Quilting: by machine or by hand?

Last March I machine quilted a piece in Maui. 
I didn't like the results.

Too uneven, too many unwanted wrinkles, my inner critic said.
SO, as I had wondered about tearing the stitches out & hand-quilting the piece, I decided to embark on answering that wonder.

It takes a while to pick out machine stitching. A seam-ripper is the tool & you have to be really careful not to cut the fabric, just the threads.

I decided to use the sewing lines I had made.
The little holes in the fabric were still visible.
That made it pretty easy.

I really like the difference!! 
Hand quilting is less linear & more dotty looking. And softer.
I was using electric light for these, not flash.
You can tell the light is on the left.... oh well....

Anyway, now I'm wondering about this partly quilted one. 
Will I'll re-do it?

                                                                         
                                                            That's all for now. 
                                                            Happy New Year!

ps: I didn't!

Triangles in the Key of Green

This blog & the next will be about process: making a quilt.
I've taken to making a photographic record of the evolution of the concept and the closing in on the final design. I give credit to Nancy Crow for that idea.  It's a way I can get perspective on how the idea looks at a bit of a distance, condensed by the photograph.

This idea for my quilt began a long time ago when I saw some one else developing a quilt with triangles and I thought it looked like fun. I made several starts & abandoned it several times....maybe I can't do this?...

And then, one day, going through stuff I came upon those beginnings. It's time to try again, I said. This idea still intrigues me.

Gradually I was learning how to make those apex points!!

So I settled on The Key of Green, and plowed ahead.

So some things needed to be decided: am I going to 'allow' sideways triangles or inverted [point down] ones?  I play around with that idea.

Finally I settled on layout. Basting, then machine quilting begins.

Machine quilting is not my comfortable zone yet. I regretted the thread & may start over. I found the quilting lines too intrusive!!

And then, up on a wall....

One of the things that really interests me are the rectangles of density created by color choices. Look lower right & there's one there.

I'm using flash and there are all kinds of problems with it!

What? Another learning zone?

That's it for now.

I guess I'm calling it Triangles in the Key of Green.

Last Leg of Trip East

Driving to N'yOrlins we went along the coast for much of the way. We got to see mile after miles of lots with large live oak trees with missing grand mansions, thanks to Katrina.

What's being built now are stilt houses, not anything as pretty. 

And lots of lots are for sale.

So there were 6 of us hanging out for meals together: Fred & Marion, Beth & Don, & George & I.  Beth chose the wines for the terrific restaurants we went to.

New Orleans architecture was enchanting!

 

                    There were some great numbers to see too.

Favorite shadows:

                                                                        

Favorite sign:

I learned an amazing new 'medical' word:Favorite new word: drapetomania was the irrepressible desire to be free. The "cure" was cutting off a big toe.

New architectural knowledge: the look of slave quarters-- these half-houses, very narrow.  In the early days New Orleans had many free people of color, though gradually, before & after the Civil War, Jim Crow asserted itself.

This was my favorite kinetic sculpture playing on the fleur de lis which is everywhere!

Thanks for the great company, great food & wine & beauty of the trip

& to Joslyn who helped me recast the look of my blog when I got back!

That's it for now.

Florida, Ft. Walton Beach

At Fort Walton Beach we were with George's old friends from Edwards Airforce Base in California. Fred & Marion were young marrieds there with Dee & George. Their 4 kids were friends.

Fred & Marion live on an inlet that reminded me so much of the Lively, Virginia inlet that George had a house on. The vegetation was pretty different, most notably the long-needled pines that were everywhere. With the needles that were as long as my foot!

Marion designed her house which is called The Treehaus, as her first family name was Hausman. There is no way I could do justice to this house which is set under and around a huge magnolia of a kind that is rare in Vancouver. I loved the stain glass window for the Blessed Virgin Mary.

 Here are Marion & Fred. They were great hosts and good guides. Fred was shocked when Obama was reelected. 

                  

What struck me most was how there was no one on any of these fabulous beaches. That was so surprising to me.  For miles and miles & miles!!

That's it till New Orleans!

                                                    That's it for now.