Happy News

I was told my long arm machine, affectionately called Hortense, will be coming home.  I hope it is on Monday at the latest.  She has work waiting for her.  But it will take time to get everything set up again.  Long arm machines have very definite requirements and one is leveling and I have an old house and the frame was moved a bit when I was taking everything down to ship Hortense.

So today, on another hot day I detached the robot as the leveling has to be done without it, I leveled the moving carriage and the frame. I am most grateful for spending time with my Father and tools when I had not figured out I was not going to be a boy. That was in the long ago days when girls did NOT do shop.   I have done what I can but need some stronger arms for the center of the frame.    A cup of tea and a sit down is in order.  If the dogs have their way it will be out of doors.  And since on our morning walk we had some red leaves at our feet it is wise to take advantage of the good weather.

In the meantime while I could not quilt on Hortense my mind has been moving all over the landscape of what can be done with cloth and wool and pictures and stitches.  Several months ago I started a little landscape picture.  It started with a drawing on my computer which I did and ended up being printed on fabric through the printer.  I knew I wanted to do some thread painting and I also wanted to try the confetti technique for flowers although I could have left the flowers as just a painted surface on the fabric.  The little quilt lanquished on my sewing table through more than a few quilts being pieced and occasionally I did a bit of thread painting.  I also had a piece of fabric that was a little like chiffon but it was a synthetic.  I was not sure how it might work in place of fine netting.  It has an iridiscent quality.  So the only way to find out was to do it.  Here it is is with all its misses and hits.

  It is not easy to photograph with the chiffon 

giving off its own light.  But the effect is far less intrusive than I expected so I might,if a quilt can use it, do a synthetic chiffon again. It did take the paint for the little bits of black/grey that gives birches their distinctive appearance.  As well I had used a varigated thread with white and grey.  This was over a silver thread I had started with months ago on the birch trunks.  That is a nice thing about thread painting; you can cover something you do not like. And you can use thread over parts of the quilt to make parts recede and soften if you use light thread randomly stitched.   My confetti could have been smaller.  but it is ok.  I almost threw it out a couple of times but when you step back from something you have been working intently on and put it up on a design wall it takes on a different look.

So, do try different things.  IOne of the wonderful things about quilting is that is it not just utilitarian as it was historically but it is an art.  This was quilted just using my Husqvarna Diamond and the great stitches it has.