Welcome Swallow Quilt

It's come to my attention that I've been remiss in not posting one of my quilts that I finished earlier this year (thanks Carol!).  It got lost amongst life I guess.

I love Welcome Swallows.  They are a small bird with a forked tail.  They make mud nests around human habitation and seem curious and lively.  I love the colour palette of their plumage too - indigo blue, grey, and burnt sienna.  I thought I might make a quilt using their colours and silhouettes of Swallows.

Here's how it started on my design wall.

I pieced a background using flying geese and half-square triangles and then began auditioning for hills as a foreground.

Eventually it morphed into this - dark indigo silhouettes of the Swallows, indigo and grey hills with touches of burnt sienna and mustard and burnt sienna barn.  I used discharge paste to create a line of trees that receded into the distance and this is about where I stalled.

I put it away for ages.  Eventually (and in a Spring kind of mood) I pulled it out, removed the hills, unpicked some of the sky to make it square and added grass and flowers to the foreground instead.  I added some colour to the bird silhouettes and added one larger fully coloured one in the foreground.

I free-motion quilted and appliquéd at the same time as I like to do and then free-motion quilted a flowing pattern in the sky using my domestic Bernina Aurora 400 QE.  I changed thread colours from  mid-blue at the top of the sky, light blue in the middle and cream near the grasses.

The grasses and flowers were free-motions appliquéd and quilted with matching thread colours.  I decided to bind it in similar colours to those in the quilt to have a border, but one that worked with the quilt.  You can see my scientific way of measuring those chunks of colour in the picture above.

And here's the finished quilt.  Once again my colours have been extra-saturated (I'm beginning to think it's the watermark program I'm using - time for an experiment I think).

Detail of the sky quilting.

Detail of the foreground Swallow.  He was done with coloured pencil and fabric medium on white fabric then cut out and appliquéd/quilted on.

And the pretty flowers, done in my hand-dyed fabrics.  I think the whole quilt has a completely different feel to it now - Spring rather than Autumn.  But I'm still interested in re-visiting my previous colour scheme.  However I won't be using those hills, I cut a few strips from them and used then in my Cerego 12 x 12 Purple Challenge quilt, the little pops of orange came from here!

And because I had to dig it out to photograph it, now I have this quilt hanging next to my sewing machine here on the boat.  Both Hubby and I love it, so I think it will stay for a while.

Creating a Quilted Banner - Finish

Ok, so the lighting of this photo is terrible, but I'm just glad to have it finished and I'm not going to angst about getting a perfect picture!  All that is left to do is to hand stitch down one long edge of the hanging sleeve, and that's an evening job for when I'm sitting in front of the fire conversing with the love of my life ;-)

These are the process photos since you saw it last.  I filled in the background with neocolor water soluble pastels.  Being crayon-like, you can turn them on their side and use them to block in colour quickly.

Out came the fabric medium again and I began to paint thin layer of it over the pastel.  I applied the pastel and the fabric medium in thin layers to try and avoid a 'plastiky' feeling.  (And how on EARTH do you spell plastiky - plasticy - plasticee....?)

I've had a few people asking me what fabric medium I use.  I picked up some Jo Sonja's fabric medium from Spotlight (probably equivalent to Joanne's in the USA).  You can use it to mix with acrylic paints to turn them into textile paints.  I haven't used it much because I also have specific textile paints.  But it can also be used to set coloured pencil and water soluble pastels.  I did a post here on my experiments:  http://theslightlymadquiltlady.blogspot.co.nz/2013/09/experimenting-with-coloured-pencil-on.html

I would also like to experiment with some other brands as this is the only one I've used so far.

Here it is fully painted.  You need to heat set textile medium, so I ironed it using a pressing cloth.  Be careful!  There are a couple spots where I lightly scorched it and slightly discoloured the pastel (it matches the cat paw prints and I'm calling it 'texture').

You can hardly see it, but there are Kerikeri street names written lightly on the background.  Again, they were done in coloured pencil.

I had the appliqué letters in the middle originally but they were lost against the foliage.  With a bit of shuffling and auditioning I found they sit perfectly against the darker stripe that I had painted on the bottom edge.

I fused the letters onto the background (they are cut from my hand-dyed fabrics) and then free-motion quilted/appliqued them onto the background using two rounds of black thread.

The binding is machine stitched.  I made a hanging sleeve and pinned it along the back top edge, then applied the binding on the back side first (so I'm sewing the binding and one edge of the hanging sleeve in one go).  Then I flip the quilt over, fold the binding over the edge and onto the front, and pin it so it sits just over the line of machine stitching that shows from where I sewed it onto the back.  Then I straight stitch from the front side, about 1/8 inch in from the edge and this catches both the front and the back neatly.

That's a really short explanation of how I do my machine bindings - leave me a comment if you want me to do an expanded explanation with pictures.

Now I have a week left for my next quilt deadline.  I'm not so optimistic about getting that one finished, but I'll give it a go.

Stay tuned for a Cerego renovation update tomorrow!

Creating a Quilted Banner

First up, I need to apologise.  My answering of comments got a little behind, and then a little more behind and then I got completely lost.  So if you've commented on the blog recently and I haven't answered you by email (if you are a reply-enabled commenter), sorry!  And I'm sorting it out.  I'm going to set up a separate email account just for comments so they don't get jumbled into my every day emails and then lost in the clutter.

It's a busy time for us at the moment with trying to renovate Cerego to liveable standards and I'm trying to downsize a little everyday so there isn't a mad scramble when we move.  Plus this month I'm working as a locum midwife, so a lot more hours than I usually work and I'm still doing my normal work shifts too.

Then I sat down and wrote a list of quilts and projects that I'm working on at the moment and checked all the deadlines (for the ones that have deadlines).....and took a huge gulp.  I have two projects with scary deadlines - one in just over a week and one in just over two weeks.  Both of them I want to do and the first one I also feel obligated to do because it's for my local club.

So I've set to with a vengeance.  The first project is a banner advertising my quilt club.  We are having a regional day in July and it's our turn to host.  The three other regional clubs are invited.  We will have speakers, show and tell and vendors.  We provide a lunch and we participate in a challenge - and this banner is the challenge.  It must fit within a metre square, have three layers and be quilted and have the words 'Kerikeri' on it somewhere.

I took white fabric and stamped some background designs on it with my own made stamps and fabric paints.  Then I traced some foliage designs on it that I've used in a previous quilt.  I basted it and quilted these designs in black thread.  Can you see the dirty cat paw prints on it?  Don't leave anything lying around...

I also quilted some curves in the background to provide a bit more stability and some structure for where I'm going to appliqué the words.  This morning I spent the whole swimming lesson then playground session with my coloured pencils, filling in the quilted foliage.

Then tonight I've started painting over the pencil with fabric medium.  It sets it, stops it rubbing off on the rest of the quilt and makes it more intense and a bit more like watercolour.

I'm not investing a lot of design time on this, I'm aiming for finished rather than perfect.  It is a challenge and there will be a winner picked but I'm entering more to support my club rather than because it's something that really speaks to me.  Hopefully I'll get a whole lot more progress done on this soon!

Freezer paper masks are your friend

Whoever invented freezer paper needs a medal.  And whoever discovered that freezer paper sticks to fabric when ironed and then peels off easily with no residue needs a REALLY BIG medal.

I wanted to carry on with my coloured pencil Tui experiment and had decided to paint the background.  But how to get there?

Well, here's an 'almost finished product' picture.  Next I need to work on the branch that the Tui is perching on.

First off, I placed my freezer paper shiny side down over my Tui and carefully traced the outline.

It's taped up on my window.  I have got an insert for my SewEzi table to turn it into a light box but  for a quick job it's just easier to use the window.

Then I cut carefully around this outline.  Use small, sharp, point-tipped scissors and take your time.  Once I was done cutting, I ironed it over my Tui until it was very firmly adhered.

And then you can paint over the top.  Easy!  

Just a couple of tips.  Don't dilute your paint too much or it will run under the paper.  Paint in strokes away from the freezer paper - if you paint towards it you risk lifting the edge.  It's better to wait till the paint is dry before peeling the paper off, but if you are impatient you can, just be careful!  And you can stamp, mono print, do whatever you like really.

Drawing and Quilting Birds - my feather fetish (let's see how many hits I get from that title!)

I've put down the UFO's for a little while and I'm working on a few new projects.  I've been mulling over thoughts for a while and then it's like they all collide and I'm away again, inspired and enthusiastic!

This swallow quilt is a what I'm working on today.  It's going to end up as 12" by 12" and will probably be an entry into the BLUE challenge that is being run by Aotearoa Quilters.  You can read more about it here.  It's open to non-members too, so go have a read.

This is a two layered quilt, with a cotton broadcloth base and a silk organza overlay.  I've mono-printed both layers, with a freezer paper mask in place over the swallows.  I've then painted the swallow on the top layer and worked them in coloured pencil on the base layer.

My coloured pencil work is a follow on from this experiment I did the other day.  I worked the Tui (a native New Zealand bird, pictured here puffed up in full song) from a photograph taken by my talented cousin.  You can see his work here on Flikr, he's dazzla65 - go check him out, he's amazing!

The top photo shows the 'before' version, before I painted over the coloured pencil with fabric medium.  It worked so well that I can't wait to use the technique in more quilts.  

This feather piece measures about 20" by 30" and it's work towards a challenge run by the Auckland Quilt Club.  It has a spine now, which makes it look better and now I'm debating on how to do the quilting.

I tried out some quilting ideas on this little piece.  The feather was drawn using Neocolor water-soluble pastels then painted over with fabric medium.  I've trimmed and bound it now and even added a label and hanging sleeve (I usually procrastinate over those tasks!) and it's another contender for entering into the 12 x 12 BLUE exhibition.

So can you see the theme?  I'm guessing I like birds....

Experimenting with coloured pencil on fabric

This weekend has been busy in an unexciting way.  Friday afternoon found me attacking heads with scissors and clippers to deal with an invasion of the goddam nits aka headlice.

I hate the little buggers with a passion.  So now my son now sports a number 3 shave and my girl has a cute chin length bob and I'm exhausted from all the washing - head washing, bed linen washing, head washing again and then all the clothes and soft toys lying round just to make sure.

Fabric medium applied to top two samples.

In between the washings I managed to get some quilting done on the tweets quilt and then a little experimenting with coloured pencils and wax pastels on fabric.  

We were discussing using coloured pencils and fabric mediums at one of our stitching groups lately and how well it would stand up to washing.  Well, I decided to give it a go.  Suz - this is for you!

The first photo above is the pencils - prismacolor pencils and staedtler aquarell (water soluble) - and the caran d'ache neocolor wax pastels (water soluble) applied to the fabric and then liquid fabric medium (Jo Sonya's) painted over the top of the prismacolor and the neocolor.  

(Quick note: fabric medium is stuff you can add to normal acrylic paints to make them fabric paints.)

I forgot to take a pic before I'd put the medium on the first two.  In the next pic you can see the difference when the fabric medium goes on and liquifies the water soluble pencil - it blends beautifully.

Fabric medium applied to all three samples.

I then heat set it with an iron on the reverse side - following the fabric medium's instructions.  Once it was set, I bunged it in the washing machine in a mesh bag and washed it on a regular cycle with some other clothes.

After heat setting and then machine washing and line drying.

Close up of the Caran d'ache Neocolor wax pastels after washing.

None of the colours washed out at all.  Both the pencils are fairly soft and have held up well to the washing.  The pastel colour is thick and rich but as you can see in the closeup, it kind of turned plasticky and sat on the surface, so where there was a crease in the washing process, it's begun to peel and flake.

Nice to have this sample.  I'll tuck it away for future reference and I think I'll stick with using coloured pencil on fabric if I want to use a method like this.