Multiple Projects

I am one of those apparently unusual people who does not accumulate UFOs.  I generally like to finish one project before starting another, but am not fanatical about it.  This week I began to tear out the paper from paper piecing.  Thirty-six intricate blocks takes a fair amount of time.  I chose to do it in the evening while watching Amazon Prime movies.  Some of those movies are pretty bad, but they prevent the paper tearing from getting so boring.  It is not fun, like sewing.  I also had to run out to get more black fabric.

This left me with a hole in my days when I usually sew, so I started the portrait of our long deceased collie.  Scroll down a couple of weeks to see my tutorials on the process.  I have been going back and forth between projects, applying borders on the big quilt and finding fault with the dog.  I did the dog with stash fabrics and could have benefitted from a couple of fat quarters from the quilt shop.  Some areas needed a slight value change so I pulled out my acrylic paints.  Most of the bottles are now defunct.

Note to self:  Clean out that box and get rid of dead paint.

I had enough viable bottles to mix a nice, soft blue-gray to darken up some areas as needed.  I love the result.  It softens the harsh line where black and white fabric meet.  It adds some shadow where needed.  I like it so much that I am going to do some more to soften edges (more obvious when you can stand back to look at it).  Thread painting would do the job, but I don't want to quilt this so heavily.  It doesn't need it.  I have read that others have used acrylic paint so why not.  I applied it in a very thin coat, and I don't plan to wash this little quilt.

See the gray on the white next to black?  Not much
but enough.

I am eager to get to quilting it, but will do the background first.  I took a picture of Lady lying in front of a big fan on a hot day.  She looks like she is flying and her fur is being blown around.  I will quilt the flying fur on top of the finished background so it will show up nicely.

TIP:  Be flexible with both time and process.  Take your time testing something new.  I have Tsukineko Inks.  I have Inktense pencils.  I have PaintStix.  Using scrap fabrics I tried them all, but like the result with the acrylic paints the best.  It is subtle.

I will also put a tiny, white dot in her eye, a catchlight.  It will brighten the eye and make it look alive.  In this case only on her right eye.  The left eye is almost hidden and the catchlight would be in the wrong place and look funny.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you many successful projects separately or all together whatever is your style.

Polar Bears on My Bed

This is one of my Polar Bear Quilts.  I found these polar bear panels and fell in love with them.  For years I collected blue, winter fabrics and many ideas.  In the end I had so many polar bears that I did two quilts titled "Arctic Day" and "Arctic Night."  This photo is of "Arctic Night," so named because it turned out a little darker than the other one.  They are both twin-sized quilts, but the other one is buried in storage at this writing.

Collecting fabric for a quilt is way too much fun and I still have a ton of blue fabric in my stash.  Fortunately, blue is my favorite color.  I still have polar bears too because I bought plenty so I wouldn't need another and get stuck.  I can probably create two more quilts.  Pretty ridiculous.

This was the first quilt I really designed wholly on my own.  I used the methods outlined by Judy Hopkins in her book "Design Your Own Quilts."  The panel in the upper left portion of the quilt is a kaleidoscope, pieced from scratch using methods described by Paula Nadelstern in her book, "Snowflakes and Quilts."  My design wall was in use for a long time as I created blocks of different sizes and patterns, placed them on the wall, moved them, created new ones to create value differences, and so forth.  The borders are from the polar bear panels.  Can you find the other winter animals sneaking around among the blocks?

I also branched out with my free motion quilting on this one.  I mostly used flowers as in my earlier primitive petals, but I put points on them this time and added some additional defining lines.  Around the snowflake and the bears is stippling.  For the bears within their circle border, I followed the fabric, outlining the animals, clouds and snow with free motion lines.  This is a great way to get more comfortable with free motion quilting:  follow artistic motifs on the fabric.  When you can follow lines on the fabric, you will be able to follow more complex, drawn designs for your quilts.

TIP:  Let your hair down and dance while doing a quilt like this.  There are no rules so just have fun with the piecing, fabric fondling, and quilting whatever you are able or inclined to do.  Let the muse sing and don't worry about the mess you are creating...just create.  The mess will still be there later.

I wish I had known about Leah Day's fantastic website on free motion quilting.  This would have been a perfect quilt on which to try out some of her many designs.  In looking at Leah's site today I found two other websites to visit:  Linda's Landscapes and The Hard-Rock Quilter.