Playing Catch Up.

March 26, 20136 Comments

Hi again,

I hope that you had a good week. Easter is quickly approaching and I was panicking yesterday about not having a turkey yet. As usual, the grocery store had lots so I am not so far behind in preparing for this upcoming weekend.

Again, I am trying to catch up on orders that are coming in-which is a great thing; no complaining here.

For those new to my blog, I am a longarm quilter. It has been 8 years now since I began this journey. There is always so much to learn, practice, see and do. It never gets old or boring-too many techniques to try and learn.

This past week saw me completing 3 customers’ quilts so I am catching up somewhat.

Here is one that Nathalie completed, just in time for spring.

Nathalie’s Spring Quilt

Nathalie is a new quilter. She wanted something for spring and this fits the bill perfectly. The middle of the blocks have flowers in them and I quilted leaves all over the top to finish off the piece. Very nice indeed, Nathalie!

As I mentioned before, here are some of my completed art quilts.

The first two are of the tip of a peacock’s feather. Isn’t it amazing how something so common can be turned into art? Again, Susan Brubaker Knapp is the designer of this piece.

Peacock feather using Tsueniko Inks.

Here I am using Tsueniko Inks to paint the feather onto the white fabric. As you can see, the paint bled into some of the neighbouring colors- not quite sure if I did something wrong there. Maybe I should have waited for one color to dry first and then painted the next color.

Stitching was then added for the details of the feather. Not bad but lots of room for improvement here. The next one is a little better.

Peacock feather using Jacquard paints.

Here is the same feather but using different paints. I really like these paints- they’re very bright, easy to work with and thick. My only dislike was that it makes the fabric very stiff when the paint dries. Pellon was used to stabilize the

piece so that it would not become distorted with all that stitching added to it. I like this one the best out of the 2 that I completed.

Which one do you like the best?

I also tried another subject for thread sketching. Can you guess what this is?

The proverbial apple.

Again, Susan Brubaker Knapp is the designer. Pieces of fabric were fused onto the cream background. I think that I used red and yellow, that was it. Then, all the stitching was added and the thread colors and the stitching created the

shading and the shadows. I think that I used some colors of thread that I would never had thought about before. For instance, there is purple thread in there and brown, not black was used for the shadow-I think

that black may have been too harsh or extreme of a color for that area. It was a fun thing to do and you always learn something when it is finished.

One last picture:

Frilly bag

Our local school is holding a fundraiser in June so I had to put this in the silent auction section. It is a frilly bag that I just had to make. Hopefully some young girl will think so too. There are cats hiding out under the frills.

Have a great Easter and don’t eat too much turkey or chocolate.

Ruth

Spring has sprung!

March 19, 2013March 22, 20136 Comments

Well, technically, it has. I don’t know about you but we are still getting a little snow today.

At least I can say that winter is officially over tomorrow-yeah! The only thing I dislike about the warmer weather is that I want to be outside -and thus no sewing or quilting gets done. I am looking forward to seeing some flowers outside soon.

This week finds me still working on the applique quilt. I did nothing over March Break ,in regards to sewing or quilting, that is.

I have decided to show you some more of my small “art quilts.” This technique comes from Susan Brubaker Knapp of Blue Moon River website. She is very talented when it comes to thread sketching. I liked her work and style so much that I had to try it out.

The thread sketched crayons are one of my favorite art quilts. I am still amazed how thread alone can make these crayons appear so 3D. What do you think?

Thread sketched crayons

Here is a close up of the same art quilt.

Close up of thread sketched crayons

Isn’t that cool?

Because I liked this technique so much, I decided to try thread sketching my hand. A hand was drawn and I sketched it out with thread. There is stablizer in the middle along with batting and a backing. The stabilizer helps

to keep the piece flat, especially with all that stitching added to it.

Thread sketched hand

I am amazed that it actually looks like a hand, although somewhat deformed at that.

And lastly, here is a fingerprint that I tried to thread sketch as well. I tried to use some of the programmed stitches on my domestic sewing machine. Again, the idea came from Susan-she has alot of good ideas.

Thread sketched fingerprint

Well, that is all for this week. I am hoping to have some photos of the applique quilt to show you. Hoping that my friend will like what I am doing with it.

Have a great week.

Ruth

March Break-Yipee!

March 13, 20138 Comments

I am not sure but I think that March Break is a break for everyone but the parents in the family, especially the mom. So, as you can tell, I will not be getting alot of stitching or quilting done this week.

Because I have no “new” work to show you, I will show you some of my “old” stuff.

Remember last week? Here is the completed wallhanging for the Trend Tex Challenge for the upcoming Canadian Quilter’s Association, National Juried Show, in Penitiction, BC. Five fat quarters were purchased and a theme was announced. The participants must make a wallhanging from these 5 fat quarters and in the nature of the theme provided.

“Vines and Sunshine”
Trend Tex Challenge, 2013

Sunshine and Vines was the theme this year so I decided to make grapes hanging on some vines. The background is striped pieced and the grapes are hand appliqued onto the background. Beads are used to immulate sunshine and that completes the piece. Oh, I forgot to mention that there are approximately 200 grapes on this piece.

It looks a little abstract to me but I am pleased that I finished it. It will be interesting to see what it does. Only 6 pieces are chosen and there are usually over 100 pieces! It is great fun to challenge myself though.

Mary Makam’s Quilt pattern

I also am showing you an applique quilt that I did 4 years ago. Mary Makam, a Canadian, is the designer of the pattern. All the pieces are hand appliqued onto the background, the border as well.

I did McTavishing in the blocks around the applique. It was an interesting process for the McTAvishing. All the lights were turned off so I could see where I had stitched. It took me over an hour to quilt each individual block.

Trapunto

Trapunto was also used to fill in all that empty space. I marked the quilt top first-it is my own quilt so I didn’t mind that so much, with a water soluble blue marker and then placed just the quilt top and the polyester batting on the frame.

I then stitched around the feathers with a water soluble thread.

CAn you believe that there is such a thing?

More blocks on the applique quilt

I then took the quilt off the frame and flipped it over. All the batting was cut off-with scissors- so that all that remained of the batting was what was behind the feather area. Then, the quilt was put back on the frame and quilted with another layer of batting and backing.

Alot of time and effort was put into this quilt but I think that all the effort was worth it.

And Dorcas Lane was the lady who ran the post office in the series “Lark Rise to CandleFord.” It is a great BBC production. I picked it up from my local library-it is a great show. Each show had a lesson that it was trying to show you. There were

four seasons in the whole series. I even think that it is better than “Dowton Abby.” I apologize, I know that there are alot of fans out there of this current show. I may even have spelled it incorrectly, so please forgive me.

Until next week, Happy Stitching.

Ruth

My sewing machine is home again!

March 6, 20139 Comments

My domestic sewing machine has finally made its way home again. A blown fuse was the culprit so it wasn’t too bad, although I did miss it while it was gone.

Do you remember the quilt that got away? I thought that I had taken a photo of it but didn’t. Well, I did have that quilt in my house and I did manage to get a photo for you.

Linda’s Strippy Quilt

Here is Linda’s finished quilt. She mentioned that she has done one of these for each of her children. Can you believe that? All those strips pieced together so precisely and kept so nice and straight too. Again, the borders were square and flat. That definitely makes my job easier. I SID (stitched in the ditch) around all the strips and quilted a freehand design in the border and sashing areas.

Carol also made a “modern quilt” for an upcoming charity fundraiser. She had seen the pattern somewhere but didn’t have the chance to buy the pattern. So, she designed the pattern herself and made the quilt! Talented or what!?

Carol’s “modern” quilt

Because the quilt had a “modern” feel to it, Carol wanted some “modern” quilting. So, I SID (stitched in the ditch) around all the strips and “pebbled” around all the sashing and border pieces.

Pebbling on Carol’s quilt

All those pebbles look pretty cool.

Pebbles up close and personal

As promised, I have 2 more small art quilts for you. At this rate, I will have to finish those other 26.

Autumn Leaves

Several of the leaves were created using Sulky’s Water Soluble stabilizer. First, I drew a leaf pattern on the clear stabilizer and then stitched it to death with thread. After all the leaf shape had been outlined with thread, I had to fill in the entire remaining area with thread. If I remember correctly, the 2 yellow leaves, on the right and left sides, in the middle of the quilt, were created this way. The other leaves were cut out and stitched on with a straight stitch around the entire leaf. Dissolving the 2 leaves were interesting. The stablizer dissolved but there was some gunk in the sink afterwards but it cleaned up ok.

Pumpkin quilt

This sad looking pumpkin was created using NeoColor Water Pastel Crayons. Try saying that 10 times fast!

Before I used the crayons, this entire piece of fabric was white. It truly was.

If you like to color, this is the project for you. All you have to do, is color the entire piece of fabric into whatever design or pattern you like.

I ironed my fabric to a piece of freezer paper so that it would be somewhat stablized while I was cloring it. Then I drew a pumpkin on the fabric, with an orange crayon. After the leaves and sky were colored in, water was spritzed onto the fabric and allowed to dry. I tried to quilt lines onto the pumpkin but it turned out looking more like an onion than a pumpkin.

I fused 2 layers of green fabric for the leaves and then cut them out. A piece of twine is used for the vine. Voila! My pumpkin is complete.

And on that note, I will give you a glimpse of what quilt is hanging around awaiting my finishing touches.

Applique Quilt

Isn’t this one a beauty? Applique quilts are “my one weakness.” Can you guess who said that quote or what series this came from?

I will let you know the answer next week and I will show you my completed art quilt for that upcoming competition I mentioned before.

Until next week,

Happy sewing.

Ruth

Stitching Impressions

All aspects of longarm quilting

Month: March 2013

Playing Catch Up.

Spring has sprung!

March Break-Yipee!

My sewing machine is home again!