Monday, March 7, 2011

Linda's Bouquet

I had such an amazing trip to Dallas.

The board meeting of the Alliance for American Quilts was super productive and again, I am blown away by the caliber of the people who serve. We have PhD historians, archivists, captains of the quilt industry, writers, media personalities, corporate marketers, and yes, some quilters in our group and the mix is stimulating and so much fun.
We were hosted by Mark Dunn, president and CEO of Moda Fabrics, and were given a complete tour of his facility, where our meetings were held. This was Quilt Heaven, make no mistake about that! He treated us like royalty and is the nicest man you'd ever hope to meet. Barbara Brackman, quilt historian extraordinaire who does the reproduction fabrics for Moda, was on hand and gave us not only a brilliant lecture, but also a very entertaining and myth-busting interview for the Quilters Save Our Stories project, conducted by our board president, Meg Cox.

I took a zillion pictures and plan on posting more about my trip soon....

But it is funny, when I got home I was too wiped out to do that yet. All I wanted to do was make something! So that is what I have done, whipping up a little surprise for my lovely roommate Linda Pumphrey as a thank-you for being so good to me. So this post is about my experiment for her....

I started with my bag of scraps and my Go machine, with the two flower dies, the Rose of Sharon and the Round Flower.

I noticed when she was looking at my book that Linda liked the vintage handkerchiefs pictured on page 82. So I chose one of them for the background of my piece, here shown interfaced and next to my little Go shapes.

I used Glue Baste-It to collage my shapes into place on the handkerchief base. I was able to move them around after I had glued them too, with a slight tug to loosen them.

Once the shapes were laid out, I covered them with tulle (a technique Linda and I had talked about), and layered this top over batting and a thin silk backing. Then I quilted it, the tulle and stitching trapping and fixing my shapes in place.

I quilted around the rose shapes in the handkerchief too.

I added a few more shapes, beads, and some lace trim flowers on top of the tulle. All of this is an experiment, remember...I had no idea how it would all work!

Then I finished the edge in just the same way as for "Soil and Sky"....first zig zagging....

...then trimming, and then zig zagging twice more around the edge.

The back looks kind of cool...but do kindly remember, I have had almost no practice machine quilting in over 10 years!

And here it is finished, about 12" x 12".

It was very fast and spontaneous and a fun way to use those Go shapes. I think the concept has potential and would like to try it again....but I plan on using colored tulle next time instead of white (have to buy some) and piecing the background.
I'm going to have to break down and put more design thought into the quilting too... ;-)

It's good to be home, as there is lots to do between now and the Crazy Quilt Adventure next month!
But a big thank you again to Mark Dunn, the great people at Moda, Barbara Brackman, and my fine fellow board members for a fantastic meeting.

24 comments :

Vicki W said...

What a wonderful gift for your friend!

Amy Munson said...

Allie, I love how you created the piece on the fly. Almost like sketching with fabric. I had a few thought running through my head as I read your how to.... Do you think the tulle was necessary to hold the flowers in place with all of the quilting you did? I have tried the tulle over applique but have never been all that pleased with how it changes the color of my work.
I have never tried the glue baste, but it is on my list to pick up. I have used Steam a Seam II. Are you familiar with it? You dont use any heat to attach it to the fabric at first, just a firm press of the fingers, but it does have a grip to hold fabric bits to one another. Once you are finished with your arrangement then you iron in place. You can machine sew through it with ease, but I dont know about hand sewing too much. I used it on all the diamonds in my sky for the AAQ piece.
Amy

Tina said...

very very cool!

Judy S. said...

Lucky Linda! Welcome home, Allie.

Barbara C said...

This is really pretty. That tulle technique is very handy for taming those raw edges, and the results are lovely.

allie aller said...

Amy, the tulle was necessary because I was stitching fast and loose with my machine, not caring if I hit the exact edges of my pieces or not.
That said, I am not quite happy with it either, the way the white tulle dampens down the colors beneath it. I was at my fabric store this afternoon and bought black, green, pink, and sky blue tulle in hopes that they will color things better when laid over the collaged top.
The other change I will make is to sew down the tulle before assembling my quilt sandwich, so as not to get that dimpled quilty look. I want to try keeping the whole thing flat, embellishing it without having to worry about the knots on the back, and then finishing it with batting and a backing. On a small quilt, I don't think the quilting matters so much.
Anyway, yes, it was fun to work on the fly!
Thanks for your comments everyone...

Kay said...

That looks great! What kind of fabric are the shapes?

A comment about the tulle: although it seems counter-intuitive, darker colors seem to work better for some reason. I think they don't reflect light as much.

Cathy said...

I love this piece, Allie. What a great gift.... I mean your ability to just pull a design together spontaneously. The hankie is a nice gift, too, LOL. ;-) You know, I really like the subtlety of the white tulle. It rather goes with the ladies hankie. Back in the day, a woman probably had her hankie, gloves and a little white hat with white tulle on it..... Hugs, Cathy

Pamela Kellogg said...

OMG Allie, that is so gorgeous!!!!

Anonymous said...

This looks like such fun to do, and so successful, too!

Elizabeth said...

Wow What a trip !!! Sounds like such fun! Your room mate will be over the moon with your little "Experiment"!! You completely blow me away!!!!
Happy Springtime Hugs!!

FredaB said...

Hi Allie

You make it look so simple and it turned out lovely. I remember using tulle over pieces and the cloth and after stitching I think we just ripped the tulle away. I must try that again some day.

See you soon.

Hugs Freda

Sew Bee It Clothier said...

Allie, this is a fabulous piece! What a fantastic way to incorporate so many different textures! I absolutely love the end result!

Dawn S. said...

That is gorgeous!!!

Ginny Maxam said...

What a lovely Gift, thanks again for sharing! I just purchased your book, I love love love it!
Thanks for making our world a little more beautiful and Joyful!
Ginny Maxam

Nancy said...

Allie, that is Gorgeous!! I just ordered some awesome colors of Tulle from Joggles.com Such a lucky friend you have!!

Nancy

Anna said...

Allie, this is lovely and what a wonderful gift! Thanks for sharing in a step by step format. Sounds like you had a super trip!

Evelene S said...

It came out adorable.

Calico Mermaid said...

Beautiful!

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