Redux

I have tried twice unsuccessfully to create a thread painted portrait.  The thread painting went great.  I find it easy and relaxing.  Color choice was the issue.  I took a class from Lea McComas awhile back and she suggested doing the portrait on fusible Pel-tex (or Tim-tex).  No quilting required except maybe the background.  I fused background fabric onto it,  printed my portrait on fabric and fused it down.  Everything was fine until I got to the shadow side of the face.  Way too dark.  By the time I knew I didn't like it, it was too late to take it out.  Thread painting is a bear to remove so I didn't even try.  I did the whole portrait twice and still didn't get it right.

TIP:  You've heard me say it before.  Let it sit and percolate.  So I did.

Lea McComas does her big, photo-realistic quilts by fusing fabric down onto four layers:  background, canvas, batting and backing.  As usual I am using her basic method with a difference.  Sometimes I don't follow directions well.  In order to avoid ruffling at the outer edge resulting from heavy stitching I am stitching the face on canvas.  I have made a separate background, which I will quilt.  Then I will cut out the finished, stitched portrait and stitch it to the quilted background.  I have done this before and have been pleased with the results.  That is the overview of my plan.

TIP:  You don't  have a design wall?  Try a flannel-backed tablecloth.  You can see mine with the bottom turned up in the photo below.  Why turned up?  Only because my sewing machine is right there and the fabric being stitched sometimes gloms onto the flannel and knocks the whole thing catty-wampus and then I have to crawl under the table to pick up fallen pieces.

Now to start.  There is a lot of prep work for a project like this so I will give you the short version of my method for a 12x 16 inch portrait.  If you want more in-depth instruction I recommend Lea McComas' book, "Thread Painted Portraits."

Photo, posterized full size photo, mylar drawing on foam core board;
unquilted background in the back to the right.

1.  Create a full-sized, black and white, posterized version of your portrait with 4-6 value divisions.

TIP:  If you want you can do your posterized version in color, but drop the opacity way down so the color doesn't distract you.  That is what I did in the above photo.

2.  Tape the posterized photo to a foam core board and cover with a sheet of mylar.  Using a black, fine tipped Sharpie draw around all the lines delineating the different values.  The pen lines can be erased with a little rubbling alcohol on a Q-tip so don't panic if you make a mistake.

TIP:  The fine tip Sharpie is the only one to use (so I am told) because the others don't erase with alcohol.  I had some that wouldn't come off from my last project and found that "Goo Gone" does the job too.

3. Trace the lines from the mylar to freezer paper.  You can see through easily to trace.  Give each value a number:  #1 = very light.......#5 or 6 = the darkest value, and write that number in the appropriate spaces on the freezer paper.  Make another freezer paper copy exactly the same.  (See - it is a lot of busy-work, but believe me it is worth it.)

4.  All the pattern pieces are now marked except the itty-bitty ones.  On one paper copy, starting with the lightest value, use a red pencil and make tiny arrows wherever that piece bumps up against a darker value.  This will be a guide to remind you where to add a little extra when cutting your fabric so it will go under the darker fabric.  Don't worry about the itty bitty pieces.  We'll deal with those later.

Pattern pieces defined and marked.

Shows the posterizing better.  I tried doing all the labeling
on the computer.  Forget it.  I went stark, raving mad!

Now you have two copies and the one on mylar.  You will find that you use them all.  That should do you for this week.  Check back next week to see how I use all those copies.

Sew a happy seam this week or do some drawing instead.

A Lesson on Canvas

As I was cogitating the future of the Phoenix, I looked into using canvas as the stabilizer for thread painting.  I knew that some quilt artists use "light weight" canvas and thought I might try it.  I checked the Web and learned just enough to be dangerous.

Duck cloth is a canvas.  The word comes from the Dutch "doek" meaning "linen canvas."  It is labelled according to its weight, i.e. #1 to #12 with #12 being the lightest weight.  Interesting, but it doesn't give me much to go on so I didn't want to order it sight unseen.

Next I stopped at Joann's and found the canvas aisle.  Some was colored, some was natural and some was primed, but not a one noted the weight.  Not much to go on there either so I came away empty handed.

Finally I found Big Duck Canvas where the various types of canvas are described.  They say that duck cloth/canvas and canvas are two names for the same thing.  There are two types that are separated by weave (single fill and double fill).  This is so well explained on that website that I am not going to redo it here.  The numbered canvas is double fill and is a more tightly woven and stronger product than single fill.  The single fill canvas is labelled by ounces/square yard and is softer and not as strong as the double fill.

I decided that the "light weight" canvas used for stabilizing is probably the single fill type and I ordered one yard of 7 oz canvas.  It is nice, but even the pre-shrunk variety will shrink.  I washed it, decided to use the original bird and packed the canvas away for the next project.  Sorry, I can't tell you how it works....yet.

Who wants to waste a photo on a piece of canvas?  Not I.  Our mountains are exploding with the Fall color of aspen leaves.  Here are a couple of photos I took the other day while hiking through the gold mine of beauty.  Lovely palette for a quilt.

Bear Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park

Otis and Hallett peaks, Rocky Mountain National Park

TIP:  Take advantage of a beautiful day and go out exploring.  You will come home ready to sit down and sew.  You may come home with inspiration and/or solutions to incorporate into your quilting.

Sew a happy seam this week (and take a nice long walk outdoors!).

More of Mother Nature's Motifs

We have just returned from another junket across the country to MN and WI to honor our grandson who was awarded Eagle rank in the Boy Scouts.  We visited two of our daughters as well.  As we drove I was once again reminded of my quilting passion as the scenery stretched before us.  We drove on a sashing of highway between patchwork fields of spring green, fallow tan, and plowed brown embellished with wheat rolls and black cattle.  Neon furrows followed natural contours like echo quilting around appliqué, seeming to move and change with the perspective of our progress.  Curving waterways in the rectangular blocks added interest and contrast.

We stopped for a day in Rapid City, SD, and drove through Badlands National Park east and then turned around and did it again west.  It is an amazing place featuring sharp peaks, deep gullies, grasslands, bison, bighorn sheep and much more.  One thing we thankfully didn't see were rattlesnakes, except on the many warning signs.  Since I haven't been able to sew for this month of travel, I could only think about it.  Below are some photos that remind me of things I do when I make quilts.

Fillers:

Mud cracks

Popcorn soil on the rocks

Mc Tavishing - sort of

Variety of textures

Trapunto:

Mounds

Outlining:

Edging of white clay washed off the rocks above

Stripes:

Jelly roll stripes

Contrast:

I never would have seen this interesting formation if
it hadn't been darker than the light shale around it.

Borders:

Borders are important (Bighorn sheep)

OT - Who doesn't love a baby?  They are standing way up high on a very, very steep slope.  At one point the lamb was jumping and playing!  BTW the sheep are losing their winter coats.  That's why they look so scruffy.  The collar on the ewe's neck is placed by the National Park Service to keep tabs on the animals.

Bighorn ewe and lamb

Sew happy stitches this week.  Try some from Mother Nature's album.

Finding Designs

I design my own quilts.  Have you ever tried it?  Of course you have.  You may have used a published pattern, but if you chose your own color palette you have taken a baby step into designing.   There are many ways to design, but here are a few:

*Try mixing two standard blocks.  It is amazing what you can come up with.

*Use a one or more of a familiar block and place them creatively in space.

*Add something new and different to your block.

*Make a grid of triangles on paper and fill them in with color.  See what designs you can create.  Substitute fabrics for the colors.

*Try appliqué.  There are tons of ways to use almost any beautiful shape.

Look around you and see the designs in your environment: flowers, clouds, fences, trees, leaves, wrought iron gates, houses, wildlife, floors, rugs, wallpaper, etc.  What tools do you need?  Only pencil and paper, a sprinkle of imagination, and a pinch of inspiration.  Optional aids might be the computer and crayons or colored pencils.

I had the wonderful good fortune to take a cruise through the Mediterranean in 2009.  Every surface is heavily decorated in the whole region from southern Italy to North Africa.  There are mosaics, sculptures, frescos, paintings and architecture.  Magnificent!  I took many pictures that now reside in the quilting folder on my computer for reference, and I look at them often.  Here are some examples:

Mosaic for patchwork and border

Overall plan for a quilt.

Love the black and white detail. 

I have incorporated the black and white arch idea in the quilt I am currently working on.

Black and white and Pumpkin Seed

Look at that background.  It is a beautiful, popular FMQ design.

A bowl - whole cloth or appliqué

Mosaic compass with extras

A door with FMQ designs

Look at other peoples' work as well, but find your own way.  It is not cool to just copy someone else's designs precisely unless you buy their pattern or take their class.  You can use elements from different sources and put them together in your own way.  Caveat:  Don't mistake my meaning here.  You can learn a lot by taking a class, but take that new technique or idea home and incorporate it into your own creations.

My greatest leap into quilt design came from doing Rhapsody quilts (Ricky Tims) and Spiral quilts (RaNae Merrill).  When you design you truly start from scratch and end up with something that is uniquely yours.  It does not provide instant gratification, but it is so much fun.

TIP:  Reach out, stretch your intellect, try something new.  Grow.  You may not think you are an artist now, but you can become one.  It is up to you.

Hershey

I quilt.  I love to quilt.  I quilt almost every day.  Sometimes I cannot get to my sewing machine as now because I have a lovely 16 year old granddaughter staying in my sewing room at the moment.  We have been to a quilt talk, have taken some hikes, and will visit a college and wander through a quilt show.

The summer is winding down and I am thinking of winter when I sew daily, but also have time for photography and digital painting.  Here is a painting that I did of a sleek, black cat in whose home I lived for several years until his favorite person, my daughter, married and took him with her.  He was a character as are most cats.

I painted this on the computer from one of my photos.  By learning this technique I have eliminated the need for space and ventilation required for oil painting.  No fuss, no mess and just as much fun.

I will return next week with a tutorial about designing spiral quilts.