Very nice Heidi!

Thanks, Georgia! Will do!

Please be sure to post pictures when your Peacock is finished ~ it's beautiful! I'm not usually drawn to art quilts but the peacock is very regal looking and the colors are wonderfully accurate. Nice work !!

Georgia

Susan Carlson is GREAT! She wrote Free-Style Quilts and Serendipity Quilts, and she just answered my e-mail! I hope I can get this done in time! It's so hard with the 4-year-old and 16-month-old at home.

On May 4, 2011, at 8:12 AM, Heidi Dewey wrote:

Dear Susan,

I'm trying your technique on a peacock quilt for a guild challenge, which is due this Saturday -- down to the wire, yes – I hope you might be able to respond early today.

I have a question about the quilting. How do you keep your raw edges from shredding when you straight-stitch quilt just inside the edge of the fabric? I’m using a #75 Quilting needle, and the batting is a thin bamboo/cotton blend with a thin scrim (by Polyfil, I think). Most of the fabric in the quilt top is cotton, and I’ve also used some dupioni silk (under which I did use some fusible web to control fraying), some tulle and some Angelina fibers. I’m most concerned with the small pieces on the face of the peacock – especially the tiny white bit near the beak. (See attached photos) I’m a little worried they’ll move out of place, too, as I get the needle near them. Any suggestions?

Thank you so much,
Heidi Dewey
Country Piecemakers Quilt Guild
http://www.countrypiecemakers.org


From: Susan Carlson [This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.]
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2011 10:45 AM
To: Heidi Dewey
Subject: Re: raw-edge quilting question

Hi Heidi,

Very nice work! Did you glue the edges down? If I don't use tulle overall (and usually not), I'm sure to catch ALL the edges with glue. I get some glue on my fingertip and run it along the underside edges. Mostly to secure so the quilting foot doesn't slide under as I quilt, but the added benefit is that it seals the raw edges so there's not so much fraying. Any that does happen I can neaten up later if I want. The extra gluing takes more time than you'd think, but I find it well worth it.

Hope that helps. Good luck - it already looks great!
--Susan

11:35

Oh, thank you, Susan. I didn’t realize you put glue on all the edges. I’d used just enough to hold the pieces in place. I’ll do some extra gluing now.

Thank you so much for your quick response! I’ll send you photos of the finished quilt when I get it done.

By the way, my guild has done a challenge like this for the past two years. You can see the finished quilts from 2010 and 2009 by clicking on “Archives” and selecting “2009 If I Were a Flower Challenge” and “2010 Music, Beautiful Music Challenge.” There aren’t too many – we’re a small guild. The first year I did an iris using needle-turn appliqué and fabric paint, and last year a collage using photos printed on silk organza. I love to challenge myself with new techniques! (But, unfortunately, I’m a terrible procrastinator and rarely leave myself enough time to relax and enjoy the work, plus I have three young children.) I really enjoyed your book, Free-Style Quilts. Your technique is very freeing. I hope to add more depth to the peacock body with more tulle, but I find it difficult to work with, and there will be no fabric overlapping it, so gluing it is a challenge. But we’ll see…

Many thanks,
Heidi