MadMind Quilt

It's been a while since I've worked on this quilt:


I called it BrownBlueART - but no longer!

I ran out of steam and variegated thread - but both problems have been remedied!

I finished quilting this thing last night. I call it 'thing' because I look at it and shake my head in wonder at what I was doing :) Hence the new name, MadMind - I think only a mad mind could have come up with that kind of quilting!!!


Yup, told you it's crazy!

Here are some details. First off, my actual hand-print - I outlined my hand, quilted around it, then sketched in my "finger print" and the palm-reading lines. I like this one, and I like the wavy-net background that makes the hand stand out.


Next, my actual profile (hard to see, it got a bit too busy around it, but that's okay, I'm okay with my face being mysteriously hidden in the quilt). For this, I outlined the shadow of my profile on a piece of paper stuck to the wall as the sun was setting. Let me tell you, that was DIFFICULT! I used a mirror, but had to draw at quite the angle, which was awkward.
Quilting the hair was a lot of fun; I simply eye-balled the eyes, nostril and lips.


The eye in the dead center was one of the first things I quilted. I used to love drawing eyes, especially ones showing different emotions. I took drawing lessons for a year and a bit when I was younger, and I enjoyed the eye-sessions a lot even then. The spider web is also one of my favourites on the quilt.


Besides feathers, I played around with a lot of shapes and filler designs and also practiced echo-quilting. I like the look of echos, but the quilt gets a bit too sturdy for a functional quilt, in my opinion.


Here's the back of the quilt. I started out with dark blue bobbin thread so that it wouldn't show up so much on the front and the blue thread was bought on sale. But when I ran out towards the end, I first used up a bobbin with brown thread, then dark green and lastly light gray - I was simply too lazy to wind a new bobbin, whereas I usually switch bobbins without cutting the top thread... Since this is an artsy, display type quilt, I didn't care if the thread on the back looked good. The back is certainly the more 'calming for the eye' side!

I did have some tension problems throughout quilting, e.g. seeing the bobbin thread on the top of the quilt, and especially bad tension on the back, when turning tight corners quickly. But again, doesn't matter, the back won't be on display :)


Nonetheless, I find the back side an interesting study for my plans of "whole cloth quilting" parts of my Free as a Bird quilt. I really like the look of matching thread on medium to light-coloured fabric.


Now I'm off to binding this quilt. I do seem to crave the silent nature of hand-binding these days. Unfortunately, none of my other quilts are anywhere near ready for binding... maybe that will change in this month :) Fingers crossed!

Progress and What the HECK??

I've made a bit of progress on my Blue String Quilt QUiP! Originally, I had only 9 blocks done, now I'm up to 24 and it's starting to take shape. I like it!


Of course, this scrap-using project is producing new, smaller scraps. Sigh.
I just can't bear to throw fabric out if it's wider than 1/2" in at least one direction. So I started a new project and that's taking on a life of its own, literally!

I'm admit I'm kind of scared of where this is going.


What I did was layer brown cotton with batting and light blue cotton. I didn't even tape it to the floor, just smoothed it out and pin-basted it. Then I laid out blue scraps in random arrangements on the brown side until I was happy with the layout. Pinned those down and started free-motion quilting about 1/4" inside each shape, somewhat like the Ticker Tape quilts that have been going around blog land.


I thought it'd just be an artsy baby quilt, but like I said, it's starting to grow out of proportion . Because I started quilting, without a plan. This is like doodling on a sewing machine. Things just happen, my hands just move, my brain just comes up with ideas.

Here's how far I've gotton.


I started with an eye in the center, then I tried to remember some quilting I'd seen on Diane Gaudinsky's blog, but I was too lazy to turn on the computer, so I tried to do some stuff from memory. There's a bit of Diane-Shiko to be glimpsed on the right edge of the quilt.

Next, my hands wanted to do a double feather, with two rows of feathers along the shaft. Okay. I also wanted to leave my mark on this quilt, so I outlined my hand, not sure what I'll quilt inside it yet. I'm considering doing the actual lines on my finger prints etc. That wasn't enough though, so in the setting sun, I outlined the shadow of my face on a piece of paper taped to the wall and quilted that with some wild and flowing hair in the top right corner. Once the quilt is done, I'll show you some detail shots.

I just took the photo above quickly the other night to have a record of this quilt before it totally gets out of hand. It now has enough quilting on it to classify as wall-hanging, since it's getting too stiff for a quilt.

Who knows where this is going next... I'll be as surprised as you, that's for sure. It feels strange when a project gets a life of its own like this. Next, my quilts will grow legs and take over the world, uhoh!