Well it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I’m NOT playing any fiddle tunes tonight. My tell-all of my experience in Tucson’s dysfunctional Irish music community will be coming up in a future post; right now, while it’s hard to tell in the photo below, I just quilted around all the poppies in this latest piece:
Here’s a close-up:
And here’s the back:
I think I’ll just stipple the border. Then try and frame it. The quilting line really brings out the shape of the flowers. I used my walking-foot, as free-motion–as I mentioned before–didn’t work on this surface, thus limiting what I can do with the quilting line. But I will be able to use the free-motion foot on the border, which is just plain cotton fabric, nothing laminated.
Clare, this poppy quilt is amazing. I can’t wait to see the finished piece. It has been fun watching your process!
I can’t wait to see the finished piece, either. Thanks for your kind words. I’m excited about this technique; I need to come up with some other images of the desert. Talk to you soon. 🙂
When I read about your plans to stipple the borders on the reverse side of a quilt, a story about your grandfather, James Joseph Aylward, came to mind.
Among the many jobs he did in his lifetime, one was as house painter. He painted our house over and over again. If we didn’t like the color, we would just suggest he change it. Never did he balk. The next year he would cover it with a new color of my mother’s choice.
He worked at the church. The rectory needed painting. The pastor gave my father carte blanche. Whatever he wanted to do with a particular room was in my father’s purview. He opted, after painting the walls of the room, to stipple over his paint job with another color (the colors do not come to mind). From then on, the pastor, who loved the work my father had done, referred to the rectory room as “Jim’s Room.”
Now his granddaughter is stippling!
Mary, thanks so much for sharing what you remember; I’m happy to learn of another connection I have to a grandfather I never met, though I’m certain we would’ve had a lot in common.
I just posted that Newfie joke you sent to me! Took a bit of editing to get it to fit. That is SO FUNNY.
See you in Boston in about 4 weeks!