Saturday, January 24, 2009

Blue River Quilt part 3

A while back, I was reading Myrna's blog and she was talking about choosing colors for her quilt by photographing them and looking at them in gray scale. I began to wonder how MY piece would hold up to critique in gray scale.



It DOES have the desired value shift that I was after, transitioning from dark in the upper left to light in the foreground. I was surprised, though, at the way some of the 'trees' just blended right in to the background! This is not evident in the colored version, which IS, after all, the real thing! Overall, I am pleased with the choices.









I'm in the quilting stage now, but thread selection is my hold-up. I had good results with some Madiera POLY NEON thread, but the variegated Sulkys gave me trouble...the thread kept breaking, plus, when I went to rip out the stitching, I could pull hard on the bobbin thread and it would 'break' the top threads, allowing me to basically rip out the whole seam by pulling on the bobbin...not slipping out from under the loops, but actually pulling the top thread down and breaking it!! No, the Sulky is not strong enough. I must go find other threads before I can progress.








I drew lines on the quilt top to create sections to stitch within. I haven't worked out all the areas yet, so I stitch only where I have decided what to do!


The long thread tails will be threaded onto a needle and pulled in between the layers to eliminate them, as opposed to just cutting them off.

I used a basting spray to temporarily attach the 3 layers, then loaded it onto 2 of the 3 poles of the HandiQuilter frame. This way, I can stitch across the full width of the piece, going back and forth as the design requires, instead of stitching in long narrow strips from top to bottom.

5 comments:

Sew-4-Fun said...

Patricia, your quilt looks amazing! I can't wait to see it finished.

I've also nominated you for the Kreativ Blogger award. Enjoy!
Belinda

LizA. said...

Neat quilt Patricia. How are you liking your HandiQuilter? I'm going to have to try that idea of taking a photo and turning it to b&w.

Trish said...

Hi Belinda!
Thanks for the compliments and also for the award!

Hi Liz!
I LOVE my HandiQuilter! I tried doing this without using it, because I didnt want to pull it out and set it up...but I quickly discovered I just couldn't quilt without it!

Patricia

LizA. said...

Patricia, Our "Mutual Friend" said I needed to talk to you about threads & HandiQuilter. Have you tried Superior Rainbows? They can be a little tricky to work with, but on thw whole, are MUCH better than Sulky. I've NEVER had any luck with Sulky. Also their new Lava which they designed for Gammill users since they have problems with Rainbows.

Also check out this site for some trouble shooting tips:
http://www.longarmchat.com/dick_fuller_tips.htm

Trish said...

I have not used Suuperior Rainbows...there is no local supplier, so I'll have to order these. Yeah, the Sulky is basically unuseable! ('nuff said!)

I tried that link...even signed up for the group...but cannot access anything of worth without getting a paid membership. oh well! thanks anyway! I'll check out the Superiors...
P

 
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