Kaleidoscope quilting continues

Glorious sunshine this weekend gave an opportunity to photograph the quilting on the Kaleidoscope quilt.  There is a lot of thread going in to this one.

Back, ‘'moths"

Back, corner feathers

Back, centre star

Front

Front, detail

The diagonal lines in the striped border are from an unpicked quilting design that I decided I didn’t like when it was next to the more dense quilting of the central medallion. Just as well it was sunny as i could do it outdoors and leave some threads for the birds’ nests.

 

Old friend..........

I needed some stitching time this weekend, so returned to the Ricky Tims Kaleidoscope quilt. One of my favourite threads, Superior threads, Rainbows

Freehand feathers

The corners of this quilt have been a conundrum for some time, but said butterfly wings to me this weekend. A lovely diversion in to images of wing patterns, led to 

Tra le la le la Triangle….yes, that is a song title*...

… and the kaleidoscope quilt now has a triangle border.

A miscalculation of size led to the design solution of the black winged shapes in the corners.

It was surprisingly windy when these photos were taken.

but this gives the general idea, 

It is now 58 inches square, and I am deciding if it needs a broad black border to frame it.

In the black theme, my Queen of the Night tulips blossomed today, wonderful.

*The song is by Patsy Cline.

"On the Border"

With a nod to Al Stewart, I'm continuing the song theme, and have added a border to "Old Friend".  It is now about 48" square.

This could be one of those projects that just grows and grows as I am now planning a 6 inch deep border of striped triangles round the whole thing.  True to form, those points in the middle did not meet up accurately enough, so there is a bit of appliqué slapped on top.

" Old friend, why are you so shy? Ain't like you to hold back or hide from the light…..

…with apologies to Adele, one of my old friends came with me to Morley this week, on the portable design wall.

I needed some mindless sewing together, and this was just the right project with a good combination of precision and mindlessness.

Whether those points at the middle will need to be covered with a bit of appliqué remains to be seen.

My trees / First World War piece has been chosen for display at the Made at Morley exhibition.  I will blog about that in another post, but if you are passing, there is some very interesting textile work on display until 3rd April.  Many textile disciplines are represented: quilting, printed textile, stitched textile, felting, tapestry, machine knitting, hand knitting.

Kaleidoscope kontinuing

At least the rain has meant plenty of time for composing the kaleidoscope top.  I am really enjoying this, although there were some nerve wracking moments with the last round when the strip-pieced block turned out to be too narrow, and I had to insert another strip in to the middle of the block.

Kaleidoscope , round 4, with some of my blue / brown hand-dyed fabrics

Round 4 , detail

Round 5
Next is stitching together each wedge, hoping that my cutting has been accurate throughout. Fingers crossed.

My return to work yesterday was eased by driving alongside a beautiful sunrise.  Still can't sort out this formatting issue, but I am remaining calm.

Bank holiday in Dresden,...so to speak

May Bank Holiday, which always means mixed weather.

Lots of good stuff: visitors, boys away pursuing their own interests ( camping and manga respectively), lunch at The Petersham for a significant birthday, charity fair ( with the most obscure charities I have never been aware of).

When is was raining, I spent time stitching Dresden plates, using the technique shown in Karin Hellaby's " Sew a Row" book. I've never been attracted to this book from the cover, but there are lots of really good techniques inside, well illustrated and explained.

Fabrics are from stash: Ricky Tims convergence fabric, bought about 6 years ago in Boston; unnamed fabric from John Lewis sale about 5 years ago, hand-dyed gift from a fellow BQLer. One of them has a stitched motif in the middle, trying to pre-embroider, a la Philippa Naylor ( as if!). These are 12 inch plates, cut using a wedge shaped stencil.