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.

Day 27: Hand beading

Today was my day to experiment with hand beading. This is something I've wanted to do for quite a while but was anxious because I didn't know where to begin and I had visions of chasing small beads around the room. My small quilting group met today and I needed some hand work, so beading it was. It helped that I hosted the meeting at my house so any errant beads would be a mess I could clean up rather than a mess at someone else's house.

I started with a piece that I created at the beginning of this month of quilt challenge - actual texture. This piece is a collage using many different types of fabrics. It's calm and pleasing albeit a bit boring. It would definitely lend itself to some embellishment.

I picked up some tubes of beads at my local Fred Meyer for cheap and began adding some interest. I decided that the round orb (sun or moon, you pick) could use a little shimmer, so I beaded one half. People tell me this composition looks like fish swimming, so I added a bit of green for the shore little beads as a school fish.

The result is alot more vibrant. Of course, I think it still can use a little more work, so this one will have to remain in my 'working' bin of the quilt studio.

Day 26: Double-sided thread painting

When I went to the La Connor Quilt Show earlier this month I saw a beautiful quilt of a crane. After oo-ing and ah-ing over the threadwork, a volunteer working at the show informed me that I was actually looking at the BACK of the quilt. I walked around to the other side and, lo and behold, I saw the front, an even more beautiful, heavily embellished piece of quilt art. The clever quilter had filled her bobbin with the same thread as the needle, creating a double-sided masterpiece.

I didn't have time today to create such a masterpiece but I did have some time to do some doodling. I stamped one piece of fabric, the front, with a fun gecko stamp painted with a moss green.

Then I waited for the paint to dry, sandwiched the same fabric on the back with batting in between, loaded my bobbin with the same thread and my needle and began to paint with thread. I used two different threads. Then I checked the back. The first bobbin I used was already filled and I discovered that it was filled with thinner thread. The fill in was pretty light. So I changed threads and filled in again. The back still needed work - the front had paint so there were areas I obviously missed. Finally, I turned the piece over and did a final pass over the geckos.

Front Back

Day 25: Thread embellishment

Today I took the composition from yesterday and used free motion quilting in various colors of thread to embellish the piece. I added the striations for the canyon and focused on the wispy clouds in the sky.