Branching Out: Quilting By Hand, Large!

For me to make something that looks even the tiniest bit traditional is a huge detour from my usual art quilt creations. I wasn't even sure I still knew how and was amazed as I stood ripping fabric into strips how the knowledge of my earliest quilt making started filtering through my brain saying do this now, now do that as it all came together. It was like being in that first beginners quilting class I took in 2007 all over again. And then once I got it all pieced together, sandwiched and sewn I decided to do something really different for me. I have never hand quilted anything this size before. Because this is to be a baby gift for our new grand daughter coming in August I wanted the back to look neat and free of free motion sewing mess. So I decided to go out and buy a big quilters hoop and some invisible thread and to hand sew the whole thing so the back would be 'clean'. Today my back and fingers and arms ache, but I have four months to finish it and I accept this challenge to myself. I CAN do this! Thanks for asking me to challenge myself to something new!

The fabrics used are a gift from a friend of all kitty prints, the borders and sashing cat paw prints; also something I rarely use. The back is in the blue and the red cat paw prints and one strip of cats climbing a lattice print pieced together!

Rather than a traditional bound edge I made a pillow case and flipped it.

As I worked fast in its construction stage I was glad to see it still has some Lynn Style wonky shapes and imperfections!

click to enlarge the photos if you want to see the cute kitties running about.

april theme: branching out - out on a limb

Marlis Egger | Journal Quilt | 8" x 8"
hand dyed fabric
textile paint
hand quilted

Hi everyone, Marlis here.

Can you believe another month is nearly over???

When the new theme was announced I thought oops … what shall I do with THIS?? Branching Out – Out on a Limb. I was glad that Jane Davis told us something about her theme:

Branching Out: expanding skills, sprouting new ideas, discovering unknown territory

Out on a Limb: (flip side of branching out) taking risks, facing fear of failure, getting into discomfort zone, facing Inner Critic, taking the plunge with courage.

If this wasn’t a perfect theme for me right now …??? (I’m in a transition period of my life)

When I am painting (printing, stenciling etc.), I often avoid getting into discomfort zone because once I love what I did, I don’t want to ruin or spoil my cloth (or even my paper…). So I stop – instead of building up layers.

In my sketchbook I decided to start with the very next page - turquoise with some white circles (resists). The first layer was stamping with a cork, the second stamping with an empty spool of thread, the third stamping with a self made eraser stamp, the fourth some bold brush strokes and last but not least three of my beloved ;-) curved, black crosses.

I took exactly the same steps to creat the journal quilt, starting with a piece of hand dyed turquoise fabric.

Sketchbook page, front

Sketchbook page, opened up