Thursday, August 18, 2011

New Quilt Today

My idea was to create a long narrow quilt again. I have made several in this style and it is so much easier to machine quilt this size for me. Finished it is 15" x 60" so putting on the binding by
machine on the long sides and then the short top and bottom is so easy and eliminated lots of hand work. This style of quilt uses MistyFuse bonded to silk fabrics. Most of the silks are very thin and
handle well with fusing to a lightweight surface before batting and quilting. My attempt to was to use more of the two silk blouses I had hand painted many years ago. The colors are perfect to use as granite seen in the Sierra Nevada mountains. "Labor Day" commemorates the last backpack trip of the year that was our family ritual. We would climb into some of the most beautiful areas on the east side of Yosemite, often being treated to wild flowers that struggle to survive in small spaces within the rocks. I finished the top yesterday and didn't think I could ever machine quilt it.
So my suggestion when you are stuck, go to bed and start fresh. The quilting went very quickly today as I put myself in "hiking" mode and remembered all the contour maps my husband used to identify our elevation and route up the mountain. We no longer climb these areas, but the memories and old stories are great.