Ringing my bell!!!

Whenever anything of note happens in my life I go out and ring my big bell.... I'm sure my stitching friends around the world heard it ringing out this morning after I received this email.
 
 
"Congratulations! Your entry, It's a Man's World Unless Women Vote!, has been selected as a finalist to be exhibited at the 2014 International Quilt Festival/Houston in the annual IQA fall Judged Show, Quilts: A World of Beauty. "  I'm going to Houston if I have to walk just to see it hanging there.

I have to give lots of credit to Allie Allers.  I showed it to her in February when it was in the final stages.  I asked her if she thought it worthy of entering it in Houston...  Her immediate response was "Book a room!"  She is my heroine!!  She so  generously shared her vast knowledge of finishing techniques and things that judges look for...  For example she advised edging it with some gold cording as the quilts are hung against a black wall and mine would merge into the background.  I would have never thought of this...  all little things that made a difference.  She urged and inspired me to spend lots of extra time on all the final touches.

 

And DH is running all over town telling everyone he sees!

Cording Technique

 I went to see Allie on April 6th and have worked non stop on the suffrage piece ever since and now on the last step...the corners. I basted the batting, quilted all the layers,  did border, border lace, border trim and then proceeded to add the cording around the whole piece...Here  I ran into problems... The cording has 3 ply and a good deal of elasticity.  If stitched too tight it causes the piece to buckle and stitched too loosely it causes the piece to have a wavy edge... plus you have to watch it closely as the twist will twist!!!  I didn't want  the couching stitching to show so I was "floating " stitches between the strands.

 

I initially did it too tight and had to take a good deal of it off and redo it...   Found if I pinned it like so I could avoid the twisting and also keep it flat.  I was worried I wasn't going to have enough cording on my spool and I made it by about 1"... too close for comfort.

 

 

I found if I inserted the needle at a 45 degree angle from the top (between the strands) and then moved 1/4" to the left and went straight back through that NO stitching showed on either side of the cording... Always working at 45 degrees from the top...

 

 

Almost done

The velvet border, border lace and gimp, and the binding with its lace is now on.  Today the cording and this label go on...  Only one more step....the corner motifs...

"1,2,3, prick" did the trick!

In order for my suffrage quilt to qualify for entry in some shows it must be quilted through at least 3 layers... so I set about to do that.
Goals:
To have virtually NO stitching be visible on top of the quilt.
All the stitching showing on the back of the quilt to be tiny, even, and visible.
Problems:
I haven't hand quilted like this for 30 years...
My hands are crippled and my eyes are shot.
When I inserted the needle in with teeny stitch on top I couldn't see where to come up. (I started using transparent thread but it reflected light so I took it all out and went to black thread.)

So here is what I did:

I decided to use tiger tape (9 stripes to an inch) as a guide as I use it on my CQ seams and love it.
At first I tried using my thumbnail on the reentry mark. But if I lost focus and moved my finger at all I lost my reentry point...

So after I brought my needle up, I counted over 3 strips and made a prick... went down on the next mark and up on the mark with the prick.  Even if I left the frame I could always come back and see where I was. 

At first I actually counted 1,2,3, prick but soon it came automatically and the quilting went quite rapidly.  You can see a strip here with the pricks and how visible they are.  I could reuse a pricked strip 2 or three times.

This morning I took it off the frame to rotate it as I have problem stitching vertically and am quite pleased with the result. There is NOT A SINGLE QUILTING STITCH visible on top of the quilt but all the quilting on the back of the quilt is even and tiny. Well quite good enough considering....

With my eyesight problems I can definitely see a use of pricking strips in CQ seam work.

His and Hers

It is all sandwiched and pinned and ready to start quilting... I was trying to figure how I was going to rig up a temporary frame and a dear friend stopped by and said she had a free-standing quilt frame that had been given to her and I could have it...  She is bringing it tomorrow.... and she brought me a white chocolate mocha besides... Friends like that are to treasure...

Yesterday I spent basting the "batting" to the back of the quilt with long running stitches... row after row.. Allie says this supports and distributes the weight of all the embellishments.  Important since quilting is limited...

So while waiting for the frame I'm making the sleeve for hanging and working on my 75-word statement for the label.

Since I have taken over our only table my husband has to eat and work here..

New birds are cause for celebration at our house.  We've always had mourning doves but last summer these Eurasian collared doves started showing up and I'm happy to see them back again this spring.  They are much larger than the mourning doves and besides the collar they have lovely dark gray feathers skirting their wings...

Together at last.....

Susie Wolfe has been visiting since Sunday and even though it was subzero weather and snowing, we had a grand time.  We had a fire going continually and kept our fingers crossed for no frozen pipes.  I sewed the suffrage quilt together and it all worked as I had hoped.

 

 

Susie herringboned all the seams on the back to make them lay flat.

And now I'm adding the beaded fans, cameos and the very final touches.  And making decisions about borders, trims, binding, label, etc.

 

While she was here Susie was working on a beautiful caddy for the table where she stitches.. It's base is a white cutter quilt and in addition to using lots of lace, she'll be  adding steampunk.

 

 

 

I was able to find a pincushion that coordinated with it beautifully.

 

 

 

When the buttons go on it's almost done

When I do crazy quilting there is a specific order...piecing, laces, trims, embroidery, beads and the final step is the buttons.. So when you see me adding the buttons you know it's almost done.  I've been collecting the buttons for my women's suffrage quilt for 3 years.  They are mostly vintage metal and black glass.

I have been doing buttons all week...hundreds of them.

To see the final stages go to http://olderrose.blogspot.com/2014/01/plans-are-shaping-up-for-border.html

The "fix"

On my last post I showed this rose with crocheted leaves.  I liked the crochet leaves but they didn't come across as leaves or relate to the rose... The rose itself was the wrong color, wrong texture and too stiff as it was out of satin ribbon.  So off it came and............................

I made a new rose from a strip of soft silk and put the center a little "off center" and the color is perfect.  I left the crocheted leaves because I liked the texture but added new leaves over them from silk a slightly different shade than the rose.. plus added a little fluff that picked up the sheen of the gimp.

 All in all I'm much happier as the color is so much better... before and after....

 And I am home all day for a couple days as they are tearing out the tub, the wall and pulling up the floor to try to fix the plumbing problem....

FANtastic

Working with great focus now on the suffrage blocks and making many changes and additions... Most of the beaded fans will be added once it is sewn together but I have added a couple here and there... Here over a problem spot where the tatted lace ended.

Have taken a couple seam treatments out completely but mostly just adding more runs or beads to them.












I had beaded this fan to fit on this specific odd shaped patch and I do like it there... But I'm not all that happy with the crocheted leaves beside it...in fact I'm not that crazy about the rose either....  Maybe I would like the rose with silk leaves.  Some of these things I added over a year ago and I'm seeing them in a new light.... It's all mostly fine tuning now...

I just did a tutorial on stitching birds... Drop by block talk and see it...

Plans are shaping up for border...

Now it is time to start thinking about the border for the suffrage quilt... and gathering the stuff I had stashed for it...

The outer border will be about 4-5" of  black silk will be topped with the wide black lace...  No need to photo it on black as it wouldn't show up.  There will be an inner border of vintage velvet ribbon... and then this lacy gimp.  I found everything except the rust velvet ribbon but I haven't look that hard yet.














Then I know I want fans in the corners of the borders but couldn't decide whether I just wanted smaller ones in a corner square or full fans that wrap around the corner. So I did a little photoshop magic to see which I liked better.  First I didn't like the wrap-around version but then I put some clothes in the dryer and made a phone call and when I returned to the computer I REALLY LIKED IT...!!  It seems to balance the activity of the quilt.  Remember besides the fans, there will be the lace,ribbon and gimp....plus more glass buttons on the border. Also at the base of the fans I will add more "trim" flowers with beaded leafs. that lap over onto the quilt itself.  This quilt is going to be encrusted and embellished to the very edge...

The lining has always been a given..  It is a piece of vintage plaid taffeta and nothing else will ever do...

I hope everyone is watching Allie construct the fabulous border on her quilt.

Here are the second batch of fans (still untrimmed)

And here are all eight together

And I have the bases attached for the final four..  Remember when I erroneously said I was going to keep the embellishment understated.... LOL these fans will put it over the top..

Today is the Audubon Society's annual Christmas bird count.  DH and countless other are wandering about the countryside siting birds for the count.  I am home counting the ones at the feeders... Here are a few this morning patiently waiting for the feckless fellow who fetches the seed!

Renewed focus and energy....

The fun stuff is starting now with all the goodies I've been hoarding for years for this project.  I started searching and sorting them this morning... Here are a few of the possibles.  I'm using black alcohol ink to "antique" anything that is too shiny or brassy.  The precious (but tattered) piece of petit point is from an old compact.  Like the trim "flowers" I will be making a lot of beaded fans now.

Back to work on the final stage of the suffrage blocks.  It is with much renewed energy and focus for several reasons....
  1.  The CQJP2013  blocks  are done and the deadline was met. Now I just have to think about assembly
  2.  My new series of CQ classes start the first week in January and I am totally prepared.  The supply lists, handouts, and samples are done and the pattern has been printed and ready to pass out.
  3.  And best of all, SUSIE WOLFE IS COMING the first week in February and I want the quilt ready for assembly when she arrives.  She will be my sounding board plus going over all the blocks with her eagle eye to see if I've missed anything.  She used Sharon Boggin's method to assemble her blocks for her tree skirt so I'll pick her brain on that also.  She's bringing her tree skirt and latest project which I can hardly wait  to see in person..  We had so much fun on her last visit working as a team on the boho bags. We started the first thing in the morning and stitched until midnight every day.  Her last visit was during a heat wave in the summer so living in the LA area the snow will be a novelty for her..

Overall preview and mother frustrations

Here is a rough overall preview of all nine block.. the buttons and lots of fine tuning remain but I'm taking a break to work on smaller projects while I sit with my mother and.................

that's why there have been so few posts... My relationship with my mother has always been trying.  If I had to pick three adjectives to describe her they would be negative, stubborn, and critical..and that's at the best of times.  Now she is 94.  She hears what she wants to hear when she's at a doctor's office and if she doesn't like what she hears, she goes to a different doctor.  Consequently her doctors are reduced to those who just give her lots of pills and out the door. She dislikes drinking fluids and hates water.  So it is a revolving door to the hospital with dehydration and kidney and bladder problems.  Then they send her to a rehab facility who insist on physical therapy which she hates and refuses to do.. So they send her back to assisted living even worse for wear and it all starts again.

Bird and chain and left side finished.

 I wanted the little velvet bird from Susan to be an integral part of the story....thus the chain... Suffragettes used them a lot... In order to slow down their arrest and dispersal they chained themselves to fences, lamp posts, gates and doors. I have a few more chains for the piece but they will be added when the blocks are sewn togethers..







Except for the buttons the left side is done.

Here are the two sides together.  The middle sections are about 95% finished.  I am going to have to find someplace to hang them where I can see the whole effect before I start sewing them together..
Rest assured the colors and fabrics from right to left are all the same.  They were just photographed under different light.  I keep fiddling with the lighting because of all the black.. It's a headache.  The colors on the left are closer to the true colors... especially upper left... they are VERY rich.

And more suffrage progress

I have only the buttons left to do on the "bottom left" block and will do them along with "side left" block. The trim flower in this motif was made with a pleated trim/ Rather than gather the trim I did in a spiral.

The seams are done on "side left" and I've started the beading... There is too much black on the right side and I'll remove two pieces of black lace.  The center black trim can be incorporated into the buttons. The suffragettes were often jailed for demonstrating  and if they went on a hunger strike, they were force fed.  Vote ladies... they did it for you!!! The black velvet bird upper left was a gift from Susan Elliott and I have something special to add to it..

My granddaughter Madison is a whiz with a camera and does the most beautiful panoramic skies.  I was wishing she were here this morning to help me capture the sunrise which was fabulous and turned the whole sky shades of pink.. But without her  this is the best I could do.

Did you notice the girls??

The reason I chose this particular image for the suffrage quilt was, except for the drivers, this gaily decorated parade vehicle is filled with young girls... "votes for us when we are women."  Over and over again I saw images of the inclusion of young girls in the movement.  They weren't old enough to vote, take a stand,   or protest but they were included in numerous ways.

Top right is finished now and I really wish I had a wall to put the blocks on at this stage.  In the other image on this block the suffragettes are literally tooting their own horns for their cause.  Those of you who remember the beginning of this project will also remember how I agonized over the choices of images from literally hundreds I had collected.

 

When all the blocks on the right side are put in place you can see the black border emerging....

Here is the detail of the button feature and the trim flower.  This flower was made from gimp.

"Side right" finished and problem block!

Along with the bicycle block this block is one of my most favorite  and its images were the first chosen.  The symbolism of the men lined up with their backs turned and the woman looking forward had touched me immediately..

The very last thing I added last night was the row of bugle beads on the ribbon below the men.. It accentuated their rigidity and made me smile.

Just Sunday there was an historic bit in the paper on this issue.  Men were quoted as saying if woman were allowed to vote men didn't have to be chivalrous.

This block has one of the "trim" flower that I thought most likely to be successful.  Surprise! I was able to use the amber beads which I bought in Seaside Oregon earlier this month..  They are the perfect color besides being my favorite gem stone.

And I loved every button is this feature... I'm going to have to do some research into how they made  glass buttons.

Every time I pulled "upper right" to work on it I sent it to the bottom of the pile... It just wasn't working.

First there just weren't enough opportunities for fancy seams as on the other blocks.  I also need to remove that delicate tiny rose lace on the left  and the stitching below it.

Second the black lace on the lower block encroached too far into the lighter section and was out of sync with the rest of the blocks..

I put this picture in photo editing and on the right replace the black lace (digitally) with lighter lace and do indeed like it. With that change the images work as a unit.  So I'll will be starting all these changes today.  Out of the nine blocks, it is the only block that I've had to revise.