Seams French

Choosing and Prepping Materials Although I have quilted on silk in the past, never has it been on a scale like the 100" x 100" whole cloth quilt I am currently working on . There are  so many things to consider when quilting with less familiar materials like dupioni silk.  There's the question of  prewashing or not? Some say yes, others say never. Underline? When is it necessary? How will it affect the loft? Markers react differently on silk. Blue wash-outs can spread and must be washed out after the quilt is made, (you are then committed to pre-washing the silk).  Chalk marks easily and is fairly visible initially, but will rub off long before the large quilt is completed. What will show up the best on a dark fabric? Battings. Wool? High loft polyester? 80/20? Combinations of two? Partial combination, like trapunto style (see below). Which threads to use? Colour? Weight? Will it highlight the main motifs? Which thread disappears into t...

It seems I blinked a couple of times and 2016 was gone. How did that happen? Since my last post, there has been very little activity on the Seams French assembly line. Several nasty versions of flu bugs have kept me pretty much out of commission for most of December and the early part of January. Preset goals and deadlines became meaningless when the only thing that mattered was having enough cough meds and tissues in the house. Vulnerability should never be underestimated. With some wind back in my sails, I decided to start up 2017 by pulling out my whole cloth quilt design that had been shelved since last April. For a quilt like this, I like to preplan and draw in fairly detailed FMQ lines for focal motifs. I love this part of the process and can get completely lost in it. Completed FMQ butterfly design. When designing, I rely on a lot of different resources. Our collection of photos is fairly large and is my first source for ideas and inspiration. Books, art, the ...

Butterflies, Shamrocks, Hummingbirds and Gardenias Having undergone many rethinks, redraws and reworkings over the last 3 or 4 years, the shamrocks, hummingbirds, butterflies and gardenias have finally found a way to play together on this quilt. Back in 2013 I started experimenting with some ideas on the machine , but then the project got shelved for a few years.  Because the quilt is for both of us, I asked my husband to participate in the design layout. For the last few months it has passed back and forth from my table to his computer and finally, we have come up with something that we can both be happy with. The quilt is a silk whole cloth, 100" x 100" (20" drop on three sides), with the central design layout of 60" x 80" covering the mattress of a queen size bed and will be machine quilted. (More on the layout in a future post). The inspiration for the design started with a ceramic butterfly that we have had since we were married. (A photo of it is in ...