Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Since You Asked...

Or at least, some of you did...Here's a photo of the fabric and wool batting dyed with autumn windfall (leaves) from one of my ornamental crab-apple trees:

From left: muslin, cotton velveteen, crinkle cotton, wool batting
The batting absorbed the most colour, but I also like the colour and texture of the velveteen and the crinkle cotton.

After straining the leaves from the dye bath, I bundled some of them up and have left them to percolate in my sunny back window, which faces south:


I've decided to leave them indefinitely, poking and turning them over from time to time, rather like basting a slow-cooking pot roast!

iMeanwhile work continues on The Door Quilt.  On Friday and Saturday I worked on the central motif:

First, I created a template using more of that laminate plastic recycled from my daughter's office.  I layered fabric and batting together and cut out the shape on my bedroom floor:


I enhanced the centre quilted motif with a bit of extra padding -- "Trapunto lite", as it were.


Then I quilted the rest of the piece and put it up for audition against the already quilted background:

Central motif ready to apply to background quilt
Finished size of piece: 38" W x 73" long

It fit!  So...I turned the edges under all the way around and pinned it down, ready for hand stitch.  At this point, the blanket stitch in gold metallic thread runs almost all the way around the piece.  If I keep at it this afternoon -- and I intend to -- it'll be finished and ready for trimming (the white centre hangs over the edges of the under-quilt) and binding.



As I stitch I'll be catching up on the WIP Wednesday posts over on The Needle and Thread Nework.  Won't you join me?  :-)

4 comments:

rtquilter said...

Very nice, Margaret.

Giddings Art said...

I love the idea of dying with leaves from your ornamental crab-apple trees! I like the results too! The central motif looks wonderful on your Door Quilt.

elle said...

ooh, I've not tried batting but velvet is lovely. This door hanging is going to be really something. Can't wait to see the big reveal! ;) Happy All Saints!

Judy Warner said...

I really like the crinkled cotton color. Assume the Door Quilt is stitched by now and ready for show. Great job!