No. 9

Part 3: the quilting

I wanted to quilt the background in 1/2" lines. I don't remember if I have shown you this cool gadget. It attaches to the walking foot and guides your quilting lines with almost any spacing that you want. And you can attach it to the left or right side of the walking foot. It is very helpful and very versatile.

The only down side is that it is hard to change a bobbin with it attached.  After stitching the sample, I was satisfied that it would work!

I did some edge stitching on the stripes, and then completed the stitching in 1/2" intervals. If you remember all the humps, you will quickly realize that it meant a lot of starts and stops. I prefer doing the starts and stops vs. a continuous back and forth because the tension looks better. 

The next section that I wanted to do were the arcs. I did this with a free motion foot. And, I was worried about spacing the narrow lines because the arcs have varying widths along the length. It was harrowing!! But, once completed, it looked really good and I sighed a big sigh of relief!

Last, I quilted the half square triangle blocks inside the humps. The little blocks got a diagonal cross hatch. I LOVE how the texture looks in this lighting!

The slightly larger blocks got all 1/4" parallel lines (again with lots of starts and stops).

And, one last photo of the quilting from the back side:

No. 9

Part 2, the piecing

The next part was making all the HSTs. I used the paper cut out of the humps on my design wall, and then made half square triangle blocks until the template was completely covered.  To be fair, I also did some measuring because the size of the blocks shrink after sewing them together.

Here are the blocks for one of the humps, cut, marked and ready to stitch. These are for one of the humps that used multiple colors and tiny 1" blocks. 

I think the step of trimming the blocks to their correct size with the rotary cutter is the least fun of all the steps. However, it makes the joining of the blocks really easy and precise.

I love looking at them once they are arranged on the design wall!

Next is to stitch the blocks together. I pin once through the matching seams, and then pin on both sides of the seam and remove the first pin. So, for each matching seam, there are two pins. It makes for a lot of pins, but also it seems to work well for me, so I do it.

Once the entire section is pieced, I turn it wrong side up, trace the shape of the paper template on it, and then cut with scissors 1/4" out from the marked line (for the seam allowance). 

Since I am working with curves, I also use a good number of registration marks to match the point on the hump with it's corresponding spot on the background piece. And, once again, I use a LOT of pins. However, pins on a curve are a bit more unwieldy and I tend to get accidentally poked by those pins, which is not at all fun. 

Here are some details photos of the top with the humps pieced in. I was really pleased with how well the process worked!

In case you are wondering, I used the same system with the arcs, of tracing the paper templates, and using registration marks. I was worried about the narrow arcs stretching out of shape, so I stay-stitched near the edges before cutting them. It worked reasonably well!

Stay tuned for the next post. I will share some photos of the quilting! 

No. 9

79" x 39"

As I work my way through my grief by quilting, it seems natural that prominent themes and events of my life invade the work that was only going to be about abstract sewing. The HST series was a distraction, a way to work without thinking too much. Or so I thought. Now the emotions are creeping in.

This piece is about my first Thanksgiving without my mother who died last year. My family size continues to shrink with her death, and with people emotionally drifting away. The empty chairs are evidence of the unexpected reality of shifting family dynamics.

The process of making:

I began by selecting a color palette and cutting out strips of colors for the background. All the colors are different and I tried to make it a gradient. I really struggle with gradients because I tend to get more interested in the tint of the color than the value of the color. Maybe it needs both to be a successful gradient? I sewed the background in sections because the smaller parts were easier to handle until the last seam was sewn.

Slicing and inserting the color strips. 

The completed top for the background. This is before I cut out the shapes for the arcs and humps. 

This work was sketched first onto some heavy weight paper for the pattern.

Here it is on my dining table, using a few "weights" from the kitchen.  Ha ha!

Here are the shapes cut out and placed on the background.This is the back side of the background piece. I traced the shapes with colored pencils onto the back side fabric. The slightly thick paper made it easy to trace the shapes. Then I cut on the inside of each pencil line by 1/4" for the seam allowance. Note: I only cut one at a time and then inserted the HST hump before trying the next one. I was worried that the seams would start coming unsewn before the piecing was complete, so I stay-stitched each line that I cut out. 

The construction of this work felt like making two different quilts, and then combining them. I will show the rest of the process on the next post. 

No. 8

40" x 34"

Grief comes in waves. I made the quilt top for this one was in December, my first Christmas without my mom, compounded by the realization that Kamala was really not going to be president.

I had a shape, but decided to math it out...which is NOT my forte'.  So, I enlisted the help of my adult kid, who freakin' LOVES math. He derived the equation to plot my curve:  x^2  +  x^4 all divided by 2. And the equation was scaled to fit the size of the work I wanted to make.  Tossing in some values to the equation made it easy to plot some points and then draw the curve between them. I am sure it would have been fine without the math, and just a freehand curve, but this was fun too!

The curve was easy to piece once the pieces were cut out.

Then I made the blocks, and turned under the edges and appliqued them on. 

Yes, the corners were bulky. Sigh....

One of the fastest pieces I have ever made, but was also quite fun and satisfying! 

Then the quilting. You can see a big grid on the quilt. I had planned to put in more dividing lines between the big squares, but after I completed the big squares, it looked finished to me. And it does reference graph paper, which is the look I was going for. It was so hard just to let it be finished. I kept wanting to add more and more. So, the growth with making this piece was letting it be simple and minimalist. Very hard!!

My artist statement: It is nice not to be alone, but I would prefer not to be in the steep walled pit of grief and despair. How to get out of here?

Which reminds me of other things I have learned. The intensity of grief is temporary. It is not always this bad. Having others around me helps. Work helps. Gardening helps. And cats definitely help. And, in this first year, the grief still returns, and I just feel it, until it passes. I don't know if the grief has lessened or if my coping with the grief has gotten better. My acceptance of it's presence is definitely better.