Thursday, January 14, 2010

Lover's Knot in Batik




I just finished a Lover's Knot. 94" x 104" all the richest earth-tone batiks. It was on my machine way too long, for about 8 days. It took me forever to figure out how to make the over-under of the knot's come out right.


Lots of ruler work. Deb Levy from Machine Quilter's Resource did a video a while back using a big beefy Gadget Girls Diamond ruler. At the time, I thought that the ruler was too bulky and heavy but I admire Deb's work and figure she has the best tools. So I ordered that one and the longer diamond ruler wondering if I would ever use them. Oh, yeah. Thanks, Deb, this was the perfect ruler for 1/4 SID for the knots and extended further than my normal SID ruler.

The double hearts in the center were a challenge also. I wanted continuous. I tried drawing them on paper, using funny foam, my Doodle Pro. Then I recorded the double-heart in my IQ but it looked rough, not smooth. I was having a hard time getting the parallel lines of the 2 hearts to look good. I finally took it to my PreDesign Studio. I downloaded the trial of Pre-Design a couple of years ago and then later bought the software but I just have not given it enough time to show me what it would do. This was my trial-by-fire for Pre-Design. I click-designed the hearts, refining the look over about 9 tries and finally got a smooth double heart with a hook at the end. I exported it as a .dxf and used it in the Lover Knot blocks. Loes and Theo - I finally did it. I am definitely going to be using this again and again for my design work.


I used Summers Dream in the border, one of my favs and the setting/corner triangles are Jocelyn Triangle from Legacy quilting. I used my last Quilter's Dream Puff King; Superior King Tut Flower Pot 911 in the borders and blocks, Superior So Fine 424 Chocolate for the SID, Superior So Fine 531 Siena in the bobbin.

1 comment:

Deborah Levy said...

The hearts are great in this quilt. I like the design in the setting triangles too.

My life has changed in the last couple of years - some bumps, I retired from quilting, and then I moved to Texas. I'm anxious to see what new adventures await me in the next phase of my life.

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Ramona, California, United States
I started quilting when a quilt shop opened in our little town in January 2004. I have been hooked ever since.

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This is called Fruit Cocktail

This is called Fruit Cocktail
It is all batiks