Quilting

In The Park 3

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Just finished!

IMG_2598Couldn’t resist hanging it in my living room for now. All along I’ve intended the piece for my sister since these are her two oldest grandsons (she has five). The fabric I used to frame the work wasn’t anything I expected – but yesterday in the shop Pat hauled out a bolt of dark green striped batik and it tied together all the colours in the piece. I added a muslin panel to the back to hide the mess of threads from all the thread painting.

I have to say, I was pleased with how the work turned out. I know what I’m going to attempt next – maybe start it on the weekend. The problem with all of this work, pieced quilts as well as these art quilts is that making them becomes  addictive – it’s the challenge of figuring out how to make something work – once I start, my OCD tendencies take over and I can’t stop – “I’ll just do this one more thing…” I say to myself and suddenly the creative process has taken over my life!

In The Park-2

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Still a work in progress – but I made some decisions a couple of days ago – the major one being that I would use printable cotton fabric to create the boys. That meant returning to the original photos, upsizing each boy so he would fit the background appropriately. I printed the images this morning, let them dry thoroughly (as the directions describe), fussy cut them carefully, then applied them with a medium iron. Using a 60 universal needle, I stitched around the outside of each using Wonderfil Invisifil thread – it’s a very fine polyester thread that blends with the fabric and permits very small stitches.

IMG_2589I also decided to stop fighting the large rhododendron bush beside the tree – I removed all the previous fabric and stitching (took a couple of hours of carefully picking out thread!). Today, I decided to print that element on printable cotton as well. In Photoshop I sized that part of the photo to fit the space where I wanted it to be, printed it out, cut it, pressed it, and stitched it into place. It looks way more realistic than what I’d had before. Now I need to do some thread painting to bring out the shaded areas of the bush so it appears three dimensional.

I still have a lot of careful outline stitching to do on each boy. I also need to thread paint the gravel quite a bit more – I had done a bit when I lay the grey fabric in place but now I need to carefully create a more gravel-like texture there.

My plan is to bind the image using a natural coloured raw silk fabric I have, then “frame” the piece with some kind of batik that will complement the image – I’ll have to shop for that (it may not be a batik – something like Northcott’s Stonehenge Colorado might work well).

This is where the piece is, today.

In The Park-1

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After finishing  Asparagus Field in late September, I started a second art quilt: I had photos of my two oldest great-nephews taken a number of years ago when they were 4 1/2 and 6 on a visit to the Public Gardens (in Halifax) – I decided to combine two photos into a single image so both boys would be in the work. I enlarged the photos using Photoshop and printed out sections from which to assemble the piece which I wanted to be ~15″ X 23″.

IMG_2502I began by setting up the “quilt sandwich” – a grey stonehenge fabric for the gravel path (which I used to cover the entire piece), batting and heavy fusible stabilizer on the bottom. I marked out the finished dimensions, stitched the sandwich together and didn’t get much further than that – the stumbling block was the boys’ hair – it’s the highlight of the piece and I had NO idea how I was going to create it. I played unsuccessfully with yarns of various kinds. In the end I decided to try machine embroidery thread laid on a sticky stabilizer, then stitched into place. It kind of works – I’ve done half-a dozen trials but I’m not quite satisfied — that stopped me doing anything else.

At the beginning of the week, with my shirts all done and no new quilt started, I thought – it’s time to get back to this art piece. So I dug out the box of fabrics and got to work. I added a strip of dark fabric to the top edge, below that I used a bright green for grass, then started creating “shapes” for the rhododendron bushes and threes and the large tree closer to the boys.

The image gets built up from top to bottom, from background to foreground. I added in bits of coloured fabric for the flower beds. Next some shadows for the bench, the trees outside of the scene on the left side, under the big tree at the top.

At this stage, the boys are still the paper cutouts with the “hair” pinned on. Not happy with that hair!

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Next the grass gets extended and stitched, the gravel gets filled in with free-motion stitching, then comes the benches – just fused in place at this point (the boys are still those paper cutouts pinned in place).IMG_2563

Three days into the project and here’s what I have:

DSCF2630The elements of the background are all in place: the shadows, the benches, the grass patch behind and above the benches, the tree with a hosta patch around it, one of the large rhododendrons in the Gardens, two small flower beds, and some trees in the background. I have stitched them all in place – I need to do much more thread painting: the hosta could use some more leaves and flower stalks, and the rhododendron still needs a lot more stitching using a lighter green thread (I’ll probably use a variegated to give some variation to the texture of the shrub).

So far, the boys are still in paper (with the latest attempts for hair pinned on). I’ve carefully traced all the elements needed to construct the boys, figured out an order in which to assemble them, I’ve prepared fabric swatches with double sided fusible interfacing – so tomorrow I’ll start constructing the boys – the bodies and clothing are straightforward – it’s the faces and hair that are still challenging me! I thought I might try setting up a portrait embroidery but my software isn’t sophisticated enough to produce a decent rendering of the faces – so I’ll use a combination of oil pastels and permanent marker to hint at the facial features. The hair – still not sure how I’m going to accomplish that but something will work out, I’m sure.

So all that’s left is to create the boys, and do more thread painting before I add the boys to the background. Oh yes, and last – add my signature with a date!

 

 

Kaffe Fassett IV – Finished

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KFiv-frontThis is the finished quilt! Added the binding this morning.

KFiv-backOther side – I hesitate to call it “back” since what I have is a two sided quilt – either side could be “front”.

KFivClose up showing the quilting – I used a 50wt variegated thread so the stitching is subtle – the point was simply to quilt the piece – not make the stitching the focus. I used a dark variegated thread on the other side so it shows even less there.

 

 

 

Kaffe Fassett IV

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I completed the top this morning. In the end I decided to abut the blocks rather than use a black sashing – mostly because I didn’t want to add to the width of the quilt. It was a finicky task – required quite a bit of taking out and resewing to make the points and triangle bases align. Fortunately, the block edges were on the bias so I had a little play room to help me out.

Now to figure out what to do with the other side! I have one block left over from the original 36; I’ve just cut fabric to make four more, So with five blocks and wide sashing between the blocks I should have enough to make a strip the length of the quilt to insert into the backing panel. I’m hoping to have enough of the backing left over to bind the quilt.

Kaffe Fassett Quilt IV

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I’ve started a new quilt using some of the Kaffe Fassett large print fabrics in my stash. This is based on a photo I saw on Pinterest – log cabin constructed out of triangles instead of strips. It took 6 samples before I got the dimensions right so that the triangles come to a point at the corners of the square in the centre of the block. Half of the blocks are set up to rotate to the left, half to the right. Half of the blocks have the black and white triangles on the inside, half have them on the outside. This is one of those situations where you partially stitch the first triangle, apply the other three triangles, then finish off the first one so that none of the points overlap, but create the whirl. Took a few tries before I figured that out. Those are the challenges when you’re working from just a picture with no directions!

Below is a stack of cut pieces – part of the 315 elements I need for the completed top. (Not including the binding strips – I haven’t cut those out yet).
IMG_2461More to come as I create the blocks. Haven’t begun thinking what the other side of the quilt will be like – but I will have to do something because the top will be close to 50″ wide – the backing fabric is just 44″.

Fossil Fern Quilt – Done

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FossilFern-done1This is the completed Fossil Fern Quilt. Quilted in the hoop, with stars in the border (used a grand endless hoop which makes the job quite simple), and a pieced binding to bring out the colours of the piecing. The back is solid – no piecing this time, in the end, because the quilt turned out small enough that one WOF (width of fabric) was enough to cover the back – it’s the same blue fabric of the wide border.

FossilFern-done2Here is the quilting detail – the star border, the loops with stars the quilting element.

This will likely be a baby quilt for a boy – the blue back kind of determines that, although I wouldn’t be adverse to giving it to a baby girl, but it might not be seen as “appropriate” and therefore not used. So probably a baby boy it will be. For now, it’s hanging in a closet with the rest of the completed quilts waiting for new homes.

Fossil Fern Quilt

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IMG_2432Back at quilt making. Haven’t done one since mid-September – I don’t have a recipient in mind but this will certainly make a good baby quilt for someone – just because the outer border and the back will be in that blue fabric with dots (look like coffee beans, actually), doesn’t mean I can’t give it to a girl child. The other side will also be pieced – haven’t decided exactly how I will do it.

This was twelve fat quarters from the Benartex Fossil Fern collection I bought during the summer. I went through it and picked out contrasting pairs trying to set up a “rainbow” of colours. There’s still a lot left from the fat quarters – the finished blocks are 6″ X 6″ – three of each of twelve colours – that was simply a 6.5″ strip from the longest dimension of the fat quarter, plus another 1″ strip. I’ll use a bit of what’s left to do something on the back of the quilt.

Asparagus Field – Finished!

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Here is the finished, framed landscape quilt – Asparagus Field. It all started with a photo I took a couple of years ago on a fall photography excursion with David Lacey.  Click on the photo to see an enlarged version where you can see detail.

And here it is complete with a signature:

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Asparagus Field – 7

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The detail stitch work is done. Today I worked on the asparagus field; it turned out to be easier to do than I thought it would be – I think the practice I did yesterday definitely helped. I also picked out the stitching for the small shrub beside the front door, and replaced it with something more recognizable as a small evergreen tree. I also added a few small evergreens just behind the house to provide a bit more Interest to the skyline.

Now I have to figure out how to “frame” the piece – I think I’m going to add a 2 1/2″ “frame” with piping on the inside edge (using the batik fabric I used as the underlay for the asparagus field). That’s for tomorrow.

Have I ever learned a lot about how to think about an art quilt piece. Some aspects of this quilt were done out of order – in part because Laurie was moving us along so we’d have the batting covered by the end of the workshop. I now realize the sky should have been tied down first – that would have avoided the big bubble in the sky fabric. The “woods” on the left were out of synch – the dark underlay should have been much less extensive so that the tree elements could have been positioned against the sky with sky showing through the trees. Also that would have allowed a more irregular skyline. The asparagus field in the foreground should not have been added until everything behind it was almost complete – I had to fight the free motion stitch work because the asparagus was already present.

Last, I came to realize in the beginning I was too tied to the tracing of the photo – this kind of art quilt needs a lot of improvisation. The original tracing is mainly to help set out the large areas of a piece – the details, however have to be invented as the work unfolds. It’s also clear that I need to carefully study a photo before I begin – just how carefully I didn’t appreciate before I began.

There will be one last photo once I complete the piece.