Project Quilting week 3

  It's  time for week 3 of Project Quilting.  Our theme is Annie's Vision.  Annie Young is a blind artist who has a vibrant style that  depicts her feelings and senses.   Oh boy!  If  I was to create just from my senses this week it would be a huge hodgepodge of pieces.    I'm feeling pulled in multiple directions with  the tax man looking over my shoulder!  So coming up with a focus was my challenge this week.      I flipped through my sketchbook  and ran across a Pasque flower drawn after our trip to Alaska in 2009.



    I began with a 9 inch square for the background for the flower.   The pieces were fused down.  Then before I did the machine applique I placed some batting scraps behind the block.  Once all the edges were stitched down, I trimmed away the extra batting from around the stitching.  Trapunto effect!

I finished this off with an offset design of batiks for the borders.   I did not measure these pieces..... just cut  and stitch, trim and re-sew....until I was satisfied with the result. 



  

 I focused on the  memory of my mother-in-law  telling  about finding strength in these tiny flowers as I worked. Pasque flowers  are very delicate in appearance and have fuzzy stems.  The petals are thin and highly veined.    She referred to them as crocuses  and said they would poke right up through the snow in late winter in Alaska.    I imagine that finding  a few spots of vibrant color in the snow after a long winter was a real treasure and bright spot.   













       The Pasque..... finished size is 12 " by 20 ".  

  Linking to Project Quilting at Persimon Dreams  .

Happy stitching.

 

Welcome the Carolina Chickadee

Update to this post:   Can I just tell you how boring it is to sew "wings" on to triangles and squares!  I'm stitching on the Easy Street mystery quilt.  I am so very, very glad I decided to do half the number of blocks. So far, so good, I am on to step 3.

   I mentioned I was working on a  chickadee pattern I got from  Carol at The Landscape Lady .  She does beautiful art quilts and designs patterns for Craftsy.  Her original pattern was wider than long, which I loved, but it did not work for the wire hanger I have.  So, I did a little switching around and made mine longer.    This is basic fused applique with an extra layer of batting behind the chickadee and the pine cone for a little trapunto effect.   Carolina chickadee banner is 13" by 16".  A great winter welcome!
Happy stitching.   

October Bonus for the Free Motion Challenge

    The October Bonus by Diane Loomis  for the Free Motion Challenge is on her  trapunto technique.  Be sure to visit her site.....she does wonderful work.
  
I have done a similar technique before, but thought I would give this a try anyway.  Diane  provides a pattern for a small flower and a feather border.  I nixed the feather border for me, as it was so small.  The flower I thought would work on a doll quilt.  So gather the needed supplies and off I went.
   I decided to do a small practice flower on white muslin first.  This is the first layer of poly/cotton batting stitched with wash away thread on the muslin.    I cut away all the excess batting and then made a regular sandwich of backing and backing for the final stitching.

    I used a light blue isacord thread for the final stitching .  I did 3  echoing lines around the motif and then stippled the rest.    The stippling took forever.....but the results were great.  I trimmed it to 4" by 6" and plan to finish off the edges with a satin stitch.   A perfect little piece to enjoy.  

  

  Then  for the doll quilt.....I had pieced together some large squares from the stash and used them to border a wider purple strip.  I actually stitched on 2 flowers in the center purple strip.  I just used echoing lines to fill in the rest of the purple.   I am not as crazy about the echo lines.  I think I much prefer the stipple....yet for a doll quilt, it works.  

        The colors are truer in this photo, and the relief from the stitching shows well.  This is a great technique to experiment with and I bet feathers would be fabulous using it.  So maybe another time, I will try that.  For now, I am quite happy with this little one.
      Stitching this motif was easy and hard.  The easy was doing a better job staying on the marked lines.  Practice does help after all.  The hard....there is a lot of back tracking to get in all the details, or you have to break thread and move to another area.  I tried both ways.  Back tracking is still difficult, but I am noticing some improvement.   I give the lesson 5 stars....lots of details and good information shared.
   Don't let this bonus material get by you.  Be sure to check it out.
Happy stitching.
   

Journal quilt...I've lost count.

  I've saved all the scraps from the paper piecing and trimming on the batik blocks.  So they became the source of inspiration for this journal quilt. 
  I have a small enamel vase on the shelf in my sewing room.  It was a souvenir I bought my mother many years ago, and the blue/green batik prints remind me of it.  She loved that color combination. 
  The background is done crazy patch style on a muslin foundation using light blues, and the table top is a mix of taupe fabrics.  I drew the vase shape on the foundation and tried to work around it, leaving the shape uncovered with the piecing.
  For the vase....I drew the shape onto the paper side of heat and bond, and covered the shape with all the tiny pieces on the glue side. The shape was  cut out and fused to the foundation.  The little "twigs" are twisted thin strips straight stitched down.  I used the "trapunto technique"  behind the vase when I stitched it to the foundation.  All the extra batting was cut away.  I straight stitched in matching thread to hold down all the tiny pieces at this point.
  Then on to the batting and backing and quilting.  I decided to try to only use straight stitching  and not use free motion quilting.   So I only used simple curves around the vase shape.  The edge is unfinished right now....not sure if I will bind it or just use  thread. 
   I spent the afternoon cleaning--shock!---so maybe tomorrow I will to finish this.  I completed a few more batik blocks and need to take a photo. Again, maybe tomorrow.  Till then, happy stitching.

Exploring Texture-- Journal quilt project

Texture....exactly what do I mean?  I know that  when I run my hand across a polished wood surface, it feels smooth, and a tree trunk is usually  rough and bumpy, and  my velour robe is soft.  So it seems I am referring to the tactile quality of the object.    The quilting stitches will produce texture, especially if the stitching is dense.  So my question was how else can I convey texture.   

   Fabric selection is one way to introduce texture.  And the fabric that came to mind was not a fabric I would select for a quilt.  But it already had texture stitched into it.....it is pin tucked and embroidered, and beautiful  aqua blue color.  I only had small pieces given to me by Deana, so I squared up some edges and sewed them together to get a big enough piece for the background.

   Second thought was contrast.  I needed to have something smooth to contrast with the background.   Flipping through my sketchbook, I found a drawing of a seashell--round, smooth, and shiny.  The seashell would be the smooth.  So I sketched out a larger one onto freezer paper to use for a pattern.  I pulled out my book of color and found a suggested palette for the aqua.   I  decided to take the plunge and use the colors suggested  selected fabrics some bright fabrics.  These are not colors I would have normally picked for this, but hey, it's a journal project.  So why not?     
   Then more texture.....

   I lightly fused the shell pieces to the background.  ( Lightly fused?   My cheater method for quick applique fusing---instead of fusing the entire piece I just use a small square or strip of the fusible on the back of each applique piece.  I only do this when I plan on satin stitching  to cover the edges. :)

I chose a shiny silver rayon thread for the satin stitching for the seashell.  I decided to trapunto the shell, so I stitched thru the 3 layers ---batting, background,  and applique.  And then I cut away the extra batting around the seashell at the stitching, leaving the batting behind the applique.    Then did some quilting lines and ended up adding some cording, like seaweed strands. 
   The tactile sense is smooth and rough and bumpy.....like I talked about.  In the photo the visual sense of texture is not as strong.  But the colors-----I love them together.   I even think they add texture because I want to touch them. 


Insight:  Use the tools (books) I have.  I bought them for a reason---to learn from them.  Just like everything else in life,  live and learn!
So that's Journal Quilt Challenge #3.  I used  scraps, sketchbook ideas, but alas no thread painting this week.  So next week for sure....some thread painting.
Happy stitching,

Trapunto, anyone?

I added a few details to the waterfall and frog wall hanging and began stitching down the stems.  For the stems I used 1/2 inch bias strips and a buttonhole stitch on the machine.
When I got to the leaves, I decided to try some trapunto on them.  I learned the technique at a workshop with Leah Day.  It's very simple and I was doing raw edge applique anyway.  So before stitching the leaves on I placed a piece of scrap batting behind the leaf and pinned it in place.  Then from the front I stitched through the leaf, the background fabric and the batting.  The photo shows the stitching from the back.  The next step is to cut away the excess batting, so that only the leaf shape has batting behind it.
Tip:  When cutting the excess away, keep your scissors parallel and flat to the background fabric to avoid a disaster of snipping thru the front fabric.  The stuffed effect is seen  when the entire piece is batted and quilted-- the trapunto shapes will stand out.

The thread painted frog got the trapunto treatment too, but not the rocks.  The top rock that he is sitting on has a turned under edge and  is blind hem stitched down.  The turned under edge style applique gives the illusion of being on top, so I didn't think it needed trapunto too.  The other 2 rocks are stitched down with a decorative satin stitch because they were raw edged and not fused. They will have a flatter appearance and hopefully recede.  At least that is what I am trying for. 
I have a few more leaves to do and then some snipping, and a little shading with the pencils before I am ready to quilt this.