Quilt ADD in therapy

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Colorado, United States
Other than my family, the passion of my life is quilting. An eclectic, I love a wide variety of styles and techniques encompassing both machine and hand work. I am a longarm quilter who can work for you. I enjoy any style, from pantographs to all-over to full custom, ranging from traditional to modern. I love bringing vintage tops to life and am willing to work with a challenging quilt top. Instagram: lyncc_quilts

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

WIP June 5 - Footprints, Dragonflies, and Owls

It's been a good 7 weeks since I've had time to do a WIP post, and everything's rotated at my stations since then.

FMQ Station:

Putting in some great time on "Run, Kitty, Run!"  This one's going to be a real fun mix of classic and whimsy.  I finished all the feathers a few days ago and have been working on the shoe prints. One day I'll write a finish post and you'll understand how it all comes together.




I have 14 prints to stitch in, and they're pretty darned intricate. It takes way too long to trace out for marking them by pen. I considered making a stencil and chalking them on, but there's so much handling that I was sure the chalk would be rubbed off by the time I was halfway through the various treads. So I decided to go with the Golden Threads technique.

After printing out the scan of the shoe bottom, I traced the outlines with a sharpie. . . 




. . . so that I could flip it over and retrace them on the clean side. After cutting the shoe out, I sadly noted that it was just a bit too big at life size to fit aesthetically in my white bands. So I reduced it to 90%. 




I cut out 14 pieces of Golden Threads paper, layered them and stapled them carefully at the corners, and then lightly glue-sticked the prepped shoe print on top. 




I stitched through the entire layer with a threadless machine (no problem at all with that many in the stack - the paper is somewhere between the consistency of gift tissue and waxed paper). 




And then I had 14 stencils ready to be pinned onto the quilt. . . 




. . . and stitched over. 




Sometimes little details get very important to me - like not having tons of travel-lines from stitching these out continuously. The prints are already so busy, I didn't want travel lines messing with the clarity of the image. Sooooo. . . I stop and start with each element of the print. And I also have never been able to do any machine-knotting, back-stitching, or tiny-stitching that has been neat enough and durable enough for my satisfaction, which means. . . 




. . . with each shoe print, I have 58 pairs of thread tails to knot and tuck. Times 14. That's 812 pairs altogether.  Maybe I didn't want to know that~!

 I have 5 prints finished. 


Hand Stitching Station:




Wow! Now that we're back to our normal schedule and actually watching a show after dinner each evening, I'm really making good headway on the binding for the second Dragonfly Party quilt! This is the one quilted by Judi of Green Fairy, and I only have 1/8th left to go!!  Photo Op coming soon - woohoo~!!!


Piecing Station:

This station has like zero priority right now, but quilting in those shoe prints gets super intense, so every now and then I just need a break. I worked up a plan for the owl fabric Devon gave me after totally destroying my stash room (still haven't fixed it), and have been slowly making bits of headway on that flimsy. 




I wanted those rounded corners, but they're too small to fuss with by piecing, so I just do these by machine applique. I press under the edges, glue it down on the next layer with a washable school glue stick, and stitch it with a tiny button-hole stitch. Then I trim out the back to keep a nice drape. Now I'm gluing the blocks onto the center field. It's a fun project in a completely new colorway, and that's quite refreshing!



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12 comments:

  1. What a great idea. I've had a quilt waiting around for quilting for a few years because I want to do footprints on it and couldn't figure out a way to make them the right shape. Mine will be smaller and I won't put the sole texture in, but this is the perfect way to get the shape. Thanks!

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  2. When I grow up, I want to be just like you! So incredibly organised... and you get so much done! Amazing.

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  3. Wow! I love the shoeprint quilting.

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  4. Wow! And here I'm whiny about tying off more than five threads in a whole quilt! Those shoes are impressive!

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  5. Those shoes are so detailed! You're so patient to do all the individual stops and starts. It's looking wonderful!

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  6. I love the footprints! I'm sure the effort will all be worth it!

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  7. Great footprint ugh on the tie offs LOL. Nice work.

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  8. Your shoe prints are wonderful! I use Golden Threads paper exactly the same way. That's my go-to product when I want a precise quilting design. But golly. Are you a glutton for punishment or what?! Threading and burying all those tails is an amazing task! You put me to shame, as I SHOULD have done that with my recent finish, Citrus Wave. I quilted with rayon thread and it isn't staying put, even though I stitched over threads, and used Fray Check to prevent raveling. I can never wash this wall quilt for fear the quilting will start to fall out! Your way is the best way, but one I've never taken the time to do. I'm too lazy, I guess. Keep up the excellent work!

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  9. Great looking with the shoe prints!I would never have thought to do that!!!

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  10. Your shoe prints are just wonderful! Such a creative idea for quilting.

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