Fenestra Rosa

 I am postponing my planned post as mentioned last week, but will do it next week.  There was a lot of interest in my Fenestra Rosa quilt and I had a lot of fun designing and making it.  It was for the Hoffman Challenge 2013 and won "Best Use of Challenge Fabric."  Below is the challenge fabric and for me it was love at first sight.

2013 Hoffman Chalenge Fabric

I am reposting the photo of "Fenestra Rosa" below so you can follow what I say about it.

I saw an Internet photo of a rose window from a European cathedral, which was the inspiration for this quilt.  I lost the photo and have never seen it again, but developed the design on Adobe Illustrator by starting with the large, circular window and building out from there.  As my ideas coalesced I decided it was time to try my hand at stained glass technique and what you see is what I did.  It is basically machine appliqué with with bias strips to cover raw edges.  I had fun making two kaleidoscopes from the fabric.  Can you find them?  There were so many interesting motifs in this fabric that I was able to use parts and pieces throughout the quilt.

Fenestra Rosa

The following problems and solutions are not necessarily in the order they occurred!

Problem #1.  I worried throughout the construction process about the way the edges would come together about 1/3 down from the top where the background meets the arch.  I marked and measured at every stage and was gratified that it followed my plans perfectly.  There is your TIP right there!

Problem #2.  I wanted a lattice on the bottom so I quilted it on black fabric and began to fill the centers with turquoise thread painting.  I may have marked it sloppily or it became distorted with the quilting.  Doesn't matter.  It looked awful even though I had previewed on a tester piece.

Solution #2.  I ripped out the stitching, but the fabric was destroyed after so much needle punching.  I finally took the rotary cutter and slashed off the whole bottom section, batting and all.  I made sure there was at least 1/4 inch of fabric on the top with which to attach a new bottom using "Quilt As You Go" technique (Amazon has several books on this technique).  I quilted the lattice over challenge fabric using the stained glass technique and then attached it to the top.  In order to avoid any gap between the two battings I butted the edges together and secured them with iron-on Batting Seam Tape.  The backing fabric is seamed together, the front raw edges are covered with a  1/2" black strip, which is securely quilted.  It looks better this way than it ever thought of looking before.

TIP:  Don't give up when things don't work out.  Set the quilt aside and turn your creative brain waves loose on the problem.  I guarantee you will come up with something.  If you are a quilt groupie it may help to share the problem and get suggestions from others.

Problem #3.  The challenge fabric is so pretty and vibrant, but it needed taming for use as the background.

Solution #3.  I put a layer of black tulle over the top background, and under the lattice at the bottom.  It tones the bright colors down just enough without detracting from its beauty.  As a result the stained glass window glows in contrast.

TIP:  Tulle is cheap and can be a useful addition to a quilt.  A dark color tones the colors down and is invisible over dark colors.  A light color lightens color and is invisible over light colors.  A neutral color doesn't change color tone, but can be used to corral a multitude of tiny pieces until they get quilted down.  Once quilted the tulle does not detract or distract and can be seen only if you look very closely.

Problem #4.  Making the binding strips.  That's a post for the future.

Problem #5.  The binding.  I didn't realize I had a problem until it was mentioned on the judge's evaluation.  I will share my findings on that problem next week.

Happy stitching.

Finishing Touches

Some of us like to make quilts for show.  Others like to make quilts for many other reasons.  Whether you show or not you should be aware that the binding and the back of a quilt play a significant part in finishing a quilt and making it look its best for for its chosen purpose.  This means that it is critical that you learn to do it right.

The back must be neat with no loose threads or unsightly thread knots, tangles or pleats.

TIP:  A busy back helps to hide uneven stitches, which is handy for the novice quilter.

TIP:  Avoiding unwanted knots on the back is a matter of practice through which you gain control of hands, feet, eyes and machine.  I am not talking about the hidden knots you tie to secure your threads.

TIP:  Loose threads must be knotted and run into the batting.  I do mine every time I stop so I don't miss any.

Pleats on the back cannot be hidden so it is important to prepare your quilt carefully for quilting.

TIP:  Make sure your backing is free of wrinkles and secured firmly, but not stretched, before you place your batting and quilt top on it to complete the sandwich.  Do you know how to properly sandwich and baste your quilt?  If not, let me know and I will post my method.

None of this is hard to learn, but does require vigilance during the quilting process.

The binding is the icing on the cake and if it is not done right it spoils the look of the whole thing.  I have just discovered Sharon Schamber's method and am very pleased with the results.  This link takes you to part 1, but part 2 is easy to find when you are ready.

The quilt below was in the Hoffman Challenge 2013 and the judge noted on her evaluation that there was "a problem with the binding."  That's a big help!  What was wrong with it?  I had to wait a year to find out because it spent the year traveling with the Hoffman exhibit.  Stay tuned and I will share with you next week what I think the problem was.

Fenestra Rosa

P.S. Fenestra Rosa is latin for Rose Window.  I must have been feeling intellectual when I named it!

Learning Curve Continues

Learning thread painting is throwing me some curves.  It is not the stitching that is the challenge, but rather the planning and not knowing precisely what awaits beyond the next corner.  Last week you read about the things I was learning from my tester piece.  See "Looking Ahead, Stuck Behind"  Now I will write about some other things that have popped up.

Here is the very messed up tester.  Be aware that some experimentation remains as I do not have any thread yet.  With two quilts to block and bind, my pretty bird sits grounded for a short time.   You can refer to this photo as you read the rest of my ramblings.

Phoenix Tester

Layering

Layering the fabric properly on this project is counterintuitive.  It is best to lay down the light colored fabrics first and place dark fabrics over them to avoid a shadow under the light fabric, but the dark feathers on my bird look like they should be behind the lighter fabrics.   This scrambles my brain!  In order to counteract reality I need to paint some shadows onto my fabric to make the darker fabric, which is on top, recede into the back.  Thread painting with darker thread in the shadows will add to the effect, but I didn't have any appropriate thread to play with.  I tried black, but it is way too harsh.  No surprise there.  Outline stitching appropriately laid down may help too.

Fabric Paint

*Tsukineko Ink.  I didn't try this because it comes on pretty strong and I have a limited number of colors.
*Copic Pen.  This bled onto the lighter fabric and didn't show up enough on the darker one.  I also have a limited number of colors.
*Inktense Pencil. I put a little fabric medium on a brush, picked up color from the end of the pencil, and scrubbed it into the fabric with a small brush.  I have 36 colors to choose from to coordinate with my fabrics.  Voila!  This is it.

Thread choice  

Should I use cotton or polyester?  I tried both from my thread stash.  Isacord polyester is the clear winner.  I love the sheen it gives the feathers of the bird.  I will use silk for the background quilting because it buries itself in the thickness of the quilt.   I will also try some variegated threads because my research indicates that they provide additional interest.  I ruled out rayon because it is not as sturdy as the polyester.

Quilting (doesn't appear to show up very well on the tester photo) 

Normally I don't worry much about my quilting ahead of time although it does bang around in my head as I work.  However, on this project I have thought a lot about how to quilt the painted background so I tried some of my ideas.  When I looked at the results I realized that there was way too much interest and texture.  The problem is that the bird will be very flat after all the thread painting and I don't want the background to cause visual interference.  My new decision is to do McTavishing with champagne-color, silk thread.  This will tame the beast and still look really nice, maybe a little like smoke from the fire below the bird.  It will allow the bird to fly.

Markers

I am painting the background first and wanted to see how the purple air marker and the blue water soluble markers work with the Intense pencils.  I colored with the pencils and fabric medium, heat set the color and marked with both kinds of markers.  No problem.  They disappeared as advertised.

Next, I laid down the blue marker and then colored over it with Inktense pencil and medium.  Wow, the blue marker disappeared.  The fabric medium is water soluble so that makes sense.  The next morning all had dried and the blue marker line was still gone.  I decided to see what happened when I heat set.  Oops!  The blue marker returned as a ghost line.

I used a Lumocolor permanent marker by Staedtler for the red triangular lines.  When I sprayed water on the blue marker lines (see above) they disappeared, but the red lines ran all over the place where they got wet.  How fortunate that I found this out now!  I then tried out a red Micron pen and it worked fine.  I soaked it with water and no bleeding.

I want the painted background to stop just barely under the bird and that is why the concern about markers.  I ended up marking the fabric 1/8 inch inside the borders of the bird lightly with regular pencil.  Those lines will ultimately be covered up by the bird.  Problem solved.  I hope I can see the pencil lines when the time comes, but if not, I will use a light box and the full-size pattern as a guide.

Enjoy your sewing 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.

Frogging

Do you know about "frogging?"  Rip it, rip it, rip it.  In spite of all the suggestions and solutions in my last post, in spite of all my planning, in spite of all my practicing, in spite of quilting half of one side of my border and walking away happy.... I later noticed a glaring, ugly line where I wanted a free-flowing curve.  I like to backtrack on the spine of my feathers to bring out the curvaceous base design.  However, if the base design is faulty it shows up like a spotlight.  No photo because it looked too ugly (besides I didn't think to get the camera!).  I sat through two episodes of "The Mentalist" while I ripped out a lot of stitches...carefully.

It didn't take long to solve the problem as it was all due to a poorly designed corner.  I had turned the corner awkwardly and that caused all the spine lines to go the wrong way.  Thus all the ripping.  The next afternoon I re-marked the border and stitched it up again.  Now it looks graceful and I am sooooooo glad I took the time to redo it.  Below is the final feather quilting complete with marking lines and even a dog hair if you hunt really carefully.  Dixie dog likes to add her two cents.

Please don't get the idea that I always make mistakes.  This blog is generally about dealing with problems and my only experience is my own.  Mistakes are OK as long as you learn from them.  Have you ever heard that one before?

TIP:  Don't get discouraged.  It happens.  Encourage the bulldog in you and rip with care.  As you are frogging, your creative, flexible brain can preview options, ponder alternatives and produce new ideas.  Just do it!

Dixie

See a painting of Dixie here.

Near Death Situation

I had a near death situation this afternoon.  My sewing machine began to clank and chirp.  My husband listened and said, "Stop right now and take it in."  So I bundled up to beat the major incoming snowstorm, drove an hour off my mountain, and visited my very accommodating sewing machine guru.  Of course  the ornery thing didn't clank and didn't chirp for him, and his diagnosis was that it is OK.  He said to take it home try again and if it still makes ominous noises bring it back.  Sure thing....in the predicted two feet of snow???  Not going to happen until the roads clear so, dear machine, you had better work!

 I have feathers on my mind and the final border awaits:  a 2 1/2 inch width to quilt with feathers.  I am told that all quilting designs should be worked out when you first start planning your quilt.  I disagree.  As I piece my fabrics I get better acquainted with my quilt.  I suck in ideas from all around me.  I create ideas in my head.  I think about quilting in my dreams.  Finally, except for fillers,  I sit down with my pad of tracing paper and start drawing.  Many times my planned designs land in the trash and I end up with totally different ideas based on something I just saw somewhere.  I don't start drawing until an idea crystallizes and that sometimes doesn't happen until I am ready to work on a particular part of the quilt.  That's OK...for me anyway.

Here is the paper design for the spokes I mentioned last week.  I was so excited as I liked the look.  I printed the feathers on Sulky Sticky Fabri-solvey, but realized immediately that I had a problem. I thought that the size of the drawing was exactly the right size, but too late I realized I should have printed it smaller.  Oh well, that didn't spoil the idea so I printed a sheet the right size and stuck it to the quilt.  Then my needle gummed up very badly as it tried to negotiate the adhesive and two layers of batting.  This definitely was not going to work.

Tracing paper design

N.B.  I have used the Sticky Fabri-solvy successfully before and have recommended it to you.  However, I think the problem here was the thickness of the batting or maybe they have changed the adhesive.  Whatever the problem, it didn't work this time.

TIP:  Measure before you print, measure before you sew, test ideas and products for each individual quilt, exercise your mental flexibility.

I have read of quilters who draw the spine of a feather on their quilt, and then let the needle figure out the feathers.  I am a line-follower and was reluctant to do this.  However, on my dark fabric, I could see no other solution.  I began hesitantly, and guess what, I did it!  I have drawn so many feathers on tracing paper over the years, and that skill just communicated itself to the needle.  I learned a few things as I progressed through twelve spokes, and I am happy with the results.

After much figuring of dimensions and practice with pencil and paper I have finally started the outer borders...free hand.  I marked only circles and spine on my quilt.

Basic design marked with white ceramic Sew-line pencil

Incomplete freehand feathers.

TIP: When you are practicing with paper and pencil take careful notice of where you have to erase.  What was wrong with that line?  How can you avoid sewing a bad line like that?  Solve the problems ahead of time so you don't have to "erase" your sewing.  Train your eye to look ahead.

TIP:  Bite the bullet and try something new!  Draw your ideas on paper first.  You may be in for a big surprise as to the capabilities of that needle.  I certainly was.

BTW my sewing machine was not sick.  I have always had problems winding the bobbin on this machine and it ends up with a rat's nest at the beginning.  That's what was jamming up the works.  My faithful repairman showed me a different way to wind the bobbin (not in the manual).  I can pass the thread through an almost invisible, tiny hole in the top of the bobbin and hold the thread end until the thing gets to winding properly, then cut it off.  So easy...and it works like a charm!  No more snarls from me or the machine.

Mistakes. Who me???

You don't make mistakes on your quilts, do you?  I have asked the Quilt Fairy to eliminate all mistakes from my sewing machine.  She is probably hovering over my sewing room laughing.

I have been working on a quilt for over a year now and have tackled both large and small design flaws and outright errors.  One afternoon I did a really stupid thing.  I was quilting some long, narrow spokes with a line of diamonds down the middle.  I did five spokes and when I was done, I scrutinized my work and then realized I had used the wrong color thread.  I do Art Quilts and like to show them.  If that quilt had been for a child's bed I wouldn't have worried about it, but for a show quilt I am sure the judges would ding me.  Besides, it would drive me crazy so I swallowed my pride and did it over.  The rest of my daily sewing time was spent taking all those little stitches out.  Lost afternoon.

TIP:  Do I really need to say it?  Make sure you have the right thread, right needle and right tension before you start quilting.  It is much more fun to quilt than to rip!

Even for an Art quilt there are some errors that I will let pass. In the same photo (above) you can see that the the curl at the top of one feather goes one way.  The next one goes the opposite direction.  Well, they were supposed to curl the same way, but I decided to leave it rather than take it out.  God doesn't make all flowers grow the same direction.  Do you think the judges will notice or care?  We will see.  I think it adds a bit of tension and interest, like putting a dab of orange next to magenta.  Most people won't even notice it anyway (I  hope).

TIP:  If you like it, leave it. It is a judgment call. If judges don't like it, consider it a lesson learned, but don't leave an obvious mistake just because you are too lazy to take it out.  You can wait until tomorrow when you are fresh or work in front of tv to take your mind off the disappointment of having to rip out tiny stitches.  You will be happy when you redo it right.

I was busy quilting away when I came to a corner on this same quilt and discovered that a small block was set in slightly off kilter.  Where was the Quilt Fairy when I did that?  The diagonal seam was 1/8 inch off where it was supposed to meet the intersection of two borders (see the drawn line in photo below).  The seams were sewn, stitched in the ditch, and decorative quilting stitches had everything fastened down tight.  It wasn't just an issue of ripping out a few stitches on a top.  A technical error like this is a magnet for the judges' eyes and can cost you a win.

This was a BIG MISTAKE and was a bear to fix.  I took out the quilting on the two borders and the little block, set the block straight, hand-sewed the seams, and replaced the quilting......and it was still crooked with the added disgrace of a bow in the blue border.  I re-ripped the hand work and quilting, but more this time.  Then I grabbed the bottle of Elmer's School Glue, and with a vengeance set the borders accurately into a measured 90º intersection and secured them with glue.  Then I took a pin and moved the offending block until it's seam was accurately placed in the corner, glued it and ironed the glue to set it.  Ahhhh, looks good.  Finally I re-did the seams by hand and re-quilted.  Success!  I don't have a before photo of the corner, but you can see the final result.  It took two afternoons to twice rip and repair, but I am pleased with the result so it was worth it.  Sometimes my bulldog genes shine!

TIP:  Don't wait until later to discover an error.  Check your quilt top carefully as you sew the seams and again before you assemble the quilt sandwich.  It will pay dividends in time and frustration.  I will take my own advice next time, believe me!

TIP:  Follow the above tip to make life easier, but if you do mess up, be assured that there is usually a way to fix it.  Appliqué can be a great coverup, but obviously it wouldn't work on the problem in this particular quilt.  Sometimes you may need to ponder the problem to arrive at a solution.  Let your brain percolate and get creative.  Then put on your virtual overalls and get to work.