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Wednesday 26 February 2014

A Day Off

Yesterday I gave myself a day off from the tidying and attended a workshop in order to gain some confidence in free motion quilting.  This is one of those things where I know the idea and the basics but have never actually used it on a quilt because I always 'chicken out' at the last minute in case I mess it up.  It was a really enjoyable day and we came away with lots of ideas which we tried out on a 'quilt sandwich' of a reasonable size to get us used to handling the bulk in the sewing machine.  I have a few blocks left over from a large quilt made some time ago and I'm going to bite the bullet and use free motion quilting to turn them into a lap quilt. One important point I gained from this day was that any minor imperfections don't matter because they show that the work was done by a human being - if you want 'perfect' you would send the quilt away to be quilted by a computer-controlled machine!!  This reminded me so much of what Tim Holtz says about embracing imperfections - I never have 'hang-ups' about sloshing ink, random stamping and torn paper so I must translate that freedom into my quilting as well.

In the meantime I have a card to share which was made almost entirely from oddments 'found' when I was tidying my work space - backing paper cut to size for a card and then not used because the colour wasn't quite right; a piece of embossed background; a stamped and layered image cut away from a 'clean and simple' card where the final stamping of the sentiment had somehow turned out crooked (it happens).  I simply added a couple of die cut shapes from kraft card scraps and a sentiment.


7 comments:

  1. This is gorgeous Val, I love the background colour and the die cut frame too.

    Sue xx

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  2. Its quite tree about the quilting it always looks beautiful but I dont think anyone stands there to check it all done the same way.....love your card made from your 'scraps'...

    ANne

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  3. It sounds like you had a smashing day yesterday Val ;D. Hope we get to see the lap quilt when it's finished, imperfections and all I know it will be a delight!

    Love your card from 'found' pieces............I have a ton of those, lol!. The frame especially is lovely.

    Hugs
    Lesley Xx

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  4. Gorgeous colours & excellent use of those odd bits. Thanks for the reminder about being human - it's so true but it's hard to get it into the brain whilst working isn't it? Glad you had a super day.
    Paula (PEP)

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  5. A great card and a fab use of your left overs
    Jackie x

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  6. good luck with the quilting - am sure no-one else would notice any imperfections, they will all look at the blocks instead! Nice card, so satisfying to use the odd bits up

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  7. Great scrap card, look forward to seeing your quilting. Have fun. Hugs x ChrisB

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