Tea with Genevieve : Another Quilt Finished

 

 I'm not quite sure where the name came from.  The Genevieve I know prefers coffee!  ;-)  All the years I've been working on this quilt, I've just referred to it as Tea Leaves. 

I am pleased to say that my new free-motion setup works very nicely!  Thanks to my Sweetie for making the custom-built table for me earlier this year.   No struggling with the quilt getting stuck on the edges of the table either.    ;-)

Here it is with no quilt to cover the table.  It gives me a big flat surface to push the quilt sandwich around on.  Also on the left, you can see additional surfaces to support the weight of the quilt-in-process.  It's a big improvement over it dragging on the floor. 

Here are some close-ups of the quilting :

 

 

View from the back.

I love to use Hobbs  Heirloom 80/20 cotton poly batting, because it puckers up and makes my quilts look antique after washing them that first time.  It's the moment of truth when I pull it out of the dryer -- all warm and  puckered.  Delayed gratification finally fulfilled!

This quilt has been in the works for about 8 years.  It's one of the first ones I started after I learned to quilt.  It was around that time that my sister got married and moved to Japan.  The fabrics are mostly Asian-style 10-in squares.   I could easily cut 2 tea leaves from each "dime."    Every time I would finish one stage in the making of the quilt, I was so tired of looking at it, doing that task, I had to put it away for another year.  Now I think one of those die cut machines would make cutting out all those leaves (and corresponding interfacing leaves) a lot easier.   I thought I had a post about how I appliqued the tea leaves, but it doesn't look like I ever wrote and posted that entry.  Another symptom of being so tired of each stage that I couldn't even write about it through the years.  It was the interfacing applique method.  Maybe I'll write that up over the weekend ... 

The pattern is Tea Leaves from More Quilts from The Quilt Maker's Gift by Joanne Larsen Line.

 

The Quiltmaker's Gift  by Jeff Brumbeau and Gail de Marcken

They also have a website where you can see many of the quilts as illustrated in the storybook. 

Quilts from The Quiltmaker's Gift and More Quilts from The Quiltmaker's Gift by Joanne Larsen Line.   I thought there used to be a website where the author posted corrections to the patterns etc., but I can't seem to locate it now ...

These quilt books are still some of my favorites for classic quilt patterns.  Beautiful quilts tied in with a beautiful story of creativity and generosity.

Preparations for Quilt Camp : Tea Leaves

I'm getting ready for quilt camp today ... I know I'm packing way too much stuff, but I never know what I'll feel like doing, or what I'll need to do it ...

My main objective for the weekend is to quilt the Tea Leaves quilt above. It's not a huge quilt, so it's do-able on my domestic sewing machine. That's always easier at Quilt Camp because I have more room and less clutter to shift the quilt under the machine.


This is the general idea for quilting The Tea Leaves quilt.

That kind of work can be meditative, or exhausting. So I'm bringing a number of other project packs to work on including a couple of journal quilts I'm hoping to get a good start on--maybe I'll even finish one of them? Think thread-sketching ...


In the packing, I came across this Vanilla Tea which is complete comfort food for me. It's no longer available for sale, so these are the last 3 tea bags I have of it. What a treat that will be for a 4 pm pick-me-up each day!

Tea Leaves Quilt Top Done

This has been on my design wall for months. Time to finish it up and move this project along! This pattern is from Quilts from the Quiltmaker's Gift or More Quilts from the Quiltmaker's Gift. These are 2 of my favorite pattern books.


Detail of some of the leaves.

It's taken a long time to get this far on this little quilt. All those leaves were cut and appliqued. I used a technique there I stitched them to a foundation fabric, then cut, turned and pressed them. Then they were all stitched with invisible thread to the blocks. After each step, I would get tired of looking at it, and had to put it away for a while.

I'm planning to machine quilt this on my domestic sewing machine at Quilt Camp in February. I have a plan for how I want to quilt it ...

Tea Leaves Quilt Top

With the blessedly cool weather this week, being in the sewing room did not literally equate to a sweat shop (Read : We don't have air conditioning.) I got the Tea Leaves wall quilt together (so far). I know how I want to quilt is already, but it needs something for borders ... Any ideas?

What would you do?

Design Wall : Tea Leaves

Lest you think I have forsaken quilting, fear not!
This is what's on my design wall at the moment ... I had cut these out about 5 years ago, and couldn't bear to look at them anymore. About a month ago, I finished appliqueing the blocks. Now I'm ready to lay them out, and eventually start stitching them together. It's coming along ...