Eggs on White…an exercise in learning to SEE.

A few years ago, one of our younger son’s karate teachers told me about a drawing exercise he learned from Jaime Wyeth (!!!!).  Place a white egg on a piece of white paper and then draw it.  By eliminating all color, the exercise helps you REALLY focus on where the shadows are, reflected light, shape.  So last year about this time, I tried it in my sketchbook.  First I used pencil, but then wondered what it would be like in watercolors (over which I do not have expert control, ahem), pen, and so on.  I tried the pen because before the advent of photography, pictures in newspapers and books were often engravings, rendered by using lines, dots, cross-hatching to create light, dark, shading and shape.  Finally (duh, Sarah) it occurred to me that the same exercise would be well applied to thread and cloth.

• And a note:  by the time you get to the end of this post (which is long…sorry!), I can just hear many of you saying “I could NEVER draw like that.”  Well, neither could I when I began.  I’ve learned, and so can you, you just need to try.  I’ve learned to teach myself drawing, learned to SEE.  I recommend Betty Edwards’ The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain very highly.

A whole lot of our thread-coloring, quilting with thread, thread-sketching–whatever you want to call it, is achieved the same way artists used pen and ink in the days of yore. You use the direction of the stitching to create a contour, like on a hiker’s contour map of the terrain.  And you can use different colors or use the same color applied more densely to create variations in value–the range of color from light to dark.

One of my first efforts at eggs, using a water-soluble gray ink pen.

When I started playing around, of course I didn’t want to muck up the expensive watercolor paper, so I did a few test-sketches on copy paper:

Practicing directions and types of line to create shading for the eggs. The S and XS are reminders about the size tip on the pen I used, a Pitt permanent black ink similar to the Pigma Microns.  I have found that my Pigma pens just dry out too quickly, and that the Pitt pens work as well on cloth and seem to last longer for me.

Then I tried by drawing in pencil first.  In this photo, I’ve included the eggs on white paper in the background and my ink sketch in the foreground:

The eggs and the ink drawing, which I did to simulate on paper what I might do in cloth.  This sketch was done relatively quickly, so I’m pleased that it gives a decent rendition without taking eons to do it.  If you look carefully at the egg on the right, look at the  left side.  There is a triangular wedge of shadow BUT at the bottom, *under* the edge of the egg, it actually becomes a brighter / lighter gray from light being reflected and bounced up off the white paper!  Whooda thunk it?  And just in front of the tip of that egg…notice that glow of white *under* the egg?   It’s amazing what you can see when you really start LOOKING at something!

Next, a comparison using three different media:

From top to bottom, the eggs done in pencil, watercolor and ink.

Then this year I signed up to teach at Friday Sampler in Houston; think of this as speed dating for quilters!  About 20 teachers are in a ginormous room at the Houston convention center, each with their own Station (one or two tables).  The teacher does brief (5-10 minute) presentations…same one over and over.  The students/participants can come into the room and move from station to station at will to see what each teacher has to offer.  I’ll be talking about Thread-Coloring, so I thought it would be the ideal time to do up some new samples to teach how to see light and dark, light and shade.

This sample shows the lines I drew in blue pen (quilted in a similar blue since over time those blue pens can fade out with humidity!), followed by three variations in quilting them.  The top two quilted ones are stitched with ONE color of gray thread (the new Magnifico poly from Superior Threads, and it is magnifico!).  The bottom set of eggs is quilted with white and three shades of gray (light, medium, dark). You’ll notice two sets of cast shadows…that is because there was light coming from two directions:  the electric light and the window.

All four versions in thread: the blue is to represent the markings I put on the quilt. The second set of eggs is quilted with cross-hatching of sorts using one color of gray thread. The third set of eggs is quilted with a scribble using one color of gray thread, and the bottom/fourth set of eggs is quilted with the same scribble but using three shades of gray. For all three of the quilted sets I kept the way I stitched the shadows consistent to make comparisons easier.

Just as I did with my paper sketches, I did some practice runs on an old warm-up quilting sandwich:

It’s good to try out various options on a scrap quilt sandwich before working on the real thing.

I’m not thrilled with the cross-hatch stitching I did on the final sample…those ovals on the top just don’t do it for me.  I would not use this quilting on an actual art quilt…that’s the benefit of test-driving quilt designs on scraps and samples.  I really liked the way the scribble versions turned out, though!  Here are some close-up photos so you can see better:

The “marked” (blue) design and the first of the quilted eggs.

The bottom two quilted sets of eggs.

In this earlier post, I wrote about testing some new-to-me threads from Gilbreath Threads, and said that they were made in the same factory as the Aurifil.  It appears this is incorrect, and I’d like to thank Alex V. from Aurifil for helping me get the information correct.   Aurifil, which makes VERY high quality cotton thread, does not manufacture thread for Gilbreath.

The message I had received from the US representative for Gilbreath wrote:
We are the only US  importers of Cucirini Tre Stelle
cotton thread from Italy.  It is a 2 ply cotton thread w/a long staple.
We carry cones &   spools.  Our thread compares to Aurifil apples for
apples.  We feel ours is even better as it is made in the same factory
for the last 100 years.

I must have misunderstood that to mean that the Gilbreath thread was made in the Aurifil factory (it is not), rather than it was made in *A* factory, the same one for a hundred years.  My apologies to both companies! They both make great thread, and I’m looking forward to picking up some from each company at Quilt Festival in Houston in a month’s time!

Yes, it has been a while.  As usual, that means there has been more than the usual chaos around here.  We happened on to a house for sale ad in August, which started a ball rolling that we hadn’t anticipated.  We found a different house just a couple miles away (same school district, next town over), made an offer on it, and have been maniacally (sp?  that looks weird but not getting a spelling error notice) sprucing up our house.  That means little art and quilting have happened.  Until this week.

In the midst of getting the house onto MLS, I started a new sample piece for my Intro to Machine Quilting Class which I’ll be teaching again on Sunday at Maine-ly Sewing in Nobleboro.  I was prompted by two things:  this post over on Jenny Bowker’s blog and the fact that some students find free-motioning into the vastness of empty space –i.e. the 18 inch square quilt sandwich I have them bring– is intimidating.   I use this sampler as my basic teaching tool (it’s also patterned in my book–click on picture to see it larger):

Some students like to make it just as is, sewing the grid, then filling in the squares, since a small square is less intimidating that a large one!  Others feel too confined in the squares, so I tell them to just go for it on the sandwich without creating a grid framework.  I’ve also long counseled them to use a large print as a guide for learning.  You can put the print on the back of the quilt and use that as your design, or just in the borders but repeat the shapes and motifs in the center of the quilt.

If you haven’t yet visited Jenny Bowker’s blog, DO!  She is one of my all time favorite quilt artists.  Her work is always inspiring and amazing.  While you are there, be sure to click on the link to her website and view her quilts.   Jenny has combined the two methods I use into one piece…take a square of big-print fabric in the center of the sandwich.  Jenny has her students piece the top, I think, but I’ll try fusing instead…faster for a class room setting?  Then use various motifs from the print fabric plus fill patterns for the rest.  In looking at hers again, I think I need to make MORE of these little pieces; I also am thinking a bed quilt of assorted big print squares with wide, solid-fabric sashings quilted all over like this would be GORGEOUS!

So, I decided to adapt her idea by fusing an 8 inch square into the center of an 18 inch square of white.  I also received some spools of thread from Gilbreath Threads, fairly new to the quilt thread market I think–their stuff is available here.  They found my website, asked if I’d like to try their threads (the cottons are made at the same factory in Italy as the Aurifil cotton that is so luscious Correction!!!!  Gilbreath claims the cottons are as good as Aurifil…see my clarification posting dated October 11, 2010).  I said sure, and they sent me a variety.  In the next post, I’ll share more about them, but I think I am in LOVE with the 12-wt wool and the 12-wt silk.  I am re-thinking my aversion to bobbin work…these are too wonderful NOT to use!

I began by quilting on the print square, then spilling over onto the white.  Next, I continued with the variegated green (a Rainbows thread from Superior Threads), with relatively easy quilting (requires less precision than many designs) for the four different “waves” coming in from the sides.  I then decided to repeat the yellow color of the heavy wool used to outline the flowers, but using Gilbreath’s 40-wt. Poly.  The latter handles and looks much like Superior’s 40-wt poly threads, which are my favorites.

Once the colorful stitching was done, I decided to try the two cotton threads Gilbreath send:  a 40-wt ecru and a 50-wt white 2-ply.  I used the ecru to stitch a small leaf design in the center of the remaining open areas:

Finally, I used the fine white thread, which appears to be similar to Superior’s MasterPiece thread, for some background quilting.  I like to contrast curvy with linear in quilting, so I chose a checkerboard fill patter.  I got out my ruler (who me?) and drew a grid with wash-out blue pen (see above).  Then, because I am easily confused, I colored in the alternate squares so I wouldn’t go off-track, and stitched on top of the blue (yes, this is the picture from the top, repeated….):

Here’s the back:

You’ll notice some thread blobs…I left those on purpose since this is educational.  The point on this one is read the thread description FIRST.  I tried using the 12-wt silk and the 12-wt wool through a topstitch needle (both size 14,90 and 16/100), with limited success.  I then read that it is intended for use in the bobbin or by hand.  I simply cannot describe how heavenly that heavy silk is….. I can see doing handwork just so I can use it.  The sheen, the thickness….GLORIOUS.  I think I will take a very close up of that spool for the next post….drool!   Anyway, that’s for next time.  And you’ll see it with the blue washed out…mo bettah!

A.W.O.L, for my non-US readers, is an acronym that comes to us from the military meaning Absent WithOut Leave (i.e. going off without permission).  So, I have been AWOL a bit.  What have I been doing?  Alas, I can’t tell you, well not much anyway.  I was invited to submit a quilt for a juried invitational exhibit.  That means you make a quilt to theme and size, and it may or may not get in.  Anyway, the past 2 1/2 weeks I’ve been quilting like a madwoman!   I’m thinking my entry will get in, but if it doesn’t, I’m OK with that because honestly I think this piece may be one of the best things I’ve ever done (so it is KILLING ME not to share it!).

What I can share, is the thread.  On a quilt that measures 12 square feet, I used 46 threads on the top (in the green bin) and 16 threads on the bottom (in the bag on the right…also one thread was used both top and bottom), for a total of 61 threads.  Here they are all laid out nicely, with the 16 bobbin threads in the top row (including four cones), and 45 of the 46 top threads below; the repeat was the lime green bobbin thread–aren’t they pretty????

and as always, I like the line drawing on the back side of the quilt almost as much as the front.  I will have word in about a month about the exhibit, and can share (either way, whether I get in or not) then…..
In the meantime, I hope to be a bit more regular at blogging.  You can always tell when either I’m slamming on a project OR too much life is happening…blogposts become scarce! Will try to do better,

Cheers, Sarah

Despite being a relatively unknown teacher, I was thrilled that my Wednesday class was FULL!  It is called Tame Fussy Fiddly Threads for Machine Quilting, which is really my “More Machine Quilting” class but with a better name.  It is for folks who are comfortable with free-motion quilting.  You don’t have to think you are good at it, just willing to try it!

The photo above shows the four 15″ square samples I made for the class.  (Click on the photo for a larger view.) The one on the top left is on the cover of my book.  Since I kit up the threads, and the ones I used in that sample didn’t match the kits, I decided I needed to make up three new samples to match what was in the kits because many students want to “make it just like that.”  I always encourage students to make it their way, but many will follow the class sample for practice.

When I teach this class locally and for guilds where students have their own machines, we work on a thread tension sampler (the pattern/instructions are in my book) so folks can learn how to achieve a balanced tension no matter which combination of thread, needles, fabric and batting (well, there may be impossible combinations, but we talk about that, too).  However, I learned the hard way in Paducah in Spring 2008, that doing a tension sampler on a borrowed classroom machine isn’t the best idea.  SO, I developed the leaf sampler so students can actually make a small item in class while testing different threads and tension settings.  I also hand out the instructions for the tension sampler so they can start on it when they get home to have their own personalized ready-reference quilting tension guide.

Anyway, the morning was spent making the freezer paper stencil template and painting:

The colors the students combined were GREAT!  I loved the pink and green tinges to the copper and gold:

Here are three happy students….the lady (my classroom helper…thank you!) on the left used a gray/black print that looked great in the real… it didn’t photograph as well, but is really cool:

The one in the middle used the Brytes thread, a heavy poly from Superior Threads, for the stems very effectively:

Lynn was one of the few who totally wanted to go her own way…yippee!  Instead of using my leaf, she drew and stencilled an oak leaf:

And here is Lynn  in the middle of quilting—thanks to Janome America for sponsoring several classrooms of machines!

And of course, a whole bunch more of fun quilting and stencilling and quilting.  Some students preferred to mark guidelines for their stems and vines:

and even more pictures:

I really like Barbara’s composition, colors and that swirly vine:

and here’s a detail:

Next post about classes, I’ll share the Fun Fabric Postcards class!