Best Laid Plans

The sewing table is ready, but I still haven't gotten back to sewing.  We have cheatgrass in the yard, which is pretty, but terribly invasive.  It dies off and turns brown by early July and does not provide adequate nutrition for the deer and elk, so it goes ugly fast.  DH weed-whacked most of the wild grass (no formal lawn here), but I am pulling the cheatgrass by hand from about 1/4 of the yard.  Then, we wait and see what happens next year.  Why am I telling you this?  My poor body is getting badly abused from grass pulling and dandelion digging.  Machine quilting forces the body to be in one fairly intense position without much moving around even if you have a good chair, table the right height, etc.  Stiff necks are very common, but right now it is my whole body that is stiff in spite of my daily exercise routine, stretching and walking the dog.

So what do I do when I am not sewing?  Cleaning house goes only so far.  I don't bake because we have cut out sugar and carbs as much as possible.  So I design.  I lay in bed in the morning free motion thinking as I awaken, and slowly the ideas are coming together for another quilt.  I killed time some months ago between projects making four paper pieced stars, each different.  Then I moved on and let them sit.  They have given me a start for new ideas.  As for the stars I don't use, I am thinking I might cut them into 2" strips and use them for part or all of a border.  I don't know if that will work or not, but it will be fun to try.  I should be able to make this quilt from my stash.  Won't that make DH happy?

I started with a design from Carol Doak's "50 Fabulous Paper-pieced Star" page 122, which I drew in Illustrator.  You can do this on paper, but I like working it out on the computer.  I changed the slant of one line just because.  I drew a hexagon for the center.

Two spokes of a star.  One hexagon.

Then I created a star by putting the two star pieces together and rotating the whole by 90 degrees three times to get all eight points.

Next I rotate the whole star three times until I have four stars.  Then I begin to take design pieces to add to the outside.  From here I just play.  For the center, a hexagon (6 sides) in an octagonal (8 sides) star?  Yes!  It doesn't "fit," but can be worked in a way that adds a slight bit of visual tension, which also adds interest.

TIP:  Don't be afraid to break the rules.  Many rules are mere guides.

I got this to a point where I sort of liked it, but wasn't truly happy.  I played with colors.  I put the hexagon in the center, which was a glowing success after I colored various, surrounding pieces so it looks like it flows out into the greater design (not shown here).  Once I was happy with a version of the whole I began to change colors here and there until I finally ended up with something that spoke to me. As I changed colors in different places I found designs within designs and nested boxes.

Another way to play with designs is to create a line drawing and fill it with color.  That's what all those colored pencils are for - right?

So far I have been playing, looking for design and color and sometimes my computer precision goes wonky.  Before I begin a quilt I will go back to the beginning and make sure that every line and connection is precise so I don't end up trying to sew things that got distorted and no longer fit together.  You are welcome to copy and enlarge the above and color it in if you want to.  I would love to see what you come up with.

TIP:  Simplicity.  Remember the whole design is nothing but one pieced triangle in a right and a left version.  Like the cells of your body make you a complex whole, so is a quilt design.

Sew some happy seams this week or have fun drawing out your creative ideas.

P.S.  My final design, because of color changes, shows no evidence of having begun as stars!!

Thread Painting Prep Technique on Trial

I can finally see the light at the end of the Phoenix tunnel.  The bird is on the quilt and I am quilting the lower third where fire burns under the bird.  I hope to be done by the end of the month.

So...what is next?  I will be doing a thread painted portrait of my grandson.  Those of you who follow me regularly have seen my first attempt.  My colors were wrong so I will be shopping for thread in brown tones to accommodate his Asian skin.  Forget the pink!  I will also be trying a new technique.

Original Photo

There are three methods for prepping a portrait to be thread painted.  For all three you posterize a black and white version of the photo in an image editing program (I use Photoshop).  This will give you delineation of the values needed (4-6 is best).  Any more than 6 values and you will probably go crazy.  There are three ways to carry on from here.

Posterized black and white

1.  Using fusible fabric.  Print two copies on freezer paper, one as a guide, the other to cut into pattern pieces.  You don't have to cut every teeny, weeny dot; the cuts can be a bit more general.  The pattern pieces and the guide must all be carefully marked.  Lea McComas  has an excellent system, which she describes in detail in her book, "Thread Painted Portraits."  The cut pattern pieces are used to cut fabric to which fusible material has been applied.  Again, her book has all the details and photos to help.  I used this method for my bird and I like the depth that is achieved.  Not all parts are completely covered with thread so the underlying fabric peeks through and adds richness to the texture.  The example below is loosely thread painted as I wanted to give the illusion of ruffled feathers.  The point here is that the different fabrics add to the illusion.

Ruffled feathers on the Phoenix

2.  Using a photo printed on fabric.  I took a class from Lea and saw some work she has done with this method.  You back your fabric with freezer paper and print the black and white, posterized photo right onto fabric that has been treated so the ink won't run. The thread painting covers the black and white ink and is not noticeable unless you really look closely.  Click to enlarge and look between thread lines to see the gray background.  That's what I did with my first attempt at a portrait.  This portrait was not successful because of the colors of thread I chose.  The prepping was fine and I would call that part successful.

Practice piece (bad thread colors)

TIP:  If you are afraid to run fabric through your printer you can print on Sulky Sticky and stick it to  your fabric.  Even if you have to print on two pieces and match with a small overlap it works fabulously.  I cut my printed Sulky Sticky out around the head and shoulders so my background fabric remained uncovered.  A big plus is that you don't take a chance of ruining the background fabric and/or your printer when printing.  You also don't have to send it out to one of the companies that will print it for you (unless you plan on a huge quilt).

3.  Printing with color on fabric (or Sulky Sticky).  I am a Photoshop junkie so this may not work for you if you don't have any interest in or expertise with a photo imaging program.  I made my black and white posterized image and then, with the free-form pencil on a separate layer I traced around the lightest value and filled that space with the lightest color I intend to use.  Then on another layer I traced and filled the next darker value with that darker color. . . and so on.  It took me a lot less time than cutting little, irregular pieces of fabric.

Two of the color values traced (each is on its own layer in Photoshop)

Instead of printing black and white I will print the color version and use matching colors of thread, blending the edges where different colors meet.

Posterized color version ready for printing

This is my own idea so I will have to let you know how it works.  I also have to test the ink on Sulky Sticky to make sure is won't run.  I can do that with the practice version that I made in December.   I am thinking out loud here.  We'll see how it works. . .

. . . but I have to FINISH the Phoenix first!

TIP:  Plan ahead.  That way you have plenty of time to work out at least some the bugs before you start sewing the next project.  I hate UFOs.

Sew a happy seam this week.

Travels and Quilting

I have been almost all the way across the width of Beautiful America in the last two weeks to celebrate the graduation of two grandchildren, one from Florida State U and the other from Washington State U.  We had such a good time with them and their families.

I find that my interest in quilting has influenced my way of looking at the world.  As we drove those many miles I kept picking out patterns and designs that might have a place in quilting as well as colors created by nature that would look nice in a quilt palette.  I keep a lot of ideas on Pinterest, but there are a ton more in the world around us.

Check out the carpets and upholstery of the places you visit.  People look askance at me as I walk into hotels, theaters, and restaurants and start taking pictures of the carpet.  Some floor coverings are truly beautiful.  This restaurant upholstery has some lovely colors as well as designs.

Upholstery in an Indian restaurant.

Other places from which I draw inspiration are gates and fences.  They come in grids, diamonds, wrought iron curls and scrolls, split rail (interesting triangles), pickets, etc.  Driving across the country I saw lots of variety.

How about a bas relief from Pompeii?  Cobblestones, bricks and walls often provide inspiration.  

Bas Relief from a bathouse in Pompeii, Italy

Cobblestones laid in patterns.  Wall of design.  These also from Pompeii.

I love wind turbines.  They are HUGE as I discovered when we passed a single wing on an elongated semi-truck.  When you look at the standing turbine it is hard to fathom how big they really are.  In some places large forests of turbines sprouted from the flat prairies.  I find them calming in their slow, productive rotation.  One morning they stood tall and white against the pink rising sun anchored in a soft cushion of light ground fog.  So pretty.  Do they relate to quilts?  I don't know, but they are in my mind so may appear in a design somewhere, sometime.  No photos because we always saw them from the Interstate - not a good place to stop.

In a forest of deciduous trees I see stippling in the leaves.  How about making the stipple in the shapes of leaves?  Must try that.  

Leaf Stippling

Long leaf pines remind me of the tight, straight lines that I often use around feathers in my quilting.  The infant trees look like a clump of grass among the tall, straight trunks of older members of their kind.

Long leaf pines

While in Florida we visited Leon Sinks Geological Area, Tallahassee.  Hidden in the beautiful forest were many sinkholes, some dry and some with water.  The most beautiful was so quiet and pretty, and it had circles repeated all over the water surface from tiny fish and insects.  The colors would also make a gorgeous quilt.

Finally, I found McTavishing in the clouds.  They can be a constant source of inspiration and are always changing.

A cloud for McTavishing.

I also noticed along the road huge billboards advertising quilt stores.  We have come a long way in recent years ladies and gents.  I waved to the Handi-Quilter truck as it rumbled by.

Happy stitching this week.

Fusible Methodology

I am busy again building my Phoenix bird and have developed a methodology, which helps with color choices.  I made enough errors at first that I have two nice pieces on which to practice thread painting, but that can't continue so I will share with you how I ended up managing the process.

Iron fusible material to the back of selected fabrics.  I use Soft Fuse, which I buy in a roll, but it also comes in sheets.

Fused fabrics

Draw the finished design on freezer paper in ink for better visualization and to use as a master copy.    Trace a copy in pencil also on freezer paper.  Number the pieces, note the intended color of each one and mark the edges where you will leave 1/4 extra fabric (little red arrows).

Master copy of drawing

Place the master copy on the ironing board and press it down (it is freezer paper after all).  Lay a silicone sheet over it.  You should be able to see the drawing through the sheet.  A few pins will hold it in place.

Now you are ready to cut up the pencil copy as I discussed in a post last month, cut the fabric around your little freezer paper patterns, and tack them onto the silicone sheet with the tip of the iron using the drawing underneath as your guide.  Align the freezer paper edges of each piece with the adjoining pieces, just like working on a puzzle.

TIP:  Cut out one little pattern piece at a time.  Don't cut up the whole thing while you are watching tv.  You'll never find which piece goes where.

Align the freezer paper patterns

This is where I ran into problems.  I couldn't see how the fabric colors interacted as I proceeded.  It was a little like painting with a blindfold on.  The colors on my pattern sometimes needed to be slightly changed.  My first attempt became a tester for thread painting because it was way too yellow for my red bird.  I had to draw a new pencil copy from the master copy and start over.  My solution to the visualization problem is to pull off the freezer paper pieces as soon as there were no more edges to align with that piece.  This way I could better see how the colors were working out as I went.

Remove patterns to assess color

Ahhh!  Much better.  Yes, I had to do my bird's wing over, but now it looks really nice, and I am a happy camper.  I also had to do one set of tail feathers over.  The cost of doing business I guess, but it has been very handy to have these cast-a-ways for thread painting practice.

TIP:  I've said it before, but in case you forgot, I repeat.  Maintain a positive attitude and turn your creative brain loose to solve your problems.

When all the pieces have been assembled with freezer paper patterns removed, you may want to make a change or two.  You still can by gently pulling pieces apart and replacing what you don't like.  When you are happy cover the completed artistic creation with another silicon sheet and iron it all together.  When cool, you can lift the whole thing off the sheet at once and put it up on your design wall.

TIP:  Always remember to admire your beautiful work and pat yourself on the back!  You may keep this tip private, but it is important to feel good about what you are doing.  If you don't, then step back and figure out what is bothering you.

One more comment on the color problem.  I often preview my colors by designing in Illustrator, but this was too complex a design and I didn't want to take the time to draw every feather on the computer.  Pencil is easier for me in this case!  Colored markers or crayons?  Can't make changes.  Colored pencils?  I don't have enough color variety in my set.  Watercolor paint?  Possible.  I didn't even think of using them until now.  The other thing is that colors on paper or computer do not always translate into the fabrics available.

TIP:  Sometimes you just have to make what is available work for you.  That's where creativity is a real friend.  Your artistic ability is there, and the more you use it, the better you get.

Happy stitching this week.

Looking Ahead, Stuck Behind

Now I am in limbo.  I am quilting my quilt with Kimono Silk thread from Superior, which is lovely thread and nice to work with.  The downside is that I have to order it online.  I ran out of the thread for my border three inches from the end of the last side, on the final side of a feather.  So my quilt sits sullenly on my sewing table waiting for the thread to arrive for the five minute finish.  What is a girl to do but start a new project?  I am a "finisher," but never averse to a fresh start when circumstances dictate.

The new project is a Phoenix that I adapted from the beautiful artwork of my 15 year old granddaughter, with her permission.  She had decorated her father's iPad with it so I took a photo, made some minor changes so I can sew it, enlarged it and have admired it basking in it's own paper glow on the sewing room bed.  With a 20% rewards discount and a $20 gift card I spent an hour in the candy - I mean quilt store and bought my fabric for about half price.  What a deal, and I am so eager to get started.

What am I going to do?  I am going full bore into thread painting this gorgeous red bird.  I have never done any serious thread painting so I am using the pattern of one wing only to experiment with the process.  Am I the only one who starts a new technique running instead of walking?  Wish me luck!

First I used my new Inktense pencils to "paint" the background as in the original artwork.  I will fuse the Phoenix onto this background and then thread paint.  The bird is made up of many feathers, which I will cut from batiks and fuse to the background.

Here is the process as suggested by Lea McComas:

Trace a line pattern on freezer paper from the full-sized, printed design marking with little red arrows where extra fabric will be cut to fit under the adjacent piece.  The color of the fabric to be used is noted on the pattern piece.

Full-sized pattern (color at 50%) with line drawing on top.  This will not be cut.

Cut the freezer paper pattern apart on the drawn lines (sorry no photo before I cut it apart).

Iron fusible material to the back of the fabric.  I use Soft Fuse, but I hear Misty Fuse is excellent too.  Press the freezer paper patterns to the right side of the appropriate fabrics and cut them out.  I love this method as you don't have to remember to reverse the pattern as you would do if you were marking the fusible itself.  That would drive me nuts on a complex piece like this.

Left: front side with freezer paper patterns. Right:  fusible material on the back side of fabric.

Pattern piece cut with extra fabric as needed to go under another piece.  See the red arrows?

Lay the uncut line pattern on a light table and tape it down securely.  Cover it with a teflon sheet (you can see through it) and arrange the pieces on it.  Carefully lay another teflon sheet on top of the arranged pieces to protect your iron from errant fusible gunk.  Iron it all together, let cool, and lift the fused fabric off the teflon in one solid piece to the background fabric.  Iron to the background fabric.

Test piece for practice.

Create a quilt sandwich so you can test the quilting process and threads.

This small piece (12 x 18 in) is strictly for testing, but it has taught me a lot already.  It consists of one full-sized wing of the bird on a full-sized example of the background.  I will use pencil to lightly mark the outlines of some of the feathers and thread painting will blend and shade colors as needed.  What did I learn so far?

1.  I need to make the line drawing twice on freezer paper with all the markings.  One will serve as reference and the other will be cut apart.

2.  This is an insane puzzle so I need to number each little pattern piece to avoid spending so much time trying to figure out where the pieces go.  They don't look the same when the extra fabric is included on some sides, but not all.

3.  I need to allow for better gradations of color from light gold to red.  These fabrics are from my stash and are not the ones I will use for the real quilt.  Some are woven and some are batik.  I have some really luscious, blendable batiks, but I didn't want to use them up on the tester.  I also wanted to see how woven fabrics work with the thread painting.

4.  I don't want the background to show through any fabric (see the yellow on the right).  I need to use a darker fabric, or line the light fabric, or not paint the background where the bird will fly.  The latter is my choice.

The next part of the project is to try my hand at thread painting.  I also want to see how my fabric markers work on the painted background, but now my blue, silk  thread has arrived and I must finish my other quilt.  I'll come back to the Phoenix while the other quilt dries on the blocking board.

TIP:  Take the time to test if there is any uncertainty of the results.  It is well worth the time it takes, as you can see.  A little extra practice is never wasted.

Stay tuned to find out what other challenges surface with the tester that have to be addressed before making the quilt.

Galaxies

Did you figure out how Galaxies was made?  It is all paper pieced, but you already figured that out.  It is made from several major shapes, which are broken down into a log cabin type design using triangles instead of rectangles.  When the shapes are put together they create a 60º wedge.  Put the wedges together and you have a hexagon.

I think I would call this an advanced design for quilters.  There are a lot of difficult seams to match and points to stitch correctly.  It takes time.  The top black pieces are all part of a triangle shape so it is made of little paper pieced triangles like the colored part.  The side black pieces are large pieces of fabric - no seams.

Coloring in the little triangles is what makes the design move.  All of the triangle shapes have mirror images of each other, either horizontal or vertical, and with the same or different coloration.  The hexagon and pentagon are just what they are.  However, on each side of the pentagon notice the rhomboid shapes (skewed rectangles or parallelograms with unequal sides and angles).  They have been colored differently from each other to give movement to the hexagon.  They also create an unusual black shape at the bottom because some of the little triangle pieces are cut from black fabric.  Below is the the complete drawing of the design.  Add black fabric for the corners and you have a square quilt.

Illustrator drawing of Galaxies.

See last week's post to see the actual, finished quilt.

You can take a design like this, color it differently and have a totally different looking quilt.  Tons of fun!  I always color one wedge and then let Illustrator rotate it around the center to see the complete design.  Then I live with it for awhile, present it to my husband, incorporate his thoughts and try again.  This generally goes on for days, but it is fun to have him involved in the design process.  He has good ideas.

TIP:  What can I say?  Have fun.  The design process takes time.  It needs to percolate through your days and your nights.  It is easy to make changes at this stage.

Quilt Colorado Show

One week of total fun with a great bunch of cousins and another week opening boxes that have been in storage for 20 years.  It was like Christmas in July.  Now to recover and get back to work.

Before tackling the unpacking my daughter and I absconded and went to see Quilt Colorado, which is a great show put on by the Colorado Quilt Council.  This year it was open to members only, but with over 800 members there were lots of beautiful entries.  There were numerous categories and lots of winners so I didn't take photos of all the winners, just the quilts that struck my fancy.

The "Best of Show" was awarded for "Fire in the Sky," which was absolutely exquisite.  Alice Kay Arnett's piecing was excellent and Sherry Reynolds' quilting was, once again, impeccable.  I wish I had a photo of the back as it was as beautiful as the front.  I also wish I had taken detail photos.  Live and learn!

Fire in the Sky by Alice Kay Arnett, pieced by Sherry Reynolds - Best of Show

Here is another quilt with beautiful quilting, which won "Best Home Machine Quilting."  I did get photos of the details, which follow.

Sunlit Circles by Ann Petersen.  Best Home Machine Quilting

"Affairs of the Heart" reminds me of a "Dear Jane" quilt with all the small blocks, each different from the others.  All the blocks have a heart theme.  I was especially attracted by the black background, which made the many colors glow.

Affairs of the Heart by Barb Donaho

I loved this kitty just because.  He looks like he is ready to jump out and catch a fly...or something.

His Arms Open Wide by Teresa Rives - Meritorious

This is a stunning, artistic quilt with the orchids beautifully highlighted against a dark background.

Orchids by Sharon Schlotzhauer - 3rd place Mixed Media Innovative

I think this was the most colorful quilt in the whole show.  It jumped right off the rod and made you want to dance and exclaim, "Wow!"  It deservedly won "Best Use of Color and Design," and is a lovely example of the Modern Quilt with color, line, movement and dimension.

Second Encounter by Shirley Gisi - Best use of Color and Design

Enough for today.  There are a few more, which I will share in the next post.

Storm at Sea

Today I am returning to Memory Lane with a Storm at Sea quilt.  Unfortunately the color looks dull on this page.  It is really quite vibrant even though some of the colors are pastel.  I used Michael Miller's Fairy Frost fabrics for the light colors.

After the Storm

This is a fascinating pattern and has been done numerous times with almost as many variations as quilts.  It is interesting, it is colorful and it has amazing movement, and it all happens with only two blocks and a variation on one of those two blocks as demonstrated below.

These were drawn on Adobe Illustrator with precision in mind.  After I had drawn the basic pieces I set them together in the general design of the common "Storm at Sea" and began to add color.  I actually did only one quarter of it because all four quarters are exactly the same.  It is like working in a coloring book, which I loved doing as a child.

You don't have to, but I paper pieced the blocks because I like the precision I get with this technique, and the pieces are pretty small.  The blocks are only 4" square with the diamond being 2"x4."  Of course, they can be made any comparable size you want.  I have done a miniature with 2" blocks and have seen it done with 8" blocks.  I labeled every column (8 of them) with a letter.  I labeled every row with a number (1-8) and the center row with a capital C.  On each quarter I only needed one of the center row as the other center column (that would be the  "i" column) goes on the adjoining quarter.  A color print of this labeled quarter was pinned to my design wall to keep me on the straight and narrow.

I keep old envelopes in a sewing drawer for organization purposes.  These are just small mailing envelopes and I labeled each one in pencil (so I can erase and use them for the next project):  1a, 1b, 1c…….., 2a, 2b, 2c,…….., etc.  That is a lot of envelopes and each one ended up with four of its labelled block, one for each quarter of the quilt.  A shoebox is nice to keep them all corralled.  Once organized like this I was able to take my box of completed blocks to Quilt Camp and put it all together without having to think very hard.  Even so, when I got home I noticed 4 blocks either in the wrong place or turned 90º or 180º.  Yes, I had to haul out the seam ripper, turn, and restitch.  I think I had to make one block over again from scratch, but considering that I had 288 blocks all together it could have been worse.

Once complete, I added a seaworthy fabric as a frame.  The quilting is an edge-to-edge ocean wave sort of design.  See, I am getting better.  I tried a new pattern for my quilting and got lots of practice doing a simple, curvy design so I could concentrate on moving my quilt around and keeping my stitches even….and I didn't even have to mark the quilting lines after practicing on scraps.

The quilt blocks are not hard, but you just have to be careful putting them together right.  See the many variations of this design on Pinterest.  You can get a free pattern here or you can draw your own as I did.

TIP:  Color or mark your paper foundation to make sure you are putting the right color in the right place.  I print out my foundations with about 40% color opacity so I am sure to grab the right fabric as I am piecing. 

TIP:  Organization is critical for a quilt like this.  If you look closely, blocks with the same basic design often have colors placed differently.

TIP:  Check twice or more before sewing the pieces together.  It is too easy to get one of them turned.

TIP:  Watch your points so you don't clip them off as you sew the seams.   

TIP:  Practice your quilting.  It is the only way to improve.

Decisions

A truly new quilter welcomes suggestions from those in the know, and as she grows her talent she will be ready to make her own decisions.

The quilt that I am showcasing today is a case where intended helpful suggestions were not welcome.  I now know that there are ways of telling a person kindly that you prefer to decide on your own.  In my case, I wanted this quilt to be pink…all pink.  I knew that I needed some dark fabric, but wanted to stay in the red-pink spectrum.  The helpful lady in the quilt shop told me I needed something really dark and different so she brought out a bolt of blue.  It wasn't what I wanted, but I acceded to her opinion.  I went home and made the quilt.  It is an "Irish Chain" and is quilted by hand with intricate hearts in the white areas.  I am sorry the quilting doesn't show in the photo as I was pleased with it.  However,  I still do not like the blue in the quilt only because I wanted it to be all pink.

I made a mistake, but I learned from it.  Be sure you have chosen colors and fabrics that make you happy…that give you that "Ahhhh" feeling that this is right.  Don't let others make these kinds of decisions for you.  Even a newbie knows what colors she likes.

My cousin took a class in which she was required to choose a fabric she didn't like and incorporate it into her quilt.  She did as she was told in good faith.  She hated that quilt and had a very hard time finishing it.  She still hates it.  Colors are feelings and are different for everyone.  Listen to your feelings.

As an aside, you may look at this quilt of mine and say, "Goodness, that looks crumply and crooked."  Yes, it probably is.  I didn't know anything about blocking quilts when I made it.  You are looking at my history so you can take advantage of some of the lessons I have learned along the way.