Artichoke

In February 2020, just before all of our lives changed dramatically, I purchased a new Janome 9450. I was initially enticed by the M7. Unfortunately, it is so large that it won’t fit in my Koala cabinet. Sigh. But the 9450 has plenty of bells and whistles! In fact, it’s a very challenging machine to become friends with. And without the ability pack it up and head out to my dealer for guidance, I found myself finding endless reasons not to be in my studio. I took my creativity to the kitchen instead. I enjoyed that and now I’m within a couple pounds of taking off the weight I gained. Based on all the baking I’ve been hearing folks have been doing, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one to go through this.

I have seriously missed the creative part of my life. The embroidery project I am working on with Sue Spargo’s Toned Down Sampler has been keeping me busy and, I believe, has sparked my urge to create on my own. I found myself ‘editing’ Sue’s pattern and doing the design my way. I even skipped one of her designs that I don’t like. Heresy? No, I think my creative juices just kicked back in. And what does all this have to do with the title of this posting? Well, I’ve had a print of an artichoke leaf sandwiched and ready to quilt since 2019. Last week I decided it was time to get back into my studio and get busy on it. The first thing I did was to put away the 9450 and bring out my Janome 6500. I bought that little work horse in 2004 which tells you how many generations of new things are on the 9450! All those ‘extras’ with the new machine will be waiting for me.

After spending a couple days quilting on test sandwiches, I was ready to start working on the artichoke again. At first I thought the safe thing would be to simply echo quilt the image. I had already done one round of echo quilting with a variegated cotton thread. I switched to 100-weight silk in a matching color and did a round of echo quilting. It felt like incredible work, not the fun that quilting has always been for me. This is also not my usual style. By the time I got around the image I knew I would be changing my quilting design. Here is where I stopped to analyze my next steps:

 

 

And a detail

 

 

I was longing to do the smooth circular quilting I enjoy. I decided to go with circles, but not all the same shape or size. I am loving it so far.

 

 

I think I’ll have this done in short time. Exciting! Stay tuned.

If you’d like to review the beginnings of this work, click here.

I know that Spring is around the corner when I can bring home bunches of daffodils.

Be strong. Be patient. Be kind.