Silk Road: Spotlight

As it turns out, the detour I took from the original plan for the silk quilt was the right path to take.  Yesterday was off to a good start with the machine quilting.

The colors are almost  true (but not quite) in this photo and you can't easily see the change in grain direction in every other square.

The progress was interrupted by the lack of the right color thread for the middle three silks. ACK!  Not wanting to just settle for what I had on hand as it was just 'okay', I ran out to the fabric store to find better matches and here they are on the back.

 The DH was content to have a late sandwich dinner so I could get all the quilting done and the front folded to the back as binding stitched down.  I was on a roll and wanted to get this finished - just needs a label today.

Presenting:  Silk Road: Spotlight

Dimensions: 30.25" x 30.25" Fabric: Silk dupioni in fuchsia, magenta (really radiant orchid), purple, sapphire, royal blue and black.  The back is Kaufman premium Jet Black Kona cotton.  

All 8 silk colors - the 3 teals will be making an appearance in a future quilt.

Batting: Quilters Dream Midnight Black
Quilting: Quilted on my Singer 6510 with various cotton threads.

This is my entry for the 2014 Pantone Color of the Year Challenge celebrating 'Radiant Orchid'.

Check out all the other entries  at The Windy Side blog.
There are three categories that will be judged with a 1st-3rd place, plus 3 random winners and a viewer's choice award.
Voting for viewer's choice starts on March 22nd.

What I learned about working with silk dupioni:
#1. Silk is alive! It moves, shimmies,slides and threads, sometimes all at once and usually not when you want it to.
#2. Pinking shears are your best friend. Keep them right next to your machine at all times.
#3.  Photographing silks is as 'interesting' as sewing with them.
#4. I will be making other quilts with silks, possible mixing silks and cotton together in the tops, becoming my Silk Road series. I have a few design ideas floating around to use in the future.
#5.  I may try using fusible interfacing next time to stabilize the silk.  I'll need one light enough to not gum up the needle as I machine quilt it and not add excessive stiffness.

I definitely think working with silks meets by word for 2014 - CHALLENGE - and I LOVED it!

Detour on the Silk Road

What to do when there are divergent paths to take?

The silk quilt was supposed to be sent to a local longarmer late this spring, in order to be eligible for a LQS show this summer.  Then along came the 2014 Pantone Color of the Year Quilt Challenge, with a deadline of March 21st.  And then there was the delay of the additional black silk order needed to finish the quilt.  What to do, what to do..

The silk quilt when we last saw it

Clearly, some decisions needed to be made and quickly - like yesterday.  

Here's the new plan - cross your fingers this works!  

#1.  I decided not to add any of the 6 teal rows, but to end with the royal blue row on either side, as shown above, and add the planned black borders.

#2.  In order to enter this as a finished piece for the Pantone Challenge, I would quilt it myself.  Never quilted on silk before so this will be a learning experience.

#3. Then, I will make another silk quilt that will go to the longarmer for the LQS show entry. It may be similar to this one or not. That's a completely different set of decisions to make at a later date.

So, that brings us to today.  I'll be continuing the machine quilting I started yesterday afternoon.

Pinned and some straight line quilting started.

It is an interesting path I'm heading down, just not sure exactly where I'm going to end up...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We've been celebrating since Saturday and will finally wind down today!

There's not a drop of Irish blood in me, though in the 3rd century a Celtic tribe known as the Boii settled Czech lands and gave the country its  - Bohemia.  So technically, there could be some ancient Irish blood in there somewhere.  Wil has German/English/Irish/Scottish heritage.  

Yesterday, I made the traditional American St. Pat's meal of Corned Beef and Vegetables (instead of Cabbage).  

Funny story there - it has only taken eleventy-twelve years for Wil to try my Corned Beef.  Very strange, as he eats almost everything I cook (chili is the only definite NO).  Come to find out that the only place he had previously had Corned Beef was in the Army.  I'm not knocking Army cooks - my uncle was one - but I seriously doubt they make it quite the same way I do.  

I didn't get any stitching in on Saturday but I made up for it yesterday.  

Having decided to change the third row of the Daring Downton Debacle quilt to the Castle in the Air block, it was time to get busy.  Lots and lots of HSTs to cut in many different colors.  Here I have 3 blocks done and two laid out ready to stitch together.

All the blocks done but not joined.

The third row completed!

And all three rows hanging in order on the design wall.  

The two rows on the left need a good pressing but I'm liking the way it's coming together.  The new row needs to have applique added to it - not sure what yet.  It will be in the 5 middle cream squares.

We are also celebrating some special birthdays here - Ziggy & Zappa are 3 years old!  They liked my Corned Beef, too and the generous amounts of fresh dried catnip sprinkled on toys.   

Ziggy

Zappa

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Happy National Worldwide International Quilting Day!

No matter what you call it, today is the day to celebrate our quilting passion!!

I helped two LQS' bottom line yesterday by finishing the Fat (Quarter) & Sassy Shop Hop in fine style.

On the left, take a look at those great aged muslins - dyed not printed! And a lime cross weave/shot cotton for a bright spot.  On the right - lemons! Yes, lemon yellow batiks printed with lemons just made me smile...and bring it home for the stash.  The blue and black batik round out the pile.  I can't resist blue batiks, ever!

Not sure what today will bring but it will involved fabric/sewing/quilting, with some St. Patty's Day on the side!

Have you stitched something lately?

Hopping Around

No sewing got done yesterday but then again, no chores yesterday either!

I was Shop Hopping!

Ten fabulous shops in the northwest and west and far, far west suburbs of Chicagoland area joined together for the Fat (Quarter) & Sassy Shop Hop, running from yesterday through Sunday.   If you have a chance, check it out  Fat & Sassy Shop Hop 2014 Passport 

There are some great prizes to win and a great way to get out and enjoy the almost Spring weather.

I had a blast!!  I started a bit later than I wanted, had a schedule to keep and a budget for this adventure.  The day was grey & windy but each shop was warm & inviting and they all had fat quarters for $2.50 each!  

Of the ten shops, I hit eight of them in a day, covering 175 miles.  The last two are more local to me & I'll be going to them later today, since we have plans for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow and I don't want to wait until Sunday to finish the hop.  Some of the shops were new to me and a few I had been to before, but shops change & expand so it was good to visit them.

Here's a few pictures of my haul.

That big hunk of cream you see - that's Essex linen (55% linen, 45% cotton). This will be the first time I will work with it. We'll see. The rest are shot cottons or cross weaves.

Some new bright batiks for the stash, all except the blue - that's a shot cotton. The bar is a quilter's soy lotion bar to help banish the winter dry skin. I think I'm beginning to see a new quilt emerging from the fabrics here.

The top piece is a federal blue for the Daring Downton Debacle quilt that I was running short on.  Love that tan Stonehenge and the bottom blue is a batik that I couldn't resist.

I'm off to see what the last two shops have for me to find.  I'll let you know.

Work on it Wednesday

Just when you thought you'd get to see some clear ground...BAM!!!  The dreaded white stuff from heck makes an encore appearance. Luckily, we got a layer of sleety rain / ice and then only about an inch of snow. Not far away, by my folks house, they got 6 inches of the white stuff - YUCK!!

Not one to take chance (HA!), I planned the day in the studio, with detours into the laundry room.

First up was the silk quilt, right?  No, no it wasn't. What??!!  After the wait and the not knowing if and when the missing black silk would arrive and the impending deadline, I wasn't feeling ready to tackle it yesterday. At least, I know better than to force the issue!   There is no sense getting in the fray if you are not mentally prepared to deal with the fray(ing).

So, I needed to work on a new saddle pad slip cover - purple this time.

 

High density foam saddle pad needing a cover

Purple saddle pad slip cover with envelope style opening

That was quick so I moved on to the Daring Downton Debacle challenge - month three.  I thought I was going to use the 'Castle Garden' block, but the 8 x 8 grid just didn't look right with the other rows.

So back to the books and I found the 'Castle in the Air' block - a 6 x 6 grid block. This row will be done in split colors - half pinks / half peaches and half blue / half green - to sit between the other two rows

But I needed to do a variation to keep it a little closer design-wise to the other two blocks.

My changes are shown in red.  The color plan was drawn out and a full size block drafted.  Parts will be paper foundation pieced.

That done, I moved on to some cleaning

First - Saddle cleaning, that is - for my friend Pam who just picked up this second hand English saddle.  Nothing fancy but serviceable.  It needs a good cleaning and conditioning, and a little repair.  Step one was to disassemble the parts and saddle soap the parts.  My saddle is also home from the barn, waiting its turn for some TLC.

Second - We did get all the laundry done - with some help from a furry friend.

Third - The sewing machine needs a de-linting before I sew one more stitch!  Have you cleaned your machine lately?

4 Quarters = 1 Quilt Top

Yesterday before the Stitching was Shopping, Shopping, Shopping! 

Needed to replenish the supply of canned cat food because 20 cans on hand is clearly, dangerously, a totally inadequate amount in the cabinet. The cats might have been forced to subsist solely on DRY cat food - the horror of that concept is too overwhelming to even think about, let alone say aloud.   It was on sale so I picked up 60 cans - another 2 months supply  - which made 3 kitties slightly happy.  

Other things were just routine household items - boring!  No fabric was sought or bought, except the purple canvas duck for the next saddle pad slipcover.  And of course, foodstuffs were laid in, in light of our 1 day snowstorm.  This Winter has been ridiculous!  And we aren't done yet.  Ridiculous!

The afternoon found me tucked happily in the studio, cranking out some production piecing.  The blocks for the remaining quarters of 'Grey is Not a Color' were all pressed and ready.  

And before I knew it, I finished piecing both quarters which means, since this will be a Quilt As You Go project, I have a completed top!  Four Quarters = 1 Quilt Top!!

All four quarters were briefly pinned to the design wall for that picture but had to be taken down as a certain kitty was playing behind the edges nearest the floor.

I also ripped down and pre-washed the granite color Riley Blake fabric for the back of this quilt.  I have to say it washed up beautifully with minimal threading.  I'll be using Quilter's Dream all cotton batting for this quilt.  Only thing I have left is to decide what quilting design to use.

Today, the silk quilt's remaining six rows moved to the top of the stitching list.  What's on top of your list today?