Slip Slidin' Away

I’ve been having fun using a new gadget called SewSlip. It is a smooth white surface that covers the bed of my sewing machine. Fabric slides easily around on the slick surface while free-motion quilting. I can no longer blame any little glitches in my stitches on my machine bed’s irregularities. The 12 by 18 inch sheet has a permanent tacky back that holds it in place on the machine. It is easily removed when your work is finished. My dear cyber friend Del Thomas sent me the SewSlip as a present. Thank you, Del.

Now that I am not struggling with the quilt sample sandwich I can relax and have fun. However, I did learn something profound. I’m never going to be Diane Gaudynski or Sally Bramald or Harriet Hargrave. (Click on their names to learn more about them.) Those marvelous women can feather and stipple and trapunto with grace and beauty.

I’ve hand-quilted for years because I can go slowly and get the effects I want.
However, my free-motion quilting looks just like my pencil and pen sketches, which are kind of sloppy. The experts advise “draw your motif on paper and practice it, then go to your machine and follow the same motions with your stitches.” When I could not achieve smooth feathers and stipples with the sewing machine I looked at my sketches. Sure enough, my machine quilting looks exactly like my sketches.

Well, what did I expect? I expected to change my entire lifetime of drawing and suddenly become precise and meticulous on a sewing machine. That is not going to happen. Stippling and feathers are not in my future. But perhaps I can achieve the look of my finished drawings with ripples and sweeps across my quilts. We will see.

Here are two finished drawings from the 1970s. That’s how I draw. Just because it is 2010 I’m not going to try to become Vermeer, Rembrandt, or da Vinci. I think I can aspire to move like Frank Stella or Jackson Pollock or Judy Chicago.