I’m always fascinated by the creative process, especially seeing how someone else did something.  So I figure I’m not the only one with these voyeuristic traits and thought I’d share a bit of “how I did that.”  That, in this case, is my quilt Clothed in Color, which is an entry for “The Space Between” juried exhibit.  I wrote about it here.

Clothed in Color; 36x48 inches (not quite one metre wide). Made with batiks, hand-dyes and thread.

Over the past few years I’ve been teaching myself about and playing with color, both in the dyepots and commercial cloth.  When I decided to do a portrait of our older son, I wanted to work with value only, the relative lightness or darkness of color, ignoring the actual hue (color).  As I mentioned before, though, I wasn’t too sure he would appreciate his skin being green, blue, pink, whatever.  As a test-run, I tried the process in the portrait of our pug, and it worked, so I set to work on the Joshua quilt (put Joshua quilt in the search box and it will take you to posts from mid 2010 with the process on that one) except that I used realistic skin tones.  Not so for this quilt!

For this quilt, I began by selecting pale batiks and dark batiks in anything other than a tan-brown-skin tone.  OK, an honesty moment.  I began by depositing a large sum of money (with glee, abandon and NO regrets) at Batiks Etcetera last summer.  As I drove to my teaching job at the AQS Knoxville show, I made certain to stop at Batiks, Etc. in Wytheville, Virginia. The shop is even more wonderful than their booths at shows and the service just as wonderful.  It is hard to find the light-light and dark-dark fabrics, so I went hog wild.  True confession:  I have never, EVER spent this much for fabric in one place at one time in my life.  It pretty much used up my fabric budget for the last 7 months of the year.  And it was worth every penny!  (PS…I blogged about it earlier, too, here.)   And I’m planning on doing it again this coming June when I drive past that shop on the way to teaching this year (WHEEEE!  Get ready Carol, make the bag a big one!).  Now here’s the photo of lights and darks:

Sorting fabrics by value...light to medium on the table, darker ones and some extra lights in the green bin.

To get the correct pose, I set up my camera on the tripod and used the timer to trip the shutter (and cover myself strategically before anything too revealing got on digital memory card!).  I took a lot of photos until I had the right tilt of the head, expression, curve to my side, placement of arms and hands.  Then I set up the digital projector (which I bought to use in lectures and classes, and now have this use for it, too!) to project the photo onto paper folded/cut to 36×48.

Me, in blurry living color, on the design wall in the old house; you can see the laptop and projector on the work table. PS--notice in the photo I am in our bathroom with a cloth covering the window behind me, not in a doorway at all. That's the camera and tripod on the right reflected in the mirror (which I was using to see how things looked).

Somehow, a photo is much more “revealing” than the same thing in batiks, so while I’m not too uncomfortable with a semi-nude quilt of myself, I decided I had best blur the photo.  Ahem.  And I’m glad I lost that 25 pounds a couple summers ago!   Having carted the weight around since my last pregnancy (the kid is now 13) it was time for it to go!

Anyway, back to quilting.  Or drawing.  Rather than use photoshop to define shapes, contours, etc. I prefer to take a drawing pencil and outline the edges and make my own decisions about where I want shapes and colors to merge and blend and overlap.  I will draw these “interior” lines, too, and often add notes like “medium-dark” on the drawing.

I decided to tackle the hardest part first:  my face.  In the end, the eyes ended up about 1/4″ too close together, and I may be able to adjust that, and they are a smidge too large.  Other than that, things turned out OK.  Once the face was done, I could move to the torso (using larger chunks of fabric), the towel, and the hair.

I began with the most difficult parts (face and torso). I ended up removing much of the dark fabric for the strong shadow under my arm..tho the photo was that dark, it just looked weird in cloth, so I reduced the fabric and later added lots of dark thread to create the shadow.

Thelma Smith made some awesome quilts of the Sonoran Desert, and in them used a technique she learned from a painter and then shared with me.  The painter used Cadmium Red Light paint to outline / highlight some figures.  It really makes them pop out from the background, especially when values are similar.  It doesn’t shriek at  you like black would, and despite being a color totally not there in real life, the technique works.  I’ve wanted to try it for quite some time, so I did for the hair, and used a deeper red for the shadows to the right and top of my right arm.  I decided since I selected a deep-dark fabric for the background, there was plenty of “pop” on the body, and didn’t continue the “red halo”, but think I’ll have to do another portrait of someone and give it a try on the entire figure.

Anyway, here is the hair in progress:

Hair, in progress (early stages)

In this photo, I decided to work on the table, not the wall.  I placed my sketch UNDER some parchment paper; I can still see the lines, and can cut and MistyFuse directly onto the parchment.  As with Joshua’s hair, I cut large, darker chunks to create the overall shape of the hair.  Then I cut highlights (magenta, orange, rust, green!) in wobbles and waves and wiggles, adding until it was “just right.”  Here’s a closer view of the hair when done:

Detail showing finished hair

When I first envisioned the quilt, I thought I would fuse assorted bits of dark fabrics to make the background, as I really liked how the stark, dark contrast worked in the quilt of Joshua.  To get an idea of how it would look, I took one large chunk of blue batik and put it up on the wall, then pinned the fused “me” to it.  I liked it…a lot!  And decided that if I made the background into “boards” like our walls in that house, it would actually detract from the quilt.   So I made my life easier and used one single dark blue batik for the “wall behind the doorway,”  a doorway that doesn’t actually exist.  Then I used other bits to create the door frame and wall around it, preserving the angle of the light / shadows—the light was strongly coming in from windows on the left (and lamps set up to cast strong shadows to make getting the planes and shapes of my body easier in the drawing phase).

I’ll add that the entire quilt is done ONLY with thread, cloth and MistyFuse (my totally favorite fusible web).  There is no paint.  No pens or pencils.  Just cloth and thread.

So that’s how I did it!  Hope you’ve enjoyed the view,

Cheers, Sarah

WOW… I actually made an art quilt, and I can share it!   I had thought that the quilt must be kept secret until those juried in were announced, but apparently I was seriously wrong.  So I can SHARE!   Once again this year Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison are jurying and curating a show that will debut at the IQA show in Long  Beach, then hopefully head on to Houston and beyond.  The theme this year is “The Space Between.”

This is a detail of my face:

I knew what I wanted to do in a quilt, but wasn’t sure how it could fit the theme.  In chatting with Leslie by e-mail, she recognized that *I* was in the space between, the sandwiched generation handling the needs of both children and aging parent, not to mention spouse, work, family and all that.  I am indeed the one caught.

Presto!  I would finally get to make a quilt that has been in my head for four years:  a (discreet) nearly-nude self-portrait using no skin tones–I am clothes quite literally with color.  Like artists in the days of old, I find that I am my own least expensive and readily available model, so I ended up as the subject because I wanted to do another portrait, following the ones I had done of our pug:

and our older son:

I’ve been learning and experimenting with value (light-medium-dark), and used the pug (a 12×12 inch quiltlet) as a practice for the quilt of Joshua.  However, I wasn’t sure Joshua would like having pink, pale yellow, peach, mint green, baby blue or lilac skin.  SO….I opted for realisting skin tones and played with value in the color of his clothing, guitar and room furnishings.

When it came to me, I could do whatever I wanted, so I did.  Skin is pink, orange, plum, green, blue.  Hair is plum, peach, rust, dark green……in another post I’ll share the in progress photos.

Keep your fingers crossed…I hope it gets juried in to the exhibit again this year.

The lack of posts is due to mostly one thing:  packing.  Can you say UGH?   I HATE moving. It also has been wicked cold.  This was the weather station report this morning–exactly ZERO (that’s Fahrenheit for my non-US readers…about  Celcius minus 18):

6 in the morning, zero degrees outside, 63 inside, no wind chill....

That is a vast warmup from this time yesterday:

Jan. 24, 2011: the lowest temps since we moved to Maine. It was MINUS 11 Fahrenheit (-24 Celcius); the wind had almost stopped when I took this photo. At one point wind chill was -18 F.

I also have too much stuff.   I had cleared out some stuff, but as I pack my studio I clearly need to clear out more.  When I unpack, I do believe that I will finally cull and sell some of my quilting books! As you can (maybe?) see from the chaos below, a fair bit of packing has happened—five low shelf units, all the patterns that I sell (half the filing cabinet), the knick-knacks inside the Hoosier (and do I really need all of *those* dustcatchers?).

See all those awful cardboard boxes? At least the shelves behind are packed up!

Ugh again.  Here’s another view toward a different corner.  Ugh.  The blue on the sewing tables is my recent project, which I can’t show you.  Bummers.  It is for a juried exhibit with a mid-March deadline.  I knew I had to finish it early or it would never happen.  I finished sewing the facings on Sunday mid-afternoon, then started in on packing boxes.  I still need to sew my name to the front and make a label, but since the quilt won’t ship until late May/June (if it gets in, that is), I’m gonna let that slide for now.

Another shot of the rampant chaos in my studio. I hate being in anyplace this disordered. No more moves!!!!

So for today?  More packing!  UGH!!!

detail from the most recent free motion sampler--should be clickable for a larger view in most browsers

In my previous post, I shared The Ginormous Quilt (I may have to actually NAME it that!) inspired by Jenny Bowker’s quilt sampler and my variation on her theme.   I was able to see Jenny at Quilt Festival in Houston, have supper with her and Aussie friend Lisa Walton (of the gorgeous hand-dyed fabrics, here), and Jenny invited me up to her class one morning before the class began to see her other samples.  I thought I should try a few variations on the theme myself but, unlike Jenny’s samples in Houston, introduce some curves into the process.  Here’s my original variation on Jenny’s idea:

And here is the most recent one–and yes, *I* actually *pieced* that!  What’s become of me?

Free-motion sampler, before washing

Since I have the Ginormous thing, I wanted to test out various battings before spending a bundle to have it basted on a longarm.  The good news is that wool batting does not alter the whiteness of the sashing enough to be noticed, so if I want to I can use a wool or wool-blend batting. In this sample, I used Hobbs Heirloom Wool, which is quite puffy.  To use a Pamela Allen (if you’re not familiar with her work, click on her name to visit her website and prepare to spend a good long while being inspired!)  word, I like the “puffosity” of it.  The bad news is that you need to baste MORE with wool batting than with cotton or  you get some slippage and bubbling.  Ahem.  Basting is NOT my strong suit!

Since the Ginormous Quilt is to be a used bed quilt, with cats sleeping on top of it and getting it seriously hairy, I need something that will wash up nicely and easily without fuss.  So I tossed the sample into the washer and dryer with the regular washing.  As you might gather, I’m not a fusspot about some things.  This is what it looked like straight out of the dryer….gulp!

After machine washing and drying, wool batting (shrinkage expected!)

I took it upstairs, misted it with water and pulled it out a tad—here are back and front before ironing:

After machine wash and drying. Misted with water and pulled out a little.

Back view, after washing, drying, and a light mist of water prior to ironing

After ironing, it is much better and an inch smaller than before washing/drying:

After washing, drying, misting and ironing. Notice the ripply straight grain bindings. This is why I ALWAYS make bias! This was as a sample of why I don't like straight grain....

I REALLY dislike straight grain bindings, but given how little of the fabric I had left, I decided to do a straight grain binding.  This sampler is a perfect example of why:  ripples.  UGH.  The teaching part of this section of the quilt is “why I don’t do it this way”.  Ahem.

The bottom line:  despite the apparently horrible crumpliness of the quilt straight out of the dryer, I think this soft, light, drapeable wool batting (Hobbs) could work.  I would simply tumble dry to “damp” instead of “dry”, then let it air dry the rest of the way.  Of course, there is the question of whether or not it would fit in a home dryer! My sample was just under 18 inches before quilting.  It was, after squaring up after quilting, 17 inches with binding.  After washing, it is 16 x 16  inches.  This shrinkage was expected and planned for in constructing the top, which I made oversized so that when hubby and the cats hog the covers I will still have enough quilt  left.  Smile!

I have at least one other wool batting sample, by Pellon, and plan on also making a comparable size  with the Quilters Dream Wool and another with their cotton batting, which is one of my favorite cottons.  All samples will be machine washed and dried…I am absolutely NOT going to fussy-wash a quilt that is nine square yards huge! When I get them all done (probably in about a year…sigh…) I’ll share the final comparisons.

OK...draped over the double-sized antique canopy bed...read on!

So, you might ask, does Sarah EVER make quilts any more?  Art quilts?  Bed quilts?  Lap Quilts?  ANYthing?  Some days it feels like the answer is no, there is so much life happening that I can barely manage to get myself dressed and stumble through a day!  But I have managed a few new class samples and a few other things.  A while back, I wrote about Jenny Bowker’s totally awesome idea (seen in her blogpost,  here) and my riff on the subject here and here.

Well, I had been collecting tropical colored big prints (Kaffe Fassett, Martha Negley, Phillip Jacobs and the other designers from the Westminster Fabrics crowd) for a possible project for a possible (in a couple years) new book.  Well, I had (still have) this totally cool idea, but decided it was probably too complicated for a simple book project and, honestly, was more piecing work that I wanted to do.  Then I made my sample a la Jenny, and had a brainstorm!  A QUILT made with bright squares and simple sashing.  PRESTO–fabrics re-directed to new project.  So I got out my graph paper and charted out sizes for a BIG new bed quilt for us!

I decided to use squares of the tropical prints cut 8 1/2 inches, which meant I could get four pieces plus some leftover from a fat quarter (usually about 18 x 22 inches or thereabouts) of fabric.  A sashing that finished at 3 inches would look good.

Blocks cut, order set out on wall, vertical sashing on first six rows...

I was VERY careful cutting, and used my AccuFeed foot on my new Janome Horizon 7700.  I even went to the extent of cutting the strips on the non-stretchy lengthwise grain of the fabric because I wanted this to be perfect.  Drat!  It wasn’t!  The white pieces, on the bottom, were coming out 1/8″ too short, and I KNOW (and triple checked) they were cut to the same length.  Luckily, I am on this great Yahoo group for 7700 owners and another one for 6500/6600/7700 owners (a lot of us on the first list are also on the second one, which was the mother list).  Someone (and boy do I wish I could remember who so I can say THANK YOU) mentioned the button on the right of the machine and some instructions in the manual (yes, I had read it, but just didn’t remember this part!).  If your fabric isn’t coming out even, you can turn the knob to fine-tune the dual feed!  PRESTO! Problem piecing solved.  I told the little red guy with forked tail and spear on my shoulder making rude noises at me to go away, that it wasn’t MY piecing at all…I just needed to learn how to be smarter than and adjust my machine!

Here’s what it looked like as I was chain piecing lots of blocks and strips:

(Notice the lovely “Lemon Grass” Fiesta Ware mug amidst all those lovely prints!)

Here’s the quilt top a bit farther along,

Then I measured.  SHRIEK!  adjust border plans to smaller!  Eliminate the white what *was* going to go all around the center blocks and go straight to the pieced (from leftover bits) border of all colorful prints!  Here it is as I am ironing…. under the top is an ironing board with a 60″ wide Big Board PLUS a 39″ (one metre) wide table….and it drapes over the ends!

Aren’t those colors awesome??????

Trying to get a picture of the enormity of this thing was beyond a do-it-yourself photo shoot, so you’ll have to put up with me!  The finished top is 107″ square!

It's too big to fit...this shot, before all the borders are on, shows only 6 1/2 of the 9 color squares going across and up...so it's about 2/3 of the quilt!

That would lead to some questions:

Q1:  Is Sarah sane?   Answer:  obviously not

Q2:  How do you plan to baste this?  Answer:  I don’t; bless Doris and Debbie at Quilt Divas (great quilt shop in Rockland, Maine), they will baste it for me with water soluble thread on their longarm.  I don’t care what it costs.  I am NOT basting it.  Answer, part 2:  re Q1, perhaps she’s not as far gone as we thought

Q3:  What about the quilting?  Answer:  Yes, I plan to do it, but NOT for a while.  And at least the worst part, the basting, will be done by checking account!  Also, my big treat once we get moved in late January and next year’s teaching is done, is to buy myself an HQ sitdown model for working on very large projects.  I think a quilt 3 yards by 3 yards square qualifies.  Answer to Q3, part 2: ummm…OK, Sarah is clearly certifiable; either that or she has no life

Q4:  What quilting design will you use?  Answer:  I’ll do something similar to the sample I did  up in the links posted above.  When I shared an in  progress picture with a friend, she was concerned that the white is TOO bright.  I agree, it is!  But once it is quilted the starkness will be toned down and I think it will be a lovely summer quilt.

Q5:  Is Sarah insane?  Answer:  Ayuh!