Tag Archives: quilt

A big (almost easy) quilt…

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Lorna and Chris have a king size bed and Lorna needs a new cover for it. Not a pieced quilt, but still a quilt. She fell in love with two fabrics that I have (had) on the bolt—one is Tula Pink’s huge dot (printed on wide fabric) and the other is a floral print by Amy Butler  printed on sateen.

After much thinking, I decided that it would be best to make this a quilt without binding. Instead we would layer the top and back right sides together with the batting against the top, sew the edges, turn it inside out, and then quilt it. It was not nearly as easy as it sounds.

We cleared out my living room and vacuumed. Then we placed the batting on the floor. After a few false starts, we did manage to use basting spray to stick the the top to the batting. It took more than an hour and I did let slip a few choice words.

Lorna trimmed the batting even with the edges of the top fabric. Next we placed the backing right side down on the top. I then pulled out all of my mats and many rulers and we squared up the outer edges.

Lorna used Clover’s basting clips to hold all the edges together. I took it to my machine and sewed all the way around this monster, leaving an opening at the bottom to turn it through. This quilt is a lot heavier than I thought it would be.

The walking foot came in very handy.

Lorna had to leave so I trimmed the corners and then turned the whole thing inside out which was surprisingly satisfying.

I tidied and pressed the edges, finished the opening, and top stitched all the way around, 1/2″ from the finished edges.

It’s not done yet because it has to have some quilting. Otherwise the batting will fall apart with use and washing. Steve is going to do a little basting on it this weekend to help keep everything together during the quilting process.

Lorna wants to quilt it and it will be quite a job for a new sewer. We’re thinking of a diagonal grid, between the big dots. I may try to get some of the longest lines sewn for her if there’s time before my foot surgery on December 3. Otherwise I’ll be shouting encouragement from the other room while she sews :-).

Show and tell…

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I love show and tell! Today I have two quilts to share with you… should it be show and tells? First up is Sharon Hendrix’s version of Lorna’s Vine…

SharonHendrix-LornaVine-1

She wrote:

I recently completed one of your patterns, Lorna’s Vine, from your book Amish-Inspired. I hand applique and hand quilted the quilt. Thru the years I have completed many Piece O’ Cake quilts.

My piece is hand quilted by me in Gutterman thread in a lime green color, it reads very neutral against the red fabrics.

SharonHendrix-LornaVine-2

Sharon, you did a fabulous job! I love the change you made to the wheel block. I don’t know that I would have thought to use lime green thread but it definitely works.

Next up is Lynn Tubbe’s version of A Walk In The Mountains, made with wool…

LynnTubbe-WalkInMnts

Lynn wrote:

This quilt hung at the Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) last year, and was awarded Best Use of Embellishment in the traditional category. I really enjoyed modifying your pattern in order to highlight all my wools.  I thought the plaid leaves were especially fun.

This is also a spectacular quilt! I want to congratulate both Sharon and Lynn—very nicely done, indeed!

Rocky Mountain highhhhhhh….

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I had a completely wonderful time at the Colorado Quilting Council fall retreat. Many quilters (including me) enjoyed spectacular views of the Black Forest from the The Hideaway. The ladies were enthusiastic and excellent company, the place is great, the food is good. If you have an opportunity to go to this retreat, you should!

I taught Pickup Sticks, a pieced quilt from The Quilters Practical Guide To Color. It is both an easy and tricky quilt design. Once you get it, it’s really easy… but getting it takes concentration. Everyone in the room was up for the challenge and made progress. I didn’t take enough photos, but you can see that what was going on in the classroom.

Pickup Sticks at CQC Fall Retreat
Pickup Sticks at CQC Fall Retreat
Pickup Sticks at CQC Fall Retreat
Pickup Sticks at CQC Fall Retreat
Pickup Sticks at CQC Fall Retreat

I also taught an applique class. I don’t have time in an applique class to take pictures so you just have to imagine the fun :-).

We were above 7,000 feet. By the 3rd day I could really tell that I had to breath a whole lot more than I do at home. Morning walks were out of the question. I like air in my air! I got home this morning and I can say the Sherman, TX, may not have scenic mountains and dry, crisp air, but it has a lot more oxygen. Yay, oxygen!

 

Tune in this afternoon!

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Today is the day! I will be Pat Sloan’s guest on American Patchwork & Quilting Radio today (Monday, September 28) at 4pm Eastern, 3pm Central. Click here to listen to the whole show. I’ll be on in the second half of the program.

If you can’t tune in to listen live, you can listen to the podcast later. Click APQ Radio and follow the instructions to find my podcast—and many more.

I’m looking forward to visiting with you over the internet radio waves later today :-).

American Patchwork Quilting Pocast episode 278 Becky Goldsmith

I’m in American Patchwork and Quilting!

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Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2015 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2015 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

My wool eyeglass project is featured in the December 2015 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting magazine! See my project, as well as other featured projects from this issue, here: http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/december

This issue will be on newsstands October 6, subscribers will be getting their copy any time now. Look for this cover:

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2015 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

Used with permission from American Patchwork & Quilting® magazine. ©2015 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved.

These eyeglass cases are quick and easy, and they make a great gift! In addition to glasses, they will also hold a rotary cutter—great for traveling quilters.

Fabric note: I used Pepper Cory‘s Brushstrokes line (not Peppered Plaids) for the background fabric in these projects. The colors I used are Tangerine, Horizon Blue, and Sprout. They have a good hand, they are neither too thick nor too thin.

I also love her Peppered Cottons. The warp and weft threads are different colors which gives the fabric depth. These, too, are a very nice weight to work with.

For lots more information about wool applique, please do look at our book, Wool Applique the Piece O’ Cake Way.

Cover

Which do you prefer?

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beckygoldsmith-Text-2

I’ve written before about the 52 Week Photo Challenge online class that I’m taking from Ricky Tims. Best class ever! This week’s assignment is how to add a text overlay to a photo.—yet another cool thing that you can do in Photoshop that I had no idea existed.

I’ve taken 3 photos (Splish is one of them) and I like them all. If you have a bit of time, please do click here and then leave a comment on this post telling me which one you like the best.

Choosing the word(s) was the hardest part of this photo challenge. The same thing is true when you add words to a quilt, as I wrote about in this post. Text is powerful. It draws the eye and, no matter how big or small it is, what you say can dominate a design. The quilt that I made after that post is called Say Something (below), which is in The Quilter’s Practical Guide To Color.

The words take up a small percentage of the space on the quilt, but they are the focal point, dominating the design. This is good to remember when you want to make what may be a simple quilt into a more complex statement.

Update: Thank you all for your comments! I’ve decided to submit the car photo because I like it as is. After reading your comments, I think I need to make the word “splish” more legible in the water photo and I don’t have time today to do that. So, the car photo it is and I can mark that off the list. Thanks!