Many of you, from all over the world, are familiar with my very special "Nun's Quilt" story and the seven year journey she has put me on. Her story continues to unfold and reveal itself and I have now been put on another journey of sorts...recreating her.
I was going to withhold sharing my new quilt, "Sister Act" until the end of next year when she was done but she is so special I wanted to share her journey of being created WHILE she was being created. I'm not at liberty to divulge why I am creating a second piece, or why I am also creating a miniature of the Nun's Quilt...you'll have to stay tuned!
I spent many days tracing a full quarter of the Nun's Quilt onto vinyl using a Sharpie marker and then copied it four times and created a close-to-exact duplicate of the original linen.
Then I spent nearly six weeks, every night, tracing all the images from the paper onto a large piece of beautiful bone-colored linen yardage. The piece was pin basted, straight basted for stability, and then the quilting was started.
I usually try and create a small sample testing out threads and with this quilt it was especially important. I ended up using Superior Threads' Tire Silk 30 wt. for all the heavy outlining; Magnifico for the thread play in the thistles and Kimono silk for the fill work and details. I could see before hand what was going to work and what wasn't. I also made a few photocopies of this sample showing the thread color numbers just in case I lost the sample...ask me why I did this!!!
These photos show how I'm outlining all the primary designs as well as all the bridgework on the original linen in the heavy #30 Tire Silk. You can also see my straight basting lines added for stability.
I will be adding beadwork to all the same areas on this piece that were on the original Nun's Quilt. Since the outline work is nearly 85% complete I feel confident enough to start doing the tight detail fill work in the center. This gives me a much deserved break from the tedious outline work!
I hope you've enjoyed this sneak peek into a very special quilt's journey. I will share more details as I go along!
Hugs, Cindy :)