Thursday, September 6, 2007

New Year's Resolution 1


Around February or March, I made a New Year's resolution regarding my quilt work. I made a list of all of the techniques I would like to learn or improve and resolved to make a series of small quilts that used the different techniques. The quilts have to be based on my favorite fruits and vegetables and have to use at least one new technique and one technique that I need to practice. So far, this has been a pretty good resolution. Picking a theme frees me from worrying about a design. The small size makes the quilts easier to actually get finished. I guess that's the trick to resolutions. You have to set yourself up for success by setting small goals you can actually achieve. So here is the first quilt. It is called Dawn of the Kiwifruit. Yes, those are my son's hands in the picture. It is machine paper pieced and the curved piecing is done by hand. I do all of my curved piecing by hand. It is machine quilted and hand quilted with this funky metallic floss. It is hand beaded and bejewelled. The new skills I tried were drafting my own New York Beauty Block, using a metallic thread, and using the bejewler. The skills I practiced were free motion quilting and binding. I also got in some practice in on the foundation piecing.

So what did I learn? First, I really dig that bejewler. I would bejewel EVERYTHING if it was socially acceptable. You have to be careful to put the jewels where you want them though. If you slip and put them in the wrong place, it is next to impossible to pry them up and put them back in the right spot. Ask me how I know. I also liked drafting the wonky New York Beauty Block. I really like NY Beauties. I was also pretty happy with the machine quilting. I have a long way to go, but this one is light years better than the last thing I tried to machine quilt. The back of my last machine quilted piece looked like a nest built by a drunken, near sighted bird. There were NO threads tangles on the back of the kiwifruit quilt. Woo hoo! I have to give Alex Anderson props for that. I could actually understand her book on machine quilting and the pictures were great too. Maybe it clicked this time because she is a lefty hand quilter like me. The quilting on the kiwi is not going to win any awards, but I was jazzed at how the meander quilting came out since this was the first time I tried meander quilting.

I still hate binding.

And if you're wondering why it took me until March to made a New Year's resolution, I think the subhead tells you everything you need to know.

5 comments:

FatQuarterQuiltFarm said...

Way to go Slacker!!!!!
Your Blog looks great!
Thanks for visiting my blog.....and keep on quilting!!We'll be having some fun on Pickle Road.....See you around!!!!!!

Anna Banana said...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Dawn of the Kiwifruit!!! Your food themed quilt designs are very clever.

I got a bedazzler for Christmas last year. Is that the same as a bejeweler??? My sisters thought I was completely nuts for wanting one, but I am with you on the need to bedazzle everything, except I don't care if it's socially acceptable or not.

I'm anxiously awaiting pics or drawings of the Artichoke quilt.

City Girl Quilter said...

Thanks.

I think the Beadazzler attaches rinestones and studs that have prongs on the back, while the Bejewler attaches rhinestones and studs that have heat sensitve glue on the back. The Bejweler heats up and melts the glue. You can probably use smaller crystals with the bejweler because they don't have to have prongs. And hey, if wanting to leave the world a more sparkly place than the way you found it is nuts, I don't want to be sane.

I'll post some pics of the artichoke soon.

Wendy said...

Beauty, quilt! I'm glad you told me those were your son's hands because at first I thought your quilt was very large and that your hands had pudged up a bit. :)

City Girl Quilter said...

LOL. No. But you should have seen my feet when I was pregnant. I could have waterskied.