11 - 11- 11 finally finished!

The all corduroy quilt which I made for  Corduroy Appreciation Day (11-11-11) is finally finished! You can read about its beginnings here.

 I backed it with a piece of flannel (which I bought YEARS ago with the idea of making a nightie for myself).  I did not use any batting, because I felt the corduroy was heavy enough; it didn't need the extra insulation.

 I took my time quilting it using either red or light blue perle cotton #8. Sometimes I used the big stitch, but more often I reverted to a smaller stitch length, simply because that is what I am used to. I had no overall quilting plan, so each section was decided as I came to it.  There are two pieces of velvet in the quilt, which I left unquilted.  The binding is made from a tight velour or suede cloth, which was in the bag along with the corduroy pieces that I had received.

 Friends asked me if corduroy is hard to hand quilt. Actually no.  It isn't as tightly woven as one might expect. Not having a batting to needle through also helped.

This is the most free formed quilt I have ever made.  The more I look at it, the more I like it!

A little too quiet..

But, I've been busy in "school".    I took an online course through QuiltUniversity.com on how to photograph quilts. Janice Baehr taught it.  It wasn't the popular "take it outside" approach. It was the studio approach.  My living room turned into a photographer's studio for a month. My husband lashed together a hanging system that tied to the stair railing.  I hung a queen size sheet from the top rail and a couple of chains and hooks and expandable shower rod allowed me to hang the quilt at whatever  height was needed.   I learned to play with lighting and get better balance of light and shadows so that the quilting would show up.  I also learned tricks of how to hang quilts for photographing them when you don't have quite enough room.  I became somewhat more familiar with my camera, though most of the time I used the auto exposure setting.   My goal is to slowly re-photograph all the quilts I have here and make a really good record of them.

Set up for photographing larger quilts.  Hang the quilt horizontally and rotate the picture so the quilt is vertical. 

Photography set up for smaller quilts with light borders.

By the way, Quilt University is closing come this December.  It's founder, Carol Taylor, passed away this past winter and her husband made a valiant effort to continue in her shoes, but found it to be too much.  

This past month, I  repeated the class I took last fall,  Inspired to Design.  I was surprised at how much easier it was for me the second time around.  Experience does count for something!  Elizabeth Barton teaches this course.  She now has a book out on that topic,  which is excellent. You can order it from her -( check her blog).  Her blog, which is interesting to read.  Lots of thought provoking observations.   

I got my piece all sewn up. It is resting  on the design wall as I teach myself a some basic machine quilting tricks. ( I've never done that!) 

Buoys - and shadows.   (15" x 15")

machine applique, folded edges, tiny zig zag stitching

School is over for me and I'll be on my way to Maine, soon.  I'll post once more, before I leave.