Showing posts with label canvas. Show all posts

Thursday, December 12, 2024

A FM stitched portrait finish on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome 😊. I'm so happy that you can join me today. We are experiencing snow, drizzle, rain and freezing rain. It's quite the combination but since I bought some salt and a new shovel, we are prepared! Today I am sharing a project that I seem to have forgotten to post about. Now that it's finished, it's time.

Free Motion Stitched Portrait

It all began in August with a TextileArtist.org class with artist Rosie James. Her work is wonderfully illustrative and done with FM stitching. Since many of her portraits are of the back of people, it feels doable if you're not comfortable drawing or stitching faces (like me!). They also incorporate colour as she uses fabric for the clothing.

Hubby photographing scenery

It took me a while to choose the photo. I have many images like this one since we are often waiting for Hubby, off somewhere taking pictures.

Original photo taken this Spring in Alaska

After printing up the photo, I drew the important parts on tracing paper. I used coloured Sharpie markers to highlight the sections that would be covered in fabric.

Template on tissue paper of the original photo

From the template, I used the lightbox to trace the patterns of the jacket, backpack and pants and then cut the fabric.

Making the pattern on the lightbox

I used a FriXion pen to draw the entire scene on a white cotton background and then used free motion stitching to outline the scene. The most difficult part was to place the cut fabric patterns onto the piece. To ensure that they were in the correct place, I stitched over the tracing paper. That's why you see me picking out the paper below with tweezers.

Using the tweezers and magnifying glass to clean up the piece

The piece was mostly finished weeks ago but it took me that long to finish mounting it on the canvas. I first used tacks to mount it but didn't really like it. Finally I untacked the piece, added a layer of cotton batting between the canvas and the fabric and then tacked it permanently with staples. That's when I used my amazing new light with the magnifying glass to remove the paper and extra thread.

Finished piece, mounted on a canvas

What I learned

Making this project brought many learning opportunities. The first one is to check that you don't reverse the image between tracing the pattern and sewing it!
I tried to add free motion stitched grass beside the pants but it was horrible. Thank goodness that I was able to remove the stitching without damaging the piece.
I also learned that if you're going to mount the piece, that it would be best to be more accurate about the free motion stitched edges.
I'm very happy with the piece, now that it has batting underneath it. Without the batting where were a lot of puckering of the fabric. This smoothed out most of it.
I'm going to be doing a smaller piece incorporating this technique as part of a wedding present for my brother and sister-in-law. My SIL is an amazing seamstress and she kept me a piece of fabric from her wedding dress. The picture has the bride and groom from the side, so hopefully I'll be able to stitch their faces properly.
If you check out Rosie James' work, you will see that she loves to keep dangling threads on her work. I didn't keep them because that's not the look that I was going for in this piece, but one day I will try it!
BTW, I love my new desk lamp. It's very bright and as you can see, the magnifying glass came in handy.
I was really worried last week as I was using the new lamp and still couldn't see my FMQ properly. It turned out that I was wearing my regular glasses and not my reading glasses! The proper glasses solved the problem!😲

Free Motion Mavericks

Welcome to week 510 of Free Motion Mavericks! It was a productive week! Thanks for linking up. Here are the projects from last week that included FMQ, ruler work or walking foot quilting.

Melva has two quilts that she's been FMQ. Her first is a finish of Sticks and Stones 2. Check out her post to see how she decided to quilt it.

Melva's Sticks and Stones 2

Melva has finished her Pieces of my Life, a quilt-as-you-go quilt.

Melva's finished Pieces of My Life

One of the section of Melva's quilt-as-you-go quilt

Here is Brenda, of Songbird Design's quilt from the Virtual Christmas Cookie Exchange. This year it's a gorgeous table topper.

Brenda's gorgeous Christmas table topper

It's now your turn.

Thursday, April 04, 2024

Scrappy Journal on Free Motion Mavericks

Hi and welcome. ⛄ Are you under siege with snow? I'm sure that it won't stay, but it's here. At least it will be Spring again eventually! I have a spring-like project to share.

Scrappy Journal Challenge

A few weeks ago I participated in another Vintage Page Designs Challenge. We made a Scrappy Journal. It took me longer than a week to make but I love how it turned out. I've cut up paper to create more of these in different sizes. Hopefully I'll play with them soonish.

Scrappy Journal - a Spring-like cover

You may remember this photo while I was making the cover.

Cover hanging up to dry

I was supposed to add more images and stitches to the cover but that didn't happen. That's why we make many versions 😊.

Front of the Scrappy Journal

I have 4 signatures (sections), each with a cover page

The binding of the book is a zig-zag stitch

Back cover of the journal

Poppy modeling the journal 😍

What I learned

In my previous post (see Related links) I mentioned that I had used a thinner watercolour paper to make this cover and glued on a second paper to it. It worked out ok, but for the next two that I've started, I used the proper watercolour paper weight and just changed the sizes of the journals.
The cover can also be done on canvas fabric. I bought some very reasonably priced printed canvas that looks like it's been stenciled. I'm hoping to glue various papers onto it to create something unique.
I've been collecting paper napkins when I go out for supper and find cool ones. This cover was done using some napkins illustrating the 12 days of Christmas, as well as a few favourites that have flowers. I'm always on the look-out for interesting paper napkins to make journal covers.
In my next versions of this scrappy journal cover, I'll be stitching on fabric. That will be a lot of fun 😀
I used printed paper to make a cover for each signature. However, I would love the scrappiness of these journal to extend to the paper used inside, and not only the cover. I've made a few artsy journals (see Related links) so mixing all of this together would be a lot of fun.
I want to play with the idea of a scrappy journal so that I can use this as part of the playdate for the Out of the Box (OOTB) Fibre Artists. It will be held in June, so I have some time to figure it out.
The zig-zag stitch that was used for this journal was a bit complicated for beginners. I want to make more journals with the zig-zag stitch, but I'll find a simpler alternative for the playdate.

Great news! Hubby had a look at my scrappy journal and would like me to make him one! 😊

Related links

Scrappy Play on Free Motion Mavericks, March 21, 2024
Fall Fling Market on Free Motion Mavericks,(hour-glass binding with paper fabric) October 26, 2023
Catching up on posting projects, February 08, 2021
More Stitchers' Journals, February 11, 2021

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun linking parties. Why not check them out - and please remember to link up below 😊Put your foot down, Off The Wall Friday, Finished (Or Not) Friday, TGIFF, Patchwork & Quilts, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2024, Design Wall Monday, Sew & Tell,

Project details

Scrappy Journal

made for the Scrappy Journal Challenge with Vintage Page Designs

Size: 9" x 4"

Materials: watercolour paper, napkins, scrap paper and fabric, printed craft paper, glue, printer paper, waxed cotton string, ribbon

Techniques: book making techniques with zig-zag spine and scrappy cover

Free Motion Mavericks

It's week 476 of Free Motion Mavericks. Let's see what our quilters are up to!

DonnaleeQ quilted a Raider's runner as well as a cute Sun Bonnet Sue quilt that she started 20 years ago with her granddaughter.

Raider's runner by Donnalee

Sun Bonnet Sue quilt made by Donnalee

Gail of Quilting Gail didn't have a finish this Friday but she showed us a photo of her quilt top being quilted using Silly Moon rulers.

Quilt top getting quilted by Gail

Gail quilting her top using Silly Moon rulers

Chris of ChrisKnitsSews was able to finish her grandbaby's quilt since he's now made an appearance. Chris made the curved lines using rulers, did some stitch-in-the-ditch and Point-to-Point stitching. What a beauty!

Baby C's quilt, made by Chris

Stitching details by Chris

It's now your turn!

Wednesday, November 03, 2021

All for One

In July, I wrote a post "Trying to get from fine to great!" This was about my embroidery of Chevy, my daughter and I doing our "All for One" move. It was bitter sweet doing another embroidery since we are missing Chevy so much, but I did want to get this second one done so that my daughter and I would each have one.

All for One Embroidery

This is the original embroidered piece, after fixing it up. It was actually easy since the fabric is mounted on a canvas. All I did was tighten some of the loose stitches from the back. It looks much better now. This is now in my daughter's room.

All For One - Take 1

The new embroidery is very similar. I used slightly different threads and finished the collar in a different pattern, closer to Chevy's Princess Warrior collar.

All For One - Take 2

This is the photo that the embroidery is based on.

All For One!

What I learned

I re-did some of the second embroidery because the thread colour didn't stand out enough. I would have thought that the cream colour would have stood out more, but I think that it might have been too close to the fabric's warp colour.
I considered doing something different for this second one but I really like the simplicity of it. I used my favourite stem stitch but was more careful with my stitches.
I'm surprised that I didn't think of tightening the thread from the back on the original piece. Since it's mounted, no one will see the back.
I'm not sure that I went from fine to great but both of these are definitely better. We are both happy with them. 😊

OMG for November

One Monthly Goal for November

This is my OMG for November. I've already started but I want to finish piecing and quilting it! It's the Mallard on The Lake, a foundation paper piecing mini by Made By Marney. Wish me luck!

Related links

Trying to get from fine to great!, July 16, 2021
Mallard on The Lake by Made By Marney

Linking parties

I'll be linking up to many fun parties, including Free Motion Mavericks with Muv - remember, you don't have to be doing FMQ to link up! One Monthly Goal (OMG), Monday Making, Midweek Makers, Put your foot down, Needle & Thread Thursday, Off The Wall Friday, Finished or Not Finished Friday, Peacock Party,

If you're looking for Free Motion Mavericks for the week of November 11, 2021, go to Muv's blog. See you next week!

Friday, July 16, 2021

Trying to get from fine to great!

Hi, it's been a while. I haven't been motivated to do much of anything except a little bit of gardening. I thought that it might be time to try to ~~kick~~ motivate myself out of my funk. So here's a project that I've been working on. Unlike most projects where, whether it's good or not so good, I try it once and move on, I'd really like to get this one, not just fine, but great!

Version 1

My daughter took this picture of our "All for One" pose with her, Chevy and me. I've been thinking of how to embroider it - so this is my journey 😊

All for One

I wanted to embroider this image onto a denim coloured cotton fabric. I wasn't sure how to proceed. In this first version, I tried a couple of new techniques.

All for One - version 1

The first new technique was to mount the background fabric onto the frame of a painting canvas (8" x 8"). First I removed the canvas for the frame. Then I pinned the fabric over the frame with tacks and used the frame as an embroidery hoop. This works well if the image doesn't go anywhere near the edges of the frame. The back of the frame is much wider than an embroidery hoop, so it's difficult to stitch near the edge of the fabric.

Close-up of All for One

I started by tracing the photo onto tracing paper. For the stitching, I followed Sue Stone's suggested technique: to stitch directly through the tracing paper with the fabric underneath. I used a stem stitch of 3 or 4 strands of embroidery floss. When I finished stitching the outline, I carefully ripped off the tracing paper.

I did a little bit of filling inside the image. I even used some fluffy yarn to stitch part of Chevy's coat.

I'm not crazy about my stitching. I'm not sure if it's because the stem stitch is looser after having stitched through the paper and fabric or from pulling the paper off. The awkwardness of stitching using the frame can also account for some of it.

What I learned

I think that a tighter stitch would be better.
Sue Stone uses a backstitch, so that might have made a difference.
I'm not sure that I want to have just an outline or to add something extra as a fill.
What I'd like to try next:

Use a background colour that is more skin tone.
Use a different stitch.
Stitch more details such as shadow.
Possibly add a sleeve or two, to add texture. It's also possible to add appliqué but I don't think that I'll do it in the next version.

I really like having my piece finished on a frame like this, but this time I'm going to embroider it as usual and then cut and tack it to the frame after it's done.
I've always had problems with the corners when adding fabric to a canvas. However, after taking the canvas off of the frame, I saw how they cut and folded it. I highly recommend that you do this if you want to figure it out.

Monday, January 14, 2019

Mini Art Quilts and Slow Stitching

Mini Art Quilts
✔Two minis done, and two more to go!

Blooming Yellow

The yellow mini art quilt is finished.

My original intention was to wrap the mini over the canvas. I had a difficult time because the seams in the background made the corners bulky. When I trimmed on of the seams to reduce the bulk in the corners, I ended up ripping it. It was a pretty frustrating mess!

Blooming Yellow Mini Art Quilt

I ended up finishing the art quilt like a pillow case. I then added a background using one of the fabrics on the mini quilt and then wrapped it around the canvas. I used my scary but efficient staple gun to attach the background to the canvas. Then I very carefully stitched the mini quilt to the background fabric.

Blue Moon

This time I used a larger selection of blue fabric to make the background of the quilt. Using improv piecing, I sewed strips of fabric together, then cut them up, added more fabric and sewed everything back together again. The fabrics were mostly different values of blue, but there were some bits of other colours included.

Playing to create a mini.

I have to admit that I had absolutely no idea what I was going to do with the background. I took out some bits of yarn and started playing. I found a silvery blue piece that I liked and coiled it. On my table, I had a bag of batik pieces that I used to make hexies. I found a few pieces that had leaves and flowers and cut these out and Voila!

For the center of the coil, I used a blue foil paper from a chocolate I had just finished. 😊 On top of it, I added a crystal that I wore for years as a pendant until the string broke. Since the crystal has a hole through it, I was able to stitch it in and re-purpose it.

You can see the blue glittering through the crystal

This time, I didn't bother trying to attach the art quilt directly to the canvas. I finished it using the pillowcase method and found a piece of light blue flannel to cover the canvas. Again, I just stitched the mini to the background.

Blue Moon Mini Art Quilt

Slow Stitching with Take A Stitch Tuesday (TAST)

I found another project to follow. It's a Stitch Along on Facebook for embroidery. Every week Sharon of Pintangle highlights an embroidery stitch from her stitch dictionary. It's very low key with a Facebook group. It's been around since 2007 and still going strong.

Frankly I just wanted an excuse to keep doing embroidery. Since I have an embroidery course from Craftsy, I can use multiple sources to figure out the stitches.

Week 1 featured the Chain Stitch and Week 2 was the Fly Stitch.

As I'm writing this, I just realised that I did the Stem Stitch for week 1 instead of the Chain Stitch - so I'll have to add the Chain Stitch to my sample.

First two weeks of the Take A Stitch Tuesday (TAST)

Isn't the fabric amazing? I think it's a Kaffe Fassett fabric. I've been wanting to stitch on printed fabric for a while, ever since I bought a Wild Boho book for my daughter. I spent a great evening last week just playing with these stitches.

Stitching on beautiful printed fabric

What I learned

I learned that stretching fabric over canvas is pretty tough on the fabric. It's also important to avoid having seams where the fabric needs to be folded around the corners.
I was using the canvas to ensure that my mini art quilt was the correct size. All I had was to make the mini roughly the same size as the canvas. It turns out that that wasn't very easy to do! It's really a good thing that the canvas was there.
For the blue mini art quilt I decided right from the start to attach the quilt to the canvas in the same way as the first. It was even wonkier than the first but it looks good against the canvas frame.
I've included a reference from Quilting Arts that includes different methods of binding art quilts. Of course I didn't look at it until it was time to write this post! I might help me for the next two.😊
It's a good thing that I trust my intuition because I would never have figured out what to do with the blue mini art quilt since I didn't really want to do an abstract piece. I must remember this for the next two....which I've started and still have no idea what I'm going to do!!!
When attaching the silvery blue yarn to the background, I just sewed through it since the thread showed too much when I tried to couch it
I just used a glue stick to attach the blue foil and the batik fabric to the background. I then FMQ the whole thing down.
I'm pretty happy with the amount of contrast in the blue piece. It still reads blue, and hopefully it will be the right blue! I figure that if it's surrounded by other pieces with the correct blue in them that they will each play off each other.
I've been wanted to stitch on printed fabric for a long time. I love it!!!