The Truly, Horrifyingly, Scary Halloween Quilt

A few years ago, I bought the Hocuspocusville pattern by Crabapple Hill. It's one of the embroidery quilts they designed for Halloween - twelve black floss on white background embroidered haunted houses/shops with a none-patch on point pieced center. Very cute. Lots of work. Like 2 years worth of embroidery and flame-ups of carpal tunnel syndrome from too much work.

I finally finished the quilt - just in time for Halloween! - just needed to block, bind, sleeve and label. Put it into my washer on gentle on cold, threw in a few color catchers (just in case). Opened the washer when it was done and, much to my horror, the black floss had bled, badly, all over the entire quilt. All of the previously white areas were now a dingy grey and because I had used a different fabric for the background for two of the blocks, it wasn't even the same dingy grey.

I've never fainted in my life, but I came very, very close this time.

So, I tried Synthrapol. Took out some, but still ugly. I tried Retayne. Also, took out some, but still ugly. I tried everything I could think of short of a bleach pen. Very nice people in my life told me, "It's okay." and "No, really, I kind of like it. It looks spooky."

Yeah. Spooky ugly. Especially since two of the twelve blocks reacted well to the washing - nearly reverting back to white. Had they all done this, I would have been satisfied. Not happy, but okay, but since the rest were still so dark, I had to do something!

After related my tale of woe to Lisa Jenni (art quilter extraordinaire), she suggest trying some discharge paste. Discharge paste isn't toxic to the fiber the way bleach is and it's thick enough to 'paint' on. So I tried it. First, on one block, where I went around everything. It took so long to do, I didn't bother trying to discharge the interior of the images. I was too afraid the floss would discharge and then it would be a total disaster.

Then I used a large brush and discharged the larger areas around the remaining 9 blocks.

So, it was better, but I couldn't leave it all that grey around each house. I kind of liked the interiors of the images the grey tint. The more I looked at it, and the more I showed it to friends, the more I grew to like this idea. So, I discharged the rest of the images.

But those top 2 center blocks still needed help. I had to figure out how to color them in so that they would blend with the rest of the blocks. Before coloring:

After coloring. I used a clear crayon then used 3 different colors to blend with the rest of the quilt images.

And, here's the 'finished' quilt:

Phew!

 

 

The Zion Collection

I finally got around to posting photos of the Zion Collection, a collection of 8 quilts I created using water colors created by fine artist Suze Woolf. She created her watercolors while serving as artist in residence at Zion National Park. I printed out the watercolors in different sizes and scales onto fabric and turned them into quilts. If you'd like to see them, visit my website.

Next up, I tell the epic story of the "Truly Horrifically Scary Halloween Quilt."

Sun Goddess - What to do with a boring quilt

I made a convergence quilt top a couple of years ago. The technique, shown in a book by Ricky Tims, is to take 2 pieces of fabric, cut them in varying widths of strips, sew them together, and repeat. It creates an interesting illusion, but not even interest for my taste. After mulling what to do, and getting great input from my buddies in my small quilt group, I decided to paint it. I almost just threw it away, so I had nothing to lose.

I found inspiration in the Sun Goddess that hangs on the wall on the back of the house. I took a digital photo of it, traced it, scanned the trace, printed it onto a transparency, projected it onto my design wall and copied it to a large pieced freezer paper for a template. I carefully cut out the design, separating the 2 halves of the sunbeams, and gently dabbed paint onto the surface of the quilt top. I was very careful to make sure that the paint wasn't wet or it would run.

I love the effect! This quilt, that I very nearly tossed into the garbage on more than one occaision now has personality. I cannot wait to stitch it!

Let's try one more

At the excellent suggestion of a friend, I've added one more piece to the value study - light trees, dark background. My trio has become a quartet.

Quilt 6 - Into the Woods

Into the Woods - 2012

This quilt was started on Day 6 of my quilting challenge in October 2009. It is a value study. It started as simple shapes but came to life as trees. I stitched the limbs of the trees on my Bernina home machine and quilted it also on that machine. The edges were zig zagged rather than a traditional binding.

Quilt 5 - Fierce!

Originally entitled "Oscar the Ostrich," I thought Fierce! was a much more apt name. This quilt was begun at the Empty Spools workshop in Asilomar, CA, in 2010, given by Hollis Chatelain. I started with a photograph taken by Denise Larsen at the Ostrich Farm in Aruba. The fabric was dye painted then thread painted and quilted. Angelika fibers were added to the background clouds to give them shimmer.

Fourth Quilt - Going With the Flow

Going With the Flow

I began this quilt on Day 5 - Actual Texture, creating texture with fabric and embellishment. If you go to the original work, you won't see the extensive beading. I also added a face to the center of the sun. This bead was made from an original glass bead. I made a mold and the fashioned this one out of clay and painted it. The Victorian lace beadwork on the bottom was all done by hand using a technique I learned from Larkin Jean van Horn's book "Beading on Fabric."

I promise this is the last blog post today.

Third Quilt Finished - Blowing Leaves

Blowing Leaves

This was orginally 3 fabric sketches studying focal point. Upon reflection, I decided that, when put together as a tryptic, I saw movement. I quilted it, added 3 dimensional leaves and beading. You can see what I originally did on my Day 7 post. 

Second Quilt Finished - Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

This little quilt was begun on Day 24 when I was studying landscapes. It is inspired by one of the many photos taken by my husband at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is simply breathtaking. If you cannot find inspiration there, I don't know that you can ever find inspiration.

August 2012 - A Month of Finishing Up

This is a month for finishing the work I began during October 2009 - dubbed Quiltober. During that month, I spent each day focusing on some aspect of quilting art. I learned many new things and ended up with a drawer full of UFOs. It's been almost 3 years now and it's time to see if I can do something with some of these fabric sketches. They are in varying states of completion. Some were actually 'finished' while others are fabric patches colored with PaintSticks.

Along with my Quiltober projects are quilts that I have been working on for years and just need some of my time. I do not have any illusions that I can finish one each day, but so far, I've gotten 4 finished. I will post them today and post again whenever I finish another.

Here's the first one I finished, a wholecloth shadow trapunto - quilting designs by Karen McTavish.

Blush - Wholecloth shadow trapunto

Month long quilt studies

Starting in December, I will be doing month long quilting studies. Each month I will pick one area/technique and really delve into it. I will start in December with Long Arm Quilting. I will work on everything from the best way to load a quilt, pantographs, stitch in the ditch, outlining applique', cross-hatch, micro meandering, McTavishing and quilting design. If you can think of something else I should try, please let me know.

In the future, I plan to work on the following:
- Fabric dyeing and painting (probably in the Summer)
- Whole cloth quilt design and practice a la Karen McTavish
- Dye painting/thread painting a la Hollis Chatelain
- Embellishment - probably May when Lyric Kinard is in town teaching a workshop
- Applique' - probably in September when Sandra Leichner is teaching a 2-day workshop
- Postcards, trading cards and gifts - in October to get ready to make items to sell in the boutique at BPQ's annual quilt show
- Landscape/Pictorial quilts
- Portrait quilts
- Working in a series

That's 10, including long arm quilting. Right now, I'm getting together a list of topics for each area and would love some input. I'll post as I get things more organized, and if anyone would like to quilt along with me, I'd love to hear what you are doing.

Ta ta for now!
Nancy

Two for One Threadplay with Libby Lehman

On Sunday, I took Libby Lehman's "Two for One Threadplay" class. In this class, you use two fabrics and create two mirror-imaged pieces.

The first step is to cut out three pieces of fabric (two of one, fabric A, and one of another, fabric B), add fusible to fabric B. The next step is the most fun - you must channel your inner-Kindergartener and draw funky shapes on the back of Fabric B (on the paper on the fusible web). You end up with ameoba-like shapes. Then you cut out the shapes and fuse the pieces on the outside to one piece of Fabric A and the center area to the other piece. The photo above is the result of the first steps.

After applying stabilizer to back of these pieces (to keep the fabric from bunching up when you sew onto the top of it), you go to town with decorative stitches and fibers, making sure to stitch over the raw edges. One one of the pieces, I stitched over the edges using a very cool variegated thread and used a technique that Libby refers to out-of-control satin stitching where I varied the width and length of the stitch. This made for a striking effect.

On the other piece, I used a variegated piece of yarn and couched over it, giving a softer effect.

I did not finish these projects. By around 3 pm on Sunday, I was wiped out (yes, quilting can be exhausting). They'll get tossed onto my pile of UFOs to be worked on at a later time (when I can no longer see over the pile.).

Circle This with Libby Lehman

I had the great pleasure of taking two classes this past weekend from Libby Lehman at our local quilt shop, Quiltworks Northwest. The first class was called 'Circle This'. Whenever I take a class, I assume that whatever I work on may very well end up in the trash or in my drawer of samples. Much to my delight, I actually ended up with something that I really like.

The project shown above was created by using reverse applique' and a nifty tool, called the circle maker, on my Bernina sewing machine. The gadget allows you sew perfect circles onto fabric from very small to wide. If you place one fabric on top of another, sew a circle, and cut away the top layer, you end up with a reverse appliqued circle. Then, using that nifty circle maker, you can sew over the raw edge using the decorative stitiches provided by your sewing machine. I tried it with with different variegated threads.

The bright green circle was created using two layers of organza. Because organza is so slippery, a circle cut out of freezer paper and ironed onto the fabric helps stabilize it for sewing. Some of the other circles were created by couching decorative piping and by bobbin drawing. Bobbin drawing is used for threads and embellishments that are too thick to go through your sewing machine's standard tension plates. Instead, you load your bobbin with the thread and sew with the wrong side of the fabric up.

Once I finished creating the top, I sandwiched the quilt as usual and quilted around the circles and did an overall looping pattern in the background. I applied the binding to the front of the quilt using my sewing machine and used 1/4 inch fusible tape to secure the binding to the back of the quilt. Fusibles aren't really permanent, so you have to sew down the edges. This is when I added the bright yellow frame inside the binding. I couched the irridescent thread onto the top using gold thread and a very narrow zig zag stitch. This not only secures the thread, but secures the back of the binding to the quilt at the same time. So easy!

Quilting has begun

I've renamed my quilt from the not-so-creative-yet-descriptive "Black Bear Paw" to "Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez." Why? Because the first thing my son said when he saw the quilt with it's golden threadwork on top was "Why did you make a New Orleans Saints quilt?" Good question considering that I am a die hard Minnesota Vikings fan.

Nonetheless, between the bright colors and gold threadwork that is reminiscent of the intricate ironwork you see in New Orleans, it really does look like a homage to the city.

Next, I will work on the fill-in quilting. Then it's on to blocking, binding and celebrating a job well done.

Life's too short to work on crappy quilts

I took a self-portrait quilting class recently and I've been struggling to finish the top I began. Problem is: I don't enjoy the process. So, anyway, here's the drawing and the work done so far. I think I'll put it in a drawer somewhere and see if it gets any more interesting later on...

Nov. 7 - Irish Chain traditional quilting

I have been working on a red and white Irish Chain quilt for a while now. The quilt is made up of extra blocks and partial blocks for a raffle quilt I organized several years ago. This year I decided to use the extra fabric and blocks and create a nice napping quilt for my mom. It's a traditional design, so I wanted to use traditional quilting designs. Each of the alternate (white) blocks is quilted with a feathered wreath with the background filled in with a small grid. The borders are filled with feathers.

After doing the work of marking and quilting this baby within an inch (literally) of it's life, I soaked it to remove the marking pen and to prepare it for blocking. As I pulled the quilt from the washer, my heart sank. The red fabrics ran. I KNEW that I had prewashed my fabric but somehow it still ran. My only hope was to try and see if I could somehow, please Lord, find a way to remove the dye. I ran the quilt through another hand wash sequence with Synthrapol and a Color Catcher. This removed all of the running areas throughout the body of the quilt, but the outside border was still decidedly pink. I ran it through several more times (I lost count. I was in a daze. I was shell shocked.) but still was only able to remove a small bit.

So, as you can see from the picture of the quilt, the border does have a darker tone. It did, however, run consistently.

Maybe my mom won't notice....

Day 31: What I've Learned

I've made it! A whole month of quilting challenges done. Today I chose to revisit the exercise I did on the first day of the challenge - the art quilt in a box. Below is a photo of the two compositions I created side by side. The one on the left was done on Day 1 and the one on the right was done today, day 31.



The theme for the composition this morning was 'joy' and I feel like I've done a fair job of capturing it. Below is a close up. If you are looking at this online, you might want to double-click on it to see a larger, more detailed photo. That way you will be able to see all of the work I did that doesn't really show up with a smaller pixel image.



To create it, I used leftover pieces of fabrics that had fusible on the back, included some Angelica fibers with Misty Fuse, used Paintsticks to create the spirals and color in the background. I used various decorative threads and some of the built-in stitches on my machine to decorate the composition.

So, what have I learned from this challenge?

• To relax.
• To be less of a perfectionist.
• That sometimes really neat stuff can happen when you least expect it.
• That adding organza circles can be genius.
• That Paintsticks aren't so bad after all.
• That I absolutely love silkscreening, dyeing and discharge.

So where do I go from here?

Next month I am going to work on my machine quilting. I do not plan on blogging every day, though. And I am most definitely taking tomorrow OFF.

Happy stitiching!

Day 30: Finishing up

Today was BLS day - bind, label and sleeve, the finishing touches necessary for all quilts. Some people may argue that a hanging sleeve and label are optional, but if you plan to exhibit your quilt or to give it to someone, both are necessary. You need the sleeve so that your quilt isn't hung on the wall with thumbtacks and you need the label for documentary purposes. You won't remember when you made the quilt when you've finished two more afterwards and should this quilt be passed down in your family, your kinfolk will want to know when granny created this piece of folkart.

Some people enjoy this part of the process. I find it boring. I don't enjoy binding quilts. Yes, it does keep my fingers out of the chip bag in front of the television, but that's about all that I find interesting about it. It's alot like basting for me - required but grunt work.

There are several different options for binding a quilt. Some small art quilts don't even have a binding - instead, the edges are finished via a short seam length and a few trips around the edges of the quilt with decorative thread. The standard binding, as shown above, is a 1/4 inch double binding created from 2 inch strips, sewed together on the bias and folded in half. The raw edge is sewn to the front of the quilt and the folded edge is folded over to the back and affixed via a blind stitch. Another binding option that is popular in the Seattle area is to have no binding showing on the front of the quilt. The binding fabric matches the backing fabric, is sewing to the border fabric on the front, turned like a pillowcase and the opening on the back is whipstitched.

The easiest way to create a sleeve is to use some of the leftover fabric from the backing, cut it about an inch shorter than the width of the quilt and 9 inches in height. Fold over the edges on the two short sides and sew, then sew a seam along the long side. Turn inside out and press. When you sew your binding to the front of your quilt, include the top of your sleeve at the top of the quilt on the back. You need to whipstitch the bottom of your sleeve or the sleeve will show when the quilt is hung. If you tack down the sleeve flat, when your quilt is hung, a bump from the hanging pole will show. An easy way to avoid this is to fold up the bottom of the sleeve by about an inch, press to get a seam guide and stitch. When you flatten the sleeve back down, you won't see the seam and when the quilt is hung, the extra inch or so will make room for the hanging pole.

The label. The hardest part about labeling the quilt for me is coming up with a name for the quilt. Remember, it's not art unless it has a name and a price, so I always name my quilts in hopes that some day someone might buy it. You would think that it would be easy for someone who used to write for a living to come up with a pithy name, but all creativity drains from my body whenever I have to come up with titles. The quilt at the top of the page is named "Black, White and Red All Over." Yeah, kind of hokey and done to death, but I warned you.

On your label, be sure to include the name of the quilt, the year it was created and your full name. Some quilt shows require full contact information on labels. I create a secondary label that contains all of the information and put it over my label whenever I send a quilt to a show because I don't want my full contact information on all of my quilts.

I create my labels on my computer - it makes for a clearer and cleaner label. Many times I do a big batch of labels for as-yet-unlabeled-completed quilts and soon-to-be-finished quilts. I also have a sheet of 'blanks' with the year and my name. For those labels, I write in the name of the quilt with a black Pigma pen (I iron freezer paper to the back of the label so that the fabric doesn't shift as I write.). I then heat set the ink with a dry iron so that I don't smudge the label while I'm stitching it to the back of the quilt.

That's it. The quilt is done.

Or is it?

I'm still thinking that some red hot-fix crystals would be a neat addition.

Day 29: Longarm quilting

My friend Barb Magill is a longarm quilter and invited me over to her quilting studio to give me a lesson on how to use a longarm quilting machine. I've tried using one of these behemoths several years ago and, frankly, it frightened me. The machine is huge and stitches very quickly.

Since that first try, I've spent several hours on my home machine quilting and feel confident in my abilities moving the fabric under the needle. When using the longarm, the fabric is rolled taut and it's the machine that you move. For something so large, it's amazing how easily it moves. I had to remind myself not to hold the handles in a death grip. With the stitch regulator, I was able, after practicing for an hour, to get comfortable enough to know that, if I needed to, I could do a fairly decent job doing larger scale stippling, looops, daisies and other curvy motifs.

I liked using the machine more than I thought I would. Still, I don't really have the space for it and for now, I'm going to stick to my Bernina (with it's stitch regulator) and work on quilts that are not king sized.

Day 28: Curves to soften edges

Geometric quilts can be very beautiful, but adding curves can soften the look and add interest. Today I added curves to previous compositions created this month. The quilt created in the Circle Play class does have circles in the center, but the combination of the black and white color scheme and the strong angles create a hard edged look. I decided to use a quilting scheme I've seen done on other quilts - I quilted using large curves.

Coming up with a template put me in a quandary. I tried the largest dinner plate I had, but it was too small. I tried the largest platter but it had a fluted edge. I finally found a glass topper for an occasional table (those three-legged press board tables that many use until they can afford the 'good stuff'). I used a variegated red and black thread for the quilting. It didn't pop the way I expected it to. I guess that just means I'll have to play with paint or hot fix crystals.

Quilted circle play quilt Closeup

The other piece I altered was one I created in the first week of this month - a study of color and shading. I call this one "Square Pegs in Round Holes." I used a gold organza, roughly cut into circles, and machine stitiched them over the green squares. I really like the effect.