email Youtube

Home
Galleries
Blog
Workshops & Calendar
Store
Resources
About
Contact

Author Archive

How did I do that? Earth and Turquoise….

Sunday, January 29th, 2006
Deirdre asked if I used Angelina on the Earth, so I thought I’d share my reply with the rest of you.

The earth: placed tracing paper over the kids’ globe and traced north and south America, the cut fusible-webbed cloth to go on the globe. I have this “thing” about the US and Europe thinking they are the center of the universe. I conceded to having my own continent on the piece, so I could put some turquoise chips in the southwest US (where N. Scott Momaday is from), but placed the south pole at the top.

The clouds: there is a tiny bit of Angelina, but it is mostly wisps of un-dyed silk bombyx (just cleaned, de-gummed silk fibers) into “cloud” formations. I wanted to just quilt over it, but it was too grabby (and my hands too dry and snagged it a lot), so I laid a square of tulle over the whole thing. Stitched free-motion (at the embroidery stage, not the quilting stage), then trimmed away the tulle in the non-cloud areas. There is a tiny bit of angelina in there to give a hint of sparkle, but all Angelina was too much glitz for this piece. Warning…it looks good, but it’s like having cat hair migrating all over your quilt. If I ship this to a show, I’ll have to lint-roller it but good, then place tissue paper over the earth to prevent more migrating fibers.

The hands: I got first Joshua, then Paul to take some pictures of my hands with the digital (I didn’t like the position my thumbs were in with the ones I had Joshua take…and then he got tired of the project). Uploaded them to the computer and traced them, at 100 percent, and at 200 percent. Well, at 100 percent the hands were too small for the piece, and 200 percent were too large (but I like the tracings I did so well they’re gonna become something some day). So, back to 150 percent–Mama Bear always has the best! I traced from the computer onto tracing paper, then used Saral transfer paper underneath the tracing paper to transfer the markings to the cloth. I then hooped and free-motion stitched the hands onto the background as embroidery.

I used three or four colors of orange-y / tan / ochre Superior Threads Highlights Trilobal polyester for the shading on the hands’ embroidery. Initially I planned to do more threadwork, probably in navy–either the Bottom Line or So Fine, a matte poly thread, on the hands when I got to quilting, but ended up just outlining them and leaving them be.
HTH!

Karoda’s comment and Leaf Sampler Stitched

Thursday, January 26th, 2006

I finished the stitching on the leaf sampler yesterday, and hope to quilt it today. In the meantime I took some photos. But, to begin with giving credit where credit is due, I got this idea from Jane Sassaman. She brought a 16-leaf sampler (and drat it all, it was so wonderful I couldn’t think of anything else subject wise that would work as well for a class sample, but at least I made two leaf shapes, both my own, and used my own colors and stitches without reference to hers!) to a class, then I later discovered that a few of her leaves are in her book, the Quilted Garden, on page 121.

Karoda mentioned that she could use a class in the decorative stitches….so I sent her this reply:

Ooooh goodie….that must mean I’ve picked a good subject! The (earlier) post was a quickie, and I intend to get a better photo and some closeups to show the differences. I’m actually thinking of a book proposal…who knows, maybe in 2 years I’ll have a book on it LOL!

Oh…and the answer is play. Pick a simple shape…a leaf, a circle, a trapezoid, whatever floats your boat. Use fabrics with high contrast, and use the same fabric combination for all of them….every single one of these is the same magenta stem and green batik. They look mighty different once you add thread, eh?

Then use stabilizer (I used freezer paper, but on some of the more openwork stitches you get paper left underneath), and go to town with all your various threads. For a class sample, I don’t mind the paper but for a “real” piece, I’d probably use a tear-away or a washable (the papery kind, not the see-through, which is kinda grabby when on the bottom of the fabric).

Just fuse up 9 or 16 samples, and try different combinations. 16 may be a bit much / boring, but a nice “nine-patch” will give you an idea how dramatically different stitches and thread can make a leaf (or whatever) look….

To get the freezer paper off, spritz with water bottle (or daub with sponge paintbrush along stitching lines), let it sit a few minutes, peel paper away (if need be, pinch stitching between fingers on the really lacy stitches so they don’t pull), and iron dry. If using poly threads, iron from the back to minimize the possibility of melting your threads with the hot iron. Or use a press cloth. From the back doesn’t require *finding* the press cloth LOL!

Here are some close-ups of a few of the leaves. I don’t necessarily like all the options I did, but I wanted to illustrate how different the leaves can look depending on the stitch and thread color chosen—heck, I only used Superior Threads 40-wt. trilobal polyester (the Highlights, Rainbows, and Hollis Chatelain lines) threads. Imagine if I’d added cotton, matte poly, metallic…etc!

New Mug, Happy Mug, Morning Mug 10

Thursday, January 26th, 2006

After Christmas, we all drove south to Brunswick to Clay Play—one of those paint-it-yourself clay cafe places. The boys did the annual handprint on plate and a little figurine each (Eli picked a lizard, Joshua picked a monkey). Paul read a book (sigh) and I made a mug. This is definitely a morning mug–very happy! Herewith, two more shots (other side and inside):

Earth and Turquoise, feather question

Wednesday, January 25th, 2006

Earth and Turquoise is nearly DONE! Here are three levels of detail for you. First, the entire piece, with sticks, stones, wire, feathers, etc. My main question is…the feathers. Too big? I really like the idea of feathers on it, though. Maybe smaller feathers? Or are they OK? These came from Kathy Daniels (Studio in the woods), and are either turkey or hawk, not sure which, but she said there were lots and, alas, bones, too, where she found them.

The second photo I tweaked the color in Photoshop Elements so you can see it better on the web. The color in the first and third photos is actually more true.

Finally, here are two detail shots. I am SO thrilled with how this one turned out, that for once I’m not going to put it up for sale. Definitely not ready to part with it. The problem? No wall space to hang it here….hmmm….what can I move?

And speaking of my friends of the Frayed Edges

Tuesday, January 24th, 2006

There are hotlinks in the earlier post on the names of the various Frayed Edges, but maybe I should tell you a bit about them on-line. Deborah Boschert many of you probably know well from Deborah’s Journal. Deborah’s work would fit well in Quilting Arts…sometimes I get irked at the “too much stuff” on the surface of QA, but Deborah’s work fits in with the best of QA. She always does the embellishments “just right”…not too much, not too little, and just the right touch. Of course, that extends to her home and her life, too….she always has just the right touch or thing to say. Her hubby is recently resigned from the Navy (he’s a pilot) after many, many years, and they and their two kids are moving to Dallas (booo hoooo hoooo again…I’m resigned, but I really will miss her here) for his dream job. Deborah’s work is for sale on her other website, Deborah’s Art–don’t miss it!

Kate Cutko moved to Maine shortly after college, and is (I think, if as a newbie “from away” I can say this) now truly a Mainer. She works with adoptions and placing kids with adopting families, doing home studies and all that. She and her friend from college, Katie, started up a business last year called Kitchen Table Cards (guess where the idea for the business originated..yep, at the kitchen table), aimed at adopting parents. She’s even getting orders from Europe!!!! hooray for the internet and the tight adoption community. Best of all, many of the cards and posters and calendar, can be used by folks who haven’t adopted. Kate has two kids (I guess I shouldn’t put their names, even though they have cool names, eh?)….anyway, son is 7, daughter is a big younger and from the Ukraine.

Kathy Daniels is one of those people who, when you see her quilts, you just shake your head in awe. No envy, nothing negative…that’s not possible because she’s so nice! She has, hoooray!, just joined the blogging world at a Studio in the Woods. She’s a Mainer all her life, so whenever those of us from away are mystified by something “Maine,” we ask her! She recently made these totally wonderful advent calendars (was it nine of them Kathy?)..at any rate a whole LOT of them for nieces and nephews, each with a cloth portrait of said child at the top. I hope she’ll blog about them soon, and all her amazing pieces, too. One hard thing about seeing her work on the web is that there are so many wonderful details all around, and you won’t get to pick up and pore over and touch and look like we get to do.

Hmm…methinks you all need photos. Well, it is get the kids on the bus time (well, it was when I wrote this…a day and a half ago…and now it is crash on the sofa in a vegetative heap time), so not now, but later today or tomorrow I’ll take pictures of the pages they did for me in the “books” we worked on, and post them for you…..