Embellishing the Text...

I last posted about this piece here, when I had added the text using painted fusible web. Well, I've finally found my way back to it (life's been getting in the way!) and I've now finished another step in the process. I've layered the batting under the top (no backing yet), and free motion stitched around all of the text to outline it.













As you can see, I've also begun the hand stitching on the text to add a little more texture and interest.  So far I've just finished the first word, but I'll catch up on some TV listening and hopefully get all of this stitching done in the next few days.  I'm using one of my hand dyed cotton threads for the stitching. Once all of the hand stitching is done, I'll add the backing and then finish the machine quilting.  By doing it this way, any 'messiness' that may result on the back from my hand stitching will be covered!

The Denim Series Finishes...At Least For Now

The final piece in the series, goes back to using some rust dyed fabric along with a piece of hand dyed coral 'waffle' fabric.  The French knots found their way onto this piece as well.  I seem to be in a bit of a French knot kick these days.  The coral fabric seemed to invite simple cross stitch in those wonderful little square depressions and I decided to use a simple running stitch to provide some movement in the rust dyed area.  The mono printed denim was machine quilted using a repeating squared spiral pattern.  Since I wanted to leave on the two buttons from the original denim shirt, I've called this piece "Two Random Buttons".

Block Party and a Ball Toss...

After creating the Pick-Up Sticks art quilts, I decided to continue the mini series by using only some of the pieced stripes along with some other bright fabrics.  The first piece is called "Block Party".

 The idea of the block party got me thinking of games and from that "Ball Toss" was born. I am especially loving the process of the free motion machine quilting on these smaller pieces.  It is such a relaxing feeling to be able to doodle with a needle and thread.

I have more ideas popping into my head than I can keep up...I'm considering a couple of other series that I can't wait to get started on!

Pick-Up Sticks...

A while back I posted about some piecing play I was doing by cutting, sewing, cutting again, etc.  The little art quilts that resulted are now finished.  I think all of the free motion lines of stitching really help those colourful stripes to pop.  They are called Pick-Up Sticks I, and Pick-Up Sticks II, respectively.

I Need A Plan 'B'...

after

A few days ago I posted about an experiment I was trying based on something I had read online over a year ago.  Well, unfortunately either I am not remembering things correctly or I'm just unlucky. 

This is the piece I've been working on and after hours of piecing and wrestling with grass trimmer plastic to do the free motion quilting, it was supposed to shrink!  The small sample piece of wool that I tested shrank, but this piece, which is entirely backed in the same wool, unfortunately did not get the memo!  I used the sanitize cycle on my washer and the hottest setting on the dryer...You can be sure that if they were a pair of pants or a favourite sweater they'd now fit a Barbie, but sadly when I wanted, even needed, this to shrink considerably...nothing!  

I guess I can be happy that at least the dyeing process worked as I had planned.  If you compare the before and after images you can see that the after image, while still having a pleasing variations to the different shades of blue, has a more cohesive look to the colour.  But, instead of having a really interesting textural piece, I have a rather boring blue quilt...certainly not the 'fibre art' I was shooting for!

before

And so, I need to figure out a plan 'B'.  I have no idea where I will go from here...

What do you do with a very boring blue 'quilt' with funny plastic strips running through it?  I'll have to ponder this for a while and get back to you...

...'sigh'  

Taking Time for Fibre Art

In addition to all of the art journalling I've been doing lately, my other passion is to 'doodle' with my sewing machine.  I started this piece almost two years ago when my friend Heather gave me an intriquing piece of silk.

I have been working on it slowly, adding hours of hand stitch as I showed in this previous post.  I'm still not exactly sure where this piece is taking me, but I knew that the next step was to add some free motion quilting of these fun little 'pebbles' to fill in the areas that didn't have any dye on them, and therefore didn't get hand stitched.

I love how the machine work flattens the areas between the hand stitch, allowing the hand stitched areas to come to the forefront.

With this step done, I now continue to look at the piece waiting for it to give me some idea of what is to come next...

Work in Progress

It's been a few days since I've posted so I thought I'd give you a peek at a tiny part of a piece that's a WIP.  It's a piece that I'm planning to enter into a juried show in April, so I'll hold off showing you the entire piece (once I finally finish it) until after I find out whether or not it's accepted.

I started by machine needle felting hand dyed scraps of batting with various layers of rovings, hand dyed cheese cloth, yarns and other bits and pieces of fibres.  I've added a lot of hand stitching as well as free motion machine work on top.  I'm now adding some beading and a whimsical little surprise embellishment.  I've been working on this piece, off and on, for two and a half years.  I've never considered it a UFO though.  It's always been on my mind and sometimes just had to rest for a while as I considered possible next steps.

Now all I need is an iPad...

A couple of my friends asked me to make some iPad covers a while back, so that's what I've been doing for the last few days on my sewing machine.

I've used mostly batiks, and some of my own hand dyed and or surface designed fabric and a whole lot of fun free motion quilting.  I really like how the black thread pops on those bright colours.


You'll also notice I've added one of my faux tie-dye circles to the closure flap on each of the covers.

Too bad I don't have an iPad...sigh...

More Faux Tie-dye and Journals

Sadly some sort of a computer glitch has caused all of the images in this post to disappear, and I am unable to correct the problem.  Sorry!
The other day I shared a fun little tutorial about faux tie-dying and I showed you some of the journals I made using my little 'masterpieces'.  Well, yesterday I got the Sharpies out again and I did some more tie-dye circles.  This time I tried using various two and three colour spirals and some other shape and design ideas.  As I suggested in the other post, I recommend that you just experiment and have fun.  I was quite surprised by some of the results.

 I again used some of the circles I made, along with my hand-dyed fabrics to make some more journals.  On this one I used a piece of green ribbon to create a line and then decided to add some thread sketching to turn the circle into a flower.

This journal has wide strips of hand-dyed cheese cloth woven loosely over a plain blue background.  I love how the cheese cloth allows you to see through to the other colour.  Three random tie-dye circles were stitched over top to add a bit more interest.

On this journal I used a piece of accent fabric that I created while doing some surface design (click here to see that post).  I used a couple of pieces of coordinating ribbon and then had fun with some free motion quilting using variegated thread.  I used narrow horizontal zigzag quilting along the right side of the journal cover and then switched to a much longer vertical zigzag to cover the rest of the journal cover, front and back.  I had planned to add a tie-dye circle somewhere on this journal, but once I had this much done I decided to leave it as it was.

Shadow Play and Beads

Back in the first week of March I showed you the beginnings of this art quilt, before I started the quilting.

The next step was to do the free motion machine quilting.  There is something very 'zen' about doodling with a sewing machine!  In this case, I let the batik drive my stitching design by loosely following the pattern in the batik.

Once I finished the quilting this piece moved from my studio to the family room where I did the beading while 'listening to' TV.  I also added a little hand stitch with pearl cotton to give the smaller squares a bit more texture and interest.  Again, I used the design in the fabric (that I had fussy cut in the original piecing and fusing stage).

From Paper Sketch to Fibre Art...

I've been so absorbed in my Letter Love 101 online class that when I went in to my studio my sewing machine kept giving me dirty looks. Okay, maybe I was imagining that, but it  did look sad and neglected.  Well, I figured out a great way to make everyone happy - keep practising my lettering and give my sewing machine some loving (come on, it is February!) via thread sketching.  

I started by sketching out the alphabet using pen and paper (one of the exercises in the Letter Love course).  As soon as I saw this exercise I knew I wanted to do it in thread!

 The next step was to trace the letters onto a water soluble stabilizer.  I like to use "Wet N Gone" by Floriani because rather than being like a shiny plastic type of material that many such wash away stabilizers are, this one looks and feels like a soft interfacing.  Don't let the product photo fool you - it's enclosed in plastic to keep it dry for obvious reasons.



I'm now ready to give that sad sewing machine some quality time :0)  I chose a neutral coloured fabric that has a subtle mottled appearance and an slightly coarser texture because I wanted the background to be an interesting base for the stitching.  That fabric was layered with batting and backing as you would for any quilt.  The stabilizer is then put on top and I took the whole 'sandwich' to the machine,  Now for the thread sketching fun!

Using an open toe foot and setting the machine for free motion stitching, I started by tracing around the letters and filling in the negative space between them.  I use any thread in the top and Bottom Line thread in the bobbin.

As you can see, I decided to add some swirly vines which were drawn directly onto the stabilizer and then thread sketched as I did with the letters.

Here's what it looked like once the thread sketching was done.

Fun Fact:  According to Anita from Cotton Mills Threadworks you can wind about 102 yds (93 m) of bottom line onto a bobbin.  Based on that, for this project I used about 600 yds (558 m) of thread!  Needless to say, since I like using black thread, I buy it in cones not little spools ;0)

Now for a little magic.  I run the piece under cool water in the sink and I keep swishing it around until all of the stabilizer is washed away.  This literally takes seconds.  I rinse it a little longer, but because this is an art quilt I don't stress - the remains of the stabilizer actually gives it a bit of a stiffening effect.  If you're using this for a traditional quilt (I thinking a cute addition to a crib quilt maybe) you want to rinse it longer to get all of the stabilizer out and get back the original softness.

I hung the piece in my studio to dry before pressing it, trimming it to square up the edges and then I used a free motion ziz-zag stitch to finish the edges.  I free motion stitched on my signature and...

 ta da!