Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Catch A Falling Star 2

Catch A Falling Star 2, 8.25" x 15.5"

I'm very happy with the finished product: especially Lois Jarvis rust-tex next to the velveteen and the gold thread and gold beads. Lots of richness with the contrast. Of course, basically all I did was enhance the fabric. Thank you Lois.


After I stitched the rusted fabric to within an inch of its life and went around the stars 3 or 4 times, I added another layer of poly batting under the velveteen. I wanted the velveteen to be 'puffy' with only the gold beads holding it down.

Which way is up. This is my original design. A friend said maybe I could turn it the other way, or sideways. Hmmm. Comments appreciated.

Flipped design.

Horizontal with star down.

Horizontal with star up.

Organizing where the beads would go, was a challenge. First I marked the top with chalk. Velveteen does NOT like to be marked.
Since I was using a false back, I thought I would just marked that. Easily done. Unfortunately, unless one can put the needle absolutely straight through, the design will get off by a bunch. In the end I put a ruler on top and tied each bead on individually. Yep, I'm new to beading [this is my second try], but I do love the look.

Also, please notice how the absolutely flat, square cutting board seems to have a convex curve in the middle. I'm thinking that is my camera lens. It is also telling me why I'm having trouble making those straight tops look straight.

Because I wanted to be able to hang this quilt from any direction, I put 'fast corners' on the pillowcase backing before I turned it inside out. To make the corners, just take a square, press it to form a triangle and attached to the back. In this case, since the back is 'false', I stitched the corners onto the back making the pockets about an inch away from the edge. This makes it really easy to hide the hanging slat or dowel.