Why I use silk organza in my art quilts.

Jaye commented on my last post and asked:

Do you have a color preference for silk organza or tulle? Is there a difference in the two fabrics? Do they disappear once quilted or can you see the color of the organza (tulle-we use tulle here, though I suppose people use silk organza. I haven't heard much about silk organza used in the way you are using it) 

I started replying to her and the more I wrote the more I realised that this topic deserved a whole blog post all to itself.

Hand dyed silk organza

So.

Tulle is a synthetic fabric and you can buy it in just about all colours of the rainbow.  It is almost like a fine netting but it is fairly stiff.  If you use it in art quilts as an overlay, it can provide shading or highlights.  I once created a (slightly scary) self-portrait using layers of tulle.

This was done in 2010, it's nice to see my free-motion quilting has come a long way!

But tulle has scratchy edges when it's cut and the holes in it give a texture to the quilt top that I don't really want.  

I took a Susan Carlson class once and she sometimes uses a layer of tulle over her whole quilt to hold all her tiny collage pieces down.  It's a handy technique.  But I find that if I use it as an overlay over my entire quilt, it 'deadens' the look of the quilt a bit as the tulle is all one solid colour, even if you can't really see it except close up.

You can buy white tulle and paint it, but it's not as easy to colour as silk organza.

You can get finer grades of tulle - often known as netting - but while softer and finer, it still has the holey texture to it, and I can't always find it in shops.

Silk organza is finer, it's a natural fibre so easier to colour, and it has a sheer finish to it so I don't get that added texture from the weave.  Because the weave is finer, the appareance of the fabric is 'denser'.  I can use it like a piece of cotton fabric, such as an applique shape, but it still has transparency.

I first came across silk organza when I did a workshop with Jeanette DeNicolis Meyer in 2012.  We painted pieces of silk organza and then worked on abstract compositions layering up the colours.  I fell in love with the luminous qualities and the complexity of colour that you could get from layering them.

Above is one of my pieces in progress from that workshop where you can see the layers of fine colour.

And here's my beautiful friend, Sue, working on her painterly piece.  I adored how she had a piece with multiple colours, I hadn't thought to try that.

I also came across a book by Melanie Testa, titled, "Inspired to Quilt."

Melanie also used silk organza in her quilts, often as whole overlays, and she would paint it or use thickened dyes to colour it.  Her quilts are glorious, with lovely colour and transparency.

So these strands sort of all came together over the years to lead me down the silk organza path. One of my first quilts where I used it was 'Sunset Tui'.  I was using leftovers from Jeanette's class cut into curving shapes to create the background.  I attempted to free-motion quilt those pieces down but got frustrated by all the edges constantly lifting up as I would run my darning foot over them.  I put the quilt away for a while in frustration.

Then eventually I used information from Melanie's book to make a whole silk organza overlay for the whole quilt.  I used stencils to print a bird and flax frond on it and painted the rest.  The dreamy colour it made and the ease of using it to hold all the fiddly bits down had me hooked.

So now I buy silk organza wholesale and dye it myself.  I love the colours and I love to have more than one colour in a piece so I can get that range of colour onto my quilt top.  I also love that I can stencil an image onto it, which you cannot with tulle because of the open holey weave.

The other thing I can do with organza that I can't do with tulle is use a fusible web with it.  I prefer Mistyfuse because it is so fine that it doesn't come through the sheerness of the organza, but I have also used Vlisofix with some success.  However, a fusible with defined texture to it like Steam-a-seam shows very clearly through the organza and I won't use it.

Above is a picture of some of my hand-dyed silk organzas ready to use in quilts.

I found a great blog post over at Droplet Weddings, with good images, on the differences between several types of sheer fabrics.  So if you need clarification of what the different sheer fabrics look and drape like, head over there.  She say that silk organza has a lot of body to it and she finds it quite stiff.  I will add that once it is dyed and washed it softens up, but having a bit of body is not a bad thing with sheer fabrics when you are using them in art quilts!

I hope that answers your questions, Jaye.  I don't know many other people who use silk organza in the way I do, but I love it and the effects it can give.

Layering Organza

This is a quick post particularly for Miss Jean who commented on my last blog post.  She wrote:

That is a wonderful story for your sweet dusky quilt. I'm intrigued with the layering ideas and would like to learn more. Can you point me?

Well Miss Jean, I did point you in the direction of the process post I wrote recently about making my Early Morning Fishing quilt.  But I thought I'd give you a couple of photos here of another quilt.

It's still in process, but the first photo shows you pretty much the final layout.  It's not completely cropped, but I left the white background fabric sticking out of the side there so you can see the plant printing on it.

There is a whole piece of hand dyed silk organza laid over the entire background and the swallows, also made of silk organza, are placed either under or on top of that overlay depending on how far away I want them to appear.

But I really wanted to show you what's going on at the bottom of the quilt.

If you click on the photo I'm pretty sure you'll see it bigger.  I've folded the piece of organza overlaying the background up and out of the way.  You can see the plant printing on white fabric and then lots of different bits and pieces of silk organza arranged over that.  When the organza overlay is put back, the colours mute down a bit and the shapes get a little more indistinct, but they add complexity and interest.

This is what I talk about when I say I'm layering up silk organza.

There is either Mistyfuse (a fusible web) on the back of the shapes, or I use a bit of BoNash fusible granules under the top overlay to hold everything in place (shout out to Tulis Textiles online here in NZ where you can get both those products).

I hope this helps, Miss Jean!

Wingbeats II - SAQA Trunk Show Quilt

SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates) have travelling trunk shows available for shipping and display around the world.  These are collections of many small (7" x 10" portrait) pieces of textile art from a wide variety of artists.  There is no theme and no jurying, so skill, technique, subject and interpretation is wide and varied.  They are also mounted on card and in protective cellophane sleeves so all in all, they make a great addition to any quilt show or exhibition (just in case anyone was looking for something of the like).

This year the call for entries closed November 30, 2016.  I squeaked in with my finish and was about to enter my piece online when SAQA announced an extension to the deadline of about two weeks.

I had sat down the day before and written a critique of my first piece.  It's something I've taken to doing after my starting it in my year of mentoring.  It's really useful to stand back, take a new look and say what worked, what didn't and what you would do differently next time.  All in a constructive, non-critical way of course - I have been known to be so 'out of love' with a piece that I've critiqued it as "horrible, grossly flat and uninspiring, with such a twee theme that it deserves it's own special spot in the rubbish bin"!  Not particularly helpful ;-)

The piece above is the first quilt I was going to enter.  

My critique of it was: "The transparency and colours of the herons work well, but three on such a small piece is a bit overwhelming and confuses them a bit too much.  I like the shapes of the water, they have a nice flow, but I want to get the edges of them neater.  The overall theme of the herons and moon sits well with me, but I need things neater, tidier and more symmetrical to be entirely happy.  I experimented with adding hand stitching to the moon, but I don't think it adds anything and I think the border treatment needs to be less bold - it is overwhelming.

So with that in mind, and very thankful for a deadline extension, I started a second quilt.

It's so gratifying when you plan and scheme and it all works out!  This quilt is exactly what I wanted.  Cleaner, clearer, more finished and more polished.  I used one of my favourite techniques, which comprises of a complete overlay of organza over the whole quilt and that meant I didn't have to stitch to attach, I could just stitch to enhance.

You'll see from the closeup that the herons were printed on, not added as pieces of fabric.  Some of the blue water pieces are printed, some are fabric pieces below the organza overlay.  The moon is a piece of silk underneath the organza and I finished the quilt with a facing.

So - does this mean I should remake every quilt I finish?  No.  But it does push me further along the path of working in a series.  And it does make me think about taking out some of my older quilts and doing a proper critique of them.  You never know where it might lead!

Tīeke Imagined

Lynda Worthington is the editor of Embellish, an Australian textile art magazine.  A little while ago she contacted me to see if I'd be interested in contributing to a New Zealand themed issue of the magazine.  I said yes of course!

The magazine came out in June and I was super excited to see my quilt featured on the cover.

'Tīeke Imagined' is a small quilt (about 13" x 14") I made in response to my (fruitless) search for the NZ Saddleback bird, Tīeke.  

New Zealand has many unique native birds, many of them endangered as they all evolved without mammalian predators like rats and stoats.  The Tīeke is one of those birds, and now that NZ has rats, stoats, cats, and dogs, they are struggling to survive.  About 40 birds were released onto predator controlled islands out in the Bay as part of Project Island Song.  We've taken our boat out several times over the last year or so and I've gone walking on the Islands in search of Tīeke.  So far I've heard them, but not seen them.

 Photo borrowed from Wikipedia 

Tīeke Imagined, textile art by Charlotte Scott, SOLD

I used silk organza, stencilling, layering and free motion quilting to construct my quilt.  If you'd like to know more about the techniques, I wrote in depth about the process in the magazine article.  There are also other great articles in the magazine from New Zealand and Australian artists.  You can find Embellish on their website here.  You can also buy it in New Zealand through Minerva.

And I'll let you know if I ever do see a Tīeke!

Fushcia or Fuchsia?

Sometimes the work just works.  I sit down with a purpose and it all flows and every step I get more and more excited when I see what is emerging.  Wednesday was one of those days, I wish they'd happen more often!

There are two special ladies in my life who have a birthday on September 11.  One of them is my Mother in Law (who I am blessed to like and get on with) and the other is my quilting buddy, friend, colleague, mentor and motivator, Sue.  

I know Sue likes Fushcias (but the spell check says Fuchsias - hmmmm), so that's what I set out with in mind.

When I learnt I'd sold another of my RED challenge quilts, I splurged on a Gelli printing plate - you can see it peeking out from underneath the two layers.  I used this to print my background fabric over a freezer paper resist.  Then I ironed the same resist to my organza top layer that I had already printed the day before whilst procrastinating experimenting.

Above you can see the organza layer after stamping with a few stamps and using paint sticks around the flower resist.

I used a hand-carved stamp on the bottom layer as well then layered them up with batting, basted them and began quilting.  I tried to get the warmest, reddest area of the quilt around the flower shape to bring it forward and emphasise it, with cooler green and blue more to the edges.

Here it is with most of the quilting complete.  I decided not to fill the background completely as I didn't want to lose the translucency of the organza.  I used a few coloured pencils to add a little colour here and there and to push some areas back and highlight others.

Detail shots.

I finished it with a satin stitch using a variagated 28 wt (I think - it was heavier but the gauge had worn off to spool) Valdani thread.  

Happy Birthday, Sue!!

Wassup?

Now we are back into the swing of things, I've been pondering a blog post for a few days.  But what to focus on?  I've been doing a bit of this and a bit of that with nothing particularly driving me to write it down.  So I thought I'd just do a conglomeration post, showing my thisis and thats and maybe that will encourage me!

I've made a bag - and loved it so much and had so many positive comments that I'm making another one (sitting flat on the chair) and writing a pattern.  (And by crikey, I admire people who churn out pattern after pattern.  Those things are a drag to write!)

A close up of the quilting on the other side of the bag.

I've recovered from two weeks camping and I've started exercising to combat the Christmas/New Year's/Summer/Just Because bulges.

 (Truth:  the sum total of my exercising was a half-hour walk this morning.)

I've climbed and conquered Mt Washmore (the nickname I have fondly given my washing pile).

I've laughed at the cat.

I've started a new night-shift project with some of my favourite prints.  These squares are cut to finish at eight inches to show off the fabrics.

I've oogled the ducklings (anyone want a pekin duck for their pond - I've got a few spare!)

I've played with organza and tui and low-volume strips (no you are not seeing double, I've just offset the organza overlay).

And I've firmly tried to ignore the urge to write a list of resolutions as long as my arm.  In fact, the best New Year's list I've seen is here, on Terri Grant's blog, And sew it goes...

More Fabric Painting

After a week and a half of sick children, today was my first day when they were both back at school and I had no other commitments.  So I made a date with my studio, turned on my latest audio book*, and broke out my new Jacquard textile paints and had a play (of course, that was after I fed the calves, chooks, ducks and rabbits, loaded the dishwasher, washed and hung out two loads of washing, took the dogs for a walk, vacuumed the house (the plug is fixed - yay!) and had a cup of tea to revive myself.)

*'How It All Began' by Penelope Lively - pretty good, but not exactly fast paced.  Would recommend 'Giants Of The Frost' by Kim Wilkins - kept me riveted.

The Kotare (Kingfisher) and Pukeko were the result.  I'm pretty happy with the Kotare, but I think the blue on the Pukeko is a bit bright and uneven, so I'll go back to that.

The other thing I've been playing with is samples of how to portray foliage.  I've pieced a small background made of the same fabrics on the quilt I'm making and have painted and appliquéd onto it to see what I want to use.  There is hand painted silk organza, hand painted scrim/muslin, shiva paintstiks, Jacquard Lumiere and normal Jacquard textile paints and some old acrylic textile paints I had hanging around with no labels on them!  It's been really interesting to see the different effects.

No sewing tomorrow, for I'm off to work to pay for my habit ;)

Playtime

I've been playing.  Playing with paint - the tui behind is painted through a freezer paper stencil, the one in front fabric.

And then I've been playing with organza.  I attended a weekend workshop with Jeanette De Nicolis Meyer called "Layers of Lightness: Quilt and Collage with Translucent Fabrics" and I had a fabulous time!  We got to paint silk organza (which is soooo much easier to handle than synthetic organzas) and then we started composing little pieces with our bits of yummy fabrics.  Below you can see one of my compositions developing.

This one I'll be stitching down with straight machine stitch around the shapes.  Jeanette also taught us hand and machine pojagi seams (a traditional Korean seam used in wrapping cloths).  I love the prismatic colours on this piece - I used a white background to layer it on to get that translucent look.  Other people used patterned backgrounds with interesting effects.

Then I had a serendipitous moment when I was piling up my scraps and I couldn't help developing another composition.

I really like this one.  It has something mysterious about it.  I used a blue cotton that I had hand dyed and discharged cross patterns on as a base cloth and you can see how it has altered the top colours.  I'm busy hand-stitching these pieces down and liking it more and more as I go.  If you want to see what others did in the workshop you can see pictures here.

And I fear I'm a little addicted!  This is a composition I worked on yesterday. Inspired by a dawn sky I photographed a little while ago.  I have thoughts about putting my tui's over it along with an organza tui, but I'm not sure yet, more playtime will have to be indulged in before any decisions are made.

PS Jeanette is teaching again in New Zealand in April 2013 at the Wanaka Autumn Arts School - she comes highly recommended by me!

PPS Many thanks to dear hubby who entertained the children all weekend, mowed the lawns and cooked dinner both nights too.

I've been experimenting.

I volunteered to make a small wall hanging for my son's primary school.  It will be auctioned off at the Opua Regatta (kinda like a gala day or a fete, held on the Opua Wharf to fund raise for the school) with some other art work.  


Warning! Advert!  Opua Regatta, 25th February, Opua Wharf, stalls, rides, fun and the annual dog swimming race!

So I thought I'd try something new.  I'm sure that when you are making something with an aim and a deadline, you shouldn't experiment.  But hey, I don't call myself The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady for nothing.  I wanted a layer of organza in the shape of various plants on top of my background.  Basically I wanted to applique organza, sounds like fun huh?

I learnt a heap about sewing organza real fast.  I thought I'd share some tips with you to save you some sanity just in case you ever want to experiment.

Organza is slip, slip, slipperty.  Pin the snot out of it.  Use a smaller stitch length and a sharp sewing machine needle (microtex).

You can't mark organza and hope to follow the line (at least not with any markers I tried).  Trace your design onto tissue paper (or Solvy or whatever you have on hand), pin this on top and sew through it.  Then rip away your tissue.  This helps to stop the slipping and sliding too.

Synthetic organza frays like nothing else and it melts too.  So a heat tool is your friend.  I used my soldering iron to slice away the excess organza.  It cut it and sealed the edges all in one, no more fraying, just a distinctive odour - do this in a well-ventilated area.

And lastly, steel wool is better to wipe your soldering iron on than a rag.  Ask my fingers why.

So that's what I learnt about organza today.  I also learnt that shortly my husband is abandoning me for a week to steam a new tug and dredging barge up from the South Island.  I learnt that the Mainfreight delivery man can back a hulking great truck all the way down my 200 metres of driveway after delivering our new bed.  And I learnt that the bed would be staying in it's packaging because said husband is getting home late and can't help me carry old bed out to make room for new bed.

Goodnight!