At last!
For the past three months I’ve had an art piece on my design wall—in progress.
I don’t work fast.
I’m always experimenting with a different way to accomplish my end goal.
I’ve started making part of the piece off the finished piece. This is something I learned from some traditional applique classes. I also put a foundation under the top. doing a lot of stitching on it first and then putting on the backing and quilting.
This time I also experimented with a different way of finishing the sleeve and the bottom. I add washers to the bottom to ensure it hangs straight. This is a home decorator device for curtains–a chain is put in the bottom hem—I put washers in a sleeve at the bottom. The guys at the hardware store are surprised to hear my end purpose……In the past I sought out sand paper to sand cardboard…!!!
My workspace is always a mess while I work on a piece. I save every little bit of fabric until the piece is finished. I use a variety of threads, pulling them from my substantial collection of thread–sorted by color. Usually I use an old deli tray–the one with a central round depression for the dip with sections around it for the various vegetables—I sort the threads by color into those sections. But sometimes there isn’t enough room and I resort to a lid like this.
While a lot of folks scoff at my use of Coats and Clark–I really like the consistency, the colors–there is a purple that no-one else has….and now there is a purely poly thread with incredibly low lint production.
That piece is now quilted, photo’ed, and entered into a show—I can’t show it until I hear if it has been accepted—I don’t have a great deal of hope that it will be—but you never know.
Here is a small section.
Note the sittching goes both horizontally as the stabilizing stitches to a piece of corduroy and the vertical stitches as the quilting.
Typically I work on a pieced background of some sort–choosing the block pattern as part of the piece–this background is composed of ‘crumb’ blocks. These blocks are my leader-ender pieces sewn while working on a more traditional quilt or garment. It doesn’t take long before I have a huge stack ready to iron, trim up and add the next piece.
I’ve been asked to present a program on these blocks—and I may just do that. They are easy and appeal to those of us who enjoy using up what we have.
Sylvia Weir Art 
You are such a talent! I always love your projects—your most interesting posts!