Ingrid Whitcher

I had 2 students in my quilt embellishment class today and we had such a good time. My daughter came along also. They learned how to felt today and how to incorporate it into a quilt. They did such a a good job and both of them actually finished their projects.

Craig’s Rooster

Suzette’s Beach Scene

I am so glad that it is finally spring in Florida. I am really enjoying the flowers.

A few months ago a quilting friend passed around a survey that asked, “What part of quilting do you like the best?” 1. Design and color 2. Construction 3. Quilting 4. Finishing. This was really difficult for me because I really like everything except the construction. I know – this is the main part of making the quilt!

When I was new to quilting, each pattern/block was new to me and challenged me. Not to say that I have tried it all, but I realized about 2 years ago that I really dislike piecing the same thing over-and-over again (even if the end result is going to be spectacular). This became very evident to me as I worked on my New York Beauty quilt – “Evening in Times Square”. I could feel myself tensing up every time I sat down to work on all of those paper-pieced points. My lack of passion and interest in piecing that quilt shows itself in some “precision” piecing areas. My last quilt show judge noted some of these problems and I couldn’t agree more. Yes, I loved the design process and enjoyed the quilting, but the piecing took away the “joy”.

I rediscovered the “joy” of piecing while working on “In Her Arms”. I haven’t had so much fun working on a project in some time. I found that piecing the curves is challenging and interesting as each shape has it’s own challenges. It is also a more serendipitous method, as you are not completely sure how it will look until it is completely done.

I won a third place in the Pieced Quilt – amateur category last week at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show. This is the first time that I have won a ribbon outside of the Pensacola Quilter’s Guild shows. I am sooooo excited. My mom and sister were able to attend the show- maybe I will be able to within the next few years.

This has been a busy couple of months while I have been focused on a specific quilt. I usually have a couple of projects in the works at the same time and get a break from them, but I had a very specific deadline for this quilt. I started cutting the pieces in November and started the quilting in January. I really enjoyed each stage of this project but I have the say the time quilting was still my favorite.

This is the biggest project that I have designed on my own. The idea was a drawing I did about a year ago. Thanks to Mark and his technical genius, I got an enlarged pattern which was wonderful to work from. He even let me pin it to the living room wall for 3 months while I was constructing it. The family all thinks the wall looks bare now that it is down. I really liked that I was not exactly sure what the quilt would look like when it was done. I had planned out the color scheme and had a color drawing to work from but in each shape there are multiple smaller shapes which were drawn in as I came to each unit. I only had to tear out one piece and replace it! The quilting really changed the look of the quilt for me. I used one color for each major section – which seamed to pull all of the pieces back into one unit. I used about 10 different colors of threads for the quilting. The backing is a dark black/blue hand-dyed fabric. I matched the top and the bobbin thread, so there is “back art”. I like this technique because it helps prevent tension issues and it looks cool.

I tried a new technique for squaring up the quilt top. (after quilting and before putting on the binding) I laid the quilt on the tile floor in the dining room and taped the straight top edge along the straight line of the tiles. Mark helped me set up the T-square and the laser level. I cut along the edge – the red light of the laser guiding my scissors. After the binding was on, I put a large sheet on the carpet and sprayed the quilt top with a squirt bottle. I pinned the corners after measuring across the diagonal of the quilt to make sure it is square. This should help the quilt hang square and flat.

I am having the appraisal this week and then I hope to be able to submit it to the AQS Knoxville quilt show. I so hope it gets accepted.

I had my first machine quilting workshop yesterday with 20 students and it went great. A quilting guild in Navarre Florida invited me to come and teach. ( Cool and freaky at the same time.) Up until yesterday, the most students I had in a class was 10 so I was a little concerned that I would not be able to give everyone the attention they needed. Thankfully a good friend offered to come with me for the day. She helped get everything set up, answer questions and even did a little first-aid. I know it went smoother for me because of her help. I am so thankful for good friends.

I also have been making good progress quilting my “secret” quilt. I have over 20 hours in quilting done and hopefully only about 5-6 more. I get asked a lot about the time it takes to quilt a project, so I have been logging my time. I figured it took about 120 hours to piece it.