Showing posts with label invisible thread. Show all posts

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Let Them Flourish is finished!

If you've been following me on Instagram, you've seen lots of images of the progress of this piece. Lately I've been adding a gazillion French Knots, finishing up the beading and then finally mounting it on a fabric-covered canvas.

Let Them Flourish - Ready for Exhibition

Let Them Flourish (aka Biodiversity)

In the Beginning

This piece started off as a fabric collage of images related to Biodiversity, the theme that was given to us as part of the February 2021 TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club workshop. Kate Tume, our instructor, had us exploring narrative potential with embellishment.

The beginning of Biodiversity (working title)

I attached the fabric pieces to batting using Heat n Bond Lite. From there I started stitching and beading. To say that it was slow going is a huge understatement. Again, not called slow stitching for nothing 😊.

Starting the embroidery and beading

At some point I got tired of its slow progress and wondered off to other projects. I came back to it during my #100dayschallenge on Instagram. I would say that the majority of it got done between March and May 2022. It also helped that I had a deadline approaching - the Conversations exhibition with Fibre 15 (see related links below).

Towards the Finish Line!

I love using my own hand-dyed perle cotton 💙

At one point I got bored and had an aha moment. I realised that I didn't have to embroider the images using the same colours that was on the fabric. Notice the house in the image below, which was printed in blue but covered in orange thread. I love that the blue peeks through. That was quite liberating! 😊

Adding different colours than those on the fabric

The green embroidered background around the moose took forever -
I was seeing swirls in my sleep!

I added a gazillion French knots around the tree. I knew by then that it would drive me crazy, so to keep it interesting, I used different shades of green and went roughly from light to dark.

So many French knots!!!

I was worried about the owl - I wanted to add beads but wasn't sure how much. I found out fairly quickly how much was "too much"! I was going to bead every other line but got mixed up and ended up beading all of the lines. It wasn't really bad but it made the owl the focal point, which is not what I wanted.

Too many beads....

Just the right amount of beads 😊

I used sewing thread to lightly embroider various parts of the owl.

Finishing up!

Finishing up involved covering a 14" x 11" canvas with fabric and then attaching the piece to the canvas. I used Sulky's Invisible thread since it was clearer than the other kinds I have. I wasn't able to make a knot at the end of the thread, so I left a long tail and then after taking the next stitch, tied a knot at the back.

I just put in a few pins through the canvas to keep the piece from shifting as I was sewing it down. I stitched around the edges but also within the piece to keep it securely in place. It was easiest to stitch behind beads.

Attaching the piece to the canvas

Let Them Flourish

What I learned

I learned that this technique is called textile collage. This is probably my favourite technique of all times. I've used it a few times to make some of my favourite pieces. I'll include links to my favourite ones in Related links below.
I love being able to add bits and pieces of fabric to tell a story or show a moment in time.
The hardest part is probably leaving reality behind since there is no way to keep the actual perspective real since the elements come in the size that they are on the fabric! I love that whimsical part of it.
I'm glad that I figured out that I don't have to use the same colour as the background image to embroider. It adds a different look when using a different colour and having the original fabric colour peek through.
I realised that I need to change things up to keep me interested. What's not to love about many shades of green instead of just using one?!
I really got to know my threads - there's nothing wrong with embroidering with regular sewing thread if you just want a small accent of colour and texture.
A bonus is that the technique almost always needs the little bling of beads 😊
It's always a slow project, even if using FMQ but it's usually well worth making. I'm making myself finish this one before I start another one - it would be too easy to get sidetracked at this point!

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Birds in the Air with Project Quilting 11-4

Challenge 11.4, "Birds in the Air" certainly challenged my creativity because I was determined to avoid making the traditional block at all cost! My accuracy challenged and tired brain was revolting against all of those HST (half square triangles)!

A conceptual Birds in the Air block

A conceptual Birds in the Air block

Since I didn't want to make those HST, I though of alternatives. When in doubt, I go to my strengths. Could I make a Birds in the Air block with free motion quilting (FMQ)? Sure, why not?

Ironic aside: it would have been much easier to piece the block with those dreaded HST than to figure out all of the challenges that came from making a conceptual block. 😊

I'm not sure what my thinking process was, but I tend to start with the obvious, such as birds within the HST, which then suggested a blue sky fabric. Since I've been working a lot with my dyed fabrics, I was sure that I could find something.

I made the block but since it was the size of the finished block and there was no gripping space for FMQ or embroidering, I added a square of backing fabric so that there was about 1½" extending on all sides of the block. Then I stitched the conceptual HSTs on the blue fabric.

I originally though of embroidering most of the images on the block but I ended up procrastinating long enough that I didn't have enough time, so back to FMQ!

Adding Trapunto

I thread stitched the birds and then decided to add a little bit of trapunto for the tree after watching Patsy Thompson do it on BluPrint. I added a layer of batting between the fabric and the backing and then stitched the top of the tree. I repeated the process for the tree trunk.

You can see a little bit of the Trapunto on the tree trunk, where it's puffier.

The background trees and the grass in the foreground were free motion stitched next. At this point it was Saturday afternoon and I was getting a little nervous, so I decided that it was time to FMQ and bind the piece. I could embroider the rest after I had finished the quilting.

I cut around the block and the backing, leaving the original layer of backing to extend about a ½". I cut batting to this size and then used a lovely green batik as the final backing. I cut this piece 2" larger than the block.

Free Motion Quilting

Details of the embroidery and FM stitching

I had no idea how I was going to FMQ this piece since I didn't really want to add more thread to the
piece. Then I remembered that I received a free spool of Invisible Thread at last year's Quilt Canada. I decided to take the plunge. I used the Invisible Thread as the top thread and FMQ the conceptual lines of the HST in the top half. I then stitched-in-the-ditch between the blue and green fabric and then around the tree, grass and background trees.

I bound the quilt and then started embroidering. I ended up hiding the trapunto on the tree top when I added couched fuzzy yarn all over it. I liked the trapunto effect but I like the texture more.

Does it sound like it was a long drawn out process? Well it was. I am happy with my finished piece and I learned more than I really wanted. But it's done and I think that it's lovely 😊

What I learned

It took me a while to figure out how the Birds in the Air block was made....until I turned it on point.
This piece almost didn't get finished. After cutting and sewing the two large HST, I had no idea what to do. As I mentioned it was too small to work on and deep down, the thought of embroidering all of it didn't appeal to me. It sat for a few days before I finally started free motion stitching it.
When I showed my almost finished piece to my son, he said that the birds are upside down. My daughter and I both think that they're correct. Maybe there's more than one way to draw birds in flight?
I added trapunto to the tree top. It was a little harder than I expected since I did it between the backing fabric and the stitched birds were sort of in the way of my cutting around the batting. I ended up cutting my backing fabric since I knew that it would be covered with batting and a final backing fabric. At that point, I really felt like I was channeling my mother's MacGyver energy. 😉
I would never have tried using invisible thread but one of the teachers on BluPrint recommended water soluble thread, especially to stitch around trapunto areas. Invisible thread isn't quite the same but I used it instead and was very impressed. The thread did show up a bit, although most of it was later covered by embroidery. I believe that they sell a few kinds of invisible thread - I think that a more smokey colour would have been better. I'll have to look into that!
Since I have less than an hour to publish this post and link up, I'm going to stop now!!!

Friday, November 13, 2015

A Mountainscape Workshop

Another Landscape Art Quilt for the Challenge? You bet!

This Remembrance Day, our guild offered a workshop with quilter Hilary Rice. We worked on a mountainscape quilt full of curves. It was great fun! Hilary has created her own patterns and teaches the technique based on Vikki Pignatelli's Crazy Curves Technique.

From a lovely kit of hand-dyed fabrics purchased from Hilary, we made our own mountainscape quilt. It took me most of the day to put the quilt together. It's now pinned and ready to sew.

Mountainscape quilt pinned and ready to sew

The next step is to sew the pieces together with a blanket or hem stitch, using invisible thread. At the workshop I tried out my Kenmore's hem stitch but it really wasn't very good. I'm sure that my new-to-me Jag (everyone needs to name her sewing machine!) will be able to do the job. It won't be for a few days since I'm currently working on free motion quilting a table runner.

Here's our pattern with the sky pinned in place. The technique is fairly simple, especially when you use a pattern (I'm so used to just making it up as I go that the thought of using a pattern is becoming a novelty.)

Sky attached with pins

The first thing I did was copy the pattern onto freezer paper. I then placed it on foundation fabric, which in my case was white Kona cotton. I cut the first pattern piece from the freezer paper, without touching the foundation. I then ironed the freezer paper onto my sky fabric. I cut that first piece, adding a 1/4 inch seam allowance.

The tricky part is then to replace it onto the foundation. The first piece is easy because it's all raw edges, but it changes as the next pieces are added. After cutting out and ironing the freezer paper onto the next fabric, I finger pressed the seam allowance of the fabric that overlaps the piece above it. The raw edge of the fabric is then placed under the next piece (the one below that's still on freezer paper), and place the finger pressed over the sky fabric above it. That's when all the pins come in. I then pinned that fabric where the fold meets the piece above it.

Pinned project with possible embellishment!

That's essentially the process. When a curve is very pronounced, you clip the folded seam allowance. If you want to learn the process and don't have access to Hilary's workshop, apparently Vikki's book explains the process very well.

As you sew the fabric pieces down with the blanket or hem stitch, you can add tulle, organza or tuffs of yarn. After that, the mountainscape is ready to be sandwiched and quilted.

I'm sure that I'll be doing some cool FMQ and embellishing my mountainscape. I can't imagine doing it any other way...that's my favourite part!

Linked at Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Monday Making, Fabric Tuesday, Main Crush Monday, Design Wall