Tutorial with Sue Kanamoto

We were privileged to have been invited to Sue's home where she showed us how she went about creating her masterpiece. Tittled "Patterns of Transformation" her quilt is full of rich details.



For me her quilt was not just another quilt but rather a painting made with fabric. I did ask her what was her inspiration for the quilt and she told us that she had the 2 ladies sitting around in her sewing box for over 20 years and wanted to do something with them before they frayed too badly to be used.

If you looked closely, the cliff edges behind the ladies were actually taken from a fish fabric! Such was the ingenuity Sue showed with the selection of her fabrics.

We asked how Sue went about selecting the fabrics for the different textures, she said the fabrics chose themselves. She didn't necessarily pre selected them but rather they took a life of their own.

Sue started the quilt by sketching out the picture on the table.



She then traced the area she was working on with wax paper. And cut of the shape of that sketch.



At this time, she already has a fabric in mind, and then proceeded to iron the wax paper on the fabric, on the right side ie on the top of the fabric.




She then trimmed the fabric around the wax paper shape, leaving an allowance of about 1/4 " all round.




Note that the wax paper is ironed right side up.


Then she snipped the fabric around the wax paper at regular intervals to help the fabric turn in easier since the shape of the wax paper does have a lot of curves.



Then the fabric is turned down to ensure that they will lie flat rather easily.


Repeat the steps for the corresponding shape and fabric that you will attach this part to. Sue numbered the pieces to help her remember which piece goes where because after a while you may find that you are working with what looks like jigsaw pictures. When in doubt she returned to the sketch and compared the shapes.



After making sure that the two pieces fit together, she pinned the two.



And started sewing. She used a looped stitch.



I did start with something while I was there but my sewing room is in a mess at the moment. Will put up my work as soon as I start working on it again.

Silver lining

I havent had the chance to touch my sewing machine the past couple of weeks due to my current hobby of attending cooking classes with Chef Marianne Mussi. I attended 2 so far, a three course meal class and a chocolate themed class.

I am truly grateful that my DH is very supportive of my hobbies. Be it cooking class or fabric.

I've been busy preparing the house for the arrival of my in laws. Hence the rush to get proper storage space to minimize the clutter, that had built up since their last visit, in the guest room. Very timely actually because I had been procrastinating the trip to IKEA for ages. We finally bit the bullet and went and got the shelves we wanted as well as 2 tables. One for our office and the other for my sewing room.

I have left my sewing room as the last item in my list and look forward to arranging it tomorrow. Truth is I have more fabric than I do have the space to accommodate them. I bought more fabric than I did sew. My weakness really.

With the new table I hope to set up the laptop and my Bernina embroidery module. I was extremely excited when we managed to make Ev's work about 2 weeks ago. It took us 3 heads and about 2 hours. I was very excited.

SO things are shifting towards the right direction. I just need the concentration and the inspiration to put my sewing room in order such that my creativity will be released and I'd be sewing again in now time.