More distressing

Janice came around this afternoon to help do some more edge treatments. We got my spare car tyre and painted the tread with some brown paint. I rolled the tyre onto the edge of the quilt and I love the resulting tyre mark. It represents the time that my ex tried to run me down with the car - my car- not even his own car! With the recent deaths of 2 people who were run down by a car it seems now, all this time later, he was just trying to scare me (or else I was incredibly lucky).

I then started cutting the left hand edge by the word 'please'. Janice said I was too restrained, to even, not angry enough, so she completed the cutting with much more meaning than I had been giving it.

We then tried to scorch an iron mark into the quilt but my iron wouldn't get hot enough to actually burn the fabric. Maybe the painted background was 'protecting' the fabric. So Janice decided to paint the image on. To get the steam holes she used a hole punch and cut tiny circles of freezer paper to use as a mask for the paint. Brilliant idea! I would never have thought of it. I have learned so much working with Janice. These circles were arranged as in the pattern on the soleplate of the iron. She pressed these to the quilt surface (with an iron, ironic huh!) and then painted the iron shape sparingly with a brush. I think it looks fantastic. This image is on the quilt because I was discussing the quilt with some ladies from my Friday night group. One of the ladies told me of her experiences, so the iron is her part of the story.

I now have to char the edges of the quilt more and stitch the cross on, then we are ready to photograph it for entry. Wow!

Advice

I like the charring - was it a pain to do? I think it would look great if all the edges were charred... if that's not on then that edge definitely needs more charring so its more visible. What did you use to do it?

I dont like the idea of the jagged edge to the left of please, it would be too regular with it exactly opposite the green jagged edge, how about jaggeding on either side of the corner between flirting and with?

yes, slashing the remaining edges sounds good (to the right of wasn't and the left of please). I don't think you need to trim the edge to the left of please first as it will hang down after slashing.

It needs more than one tire mark, it possibly needs an iron mark as well (I, know, I said not everything but I'm allowed to change my mind). I think what it needs is more darkening on the edges to take away the large expanses of regular colour, they need to be broken up and dirtied up and tire marks and iron marks will do that. Or just regular dirtying? smudging? Do you want me to come over to help with that? At the moment the treatment looks a bit timid, tentative - I think it needs to be wilder, angrier....

Edge treatments

I finally got around to working on the edge tonight. Not finished yet. I straightened the top edge above the word 'hitting' so it will hang with the cross on the correct vertical. The top right hand edge has been charred. I'm not sure if it shows up enough or whether I need to make the charring more visible on the front of the quilt. The right hand side edge has been cut with a jagged edge. I am intending to slash the blue edge to the right of the word 'wasn't and then make the bottom left blue edge jagged (the same as the green part) as well. The top left edge above the word 'stop will have a tyre track mark made on it. The edge to the left of the word 'please' is bothering me (apart from the fact that I have a tape measure and an electric plug hanging in front of it in the photo!). I think I need to trim the edge closer to the word 'please'. Or pehaps make it jagged like the green edge ( and slash the blue edge to the left of the word 'with') But it is getting late now and I need to go to bed!! The centre of the quilt looks much better now Janice has darkened it.

This is a close-up of the charred edge.


Progress is being made and the end is in sight. I think I am on track to get it finished to be photographed at Janice's on Sunday afternoon. I will finish the edges and attach the belt for the cross on Saturday. The belt will have the final word of the "story" written on the horizontal piece, 'please', written very small as a final plea to 'please stop hitting me'.

We should make the entry deadline - yeah!!

The Centre

Helen brought the quilt to me on Friday afternoon. We discussed the quilting, cutting the edges ragged and further distressing the quilt. We put some black paint on the belt that will be sewn over the cross as the pale fawn colour was too light. We didn't want the cross to be too obvious, more a hidden element that the viewer would find on further study.

I felt that Helen had done an excellent job of the quilting. It seems to me to reflect what is going on in the mind of a victim of violence - some dark threads, some brighter and multicoloured, the threads are changing colour, some are going off at a tangent but overall they are spiralling deeper into the dark heart of the quilt. And that is what I felt needed a bit more work, the heart of the quilt wasn't dark enough. I kept the quilt and added a couple of careful layers of black paint to the centre. This is what it looks like now. I'm waiting for Helen to come over again to see if she likes the result. I'd like to get it even darker but risk it getting too stiff if there is too heavy a layer of paint. We also are running out of time as we need to get it photographed for submission next weekend - that being the time my husband, Terry, is able to do it. So it needs to be substantially finished on the front at least, by then! Here is a photo of the centre as it is after two coats of black paint have been applied.

How much is enough?

The quilting doesn't show up very well in this photo, which I took late last night with lamps to light it up (might be better photographed in the day time in more natural light). I have 'scribble' quilted around and around with different colour varigated threads, the colours don't show up at all, and there is no puckering - yeah! But now how much quilting is enough? I will have to wait until Janice can see it in the 'flesh' before deciding when to stop. Then it is trimming the edges, putting on the belt for the cross and deciding what 'distressing' treatment we are going to do to the edges.

Quilting Progress - finally!

Two posts in one day after nothing for a couple of weeks. Oh my.

I've got my quilting problem sussed! After talking with my friend Elaine about my problem with the varigated rayon thread I want to use I tried using a topstitch needle which has a bigger eye. It is working just fine. Thread breaking problem solved. I also changed the direction I was quilting in. The quilting is meant to look as if it is spiralling inwards towards the centre as the words are read butI had been trying to quilt from the centre out (which is the normal thing for quilters to do). So I was quilting in an anti-clockwise direction which meant I needed to push the bulk of the quilt under the machine towards me as I sewed. By starting on the outside going in I am now going in a clockwise direction and pushing the bulk of the quilt away from me which is the natural way of sewing). So although it is "against the quilters' rules" to start on the outside and work inwards that is what I am doing. I think the cotton batting is making this easier because it 'grips' the quilt top and backing much more than the synthetic batting I normally use and so there is a lot less movement and hence no puckering. I might just be a convert to cotton batting Janice!

Long time - no blog - no progress!

Well it has been a couple of weeks since I last did something on the quilt. Hence the lack of updates. I should have been quilting it last week but only started today ( I decided my stash needed re-folding so I could put away some new fabric. It took me 4 days! This stash habit is an illness I am sure.) I am having a very frustrating time with the quilting because the varigated rayon thread I want to use keeps breaking. I tried some other polyester thread but it doesn't look anywhere near as good. In fact it hardly looks quilted to the naked eye so there is no use photographing it to post on the blog. I am going to undo (yet again) what I have done and try again with a larger size embroidery needle in the hope that it will solve the problem. Back to the quick-un-pick.