Back to the Drawing Board

Well, it's that time of year again. Time to nestle into the studio and get into the designing mode. The deadline was bumped up a month so I have to start a little sooner this season. In the mean time, I am still waiting for the final strike-offs for the spring line. This is the first time I've have simultaneous lines to juggle... a bit tricky for a girl with tunnel vision.

But it occurred to me that I haven't shown you the finished Illinois Album quilt which had its debut at Art Quilt Tahoe. So here are a few details for my fabric fondling friends.

Here it is in full view. It is a continuation of the "totem" series. The shapes are all representations of natural objects in my Midwestern environment. The characters are arranged symmetrically which affects the movement and rhythm of the composition.

A detail of the border shows the black quilted leaves. Different brands of black thread are not all the same black, which I think is more interesting for a tone-on-tone design.

I often like to use blocks of embroidery stitches for quilting which creates a different texture that continuous line quilting. In this case, you will see blocks of satin stitch in the top wing. The feather stitched vine with leaves are also quilting motifs.

These pods also utilize another embroidery stitch that I have found useful in many quilts. This little sequential radiating stitch creates a glowing center inside each unit.

In the center of the quilt you may notice that the simple satin stitch changes width according to the shape it is applied to. Hopefully, this variety will make a machine stitch look more organic and less mechanical. The trick is finding the right stitch for the job. This quilt was made on my Bernina 730 which has obviously become a very loyal and obedient friend.

The back side was made with my Night Life fabric from the FreeSpirit collection called Prairie Gothic
from a few years ago. I think it nicely carries the nature theme all the way through the piece.

OK, back to the drawing board!!