Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Wow!


I had a great time on the weekend - I went to a two-day quilting workshop with Beth & Trevor Reid, renowned contemporary and abstract quilters who live in the Canberra region. Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while will have seen some of their work here. Here's some more of their work and more. I just love it!


While it was liberating and thrilling to learn an entirely new technique and a new way of looking to nature for inspiration, the best part for me was finally trying out free motion quilting! I had been a big chicken and not tried it - to be honest it scared me! But, with a bit of expert tutelage from Beth, off I went and I don't think I'll look back.


Each of the 11 workshop participants (all women - no surprise there!) created a wall quilt, although not many of us actually finished - and that included me. BUT, we did all choose the kind of quilt we wanted to make, drew a sketch of what our quilt would become and went for it. All 11 quilts were completely different - I love that about quilting.

For my quilt, I was inspired by a photograph of the Australian outback, which set an electric blue sky against an ochre coloured landscape, with a huge boulder in the middle ground, which had split in two.

I really wanted to challenge myself, so I limited myself to four really bold colours/six fabrics. The result is abstract and pushes the boundaries of landscape quilting. I'm not sure how well it works, but I just love the effect of the heavily quilted sky, as well as the FMQ circles giving texture to the boulder.


We learnt how to paint fabric with fabric paints (the red fabric in the above photo has been painted with a green, to give more depth to the distant mountains), experiment with limited palettes, and learn how to do raw edge appliqué using Viesoflix. We learnt about layering for effect, using fabrics you wouldn't ordinarily think of (like organza) and painting fabric to get different effects.

It was lots of fun!

The quilt still needs quite a bit of work. The trees, tree trunk and shrubs are yet to be quilted. I think I'll also drop a couple of 'rocks' into the foreground to give it a bit more depth. Here's a view of part of the back of the quilt - there's about half a kilometre of thread in here already :o

Once it's finished it'll go into Romily's room - she's already claimed it :) It'll take me a little while to get it done though, as I have some other more pressing deadlines looming!

Hope you're all having fun out there in the land of Blog!

13 comments:

Clare said...

Oh wow Lily. That's so beautiful. I can see lots of beautiful landscape quilts going up on the walls of Chez Lily. Beautiful quilting too.

How's the Mum to be?

dutchcomfort said...

OMG Lily!! You learned and made so much in two days! It looks stunning. It must feel so great to go beyond the normal quilting limits!

Unknown said...

Brilliant FMQ - you see all you needed was to take your courage in your hands and FLY!!!!!!!!!

Emma said...

Wow! is right! That is a terrific quilt, and fantastic quilting. I'd never have guessed it was your first time! Can't wait to see the finished product!

Helen said...

Wow! Wow! Wow Lily! Looks amazing! Is it all continuous or was it stop/starting? Did you have to wear gripping gloves?? I've been wondering about them lately.... Looks great though, very inspirational.

Corrie said...

wow the colours and the quilting is just amazing! very amazing!

corrie;)

Unknown said...

I think you had better stop work today so that you will have the time to spend on all these projects. Beth and Trevor's work makes all the others look old fashioned. Traditional is OK but free and modern looks the way to go. I look forward to seeing the finished quilt. When do I get mine?

Suzie Sews At DOTTY RED said...

wow so much in just two days, what a treat...

Sandy's Quilter's Block said...

Very beautiful! Your daughter is a lucky girl. The back is just wonderful, this is what quilting should look like.....stitches and more stitches! Is baby #2 giving you inspiration? Maybe he/she will be very talented like mum?!
Be well and don't work too hard. :o)

Little Munchkins said...

I am not one for abstract things but I really like this. I like how you did the free motion quilting too.

Cyliebug said...

Just fantastic!!!! Are you already thinking of the next one?

Patti said...

What a interesting class and project! Looks like you learned a lot! Glad you are finally having a chance to try machine quilting - it's a lot of fun. Sure makes it easier to finish things quickly!

Laura said...

It is gorgeous Lily!!! Your quilting is fantastic. You were definately a quick learner to accomplish all of that.