Announcing dates for 2013 Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend

We would like to extend an invitation to ALL quilters and WANT TO BE quilters for our 2013 Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend.

DATE:  November 8, 9 and 10, 2013

PLACE:  Quality Inn and Ballroom
                 Mineral Point, WI

Please join Barb and Diane for funfilled, educational weekend of quilting.

We would love to have you join us!

Check out the details here  2013 Quilt Retreat Getaway Weekend!

A very Special Quilt for a Very Special Lady

 

On the left the large quilt with the theme

 squares and triangles. 

 On the right, the small quilts has information regarding the larger quilt

and the names of all participants.

 

 

I had the pleasure to quilt a very unique quilt to hang in the The Beth Hillel Temple.  Judith Warren orchestrated this project and I asked if I could share it with you.  I also asked Judith to write a paragraph for me regarding the project. 

"The Beth Hillel Temple Quilting project began in September of 2011, during an intergenerational retreat of the congregation. Rabbi Dena Feingold and 74 adults and children made squares and triangles that were incorporated into the quilt. The theme of the quilt centered on Jewish community and the natural and spiritual themes discussed at the retreat. All of the children in religious school spent a day creating their contributions to the quilt. Over 14 volunteers from the Temple in Kenosha, Wisconsin, helped to put the quilt together, during quilting sessions at the Temple and in private homes over a ten month period. Quilt organizer Judith Warren then asked Quilts by Barb to finish both quilts, the larger one, and the smaller explanatory quilt which tells the history of the quilt project and names the participants. The quilt was hung in the Temple and dedicated with a beautiful musical ceremony attended by many of the quilters on Sunday, September 9, 2012, almost a year to the date after it was started." 

Thanks, Judith for sharing.

Barb

Hand Dyeing Workshop

We held our spring annual Hand Dyeing Workshop on June 18, 2012, at Lapacek's Orchard near Poynette, Wisconsin. It was a bit hot and windy but a good time was had by all.

Kim Lapacek took a few pictures for us and did a blog post so check it out here.

http://www.persimondreams.com/2012/06/fabric-dyeing-with-quilts-by-barb.html

Here is Brooke expressing herself when she is happy with her work.

A Radiant Star with a Mariner's Compass

Wow, Leigh has another amazing quilt.  I just love the color and fabric choices on this quilt.  The compass with the radiant star is such an unusual combination and it works so well together!  This is a quilt I am putting on my to do list.

I knew it would be hard to get pictures of the quilting on this one as I used a light orange Bottom Line thread from Superior on all the quilting.  I didn't want to thread to shout "Quilting" and I achieved what I was after.  The compass is fun and quirky with the radiant star so I wanted the quilting patterns to be a large contrast, too.  I used a swirl in the compasses and then put ferns in the surrounding inside borders.  Made just the contrast I was after.

On the borders I did a squiggly line following the diagonal piecing and then added one more line between the lines on the piecing.  This makes a really nice contrast in textures to the ferns and swirls on the inside of the quilt.

I wish the star quilting could have shown up better but it doesn't.  I used the "Terry Twist" set at .8 of an inch (that means something to you Statler Stitcher users) and just went from p2p all the way around the star in a counterclockwise circle.  This kept the twist going in the same direction.  The twist goes outside the diamond and it justs really works great.  These diamonds are cut at 3" widths so the larger twist really helps to fill the space and keep the inside of the diamond from getting baggy.  I don't like the baggy look!

It was just hard to quit taking pictures of this beautiful quilt.





And another a shot to show off those great fabric combinations.

It is always fun to work on Leigh's quilts.  She gives me the go ahead to do as I want on them and I really push the limit sometimes.  I love it!

Happy Quilting.

Barb

Thread Painting on a Landscape Quilt

I have had this beautiful Wyoming landscape quilt for a while and was a little nervous about working on it.  It was very stiff through the middle of the quilt because of the amount of fusible that was used during quilt construction.

I loaded the backing, then a layer of a fairly stiff stabilizer and then a thin layer of polyester batting and then the quilt top.  This really works nice.  There was no stiffness in the edges, the sky and the border and the stabilizer will help this quilt to hang as flat as a picture.

Leigh did a beautiful job of fabric selection when making this quilt.  Here you can see a close up of some of the rocks and the different blues in the water.  I did a flowing meander for all the water.  I outlined with different brown threads on the rocks.

i did a lot of thread painting, fairly dense, on some of the pine trees and a little looser on the lighter green area.  I did a raw edge applique straight stitch around all the pieces so none will ever come loose. 

I started by using invisible thread and basted the edges all flat and top stitched in the ditch around the borders.  I stitched in the ditch around some of the applique to keep everything square before I started the heavy thread painting. 

I stitched the wood bark on the tree trunk and you can see some of my stitching on the rocks by the tree.  I used four wavy lines in the border.  I wanted to keep a consistent amount of quilting but didn't really want my quilting to show in the border.

I really had fun with the snow capped mountain.  I started by just outlining the detailing and kept the white flowing.  I used a purple variegated thread for the mountain top and it really worked great.

This quilt turned out far better than I even hoped.  It is going to hang as flat as a picture and to me that is the number one requirement for a landscape quilt.

I still have one more of Leigh's landscapes left to quilt.  After this quilt, I am excited to complete the "Forest Landscape."

Happy Quilting! 

Barb