Kantha Stitching

Kantha is a type of stitching that I first saw on the blog, Spirit Cloth written by Jude Hill. I've attempted it myself on a couple of my small art quilts. Rage and Black Cat both have my variation of kantha stitching on them. I had wanted to use kantha for Thou Shall Not Steal Pecans, but I had trouble with the batting bearding through to the front of the quilt. I used Mountain Mist 100% cotton batting in that quilt, which is a perfectly wonderful batting to hand quilt with traditional quilting thread. I apparently needed a batting with a scrim for kantha stitching on that particular fabric because it was a little more loosely woven than what I normally use. That's why I think the Warm and Natural batting will work for kantha and that wonderful hand dyed fabric by Marcia Derse. It has a thin scrim. I'm excited to think of the possibilities! I will let you know how it goes as soon as I know.

Kari, thank you for the kantha link.

Finished one of my Minis

Spoiler Alert! If you're in my Quilting Friends group, you shouldn't read this post until Sunday 12/13. In fact, if you've read this far, it may be too late. Sorry.





I'm totally finished with the Thou Shalt Not Steal Pecans quilt. My right thumb looks a little like hamburger meat. I was trying to hurry my hand quilting yesterday and I kept poking myself. It was truly difficult to continue to work on it today. Thankfully, I had very little quilting left. Then all I had to do was put the binding, label and the hanging sleeve on. And it only took me until 11:30 PM to do it all.



I have to admit that I love this quilt. I don't know if anyone else really does, but I really do. This is my second totally original quilt. Black Cat was the first. Black Cat was donated to my quilt guild's live miniature auction last year. Pecans will be given as a gift in our Quilting Friends Christmas party. It's going to be difficult to give up Pecans. I'll miss it.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 30 -- The last day

I've been hand quilting since yesterday. I enjoy this process more than I can express in words. Hand quilting adds so very much to a quilt. Well, machine quilting does too, I'm just not good at machine quilting. I've sat here and quilted so long today that my whole body hurts and I still don't want to stop. I know that I must when I get to this point though. Otherwise, I won't be able to quilt tomorrow.

This is the last day of Art Every Day Month. I've enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I accomplished more than I thought I would also. More than I thought I could, for that matter. It has been a joyful experience. I plan to participate again next year. In fact, I may just pretend that I'm in it again next month, just to see what else I can accomplish. It has been wonderful! Thank you to Leah Piken Kolidas for hosting this project and for coming up with the idea. Thank you to the other participants also. You have all added a lot to my life this month. It has been a pleasure.

Now, I'm feeling a little punk, so I'm going to get off the computer and watch the cartoon Dr. Suess' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love to hear Boris Karloff's voice and I love to see that silly little dog panting and all happy faced. Good memories. Good times. May you all have a wonderful December.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 29

Today, I've been hand quilting for my AEDM fun. I'm working on the pecan quilt. I'll post a photo of it tomorrow. I just want to get a little more done before I share it with you all.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 14

Frustration. Every stitch I take on "Thou shalt NOT steal pecans!" brings batting through to the top of the quilt. Every single stitch. Both on the back and the front actually. I've spent more time separating the fabric from the batting so that the batting around the thread will go back between the fabrics than I ever thought possible and I'm only on the first block. This is no fun whatsoever. I'm going to have to change the way I'm quilting this quilt. Kantha stitching will not work for it. I think it's because the top fabrics are fairly loosely woven, which I had not considered a problem. It is though. It's a huge problem.

Of course, I don't have the quilting thread here at the house in the color I need. I ordered lots of thread yesterday, but I'm sure it won't be here until at least Monday. So, now I need to figure out something else to work on. Crap.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 12

Today's art has been, what I consider, grunt work. I finished basting the two new art quilts. Then I picked out the embroidery floss that I'll quilt the "Thou shalt NOT steal pecans!" quilt with. I was lucky to have colors very similar to the fabrics, so that the kantha stitching will blend in and highlight the fabrics instead of taking away from the words written on it. Just what I planned on this one. Next I finished ripping out the hand quilting on Stormy Weather. After taking out the basting, it was a breeze. Wish I had started the ripping in that manner.

I've decided to try to machine quilt Stormy Weather. Since I'm too tired and head-achy to attempt machine quilting tonight, which I'm not very good at in the first place, I won't do that right now.

I want to hand quilt Happy (the orange and blue quilt) but I don't have the color thread on hand that I want to use. So, that one is out until I can get to a quilt shop or order some thread by mail.

That leaves the pecan quilt. I think I'll pull out some of the floss and get to work on it. I love kantha stitching. It's relaxing and fun. I'll show you the progress tomorrow.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 11

I have finished the embroidery on "Thou Shalt NOT Steal Pecans!". Next I'll layer it with batting and baste it so that I can start the kantha stitching on it. I think kantha will be much more fun than traditional hand quilting. Kantha is a type of stitching that I first saw on Spirit Cloth a wonderful blog by Jude Hill. If you have time, check out her blog. She's very creative and inspirational.

Now, I'm going to go dig through my hand dyed fabrics to see what I have for backing this little quilt and the last one I made from Marcia Derse's fabrics. I can't wait to continue on them and even to start another one. I'm having a blast with this type of art quilt. This one may end up in the guild auction for Quilt Celebration 2010!

One thing I really like about this quilt is that I used my natural (sloppy) handwriting for wording. If I end up keeping this one, or one I make like this in the future, it will be great to have it in my own hand to pass down to my grandchildren. See, more and more fun every time I think of it!

Art Every Day Month -- Day 10

I want to thank everyone who has left comments on my blog lately. I can't tell you how much I appreciate and enjoy them all! This Art Every Day challenge is really making me feel connected. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend that you click on the link above and go see some of the other art being made. The challenge lasts through November.

I am having so much fun with this quilt! I've been wanting to make a quote quilt for so very long. This is my first one, but I believe it will be a new series for me. I love words on quilts. Words, writing, quotes, sayings -- you name it, they don't even have to be legible as long as I can tell that it's writing. They draw me in every single time. I went to the Houston Quilt Festival a few weeks ago and most of the quilts I photographed had words on them. I'm a sucker for them.

This project started with just cutting the fabric and then sewing it together in whatever felt right. I was pondering what quote to use when I spotted the church sign down the highway. "Thou Shall NOT Steal Pecans!" is what I decided to put on the quilt. I thought it was so funny when I saw the sign. Of course I feel bad for the church having their pecans stolen, but it sure made for an interesting photo and I think it will be a wonderful little quilt! I plan to put a photo transferred image that shows the sign on the back of the quilt along with the label.

This is all the progress I made today on it. It took me forever to decide what color thread to use for the wording. Now, I want to move the location of the word "Thou" from where I have it written and I just had to rip out the "shall" because I didn't like how it looked. So I've put it aside for the rest of the night. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow.

Art Every Day Month Day 9

Today's art is photo-

graphy. I was driving home from the post office when I spotted this church sign. I thought it was a hoot! Had to turn around to go back to photograph it. The leaf filled driveway is mine. Every time I drive up it, I notice how beautiful it is with all the leaves down on it. Thought I'd try to capture it and then share it with you.

*I may just use the sign wording for my "quote" quilt.