Studio located in Cleveland, NC. 704-528-4648 Judy@goneawaystudiodesigns.com Hours are by appointment only.

Category: art quilt

This, that and the other thing Part 2 (the inside stuff)

Judy1 Comment on This, that and the other thing Part 2 (the inside stuff)

Moving along to the inside of the house, I stay busy these days here as well.  The longarm quilting business is coming along nicely and I’m back on track after my back issue a couple weeks ago temporarily derailed me.  There have been a lot of pantograph quilts coming through the line-up last month, not much in the way of custom work was on the schedule.  But the next quilt up is custom and freehand, so there should be some pretty pics from that end of indoor life soon.

For my own projects, I am in the process of re-doing the setting triangles around my applique block.  I followed the pattern directions (this is not one of my patterns, but another designer’s) as I read them; yet when I put the triangles on they appeared to be too small and were distorting the center block into a poofy mess.  So I took them off and have made a new set oversized, which I’ll trim down after application:

And this is a good reason to, on occasion, buy that fabric you love in a larger quantity than you think you’ll need.  The old triangles won’t be wasted, they’ll go back in the stash to be used for applique and smaller pieces, but if I hadn’t bought over a yard of this, I wouldn’t have been able to remake the triangles.

Also last week I purchased the threads I needed to complete the hand embroidery on this little art quilt:

And as the weather forecast for the next several days (through next Wednesday) has a higher chance of storms moving through, I may actually get the shadow leaves and flowers embroidered on!

Of course that’s dependent on NOT getting distracted by the new (to me) drum carder that arrived as well last week:


And there is always the knitting waiting to do.  Right now I have a sleeveless shell top in a feather and fan pattern on the needles with only about 7″ more of the back to complete it .  And I have the 2nd sock in a pair of variegated brown lace socks on the needle to be completed.  And in the queue waiting to be done are 3 new shawls and another shell in that same feather and fan pattern.  The first one is coming out a little warmer/fiber content in weight of yarn than the season I wanted it for, so I’m going to make another with a Llama/Cotton blend that is absolutely scrumptious!!!!!  But alas, I didn’t take pics of any of those projects in process.

 

Now, I’m going to get off this computer and do………………………………..

 

Oh who knows what there is so much awaiting me to be done!!!!!

 

Did I mention I love summertime and the longer daylight hours?

Commission Quilting

Judy6 Comments on Commission Quilting

Last fall I met with a new client.  She had been gifted a Charm Pack and wanted an art quilt made using them.  We met and discussed ideas and options, fabrics and pricing and time frame; and settled upon an agreement.  I would make her quilt for her, but would not start on it until after the New Year.

The New Year began and I started working on finalizing the design for the quilt, keeping in mind how the fabric would behave ( a very coarse, yet loosely woven fabric) and what the customer wanted for style.  E-mails went back and forth, approval of the design was made and the work began in earnest.

The center section was simple consisting of charm squares (5″ squares for those unfamiliar with the term) and a basic grid design.  The center had an appliqued square on top of the piecework and was soon completed.
Next up came the border of that coarse fabric.

That was where I had to put on my thinking cap.  Working outside the “normal” traditional fabrics means you have to get creative and think a bit differently.  Lightweight fusible interfacing to the rescue!   After applying a layer of interfacing to the back of the fabric, it was stable enough to be cut to length and pieced onto the quilt.

I didn’t cut out the shape of the borders when I pieced it, I applied them as traditional mitered borders (the miter would be my guidelines for the design).  After attaching the borders to the quilt, but before loading it for quilting, I used a template to trace what would become the outer edge of the quilt and then started the quilting process:

What you see quilted above would become the outside shape of the actual piece.  For depth, dimension, and stability I used two layers of batting in this piece.  One layer is Quilters Dream mid-loft cotton, the other layer is Quilters Dream Wool.  Although it looks puffy above with just the freehand stitch in the ditch done, after quilting the squares settled down quite a bit:

The interior of the quilt was left dimensional, to mimic the diagonal in the outer borders:


Finally the quilt was faced rather than bound and the hanging tabs inserted.  That allowed me to control the shape of the outside edge and did not put a line to stop the flow of the feathers as they come over the edge.  Binding would have created a visual line that would have contained the feathers within it.

The end result from the front:

And from the back:

A detail of the quilting:

The quilt was presented to my customer today, she was ecstatic about it and will be repainting her room to match this piece.

Finally, I leave you with my companion, whose attitude toward the entire process shows in the picture.

Iredell Heart Ball 2011

Judy2 Comments on Iredell Heart Ball 2011

As a Statesville area artist, I have been asked to donate a piece of art to the 2011 Iredell Heart Ball benefiting the American Heart Association.  As this is one of the charities that I choose to support, I of course said yes.  Then the decision to be made, which piece?

After quite some deliberation, I have chosen “Summer Dreams” as the piece I am donating to the event:

Summer Dreams is one of the very few abstract pieces I have ever made and I hope it is a profitable piece for the local AHA chapter.

At this time, the only event details I have are the date, February 26, 2011.  I’ll post more details as I have more but here’s a link to the local chapter page of the AHA.