The Back Side

I've left the valley for the coast, and find myself admiring the June Gloom.  The sky is misty moist and hazy, the ocean is a cool grey.  There is no blue, in sky or ocean, and the only green is seen in the trees in the park across the street.  But the 65 degrees here, as opposed to the 90+ expected at home, makes the lack of color quite acceptable, thankyouverymuch!

The room I am in is not easy to access.  I was not expecting this, and both sewing machines, the sewing table and the cutting table are still in the car.  I've hauled two of my handwork projects to the room.  Once I've finished one, I'll trade it out for another.  None of this "bring everything and I'll work on it all" this time.  No, I'm being forced to choose what to work on and what to postpone.

I am very glad that I brought along this OLD UFO.  You can see it here.  A few (several) years ago, I promised I'd finish it for my daughter, for their wedding quilt.  In August, I believe they are coming up on their 8th wedding anniversary.  Or is it the 9th?  Hard to remember, it's been so many years!

Anyway, I have it with me, and I am working somewhat diligently to finish it.  Do you remember old-fashioned trapunto?  The kind where you use a long needle, and stuff quilted areas?  Well, that's what I started all those years ago.  I know why no one does this any more.  It takes FOREVER.

 I am stuffing from the backside, and hopefully, eventually, the needle holes will become less noticeable.

 Here you can see my distraction.  If I look out the window and across the street, I can see the ocean and the lone surfrider paddling off to whoknowswhere.

 This is the distance still to travel up this side of the quilt.  Once I hit the end, I will go back to the corner and work my way up the other side to the middle.  Right now, I think I am 13/16 of the way through.  Yes, I play fraction games when I've got an overly consuming project that never seems to make forward progress.  I am looking forward to being 16/16 of the way through!

Before I left home, I finished one more postcard.

I think the Asian/lotus "charm" was actually part of an earring.  I'm not sure how I came to have this in my possession, but I think it looks nice installed on this particular background.  :)

You're wondering about the front of the trapunto'd quilt?  It is in desperate need of a good scrubbing.  Once I've cleaned it, blocked it, and hopefully removed all signs of bleeding - doggone 90's reds! - I'll take a nice picture and show you all.  Goals are good.

January Step Finished, and I'll tell you a story...

I've done it. I've finished my January step. It took three days, but they were worthwhile days. The green portions of this quilt have been quilted. After laying it on the floor, I suspect that I am going to have to stuff the green feathers. sigh. That wasn't the original plan, but it was lurking out there as a distinct possibility.

Here is a picture of the green triangle next to the unstuffed border...

It looks fine, until you see it next to the outer border when it is stuffed...

And then you have to take into consideration the rest of the trapunto involved in this quilt. I had a decent picture, but you'll have to tilt your head to see it. sigh. I've got shadow trapunto (done with red and green thread) in the white areas...

The inner gold border is also stuffed, and there is more shadow trapunto in the inner white border.


Here is the overall view of the quilt. I've trapunto'ed less than 1/8 of the outer border (upper left), so you can see how it might end up.

I put the binding on early, because the fabric was shredding. I definitely will be removing it and replacing it, because the quilting took its toll on the size of the quilt (quilting will shrink a quilt), and the binding is now too big. But you can also see the excess fabric in each border. I'm hoping the trapunto will suck it up. I've got my work cut out for me.

Now that you've seen the pictures, I thought I'd tell you the story of this quilt. Make yourself comfortable, it might take a while.

When we lived in Davis, back in the early 80's I became interested in quilting. I checked out both books on quilting from the UCD library. One absolutely captivated me. It was called The Standard Book of Quilt Making and Collecting by Marguerite Ickis, published in 1949. I've since obtained my own copy of this book.

Anyway, I traced a few of my favorite patterns from the book, one of them being Cock's Comb on page 72-73. I figured that one day I would have the skills to tackle a quilt from this pattern.

In the mid-90's we had a guild challenge, which involved some red fabric. I thought it was the perfect time to make this quilt. I started making hand-appliqued blocks. I finished 9. That's as far as I got. Unfortunately my hand applique skills were not as great as I'd hoped, and the resulting blocks were discouraging.

In the late 90's, I designed and finished piecing a quilt for my sister.

Carla's 30th Birthday quilt
Suzanne Kistler, 2004

I absolutely LOVED the setting that I came up with, especially when it was turned horizontal instead of on point, and wanted to use it again before I forgot it. I found the 9 blocks in my UFO box, and made the top. woohoo! But then, how to quilt it?

Because the hand-applique wasn't show quality, I couldn't see the point in hand quilting it. I decided that some shadow trapunto would add a spark, and that led to the other trapunto as well. I've been quilting and stuffing this quilt ever since.

A few years ago my daughter became engaged. I knew that she liked red and green quilts, and eventually asked her if they might like this quilt as their wedding quilt. She said yes. They were married in August. The quilt still isn't finished.

I think it is truly remarkable that a pattern I chose from a book while I was expecting her has become the quilt I will eventually gift them for their wedding...if I can finish it satisfactorily.

And that's the story of this quilt so far. As they say, every quilt tells a story...

And now, if I can just get my hands on some more trapunto yarn...

Taking the Step

It's true, it's true. I'm on my way to completing my first step for January! hip, hip, hooray! I did not think this day would actually come, but it has, my dear friends, indeed it has!

I wasn't feeling it this morning, but the machine was calling. No sense in wasting that call. Forty five minutes later, this baby quilt was assembled. (These are the blocks I made on January 1.)

I celebrated this second finished quilt top (in two days, no less!!) by adding up my sales tax owed for 2008, writing the check, and putting it in the mail. woohoo. Then I paid the rest of the bills. And went to the post office. And the dry cleaner. With that, I was ready for some serious quilting. I can't even remember the last time I quilted. Do I still remember how to do it? Indeed I do. January's goal is the fill the green triangles on this quilt. The first thing I did was fill the corner triangles.


After a dinner break, I quilted two of the larger, setting triangles.


I started getting sloppy, so I will save the last six for tomorrow. But folks, I'm at Step point5, and it's all good.

...until I get to the next step on this quilt. Actually, there may only be one step left on this quilt, unless I need to remove the binding and redo it. (The binding issue may or may not be resolved with the green quilting.) The last step is the trapunto, and I'm up against the wall on this one.

I'm doing trapunto the old-fashioned way, I'm stuffing the quilting with yarn, after it's quilted. Therein lies the problem. I have to stuff my way around the border (and maybe stuff the green, but I'm going to try to avoid that).

I have to stuff my way around the border, and I'm running out of yarn. This is all I have left, and it's not much.


I don't remember where I bought this acrylic 3-ply yarn. It was specifically marketed as "trapunto yarn." The first time I bought it, I bought 100 yards and it came unwound, in a plastic bag. The second time, it came on this cone. Perhaps holding it will give you an idea of its size?


It reminds me of school yarn (remember that stuff from when we were kids?) but it's much softer. Again, here's a picture to give you an idea of how fluffy it is, and show that it's 3 ply.


Here's a close-up, so you can see exactly what it looks like.

If anyone out there knows a source for this yarn, PLEASE, I BEG OF YOU! tell me where to get it!! I've looked and looked, but am having no success whatsoever. Or, if you have some in your possession, that you're looking to be rid of, Please! Pick me! Let me know how much you want for it, and I'll take it off your hands!

In the meantime, I hope to finish my official January step before the end of January. Stay tuned, there WILL be celebratory pictures!