Quilting in Circles
Friday, June 12, 2009 at 6:45AM 
I have quilted and am ready to finish off the blue quilt. I stitched around each circle a couple of times using a regular stitch then did free motion circles to fill the rest of the space. They look like little pebbles or dragon skin to me.
Recently each quilt gets finished in a different manner. It seems like either they call for an elaborate border or no visible border whatsoever. Any frame or binding would detract from the simple, clean design that I am striving for on this one.
On a different topic, I have problems consistently photographing my quilts. I cannot get good detail, the colors are off, too bright, etc. I used to have a little Fuji 5 megapixel that I just pointed in the general direction and it took great pictures; zoom, close up, it did not matter. It finally wore out and I have had two higher priced 12 megapixel cameras since that don't take as good pictures. Inside, outside, no flash, flash nothing seems to resolve my problems. I'm thinking about getting a bottom of the line Canon SLR. Does anyone have a Canon or any other recommendations or advice for me?
art quilt, circle series, free motion quilting, pebbles, slr camera
Reader Comments (3)
Suzan, I have a busted up Olympus C-4000 Zoom. (I dropped it and the battery thingy broke, so I have to tape it to keep it closed.)
The best thing that works for me is to take photos in the shade or on overcast days. You want to avoid shadows. But, most of the work is done in the editing process. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements. I always have to lighten, decrease blues, crop, sharpen and tweak things until they get as close to the original as possible.
Did you take a look at the photography discussion in our Fiber Focus Group? There are some good tips there. There are also lots of excellent tips in Etsy's forum and on YouTube. There is just no getting around it. Taking good photos is work! (At least it is for me...)
I can't help you with the camera -- I have to have a cheapie at my house with the kids around. (I don't even know how many I've gone through in the past few years!) But that quilting is beautiful!
Suzan,
I have an older digital Canon Digital Rebel. I really like it, and have had no problems with it. I started using Canon when I married my hubby 27 years ago. It is what he had. Since all my lenses go from one to the other, I stayed with Canon and have been really happy. That's what I used to take the picture in my last blog. Also all the quilts in my profile.
Frances