The state of things ...

I don't think I've quilted since my last post. We moved house in late August and I also went to Shanghai. Then we got a new au pair, our first, from Iowa, she's lovely! Having Laura is quite a relief to me but having moved means that I spend my spare time struggling with boxes. The den is in the process of getting into shape. My office desk area looks horrendous and needs to get sorted really quickly, otherwise I'll be receiving many angry letters asking for money long over-due. Then there are all those boxes filled to the hilt with fabric, yarn, batting, paints, canvasses, photos, scrapbooking supplies, inspirational items, mementoes, diaries, more photos ...

Deadline is early next week when my best friend comes to stay for one night on a business trip - the den doubles up as a guest room.

I did empty 18 boxes today, that's good, isn't it?! Now I need to go to IKEA to get some more shelving. ...

How to make an American Quilt

This is what my quilting has been reduced to recently: telly! But at least the theme was spot-on! I had read the book eons ago and didn't really warm to it at all. Now I came across the dvd at a very good price on Amazon so I thought I'd get it. Well, the story's still kinda flat but I liked the sections on quilting, the process, the old lady's lecture on composition and the dynamics of the quilting bee. Too bad we don't have that here!

Ha! Sorted ...

I finally found a good way to blow up and contort the original design into the size and shape needed. Photoshop and black felt tip pens were the tools of choice here.

Then I made templates and cut them out to trace with my quilting pencil and then the quilting began. I'm quite pleased with the results so far.

Tracing the design

I've emailed with Susan Druding of About.com fame. She's been incredibly helpful. Based on my initial thoughts and her invaluabe input, this is my current game plan:

I’ve managed to size the template using Photoshop, now it’s just a bit crooked. I’ll redraw it and then I’ll decide whether to just tack through it in order to trace it with tread or to cut it up and trace around the edges with coloured pencil. We shall see.

In the larger areas, I’ll just do a swirly design, I think. Or I’ll appliqué scraps taken from the cut-off of the border fabric. I’ve got elephants and jewels to choose from. Another “we shall see”.

Pins, pins and more pins

I spent all of last night on my hands and knees - thank you lovely Persian rug for making it a bit more comfy - pinning the border to my quilt top, the wadding to the top, binding and bottom, cutting said wadding to size etc. It's now ready for further assembly ... with the help of my trusted Janome.





(And yes, the most crookedest appliqués will be redone, sigh)

Centre piece design

This is the design I chose from that book of Indian Designs as a centre piece for the now-assembled quilt.



Needless to say, it's warped, does not have the dimensions I need and I have no idea how to transfer it properly ... sigh.

But I asked Susan D. for help so let's see ;-)

Next: Machine Assembly

All appliqued (shouldn't it be "applied"?) so I'm really to assemble ... which means I will have to break out my sewing machine. I always dread that and then I don't want to return it to its case. Schizo, I know.

And while I work up my courage, I'll better check out the designs for the centre of the quilt.