Showing posts with label Quilt Improv. Show all posts

Thursday, March 24, 2022

A Finish on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome to week 374 of Free Motion Mavericks. Today I have a finish to show you as well as a tiny bit of FMQ on the Version 2.0 quilt.

"Bonjour la vie" is finished!

This piece is from a workshop taken with the Common Thread Quilt Guild (CTQG) in Ottawa. We had a virtual Fantastic Fusion workshop with Lisa Walton from Australia. I loved the workshop and I'm thrilled that this piece is now finished.

Bonjour la vie!

It was my February One Monthly Goal but I didn't quite make it. The free motion quilting (FMQ) was pretty much done by then but I didn't have the facing done to officially call it finished.

The colours of these batiks are so vibrant. My images aren't as vibrant as the real thing - I may have to invest in a photographing light or two. I'm including a few pictures taken with different lighting. There's no outside shot option right now as it's drizzling and cold out. The snow is at it's worse - mostly grey and dirty but it will all be gone by the end of the week. Youppi!

Image taken when it was sunny outside

A detail shot of my favourite block.

It's hard to imagine but the colours of the block are even more vibrant than this photo!

I also want to show you the back since it's almost as gorgeous (in another way) as the front! All of the different colours of Kimono silk thread vibrate from the back! I was going to use a fancier backing but after doing a mini just to see how the thread would do, it was pretty obvious that a busy fabric was wasted at the back of this piece. Again, I tried all kinds of lighting to show off the thread from the back, but nothing ready did it justice, so you'll just have to take my word for it! 😊

From the back - wonderful thread colours

Mini to practice with the silk thread

Back of the mini

Free Motion Quilting on Version 2.0

I expected to be able to spend yesterday afternoon FMQ Version 2.0 but I slept through it after I was put under for some dental surgery. Happy news, my teeth are as good as can be, bad news, no FMQ except for the little bit of extra quilting I did last time, after the post.

Biking as one of the sports

Bike from the back of the quilt

What I learned

The "Bonjour la vie" piece is going to a girlfriend who has just retired. Bonjour la vie means Hello life - how she greets every day as she wakes up. I love the way that she is open to what life brings her. I'm working on doing that too (but when I wake up, I just want to go back to sleep!)
This piece will be part of the virtual exhibition for Fibre Fling 2023, presented by Out of the Box Fibre Artists. I'll let you know when it happens so that you can all attend the free virtual show! 😊

Free Motion Mavericks

We had some lovely quilts link-up last time. Karin at the Quilt Yarn, did some edge to edge quilting using a template that she copied onto Golden Threads paper while Gail used Silly Moon's Drop ruler to FMQ. Also, Denise used her embroidery machine to make this beauty! If you didn't see their posts, go have a look!

Karin using Golden Threads paper

Gail using a Silly Moon ruler

Denise using her embroidery machine

It's now your turn to link up!

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Trying for something different and Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome! I do have some free motion quilting (FMQ) to show you, but not on my son's quilt...my Jag is getting a long overdue tune-up and it could take a few weeks.

Creating an improv quilt during a playdate

The Out of the Box Fibre Artist Group had a playdate which I attended, since at the last minute, I had decided to take the day off work. Our playdate host, one of our members, did a great job of introducing us to improv piecing and stripes. Who knew that there was anything to say about stripes other than wide, thin, horizontal and vertical!😁

Improv piece with Shadow Stripes

I don't have any pictures until I got to this stage. With the FMQ, I wanted to try different effects on the solid fabrics. In the end, since I wasn't sure what to do next, I put it on my design wall and took pictures.

I liked the piece but it was just ordinary. What can I say...as I've started hand stitching, everything is calling out to be embellished somehow, and this piece was no exception.

Adding embellishments

The first thing I did was add this bright pink ribbon in one corner and then embroider fly stitches and stars. The ribbon is fun because it's translucent and has wire within the edges to give it body.

Pink ribbon and stitching off the quilt

After this beautiful embellishment, I had no idea what to do. So, I started thinking about what I wanted the piece to represent and made a mind-map to get me going.

The improv shadow striped piece is now called "Glimpses of Joy". I want it to represent life, the messiness and the joys, since I don't think that we can have one without the other. The background improv piecing depicts the messiness of life where lines don't necessarily join evenly, but they are beautiful despite this.

I started thinking about some of the things that bring me joy. There is a whole list, but I'll explore these one at a time as I make something to depict it on the quilt. The first one is the Sun.

The Sun - source of life

I had lots of fun making the sun. I wanted to use some yellow hand-dyed silk organza as well as cheese cloth. Since I collect absolutely everything for my art, I though of using these plastic discs that are at the bottom of Keurig coffee pods. They have these lovely holes to stitch through.

Covering up the disk with fabric

Stitching the fabric to the disk

The rays of the sun are made from a silk scarf that I bought on our trip to China.

The wonky heart is filled with all kinds of stuff - love, hope, fears, pain, gratitude, envy, etc. There are so many things that fill our hearts. I'm probably not finished with this one yet, but we'll see.

The next piece is from one of my eco-prints. I embroidered it and then attached it to the piece. There is so much in nature that brings me joy, as well as learning new things such as eco-printing and stitching😊

Embroidering on eco-printed linen

Wonky heart full of so much stuff!

This is what "Glimpses of Joy" looks like so far.

It's coming along

What I learned

A lot of the art quilting that I do start off intuitively. However, sometimes intuition only takes me so far, and then I need to think about the details of design.
I learned years ago how to create a mind-map. I mostly use it to help me think things through, and to keep me organised when I have guests over for a meal. This is one of the things that really stresses me out - so having all of the steps and considerations needed to get things done on a mind-map is my life-boat.
I'm still posting on Instagram. The wonky heart today was Day 45/100. Tomorrow's post will be the leaf. I'm enjoy the process of posting - not daily but about 5 times/week. It's encouraging me to keep stitching but it doesn't stress me out if I miss a day or two.

Free Motion Mavericks

This is week 353. I hope that you had time go see Muv's post, Very Newly Wed, with her daughter in her wedding dress. It looks like it was a wonderful event!

Last time, if you didn't catch Karin's FMQ with rulers, go visit. It's well worth it!

Patience Corner Quilt Finished by Karin

Thanks for visiting - it's now your turn!

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Learning QAL - October Sum Up

Welcome to Learning QAL's October Sum Up.

One of the views from Banff

Life is good here! I'm writing this post from the beautiful town of Banff, within the Banff National Park in Alberta.

As you can imagine, last weekend was a frenzy of activity at my sewing machine, getting my samples ready for this post and getting ready to leaving for Banff.

Quilt blocks lounging in the grass in Banff!

Quilt Tops

First things first - to test the batting, I had to create some quilt tops. I wanted this to be as painless as possible - so I chose to make some scrappy improvisational pieces. These are, for me, the easiest things to piece since matching points and such is not my strength.

I looked through "Quilt Improv" by Lucie Summers for some ideas on new improv blocks to make.

It was really fun putting together a half-square triangle block. Since I had many half-square triangles left over from other projects, this was the perfect way to use them. I must admit that it's my favourite of the blocks. I also tried a variation of her X block.

I already had a log cabin block that I just added strips to, as well as a block that Lucie calls pieced squares. These are the improv blocks that I usually make.

X Block with
silk-poly batting

Here they are, sandwiched and pinned, before quilting.

Half-square Triangle block with
cotton-wool batting

Pieced Squares block with
bamboo-cotton batting

Log Cabin block with
cotton batting

Batting

Here are the four different batting I used.

Tender Touch bamboo-cotton (50%-50%) with scrim
Warm 100 Cotton with 100% cotton scrim
Hobbs Tuscany Collection cotton-wool (80%-20%) batting with resin bonded
Hobbs Tuscany Collection silk and fine polyester (90%-10%) with resin bonded

Taking these different batting out of their bag, I was surprised by the stiffness and stickiness of both Hobbs products, although in the end, this didn't affect the quilting.

Something else that I noticed when I made my quilt sandwiches, is that the silk batting didn't stick to the fabric at all, even after being ironed. Again, I don't think that this affected the quilting, but it was unusual.

The bamboo batting was the softest and most supple while the all-cotton also felt great and was a little thicker than the bamboo-cotton.

Quilt blocks lounging in the gazebo

The Quilting Process

For consistency, I used the same backing fabric for all of the pieces, a Kona solid in pink. I put a new Superior Topstitch 90\14 needle into the machine. I also used Superior Threads, King Tut thread (40) for both the bobbin and the top. The bobbin was a grey thread while the top was a light variegated. I ended up running out of both of these on my last block!

I started by quilting-in-the-ditch each block. The cotton and bamboo-cotton batting were great. The cotton-wool batting adds loft (puffiness) and did feel a little thicker. It was also great to quilt. I was surprised with the silk batting. It is the thinnest, was a little stiff and it almost felt as if there was no batting.

Free Motion Quilting (FMQ)

After doing some in-the-ditch quilting, I then went back to complete the FMQ of each block. I started with the cotton-wool batting. Wow! It was really great to quilt and I definitely saw the added loft while quilting. I did have to be more careful about puckers, just because of the added loft.

FMQ on the cotton-wool batting (block size 16" x 16"½)

After quilting the cotton-wool batting, the silk batting felt really thin. I did have to adjust the tension on my machine since it was so different from the cotton-wool. It did quilt well.

FMQ on the silk batting (block size 14" x 14"½)

I didn't really see or feel much difference when quilting the cotton and bamboo-cotton pieces. They were both great - but this is what I'm used to quilting.

FMQ on the cotton batting (block size 16" x 16")

FMQ on the bamboo-cotton batting (block size 15" x 15"½)

I didn't get to finish the FMQ on the bamboo-cotton piece. I ran out of both bobbin and top threads. It is about 80% quilted.

Back of the X block
(silk batting)

Back of the Half-Square Triangle block
(cotton-wool batting)

Back of the Log Cabin block
(cotton batting)

Back of the Pieced Squares block
(bamboo-cotton batting)

The experiment is not over...

Overall, I was really impressed with the cotton-wool, bamboo-cotton and cotton batting. I was a little disappointed with the silk batting, just because it was a little stiffer and so thin. But the experiment is not over!

I still have to finish quilting the bamboo-cotton piece (after I buy more thread), and then bind each of them so they can be washed. That could make a difference in the end result.

I will also do some more experimenting with these batting - so if you're interested, follow my learning adventure next month. I'll be posting the details of Batting - Part 2 in my goal setting for the November Learning QAL on November 1st. I also hope that you'll be learning along with me!

Quilt block enjoying the view

What I learned

I was working hard to not be biased in regards to the silk batting because I was sooo looking forward to using it. It was difficult to not be disappointed.
In defense to the silk batting, it is known to be very lightweight but warm. I will reserve judgement (on all of them) once they have been washed.
In reality, the experiment can only be over once a whole quilt has been made and used to really get a feel for their properties as quilts. This experiment may last a long time :-)
I was impressed by the cotton-wool batting. Only 20% wool made a big difference in the loft. I'm also glad that there is only a little bit of wool since I do react to wool - even the softest makes me itchy. I had no problem working with this batting.

If you've had success, or not, with a particular batting, feel free to share with readers and me in the comments section!

Related Links

Learning QAL - October Goal Setting Link-up, October 1, 2017
Quilt Improv by Lucie Summers
Warm 100 Cotton batting
Hobbs Tuscany Collection cotton-wool (80%-20%) batting
Hobbs Tuscany Collection silk and fine polyester (90%-10%)

Linking Parties: I will be linking up to these great parties. Please check them out! Let's Bee Social, Linky Tuesday, Midweek Makers, Design Wall Monday, Main Crush Monday, Quilter's Monday, Can I Get A Whoop Whoop?, Oh Scrap!, Finished or Not Friday, MOP Monday, Free Motion Mavericks, Off the Wall Friday,

Great news! My half-square triangle block was featured on Free Motion Mavericks. Check it out!
Update: I linked to Sarah Goer's fun linky, Show Me Something Improv.

An InLinkz Link-up