've been working like mad on this quilt. I finally finished up the hand applique yesterday, which took far longer than I had counted on, and so the back has been moving along very rapidly since then. I put the borders on this afternoon, and was able to make the quilt sandwich this evening, since the pieced front was finished last week.  Whew.  No time for cooking, and the laundry has piled up, but this quilt's progress is amazing even myself! I have plans for tomorrow, but I can start quilting it on Thursday.  This is the exciting stage for me, when the top and back are made, and it starts to really look like something.  It seems like a lot of purple, but I think it is okay.

I`m linking up this week with Work in Progress Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network, here, which is a blog that "celebrates a collective identity for textile artists in Canada."

Magnolia Progress

I've been stitching away, even though it has been warm and sunny outside. Valerie over at Pumpkin Patch Quilter did a review of Gutermann Silk Thread for hand applique, link here. I thought I would give it a try, and it turns out she's spot on. I had a dark and a light purple, and used the lighter one for this. Amazingly, it really  disappears into the edges, and it doesn't knot as much as cotton. I'm finding that even though I don't do needle turn applique very much, I really like it when I do. It is slow progress, though, and I'm hoping to have this part finished this week.

I still have to piece together all the blocks for the front of this quilt, but that part goes fairly quickly and I'm not worried about it as much.  What I have been wrestling with in my mind is how I will perfectly align the front and back borders when I get to the quilt sandwich part. This will be tricky, but I want it to be beautiful front and back.  Stay posted.

I'm linking up this time with The Needle and Thread Network, here, and Freshly Pieced, here.

Holy Molas!

Yesterday, I was in Toronto for an appointment, and had a few spare hours. So to fill the time, I went to the Textile Museum of Canada to see about 200 Kuna Yala molas from Central America. WOW. What spectacular needlework / applique work made by the women. I'll upload a couple of photos for you to check out.


Click on photo to enlarge it for a closer look. Check out the detail. Each mola is about 15x10", and they are made in pairs for the front and back of a blouse. The Kuna Yala women wear these all the time, as if to say that the modern world may influence them, but they won't give up their traditions. Yaaay for them. This one's my favourite.



They are not all complex like this, but I greatly admire these for intricate work. Inspiration comes from all around the women, from legends, stories, and ancient beliefs, along with modern images and ideas that come to them from visitors. Medicinal plants are most traditional, but images now include movie themes, helicoptors, and famous people!


These are made using scissors to draw the applique lines, and then reverse appliqued, which is how they get the narrow line effect. Sometimes, regular applique is applied, too. Makers unknown. These items are owned by the TMC, and their use is protected by copyright. Permission is granted to use them here.


Anyway, I'm hugely inspired. So I'll get back to my own applique project.

Choosing fabrics

Guess what? I picked out colours and fabrics for my applique project. I always dread this part, thinking that I might not have the fabrics on hand that I will want to use (gasp!). Turns out, I have plenty, ha ha. I can relax, my stash is adequate. And when did I collect all these greens? These are just the ones I want. I usually sway towards aqua, teal, and yellowy greens when I buy greens, but I must have been expanding when I picked these up. I have oodles of reds, so that isn't a problem. Plus with red, there are only so many variations before you start getting into pink, burgundy, or orange. But so many greens. I might add or remove some, but this is where I'm starting.

I've been playing around on the computer quite a bit. I'm trying to upload a slideshow for your entertainment. In an early '90's phase, I made quite a few kites with a previous partner. Going through my stuff to choose fabrics, I came across a box of old photos. These kites are related to making quilts, except I made the fabric skins, and he made the frames to make them fly. So now, I'm happy to be making quilts all by myself. I'll preview one here, and keep working on the slideshow in the sidebar.

I've also been looking at other quilt blogs, and I want to work at listing some of the ones I follow in the sidebar, too. This also takes time. Fun, but not productive towards making quilts.