wedding

What’s Happening!

January 9, 2020January 9, 2020 pamelapandolfi

Happy New Year everyone!!!🎊🎉

I’ve been working on the wedding quilt for my son and daughter-in-law over the past couple of weeks. I’m happy to say……I’m almost done with it!!!

I used a cotton and wool batting for the first time and I like the results. I did learn that I probably needed to pin baste closer together to avoid fabric shifting (like every 2-3” would have been perfect). It turned out nice and has a good weight to it! It will keep them warm for those winter nights!

I’ll be finishing it this weekend by squaring it up and binding.

That’s what’s happening! Thank you for reading my blog. I will be doing some quilt tutorial blogs in the near future. Please tell me if there’s anything you’d like to see!

Have a wonderful day!

art quilt, Featured, memory quilt

Getting work done!

August 4, 2019August 4, 2019 pamelapandolfi

This weekend I’m in Canandaigua, NY. Just being outside listening to the creatures in the woods, feeling the sun and wind on my face, and enjoying everything else that comes with being outside is extremely relaxing for me.

Brought my next project to paint. It was so peaceful to be outside painting.

Two projects just about finished and I’ll be moving onto other projects!!

art quilt, memory quilt, Uncategorized

Time to Re-Focus!!

July 28, 2019July 30, 2019 pamelapandolfi

I am sew embarrassed that I have two wedding gifts from 2 years ago that I have not completed. Sew, for the next few weeks, I am going to complete these gifts and give them! This is going to give me a good focus on the work I have to do now. I just started painting the fabric. I am planning on finishing this by the end of this week, and I can give it to the happy couple (my cousin). The photo in the middle is the quilt at the end of the painting stage. The original photo is on the far right. Next step is to quilt it and frame it.

The other part of this is that my work area is totally messy. I am focusing on re-organizing this space to get ready for a litany of projects I have to complete by the end of the year.

Since my teaching experience at AQS in April, I have decided to focus on teaching and competition quilts; andI will of course take any commissioned quilt work that comes along. This allows me to have a very specific focus that I could market and expand on!

Thank you for reading this post! I would love to read your comments!

Pam

Uncategorized

Wedding Preparations!!!

June 16, 2019June 26, 2019 pamelapandolfi

All the alterations are done! WooHoo!!! Had one bridesmaid gown, groomsmen pant suit, and the bridal gown alter. Pictures will be shown after the wedding on July 4th. I don’t want my son, Joe to see the gown.

Today, Mike and I tested out hanging the quilt on our family room wall. On the table in front will have a strip of fabric on it for the guests can write a little note to the couple. After the wedding, I will incorporate that strip in the backing of the quilt. My goal is to have the quilt totally quilted and complete for Christmas.

Now that all the sewing is done, it’s time me to clean the house.😳😝

Thank you for reading my blog! Have a wonderful day!❤️

Uncategorized

The Wedding

November 25, 2016March 13, 2017 pamelapandolfi

A wonderful woman from Texas sent me her parent’s wedding photo to make it into an art quilt. The following photos are showing it develop from just fabric blocking the colors to the painting process to bring this art alive.

I get nervous every time I do one of these pieces. What if I pick the wrong color or mess up on the painting or quilting? Do I have enough knowledge to fix my mistakes? It’s funny how I make multiple errors on my art and seem to find away to fix it. Plus, if I come to a point (which happens on many occasions in one piece) that I don’t know what to do or how to do it, I walk away and think about it. I tend to do the sewing or painting in my head first until I know it will work.

I don’t see my art as perfect by any means. It is a growing part and a way for me to express my creativity. I hope you enjoy seeing this and I would love to see/hear your comments!

Uncategorized

Sewing Curves!

September 12, 2016March 13, 2017 pamelapandolfi

My new project!! Double ring Quilt. If any of you know, it is one of the most difficult traditional quilts around. Why? Because you are sewing curved pieces most of the time.

Curved pieces have more stretch than the square or rectangle pieces because they are not cut on a straight of grain. This leads to unwanted stretching of each piece.

With a lot of trial and error, I figured out how to do it with some ease that hopefully these tips will help you as well. By the way, you will see some dark threads on the pieces. This is proof of my trials and mainly errors! I will be taking a tweezer to them one night and pulling them out when I’m watching TV.

I discovered that the concave curve (Yellow piece) is the longest and needs to “ease” into the convex (Blue piece).

Folding all of the curved pieces and lightly pressing them gave me the center of each piece. I pinned the pieces in three places starting with the center and then both ends. It will not lay flat until it is pressed.

I had to sew slow and math up the edges of the fabric approximately 1/4″ at a time. I held onto the blue fabric with my right hand and eased the yellow fabric in place. The feed dogs grabbed the yellow fabric more than the top fabric, and I allowed that to happen. It took some getting use to.

When it is all sewed together, all of my pieces looked like this. The ends of each piece and centers matched. The iron does the rest of the work. I found it easier to place the blue fabric on my iron board first and gently push the yellow fabric flat.

Just using the tip of the iron on the crease was just what the piece needed to lay totally flat. Remember I said that you are working with all curves? I didn’t have to clip the seam allowance because of those same curves!

As you look at the photo above, you can see the seem allowance from the right side of the piece. This is due to poor planning. Most of the double wedding ring quilts you see have a light colored background and darker colored curves. The curve can only be ironed one way. If I ironed the seam towards the blue, it would pucker and I would have to make those slits in it to work.

This is as far as I have achieved so far. The completed block on the top is the only completed block I have so far. By the end of the week, I will complete the rest and post it.

Thank you for reading this blog! Have a wonderful day!

Skills and Techniques, Uncategorized

T-shirt Preparation for Quilt

February 12, 2016February 16, 2018 pamelapandolfi

1. T-shirt front

2. T-shirt Back

T-shirts are a wonderful way to remember special occasions, events, and a myriad of other reasons. If you are one of the many people who can’t seem to give up those special t-shirts, putting them into a quilt is an excellent idea. You may use this tutorial for creating your own t-shirt quilt or see my Etsy shop for details of how I can do a custom quilt for you.

I want to add that you can use sweatshirts, sports shirts that are made of that waffle fabric, golf shirts (polo), etc. Use the same directions for the prep. Message me if you have any questions.

View #1 is the front and back of the t-shirt I am demonstrating today. Some t-shirts have printing on the back as well as the front. You may want to have both sides in your quilt or just one side. The preparation is the same.

It is very important to wash all of the t-shirts with your normal laundry detergent and 1/2 cup of White Vinegar. The vinegar will remove most or all of the odors.

After you have washed and dried your shirts, you can start cutting them apart. Be sure to lay the t-shirt flat on a table to have more accurate cutting. Make sure you leave at least 2″ around the design you want to use.

View #2 is showing to cut sleeves away from the shirt first. I like to cut close to the seams to allow as much extra fabric room as possible around the design.

View #3

4a. Cut along sides of t-shirt

4. Cut along sides of t-shirt

Next is to cut along the side seams of the t-shirt (view 3). This is where it is important to have the t-shirt laying flat. Most t-shirts do not have a side “seam” (where the manufacturer stitched it together). There should be some sort of a crease on the sides that you can follow and cut along that crease. If there is no crease, that is where laying it flat will show you that where that “crease” would be. Be sure to cut along both sides.