ANOTHER CONFETTI QUILT: THE LAKE

I know I keep saying that I won't do another confetti quilt, but every time I open the drawer and spot the pile of left over confetti, I think to myself, maybe one more.  I also wanted to make a larger, brighter looking confetti quilt, so it was a bit of an experiment.

Iris gave me a wonderful piece of green misprinted fabric, which was the start point for the quilt.  I have to say though, by the end of the quilt, as I got more and more carried away with that darned confetti, most of the background fabric was covered up.  This was not the initial intention as I really liked the fabric.  Luckily for me, generous Iris, when she realised how much I liked it, gave me some more!

A WALK IN THE SUN

So, did you guess the quilt?  Valiant guesswork Shirl.  Maybe I should send you some of this fabric to see if you can make one yourself!  As I said, the clue was in my trip to Chiang Mai, which is famous for all its temples.

So...

Take one head, and some dodgy looking legs.

Guess The New Quilt

I have owned a meter of this piece of fabric since I lived in Japan.  In fact, the shop had it in a variety of colours, so I bought quite a lot of yards.  Over the years I have used bits and pieces of it in other projects, but mostly, I just like to look at it, in all its hand dyed glory.  When I was looking for a piece of fabric for this project, I pulled this out and it begged me to use it.  Don't you just love it?

 Can you guess the subject of my new quilt?

The Drunken Zen Garden

Part VI
Well with the less than perfect sand lines, I could only embrace the obvious and pass them off as the work of a drunk zen gardner!

It didn't take any time to finish this off last night.

Almost There

PART V
Today I started sewing down the top layer.

I sewed down the upper part of the quilt, excluding the gravel and smaller rock.  I kept losing confetti out the side of the quilt, so worked with a set of tweezers next to me.  Actually I have found the pair of very long, angled tweezers (I have no idea what their real use is) that I have, to have been very useful in fussy placing confetti around some elements of the quilt.

The Confetti Goes On, Comes Off And Goes On Again!

PART IV

Thanks Shirley for your helpful suggestions in the last post's comments section.  One of the big differences between quilting and painting is that painters, with their ability to mix paint, have an endless palette at their disposal.  With quilting, unless you are lucky enough to live near a great quilting shop that carries a good stock, you quilt with what you can get your hands on, or what you can dye, paint or disperse yourself.  When you mix that with my hope that once on the quilt, the colour will look better, you end up with that horrid green I used previously!

Anyway, I didn't do any work on the quilt yesterday, so this afternoon I was determined to at least get as far as putting the netting on.

A Frustrating Afternoon

PART III

The afternoon started out well enough.  I played around with the centre rocks until I found a combination that I liked.

First Layer In And Working On The Second.

PART II

After lunch I hurried Alan home to get a bit of work done on the quilt. It was quite productive.

 The first layer of the quilt has been stippled into place, using smoke coloured 'invisible' thread.  On this sort of background and using smoke which doesn't catch the light as much as the clear thread, I agree with  Noriko Endo, you have to use touch to tell where you have quilted.

A Quilt in Progress

PART I

Full of renewed energy after Christmas, I decided to start work on a new small quilt, using the Confetti style of Woodland Stroll.  I wanted it to be a quilt that would be in harmony with that one.  

To add a bit more interest, I decided to Blog the quilt as I made it.  This will hopefully only be about three blogs, but if life intervenes (which given that today is New Years Eve, it may well do), the quilt may take a bit longer than anticipated!

Here is the photo I am working from.  I am not seeking to copy this photo exactly, it is just for inspiration.

To answer some the questions about the quilt.

A book is available, called Confetti Naturescapes.  Just click to link to Dragon Threads (great name), who publish the book.  I bought it and had it signed - what a groupie!  It is mostly pictures and information about her quilts, rather than a how to book.  The actual process of making the quilts, is on about 12 pages.

The question about using glue instead of netting or tulle was almost my first thought, until I understood the process.

You can't glue the fabric to be stuck down, as you are talking about very small pieces.  Obviously you can't glue prior to cutting or you would just be left with a gummy mess and a ruined rotary cutter blade.

Look What I Made!

On Sunday I took a class with Noriko Endo, to learn her confetti technique.

This is my finished quilt, Woodland Stroll.