QUILTsocial | Issue 03 Spring 2015

Once I was happy with the text, I placed the quilt top in the
embroidery hoop and hit START. It’s moments like these that
you hope everything goes well. There was no turning back. I
breathed a huge sigh of relief when that part was completed.
Again, I wanted this poem to be subtle. Almost like I didn’t want
it to be seen unless the observer ‘felt’ the words. It was hard to
choose a color of thread that would completely blend in, but I’m
happy with the results. And for someone who doesn’t do a lot
of embroidery, I hooped it pretty straight!
Haiku embroidered on the quilt front (top left hand corner)
Author: Elaine Theriault
The quilt back
We were also given instructions to make the back more than
just a plain back. I was using a flannel from the Man about
Town flannel collection from Northcott Fabrics. It’s a gorgeous
fabric, mottled enough to be a great backing concealing a
multitude of sins.
I embroidered a message on the back. I had to be careful where
the message went so that when the quilt was layered, the message
was in the right spot. Again – I went for subtle and chose a
thread color that stood out, but not too bright.
The quilting
As you know from yesterday’s post that I struggled with the
quilting. Not because of the Ruby Royale, but my area of expertise
or lack thereof.
I had a vision and I wasn’t able to execute it on the domestic
sewing machine. The picture of the vine on the brick wall was
my inspiration with the addition of leaves.
After removing all the quilting, I did the quilting on the long arm
and I was pleased with the results.
Machine embroidered message on the back of the quilt
Inspiration for the quilt design
Quilting on the bricks and mortar
The label and the pocket
We were also asked to incorporate a denim pocket onto the
back of the quilt. The pocket was from a pair of jeans that had
belonged to a family member who had since passed.
I thought of the pocket and the label many times over the
course of making the top. I had this vision, then I had another
and when the time came to attach the pocket, the design just
happened all by itself.
At first, I was going to make a tag and incorporate it with the
pocket. So I took a piece of fabric and ran it through the ink-jet
printer to get the tag.
It’s very easy to do this – I first designed and printed the label
on paper. Then carefully taped (very well) a piece of fabric over
the writing on the paper. Then reprint the label using that piece
of paper with the fabric taped to it. And voila! – you’ll have
printing on your fabric.
TIP I only use black ink (ink-jet only) for this purpose as colored
inks are not permanent unless treated.
Now I had to embroider a message onto the pocket. ACK – that
pocket is too small to hoop but I used a sticky stabilizer and
stuck the pocket to the stabilizer.
Q
32 ●
.com spring 2015
UILTsocial