The last quilt I finished, Hana Sunrise, was 42"x56". It was one of the largest pieces I've worked on in my tiny studio, so I thought you'd like to see some of the process.
First, I needed a new, larger design wall. There wasn't room in the laundry room, so we came up with this:
It's in the garage, but I have a sheet that I can drop over the entire wall to keep it clean. Plus, I don't leave anything up in there. I just needed a place to SEE this quilt and stand back from it.
After I fused the bamboo pieces to the background, I stitched them down:
I do this kind of stitching on a layer of batting so I don't get any puckering. When I go to quilt, I add another layer of batting, then quilt. My friend Joan turned me on to this concept. It makes for a nice, sturdy wall hanging. She discovered after using a single layer of batting that, over the years, the wall hanging tends to lose it's "freshness" and can hang limp.
Then it was time for the quilting, which required a lot of THIS:
Thank goodness we have our own espresso machine now!
The intricate quilting took many, many hours. Thankfully, both of my machines behaved beautifully during the process. I was under a very tight deadline to get this completed before the clients returned to Canada, so I was very happy everything worked as it should.
I opened up my folding cutting table to support the weight of this quilt as I sewed. The silk and two layers of batting were very heavy and the quilting process was exhausting physical work!
Here's a detail shot:
I'm working on one more bamboo piece for the gallery, which I hope to get finished this weekend. I wanted them to have it before I leave on my trip a week from Friday. Good thing I have a three-day weekend coming up.
5 comments:
I kept wondering where you were ... Lovely quilt & quilting. Makes me itch to try quilting silk. Do you use silk thread as well?
Thank you! The silk is just wonderful to work on. I used YLI #100 silk thread for the quilting in the top and Aurifil cotton thread in the bobbin along with a 70# Microtex Sharp needle.
I love the way you outlined the leaves. The colors are very appealing to me. Thanks for the idea of the batting layers because I do notice some of my wall hangings are not as stiff as I would like.
It's always interesting to see where and how other artists work. Thank you for sharing your wonderful art and processes with us. Have a good trip.
Hi Diana,
I love Hanna Sunrise! The quilting is beautiful and sets it off perfectly!
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