Art Quilt Needs a Name

I quilted my fingers off for 2 days straight and got my big flower quilt all quilted.   I used all these bobbins up plus 4 more.   Alot of colour on this quilt and I love it so much!   I took so much time and care in pinning it, and may I add pain.   The majority of the top is not cotton but canvas.   Let me tell you how hard that was to pin.  It took two solid hours and I had a massive blister that broke by the time I was done, but it was soo worth it.

This is just a small section of the back of the quilt.    I have to finish the centre and  attach it.  Don't you love my hand dyed fabric I am using?

I think the task I have the hardest time with is squaring it up.  I can get the sides cut in a straight line, but boy do  I ever have a heck of a time getting it to square up evenly.   

I went ahead and got all my binding ready.  I am using my hand dyed fabric to match the centre and cut a bunch of colourful strips and sewed them together, ready to go.

The name.   When entering quilts in shows, the first thing you have to record is the name of the quilt.   I don't know how other art quilters come up with their names.   For me, somewhere along the process of making the quilt, the name just comes to me.    

For this quilt, it was going to be a peacock tail until I went to applique it to the background, and then it turned into a flower.  So there went all my ideas regarding peacocks.   I am trying not to panic as I am very, very near the end and nothing is popping into my head.   Probably because it has only been a flower for 4 days, but I ALWAYS have a name by the end of the quilt.   I am so not freaking out!   (translates to:  I am totally freaking out)

Let's hope in the next day or two I have a mind blowing name experience=)

Bring on 2012!

Let's get 2012 started!   What a year this is going to be.   I have set my goals in the side bar and am ready to dive into a fresh new year.  

January is jam packed with crazy quilting.  I have two entries I want to get ready for the Canadian Juried show and one entry still has the fabric neatly folded in a bag with the design on top.   Yikes, magic better happen soon!  

I finished two tutorials this week.  They will be up tomorrow and next week.   I might add they are both on embellishing.  How fun is that?  Riley Blake loves embellishments so much that I am posting once a month on  how you can use them in quilts, sewing projects and crafts!  

More tomorrow on that delicious bit of news.

I am getting close to the quilting stage of my art quilt currently in the studio.  I always jot down steps when I am unsure how to proceed to ensure that things go smoothly.  They never do.   I had a heck of a time getting this giant piece appliqued onto the background.  I finally had to baste a large section of it.  Don't think I didn't consider fusing the whole thing down!  

Trust me when I say, it is big.   I have cut away all the white pieces and have attached it to a black piece of fabric.   I had gotten away from using black as a background.   I tried a mottled grey, but nothing seemed to work except the black.  

Now I have to figure out how to quilt this one without detracting from all the colours.   There have been a few quilts that by the time I got finished quilting them, I thought they looked better unquilted.   I really don't want to say that about this one.   Way too much time sunk into it already.   And I have a deadline!