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....