Showing posts with label organza. Show all posts

Friday, February 09, 2024

Project Quilting 15.3 - Inside Out, Challenge 3

Hi and welcome to another Project Quilting (PQ) challenge. This week, we were asked to create a quilt based on the theme, Inside Out. What an interesting idea. It did take me a while to figure out what I wanted to do. The obvious would have been to make a mini quilt with the seams showing, but I was hoping for something a little more original.

Inside Out or Inside Looking Out

I ended up making a meditation piece with a backing and many layers of fabric that were all hand-stitched. I also did a little bit of research on how or what do fish see. Are these enough clues?

Inside looking out - from a fish's perspective

I was dog sitting this week and brought a few things with me, but there's always something missing, like scissors and the right thread colour! With pins, borrowed scissors and lots of patience (NOT), I created an outline of my fish bowl. I had a great time creating the window, curtains and couch. It took me a while to get all of those French Knots done but I wanted it to look like pebbles at the bottom of the aquarium.

Almost done!

When I got home, I found the right coloured thread and then looked in my scraps for things that I could add to the room. The sewing machine and bear were great. Then I place the organza over the whole piece and stitched along the aquarium lines (the dark blue) and the bubbles. I took my sharpest scissors to cut the fabric as close to the stitching as I dared.

I added the plant at the bottom of the aquarium and finally found a fish to make it super obvious that it was an aquarium.

Inside Looking Out - in my mindful stitching journal

What I learned

I love the addition of the organza. I didn't iron it on purpose so that the creases look like the distorted view through the glass.
In my research, I found that fish can see very well, just differently from us. They also don't see the water, just like we don't see the air.
I've added this piece to my Mindful stitching journal.

Sunday, May 23, 2021

After the Storm

This is the latest piece that I've finished from a TextileArtist.org Stitch Challenge workshop. I know that I say that many of my art quilts are my favourites but I really, really love this one.

After the Storm

After the Storm

In March of this year, I made this piece following a workshop with Jette Clover, a Danish fibre artist. It's based on a photo taken after a snow storm this winter.

A photo of my back yard after the snow storm

Our workshop was to create a piece based on a winter scene. I've often contemplated making a winter scene, but I had never gotten further that wondering "how in the world am I supposed to create a scene that's mostly white?" If you look carefully however, snow is not just white. There are usually shadows and the white sometimes has bluish or pinkish tinges, depending on the time of day and the weather conditions.

Details of After the Storm

I started by layering a flannel base with various fabrics and experimenting. A hand-dyed gray fabric went over the flannel. For the bottom, I used a piece of cotton lace from an old t-shirt, put a layer of batting and then added the lace on top. That was a lovely way of adding white without actually having to work too hard to give it texture 😊. I stitched on a piece of hand-dyed t-shirt on top of that - it had originally been an image of a bouquet of dried flowers so it had some lovely lines. Next came different types of tulle and organza - most of it had a lovely sheen that would be great for reflecting snow.

For the fence, I had a piece of cotton with pink, yellow and turquoise. On top of that came a piece of linen that I had dyed turquoise. It was an old skirt and I kept the stitching that was on it as part of the composition. I loved how it was curling and fraying. I also added a darker piece of gray as a line on the left. It sort of frames the piece and in the picture it's the window frame.

Once the pieces were mostly attached, I started stitching the branches. I used a running stitch of gray embroidery floss to outline them.

Outlining branches following the fabric

Adding the tree and its branches was the hardest part. I used a piece of batik and stitched it down with a button-hole stitch of a few strands of brown floss. I used the same floss to outline the tree branches. I then started covering the brown outlines with a DMC white Mouliné Étoile embroidery floss. It has a beautiful shimmer to it.

Adding the tree and then covering the branches with snow

I added lots of snow on the tree and fence top, the branches and around the base of the tree. I used a fluffy white yard to add snow between the tree and the lace. I thought that I needed something next to the branches and so added the snow covered bird bath. I used a piece of gray fabric covered with tulle and outlined in black.

Adding lots of snow and a bird bath.

Next came stitching the background with running stitch. I stitched the fence fabric vertically with a very light variegated thread that went well with the fabric. I used a variegated gray thread for the background. As I was stitching the background, it became obvious that the stamp had to be moved.

What's with the stamp?

Jette Clover, our instructor, loves to add stamps to her textile art pieces. Since we were in the middle of lock-down and I didn't have any interesting stamps, I went to the Canada Post website and found a series of northern wildlife stamps. I chose the Arctic Hare stamp since it was more likely to be in my back yard that a caribou 😊. I made a photo copy of the stamp and attached it to a piece of brown cardstock. When I moved the stamp and was ready to finish the piece, I went to a post office outlet and bought a book of the northern wildlife stamps. I then attached the real stamp to a piece of green cardstock and placed it higher on the piece. It looks much better now!

Finishing it

The piece has an irregular, organic shape that it didn't want to change. However, I did want to hang it somehow.

I ended up using a 10"x10" canvas and covered it with a remnant of stretchy velour fabric that I had been gifted. I need more experience covering canvas frames but this was pretty good for my first try. I want to do this more often to finish my art quilts. It really gives it a nice professional finish and hangs better than a sleeve, especially for pieces with odd shapes.

Finished piece, before adding it to a covered canvas

What I learned

It never ceases to amaze me how I end up adding fabrics and moving them around until it starts looking like something that I want. I don't really have any idea of what the piece will look like except that it should look a little like the photo.
When I'm not sure of one part, I'll leave it and work on another part. If nothing seems to work - then it's time to leave it until I feel like picking it up again. Having it sit on my desk or my design wall usually helps me think of something.
You can see between the almost finished piece and the finished piece that I moved the stamp and added more stitches to the side gray border.
I really loved the DMC Mouliné Étoile. I will pick more up when stores are open again since I used almost the entire skein on this piece.
This was one of the four pieces that I had in the Fibre Fling exhibit last week. The other pieces were Exit Strategy, Big Mandala to Heal the World and Flower Impressions.

Related links

Linking parties

I will be linking up to many fun linking parties. Let's see what's going on in the quilting world! If you have any FMQ, link up to Free Motion Mavericks with Muv this week. Off the Wall Friday, Put Your Foot Down, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Finished or Not Finished Friday and TGIFF, Beauties Pageant, Peacock Party, Patchwork & Quilts, Slow Sunday Stitching, 15 Minutes to Stitch 2021, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday,

After the Storm was featured on Denise's Put Your Foot Down. Thanks Denise!

Project details

After the Storm

9" x 8½", mounted on a 10"x10" canvas

Materials: flannel base, hand-dyed cottons and linen, batik, organza, tulle, lace, batting, embroidery floss, variegated thread and yarn, cardstock, stamp

Techniques: appliqué and embroidery

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Christmas decorating fun

I love seeing our Christmas tree full of ornaments bought, inherited, received and made over the years. It's also the time when those Christmas runners, placemats and wall hangings get to come out and shine.

Adding to our Christmas decorations

Each year I try to make a little something for the tree or the house. I found the tutorial for the Christmas bell - the bell was supposed to be made of "sheer paper cloth" but I used organza backed with light stabilizer instead. The stabilizer gave the organza a crispness without removing the translucence. For the three-sided bell I used organza with dots and hearts on two of the sides and then embroidered the third side with a star. I hand-stitched the sides together and added the bell through it. If you're interested, the link to the tutorial is in Related links below.

Three sided Christmas bell

The embroidered side of
the Christmas bell

I also made a snow frame. I started with a meditation stitched piece that I made last year, added an extra piece of fabric to make it wide enough and then added a couched snowman, snow and extra stars.

Snow frame with Christmas tree and snowman

For the Out of the Box Fibre Artist group, I made a Christmas postcard. It was dropped off on November 30 and should have arrived to it's new home by now.

The postcard was 4" x 6". The background is a fluffy fabric that I hand dyed in very light green. I used a pink cheese cloth to outline the tree and then couched some green chenille yarn. I used a Murano star bead for the top. Behind it I attached a small piece of yellow silk to add a little pop of colour. There are also many seed beads within the tree.

In the background, I used a white silk thread to embroider the snowflakes. I like the subtleness, like an impression of flakes. Instead of cardstock, I attached interfacing and then added a white backing.

Stylized Christmas tree postcard

Christmas postcard

Decorating the workplace

It's so different from previous years. This was my office in 2018. My colleague and I had a great time decorating with things that I had brought from home.

Adding colour to our
workspace (2018)

Decorating the office plant (2018)

This is my present workplace - our dining room.

Working from home, in my dining room (2020)

It certainly is a lot cozier and the commute is very short 😊 I also love that Chevy is always near by!

What I learned

Chevy in my studio.

I loved the idea of making the bell decorations but once I was done, although I liked it, I didn't feel the need to make more - which is a good thing because I still have way too many projects on the go!
The snow frame is on my window ledge in my studio. It's so lovely to look at while I'm writing this post. The couched yarn and backing makes it just a little too thick for the frame so I had to tape around it. Since it's for my office, I don't mind but I'll have to remember this if I ever make more as gifts.
I'm really not missing my physical workplace. It's so much easier to concentrate in my quiet dining room. You can see that I'm not trying to work in my studio - that would be a recipe for disaster...just too many distractions there 😊.
Today I took pictures of my studio - it's pretty much finished. I'm hoping to write the post this week. Here's a teaser....

Monday, October 19, 2020

Playing with sheer fabrics

Have I told you how much I love playing with textiles lately? It would seem that I'm smitten! As you may know, I've been taking part in the TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club 2020 since it first started this spring. It has brought stitchers together with amazing workshops by guest textile artists.

TextileArtist.org's Stitch Club 2020

Flower Impressions - pink campion

The platform has really evolved since its creation - from having 3 workshops in a row with one week off, to now having workshops that last 2 weeks each. At the beginning of the week, there is a first video by the guest teacher, with a beautiful workbook and an inspiration book of the artist's other work. At the end of the first week, the artist records her answers to questions that are asked by the students. This is always wonderfully rich with information. Then at the beginning of week 2, there is a short video on how to take the techniques further, and then more Q&A at the end of the second week. During the two weeks, the teacher is there to guide the student and give feedback. A lot of students post their work and it's always wonderful to see all of the different takes on the same exercise.

TextileArtist.org

It's been such an amazing learning experience. I've done many of the workshops and have learned so much from them all. Some techniques I loved while others I may eventually use. There is always something to learn - and we can access those videos later if we wish to go back to complete some of the workshops that we've skipped.

Last week's workshop was with Vinny Stapley. I had read an article about her work on the TextileArtist.org site and fell in love with her work. I was thinking that it would be so lovely to be able to have her as a teacher....well it turns out that she was our teacher for the next two weeks. Her work is mostly on very light, sheer fabrics. I think that it's all very stunning (her website is in Related links below).

Pink Campion flowers

Pink Campion

Here are the pictures of the flowers that inspired my project. These are pink campions. They are self-seeding and used to move around the garden but for the last few years they always come back to the same spot.

Here is the process for creating this sheer piece.

Elements pinned in place

I created a background starting with a sheer but relatively firm piece of fabric. On top of that, I added one narrow strip of very colourful sheer fabric with a few more pieces of more solid sheers next to it.

I then made a template of the pink campion flower and cut three from different sheer fabrics. One was the colourful sheer and the others were grey and blue.

After deciding on the layout, I pinned them down and began to stitch them. I used my hand-dyed gray perle cotton for the gray flower, and then green and blue floss for the other two flowers.

Stitching the leaves and stems

Close-up of the different flowers

You can see the stitching here. The stem of the colourful flower was accidentally cut but was eventually stitched back. Once the leaves and the stems were stitched down, it was time to add the flowers. For this, I used my pink hand-dyed perle cotton - it was just perfect for it!

Slowly the flowers and buds came to life. Each flower was stitched differently so that I could try out different techniques.

Adding the flowers and the buds

The colours look quite different depending on where the pictures were taken. My neighbour's siding probably gives the best background but they did look good overlooking the garden.

Hanging from a side window overlooking
the neighbour's siding

Hanging from the dining room window,
looking out into the back garden

In the first image at the top as well as in this one, the wall hanging is on my studio wall. The window was open and it was lightly blowing in the breeze.

Blowing slightly in the breeze from the window

What I learned

Since I love the look of the sheers, I'm thrilled to say that I really liked working with them. I have machine sewn sheers and didn't particularly like that but this is different - nothing needs to be straight. It's stitched however I want to.😊
The work that Vinney Stapley does is not stitched down as much - it just didn't feel finished without the stitching. That must be the quilter in me. Less stitching would have made it slightly more free but I don't think that the stitching takes away from the light, breezy look of the piece.
I would love to hang it in a window but all of my windows get too much sun - I wouldn't want it bleached by the sun. With the window opened in my studio, the piece was slightly blowing in the wind. It was lovely!
I've now started the next workshop by Sabine Kaner. Since I really wanted to continue working with sheers, my first piece in this workshop uses sheers again - and I absolutely love it. It should be ready next week. I want to make two pieces for this workshop - the second one will be with traditional quilting cottons and other heavier textiles. I can't wait to see the difference.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Learning to write - again

Colour Me Positive Challenge

Like most of you, I've been writing since I was 5 or 6 years old. At different stages of my life, what I wrote and why I wrote has changed. At first, I wrote mostly for school - homework, math, essays, posters and stories. As a mom, I wrote lists of things to do and buy, notes for sick or late kids and the occasional letter or card to family. Since working on a computer, I only write when I'm at meetings or when I have no idea what I'm doing - then I'll take out a pencil and a pad of paper and write until I have some sense of what I should do, or at least what I should ask. It's my personal brainstorming session.

Week 6 of Colour Me Positive

My penmanship has never been great, but not as bad as some. I've never had a reason to worry about it until I started making art. As I participate in the Colour Me Positive Journal Challenge, it's become obvious that if I want to use words in my free motion quilting (FMQ), then I had better learn to write - again!

These first couple of efforts weren't too bad. The large writing in my "kindness to all always" pieced was fine, but the words on the fingers needed a little help, especially since I misspelled Smiling (I've always had problems with cursive "n" and "m").

Week 3 of Colour Me Positive

In the "be here now" piece, the link between the letters isn't great, particularly between the "o" and "w" in "now". Since I was mostly practicing my FMQ stitches, I wasn't paying much attention to the letters.

Then came my latest piece for week 14. From the start, the letters were a problem - and there's only one word and four letters!!!

"Once you choose hope, anything can happen" Week 14 of Colour Me Positive

There are a couple of reasons for the problem. The first is that I didn't plan my project. I'm a "jump right in" kind of gal and that's what I did. I made my quilt sandwich, threaded the sewing machine with maroon thread and started outlining the letters.

I really could have removed the letters' stitching and started over, but where's the fun in that! I love fixing things and adapting - and that's what I did. (ok, the sorry truth is that I always hope that it won't be that bad and I'll be able to ignore it!)

So of course, at first I ignored the letters and did some pretty nice FMQ around them. That was fun. Then came the challenge and fixing part. What was I going to do with those letters outlined in maroon?

I decided to hide the sewing by covering the letters with organza and then beading around them. It sure would have been quicker to have removed the thread at the beginning of the project and have started over :-) Placing a few beads here and there is fun. Outlining the word HOPE was painful. I'm just not that patient. After doing one letter, I get in the "Been there, done that" mode. I was SO happy when I finished the outlines.

Title page of my lettering journal

Back to my original thought. This work made it pretty obvious that I needed to learn to write - again. Since looking at everyone's amazing creations on the Facebook page of Colour Me Positive, I've become very impressed with the writing in their art. So how can I do that? Many participants have mentioned Joanne Sharpe, whimsical art maker extraordinaire. I have seen her book and was tempted, but what convinced me was her free video series that goes with the book.

I'm not quite ready to translate my letters to a quilt yet, but it won't be long. I also get to practice my lettering and FMQ every time I have access to a paper and pen. How cool is that?

Applying the Pencil Sketch Technique

Here are a couple of my practice pages. This first one is the pencil sketch technique from her book. I used it to write her mantra - "Play, practice, write, repeat." Replace the word "write" with the word "quilt" or "FMQ" and the saying now applies to quilting.

I found this quote by Ray Bradbury in the book Quilt of Belonging: The Invitation Project by Esther Bryan and Friends. It describes courage, hope and/or faith so well - you still experience fear but you know that you can walk or jump off the cliff and your wings will support you.

I'll be writing about the Quilt of Belonging project after I visit it with my daughter, between June 9-12, in Kingston, Ontario.

What I learned:

A little planning when using words in a quilt is not an option - it's necessary. I really hope I remember this!
Beading is fun in moderation.
Learning from artists in other disciplines is great. It can all be relevant to quilting. It's a great way to broaden my horizons and learn all kinds of new things.
My new lettering journal will also be used for free motion quilting designs and for creating writing exercises. What a wonderful journey.

Hope you keep learning and passing it on.

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