A Painted and Stitched Canvas Quilt

This quilt is probably the most unusual quilt I've ever made!  In March I attended a wonderful at Quilting Adventures, under the superlative teacher, Katie Pasquini-Masopust.  The class was relaxing and freeing, as we painted treated canvases, embellished them with cut-out snippets of fabric, and then painted, stamped, and splattered acrylics over the surface of the canvas.

Next we used a "view finder" made from a cut-apart framing mat to find "interesting" areas all across the surface of all of our canvases.  We marked these and then cut them out in squares and rectangles which were a multiple of two.

Once we had all of these little pieces cut out, we reassembled them, using pieces from all of the canvases we had painted, into a design that was pleasing to our eyes, much like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

When we were happy with how these looked, we sewed the squares and rectangles together using black thread and a zigzag stitch.  A Teflon foot was particularly helpful at this step, as it allowed the machine to move more easily over the rather uneven and occasionally sticky and even rough sections of the quilt.

I came home with three quilts stitched together, and then I used up all the left-over pieces to assemble yet another quilt.  Finally, five months later, I have finished one of the quilts.  It is the last one I made--the one using leftovers.  After sandwiching it with cotton batting and a piece of untreated canvas, I free-motion quilted with black thread, primarily outlining the painted brush strokes.  Then I squared up the quilt.  Finally, I satin-stitched three or four times around the edges of the quilt.

Lastly, I deviated from Katie's method of assembly, in that I decided to use for the frame a pre-stretched artist canvas that measured 12" by 24" instead of assembling a frame by hand. I satin stitched once again around the quilt, attaching it this time to a rectangle of black fabric that measured 6" larger all the way around.  I pulled this backing fabric around on all four sides, tucking it between the frame and the artist's canvas on the back.  Eventually I will staple the fabric securely, but I was eager to photograph it and write this!

A close-up view of the machine quilting

A side view, showing the right edge of the fabric-covered frame

My Latest Material Mavens Quilt--Honeycomb

Our theme for the Reveal which was on July 15th was "cell."  This theme was quite a challenge for me, and it took me awhile to decide what to do.  Somehow, some way, perhaps from reading dictionary definitions of the word or searching Google Images, it occurred to be to focus on the cells of a honeycomb.

I first tried to use a stencil a honeycomb design on some silk, but the paint bled through.  I tried to silk screen using the stencil, and the same thing happened.  In addition, the colors I used--yellow silk and orange paint--simply didn't look authentic.

Eventually the design began to evolve--a collage of "bee-related" images.  Thus the final quilt is just that.  For the essential honeycomb I used a copy-right free Google image of a real honeycomb, transferring it to fabric via TAP (Transfer Artist Paper).

At first I included some dimensional red flowers for my dimensional bees, but they dominated the quilt and the necessary honeycomb faded into the background.  Then I decided to use flower prints.  I had some white flowers on black fabric, but couldn't locate black flowers on white (and I was concerned to limit my color palette).  So I decided to hand-stamp with black paint on white fabric.  I made the stamps myself from craft foam, and the resulting hand-stamped fabric became one of my favorite parts of this quilt.

My other favorite aspect are the dimensional bees!  These were thread painted first on fabric backed with stabilizer.  The wing were made of organza, thread painted with gold thread. Then I cut them out and machine stitched them to the quilt.

Finally, I added a bee hive, which I embellished with embroidery stitching.  Embroidered seed stitches became my quilting, along with free motion quilting the black flowers on white fabric.
The background is a commercial fabric that is a subtle honeycomb print.

The back was fashioned from some of my "rejects" from the front.  I included the first verse of the Jimmie Rodger's song "Honeycomb" which ran maddeningly through my head while I was constructing this quilt!

Judy Steward = Machine Quilter Extraordinaire!

I just went down to Judy's studio to pick up the quilt that she quilted for me.  I must say she out-did herself this time!  She was happy to admit that many of the unique ways she quilted this quilt were ideas that she got from Rose Hughes' book, DREAM LANDSCAPES, which I had taken to her.

Pictures tell more than words, though, so I will let the photos speak for themselves.  I thought I would wait until the quilt was bound, but I just couldn't stand to wait to share this quilt!  (Incidentally, Rose included a way to face a quilt in her directions in the pattern I had bought; coincidentally, Judy had just watched a DVD about this method of finishing, and she was urging me to try this technique.)

Anyway, here are the photos.  Click to enlarge, and I think you'll see why I am so excited and delighted with Judy's work.  What a treasure she is!

Saguaro Quilt

Alice's quilt--I made this for my dear friend Marie,
for an "important" birthday she has just had.  Marie and I
share two grandchildren!

I have just completed this wall quilt top, and it is now being free motion quilted by my expert quilter friend Judy Steward.  Since I first met Judy in 1999, she has quilted numerous quilts for me, and I have never been disappointed!

This design is a Rose Hughes design.  Rose was teaching at Quilting Adventures several years ago, and I bought this pattern from her.  I've never before made an art quilt from a pattern.  I thought it would be easy and would go faster than those I dream up from scratch!  I had it in mind all along that it would be a gift for Marie.

No, it wasn't easy.  I've now decided that following another art quilter's design is harder than making one up from scratch!  (Isn't that strange?)  I started at the top and tried to change the sky a lot from the pattern.  Probably it would be helpful for me to attach a picture of Rose's quilt, from the pattern envelope:

Rose Hughes' quilt.  This quilt is photographed
against a black background.  It is NOT bordered in black!
Marie lives in Tucson, where these Saguaro cacti are a protected species of plant life!

I did modify the sky somewhat, chiefly by moving the sun!  Anyway, after "fiddling" for an entire day with trying to change the sky more dramatically, I gave up in disgust and fairly closely duplicated Rose's sky, in terms of the colors of the clouds.

I did well finding fabrics for the big mountain and the two foothills below it.  But then, again, I tried to be "creative" and changed up not only the colors of the hills and the foreground, but even added in two extra hills.  The result was that in doing this, the path just didn't look right, so I removed it.

Then, after all pieces had been cut out and pinned to my design wall, I was still dissatisfied, and so I made these changes:

1.  I cut out new cacti, in brighter greens--my first greens were too muted and got lost in the background.
2.  I eliminated the two extra hills.
3.  I bought two fat quarters batiks for the dark red hill and the red-violet one above it.
4.  I bought some gold batik that more closely replicated the colors in Rose's foreground.
5.  Most importantly, I restored the footpath, but I made the one at the bottom a bit narrower than Rose's pattern.

After the quilt is quilted, I will add some need white "dangles" for the flowers on the two cacti.  I might or might not add a bit of hand embroidery; Rose has much beading and embroidery on hers.  But perhaps Judy's quilting will be sufficient and I won't add anything.

Judy and I discussed how to bind the quilt.  She demonstrated a "facing" type binding, that interestingly, quilt designer Rose illustrated in the pattern.  Most definitely I will do this, since any other sort of binding would likely be distracting.  Incidentally, there are other directions on the web for how to face a quilt--this one was just the first one I found, and it most nearly duplicated what Rose demonstrated in her pattern directions.

When the quilt is quilted, I will add another photo to this post!

Sunrise Over the Urban Canyon

Today is another Reveal Day for our Material Mavens group.  The theme this time was Canyon.  I had thought, of course, about depicting a literal canyon.  I've traveled so much in the West, have been fortunate to have visited the Grand Canyon several times, but also other national parks in Utah with stunning and unique canyons.  I have some spectacular photos from these travels.  But somehow, none of them seemed to inspire me.

I WAS inspired by a Google image of a "slot canyon," but when I wrote to the photographer for permission to use his image, he never replied.

But then the words "urban canyon" hit me.  I immediately began sketching some ideas.  Once I had a rough sketch that I liked, I drew it off more carefully on graph paper.  Then I used tracing paper to trace templates.

My first version didn't work.  Husband Bob when he looked at it couldn't make head nor tail of it.  The problem was that I had use some fabrics from my stash and others that I had purchased just for this purpose that had window-like designs for the buildings.  Really great fabrics!  But they were too busy and colorful.  As I said on the MM blog, "he couldn't see the forest for the trees."

So I started over with plainer fabrics.  I decided to focus on black, brown, blue, and gray.  I had recently learned that objects at a distance in a landscape are appear paler and more gray than those in the foreground, so my grays were reserved for the distant buildings, as well as for the street, the sidewalk, and the center stripe.

I had fun with using various decorative stitches to secure the buildings to the background, a gorgeous batik that reminded me of a sunset or sunrise.  I had first fused the buildings down with Wonder Under to a wonderful batik fabric that reminded me of a sunrise, and used the decorative stitching for my "quilting."  Too, I wanted to emphasize how you can see both fronts and sides of some of the buildings, so I used couching to emphasize this line of demarcation.

I used a Sue Benner technique, learned in a class taken last fall, to finish the edges.  I chose six different colors of threads and zigzagged along the edges and left "tails" of the threads at every corner.  For the backing, I used a cityscape fabric that I have long treasured.  It was bought in the late 90s and depicts the skylines of D.C., NYC, and Seattle.  I chose the latter skyline for this backing.

As always, click to see enlargements of the photos.

the Seattle city-scape that forms the back

the quilt showing the tails of thread

Working Neat/Working Messy

I have always wished I were one of those people who could, when quilting, "work neat."  I seem incapable of doing this!  Whatever project I'm working on, and especially if I have two or three going at the same time, my studio soon looks as if a tornado had hit it!

Yesterday I straightened up my studio, since I had company coming over for dinner.  I felt sure some of the women would ask to see my latest quilts, and I was embarrassed by the chaos.  So I straightened it up at least to the point that someone coming in wouldn't wonder about that possible tornado! (As it turned out, only two women came in, and these I invited!)

So while it is in decent shape, I'll enclose a few photos!

I actually started out in the hall.  I reorganized my bookshelves, which had gotten to be truly chaotic. On the shelves you can see are my quilting books, one shelf for traditional and one for art quilts, plus my quilting magazines, and miscellaneous how-to-do books from drawing and painting to crocheting and knitting, and lots of decorating books, as well, from the days planning this house.  (We've lived here four years now.)

Now we move into my studio.

When you walk in, you can see my cutting table in the center of the room--an Ikea portable kitchen cabinet that
has drawers and shelves in the side you can't see.  In the corner of the room is my computer, where
I am right now!  

On the left wall is my Bernina sewing machine and one of my Elfa drawer
"towers" which houses white and off-white fabrics, as well, in easy reach from the machine,
various necessities such as bobbins, scissors, pins, etc.

To the right of the door I have just put my radio and CD player in its
new home--on a never-used "TV tray".  This used to be on the shelves in the
hall, but I never liked it there.  Its cords were unsightly, stretching to the nearest
outlet--an eyesore that could be seen from the dining room, next door
to my studio.

Here's a better view of my design wall.  I made it from insulation panels, nailed to the wall and covered with flannel.
It goes from right above the electrical outlet to the ceiling--10' ceiling in here.  My 10 Material Maven
quilts are here most of the time, though sometimes covered with more flannel, if
I need to pin a biggish quilt on the wall!

My ironing board is sort of moved here and there in the room.  Here
is is in front of a second-hand dresser I bought here in town, made of blonde wood 50ish
furniture that, in this case, in incredibly sturdy and well-made.  What a buy!
It has a total of 8 drawers, which hold all manner of things from art supplies, to
grandkids' crafting stuff, to the CDs onto which I once saved all my photos, and on and on and on!

Beside the door and on the back wall of the room are my Elfa drawers
that hold my stash--or part of it!  These drawers are loosely organized by colors and/or by types
of fabric.   My threads are on top, as you can see.  On my cutting table I laid on the "painted, cut, and stitched canvas"
quilt that I have started since getting home from Quilting Adventures.  I am eager
to finish all four of these, but baby quilts keep taking precedence!

With Apologies to Robert Frost!

This bush of "knock out" pink roses was covered with blooms!
Our bushes of red knock outs aren't blooming yet.

Today is the first day of spring!  As I walked this morning, camera in my pocket, I snapped the few signs of spring that showed themselves.  Also as I walked, I thought of Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."  As I recited it to myself, I thought:  I could parody this poem!  Well, yes, but wow, is his rhyme scheme hard to pull off!

Despite the challenge,  I began the parody in my head while finishing my walk, but completed and tweaked it on the computer.  Here it is, and the snapshots that inspired it are above and below:

Whose yards these are I think I know.

Their owners are at work, although

They wouldn’t mind me stopping here

To snap these photos, even though

It’s early yet, so rather queer

To capture spring when it’s just here.

Most grass is brown and still looks dead,

But as I walk I see some dear,

Sweet blooms of yellow, pink, and red,

And even blue.  I need to spread

The news, to all make clear

Spring’s come!  This yellow, blue, and red

This pink—show that spring’s not near

But rather on this day, it’s here!

I go inside to sew and cheer:

Hurrah!   Truly spring is here!

When I passed by this tree yesterday, the scent of its blossoms
was heavenly!  Notice the blue, blue, cloudless, Texas
sky!

Petunias do well in Texas in the spring, but once summer
gets here--they usually don't survive.

This yellow "knock out" rose is the first to bloom on its bush.

From my computer desk, I can see this lovely
tree across the street.

Look closely!  These are the first blue bonnets I've seen so far.  Soon this field and
others will be covered!

My neighbor told me yesterday that these dianthus came up from

seed from last year's plants.  Though supposedly annuals,

dianthus survive here, after being cut back in the fall, to

bloom again the next spring.