Struggle for Perfection II

This one is finished and ready to put on the website for sale!
As part of the Visioning Project I am making 5 quilts in a series by October. Two are done and two are in the works. Looks like I am going to make my goal despite all the interruptions from real life!

Feedback on blog format

First THANK YOU to all the readers and commenters of my blog! I really appreciate you.

I have reformatted my blog and would like your feedback. My goal was to make more space for content and have less big white blank borders on the sides. Does everything fit okay on your computer monitor? Does anything look awkward?  Since everyone has various sized monitors, I have no idea how this looks to you!

Also here is a close up of the Orbit gum -- love those circles.  Doesn't Bernina make an attachment that will make perfect circles? 

Blue with Circles Completed

Blue with Circles

14" x 38" (approximate)

Cotton fabric, cotton batting, acrylic paint, machine quilted

$200

Detail of Blue with Circles. There are lots of subtle details in this quilt (quilting, stamping, silkcreen, kalideoscopic circles). It does not scream, but talks softly.

Here is the subject of my next quilt:

It is a photo of my grandparents and aunt. I'm doing a tribute quilt as a gift for my aunt.

My grandmother always had such great style no matter what the situation. Look at her spotless shoes. She wore a size 7 and had the best shoes. I was in 7th grade when I started borrowing her shoes.

The back of the quilt looks better than the front?

As I put the finishing touches on the blue circles quilt it struck me that I liked the back of the quilt just as much as I liked the front! This is my first experience with that. The front is supposed to the focal point and the back, is just that, it's the back.

But the quiting on this quilt really shows up on the back. It is simple, clean and graphic. The squiggled circles are perfect in their imperfection. They are doodles, a stream of consciousness, evidence of the human hand.

I like them so much that the next quilt in my circle exploration series will be a whole cloth quilt with this type of doodle quilting! My experience with whole cloth quilts has only been with white on white. I think the contrast between the blue thread on muslin is what attracts me with this one.

Next weekend I'll post the finished blue circles quilt.

Have a creative week!

Suzan

Quilting in Circles

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?