Weekly Report 2013 - 11/29

Detail from experiment with textured appliqué.

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

It has been a short work week here in the states as we celebrated Thanksgiving and for some the start of Hanukkah on Thursday. It was a good week to play versus problem solve. Leah Day's assignment on Textured Appliqué was the perfect play thing. This got me thinking about texture and textiles, both words deriving from the Latin word from woven. Textiles are created by weaving fibers and of course woven fibers and woven strips of fabric create delightful texture.



Despite the short week I made some progress with my work. Here is how the week went:

1)  ZenBlossoms

• make and attach label - Done!
• add to my website - Done!
• add to my FaceBook fan page - Oops, forgot to do this.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - plan out the number of hexagons I will need and start piecing. - Partially done. I did manage to plan out the number of hexagons I would need for the goddess's face and begin the basting process.

Hexagons I basted the this week. Some are facing
right side up while others are facing wrong side. Of
course they will all be right side up when I stitch them
together. I just wanted to show both sides off here.

Before I could determine the number of hexagons I would need I first had to determine the scale that was best suited for this project. I found half inch hexagons too small. However, three quarter inch hexagons were too large. I settled on five eighths. Thank goodness the site for hexagonal graph paper allows for any size and so does my husband's calculator for what size to cut the strips.

b) Free Motion Quilting - Done!

This project was neither foundation piecing nor free motion piecing, but a method for creating Textured Appliqué. No surprise I deviated from Leah's method. She had you take a single raw edged strip and stitch it down as you bunched and twisted it. I am not a fan of raw edge unless I want loose threads. Instead I sewed multiple long narrow strips together along the length of the fabric. Next I seamed the long edges right sides together to form a tube. After that I turned the tube so that the right side was outside. Only then did I twist and bunch the fabric. 

Sampler with Textured  Appliquéd  segment added.

I think Textured Appliqué has many possible applications. My first thought was as vegetation. I think it would be great for tree trunks and rock formations, too.

3) Visioning Project - Do the next two assignments from my Photoshop Elements class. - Done!

4) Trio

a) Blow up my sketch for Trio. - Done!

b) Select the fabric I will use. - Done!

c) Try creating a painting of a city at night as the backdrop for the dancers. - Surprise, surprise, I changed my mind. I have decided to use a commercial fabric I found in my stash for the backdrop. It has nothing to do with city lights.

d) Bonus - I started cutting out the fabric I need to piece the background.

Hopefully, my turkey stupor will have worn off by next week and I will be back eager to cracking in my studio again. Here is what I have planned to motivate me:

1)  ZenBlossoms

• add to my FaceBook fan page

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - Piece the 43 hexagons required for the goddess's face.

b) Free Motion Quilting

3) Visioning Project - Do the next two assignments from my Photoshop Elements class.

4) Trio - Piece the background.


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Weekly Report 2013 - 11/22

Detail from ZenBlossoms

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

The word for the week is gratitude. Actually, gratitude is something I start every day with. For over a decade I have risen from bed, gotten a glass of water and then sat down to write my personal combination of morning pages and gratitude journal. As I do the final work required to post ZenBlossoms on my website and submit it for a call for entry (due December 1st) I am feeling grateful for so many things that allowed this particular piece to come together. First, a special thank you to Leah Day for posting free motion quilting motifs weekly for several years. I have learned so much from trying every single one. Second, I knew I wanted to use metallic thread for the background of the quilt, but I dreaded it. Metallic thread can be fraught with shredding problems. Not this time. Yes, it did break or shredded more than the other threads, but not more than once every 30 - 45 minutes. Not bad at all for a metallic. Third, I am grateful that although my thread order was delayed by a month due to the vendor putting the wrong zip code on the label, I was able to quilt the full piece in just three weeks AND there was enough thread. Fourth, I am grateful for your comments, stories and suggestions.

Thanks to the stars aligning, here is what I was able to accomplish this week:

ZenBlossom
43" H x 33" W

1)  ZenBlossoms

Some of the motifs used in ZenBlossoms I learned
from Leah Day, while others are of my own invention.

• block - Done!
• trim to finished size - Done!
• face - I decided that ZenBlossoms would look better bound than faced, I did that!
• take formal call for entry level photos - Done!
• make and attach split sleeve - Done!
• make and attach label - Not yet.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - plan out the number of hexagons I will need and determine how I will piece them. - I did manage to create an English Paper piecing sample, but that was it.

Two samples of pieced hexagons. The one on the top
is done with English Paper Piecing. The one
on the bottom is machine pieced.

I will probably go with the English Paper Piecing for the Leah Day assignment. I found the basting relaxing. I found whip stitching the pieces together, not so relaxing. My thread has a tendency to get caught on the completed work no matter what strategy I used to hold it off to the side while I stitch the next hexagon in place. Which method I use in the future will depend upon the size of the hexagon. The larger hexagon, the more likely that I will stick to machine piecing. However, small hexagons are too fussy to do by machine. My break-even point is one inch, the size I tested both methods on. 

b) Free Motion Quilting

I was uncertain about the latest motif, Modern Weave. Leah always works out her motifs on square blocks, I prefer to create random shapes first, on a 20" square block, and then test out each motif in one of the resulting "odd" shapes. This forces me to deal with awkward spaces and bouncing off of curved or wiggly lines. How would a motif based on straight lines and triangles work? Surprisingly well. I struggled at first on how to divvy the triangles with lines, but eventually found I worked best if I was, one, always stitching towards my next end point and two, eyeballed bisecting the space with my next line. This meant a fair amount of travel stitching and therefore thread build up that actually enhances the look. This would be an excellent motif to use on a psychedelic quilt.

Free motion quilting sampler, with Leah Day's motif,
Modern Weave, front and center.

3) Visioning Project - Do the next two assignments from my Photoshop Elements class. - Done!

This is turning out to be more fun and less time consuming than I had expected. Hurrah!

4) Finish sketches for Sing the Blues, the quilt that will be my next focus. - Done!

I have a sketch that I will use as the blueprint for my next quilt. I've gone from working with piano keyboards, to saxes and I arrived at three dancers. The current working title is Trio.

Next week will be busy with non studio work. Still, I hope to spend two days, instead of my usual three in the studio. My current plan is as follows:

1)  ZenBlossoms

• make and attach label
• add to my website
• add to my FaceBook fan page

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - plan out the number of hexagons I will need and start piecing.

b) Free Motion Quilting

3) Visioning Project - Do the next two assignments from my Photoshop Elements class.

4) Trio

a) Blow up my sketch for Trio.

b) Select the fabric I will use.

c) Try creating a painting of a city at night as the backdrop for the dancers.


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Weekly Report 2013 - 11/15

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Just typing the word hexagons in conjunction with quilting makes me shudder. Why? Hexagons have to be one of the trickiest shapes commonly used in piecing to cut and piece. It is time to conquer the hexagon dragon or at least make peace with it. Like many techniques in quilting there are more than one way to manage cutting and piecing hexagons. Here are few ways you might be interested in:

My first attempt at sewing hexagons by machine.

Step one - Cutting Hexagons

a) You can always buy plastic templates and specialized rulers to cut hexagons. The down side is that you are limited to the sizes that are offered. What if you want something smaller, in between sizes or larger than what is offered? Fortunately, I am married to an engineer and I asked him to design a hexagon calculator for me. All I have to do is plug in the desired finished size of the hexagon I want and the calculator comes up with the height of the strip I  will need to cut the hexagon. Unfortunately, I can't link to my spreadsheet, but if you are interested write me and put hexagon calculator in title of the e-mail. I will send it to you.

b) I found this great link for cutting hexagons from strips. 

Step two - Seaming Hexagons by machine.

If you would like to try your hand at English paper piecing hexagons, then check out Leah Day's three part post on this topic.

I did not spend my week piecing hexagons, although I gave it a try. I spent the lion's share of my studio time free motion quilting on ZenBlossoms and the remaining time tackling a few other projects as you will see.

1) Finishing a bobbin's worth of FMQ on each of my three studio days on ZenBlossoms. Done! This was enough to finish the quilting phase of ZenBlossoms!!

ZenBlossoms after the background has been quilted,
but before it has been blocked and trimmed.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - plan out the number of hexagons I will need and determine how I will piece them. - partially done. 

I experimented with piecing hexagons by machine. I have yet to try my hand at the English paper piecing method. That's next.

b) Free Motion Quilting - Leah did not have a free motion quilting assignment this week.

Detail from ZenBlossoms showing all the different
FMQ motifs and threads used. The background gold
thread is a metallic. It is tough to capture the shimmer
in a blog photograph, but it definitely shimmers when
light is directed on it.

3) Visioning Project - Do the first assignment from my Photoshop Elements class. - Done! 

4) Start sketches for Tickling the Ivories, the quilt that will be my next focus. - Done! Of course a few sketches in and I have gone from keyboard to sax as the instrument I want to feature. This will require a new title, perhaps Singing the Blues.


The first 90% of my work on ZenBlossoms is done. Next week I will tackle the second 90%.  I tend to forget just how long it takes to get a quilt from quilted to exhibition ready, listing the steps is a good reminder.

1)  ZenBlossoms

• block
• trim to finished size
• face
• take formal call for entry level photos
• make and attach split sleeve
• make and attach label

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - plan out the number of hexagons I will need and determine how I will piece them.

b) Free Motion Quilting

3) Visioning Project - Do the next two assignments from my Photoshop Elements class.

4) Finish sketches for Sing the Blues, the quilt that will be my next focus. 


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Weekly Report 2013 - 11/08

My current sampler of free motion quilting adventures.
A mixture of Leah Day assignments and my own experiments.
Note the green feather on the left hand side. I will talk
more about that later .

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

It is 4:04 a.m. CST as I begin typing my blog. I have been up since 3:00 a.m. by choice. This is a little early for me but only by half hour or so. I am nearly always up before 4 a.m. even on the weekends. When people learn about my early rising they are often puzzled and I am asked why. The primary reason is that this is my natural circadian rhythm. Why I don't try to break myself of the habit is because it works so well for me. Every morning I have an hour or two of uninterpreted silence. No phone calls, no e-mail chatter and no one else up and wandering about my home. I start with morning pages, treat myself to a few on-line games and do so simple work. Today I am running loads of laundry and writing my blog. Next I will exercise, have breakfast and shower. This answers the second question that artists are often asked, "how do you find the time to do your art?" By taking care of myself and my chores first I am free to spend the day in my studio. I find I am not alone. Many artists are out of synch with the 9 - 5 world either starting before dawn or working after midnight.

Here is what I accomplished while in the studio this week:

1) Finishing a bobbin's worth of thread on my FMQ on each of my three studio days with a focus on  ZenBlossoms - Done! I came very close to finishing 4 bobbin's worth of thread.

ZenBlossoms will finish at 47" H by 35" W.
Most browsers will allow you to click on the
image and see an enlarged version. Remember
the green feather up above? One of the reasons
I made that was to test the varigated thread I
planned to use for the leaves in ZenBlossoms.
Needless to say the test was the go ahead I needed.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - partially done. The next assignment is the planning stage for creating pieced fabric using hexagons and the English paper piecing method. Ironically this was how I first attempted to quilt in 1974 and I found it so time consuming and difficult that I didn't try quilting again until 1988. Perhaps with 25 years of quilting under my belt I will have more patience and skills. I am also thinking that there are many "fast" ways to piece hexagons these days, perhaps I should just go that route. :)

b) Free Motion Quilting - Done!

The upper motif is Leah Day's Glass Art. I could
see using a variation of this on tree bark or perhaps
on the fur of a large cat. The lower motif's center
is Leah Day's Wired Feather, coupled with two experiments:
one, what would happen if I echoed the feather and two, how
would the thread look if I scribbled with it?

3) Visioning Project - Continue to post on FaceBook. - Done! I also managed to add 
an image, a slice of my work, Nestling Oysters, as my blog's header. Just now I figured out how to add emoticons to blogger. I'm on a roll! ;)

4) Start sketches for Tickling the Ivories, the quilt that will be my next focus. - Oops, I forgot I had committed to this.

My guess is that next week will be consumed with finishing ZenBlossoms. Still I have a few more projects I need to keep up with. Here is what I would like to attend to:

1) Finishing a bobbin's worth of FMQ on each of my three studio days on ZenBlossoms

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - plan out the number of hexagons I will need and determine how I will piece them.

b) Free Motion Quilting

3) Visioning Project - Do the first assignment from my Photoshop Elements class.

4) Start sketches for Tickling the Ivories, the quilt that will be my next focus. 


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.

Week in Review 2013 - 11/01

ZenBlossoms after 3 days of free motion
quilting.

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

When I first started quilting back in the Jurassic Period (1988) I had no idea how quilting would force me to learn about photography, lighting and preparing photographs for print and internet viewing. All I wanted to do was try my hand at making a simple Eleanor Burns "Log Cabin in a Day" quilt. In fact for the first few years of quilting that was pretty much all I did, make simple, traditional quilts from patterns and give them as gifts for babies, weddings and holidays. Then I attend my first quilt show and saw one of Dianne Miller's impeccable quilts and I knew I had to join her guild and learn about art quilting. This lead to exhibiting in the Rhododendron Needlers Quilt Guild Exhibit. What a thrill to have my work and Dianne's in the same show. I screwed up my courage in 2000 and applied to the American Quilters Society exhibition in Paducah. In 2000 quilts were juried into exhibitions using slides. I was fortunate to live in an area of the country where there was professional art photographer, David Caras, who photographed ALL the local art quilter's work. My only job was to set up the appointment, bring my work to be photographed and return a week a later for my slides. Then the art world went digital, several years later David got of the business, I find another photographer and now I live in an area of the country devoid of photographers. 

Detail from ZenBlossoms.
All but the tips of the first flower have been stitched.

How do I manage now? Thank goodness my husband agreed to master the art of taking digital photographs. I provided him with this fabulous tutorial, Shoot That Quilt and he experimented, tweaked and experimented some more so that he can take professional quality images for me. That is just step one. I take his photographs and crop and resize them to suit what I will use them for. Most photographs are of my current work in progress, so simply cropping out extraneous portions of the photograph and saving it at resolution appropriate for the web is all I do. However, once a piece is finished then a "formal" photograph of the full quilt and several compelling details must be taken. It is extremely important to capture the subtle shadows created by stitching and have even lightening for these photographs. I must extract, not crop, the quilt from the background so that the edges of the quilt can be seen.  My go to resource for this is Gloria Hansen's "Digital Essentials: the quilt maker's must-have guide to images, files and more!" 

1) Finishing a bobbin's worth of FMQ on each of my three studio days on ZenBlossoms - Done!!!

ZenBlossoms after 4 days of FMQ.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing - Done by default. Leah has not provided any foundational piecing assignments in several weeks.

b) Free Motion Quilting - Leah has provided numerous FMQ motifs to test run. I've done all but the one from yesterday!

Four different Leah Day FMQ motifs.

What I have learned about myself  from attempting so many different quilting motifs is that I am drawn to both making and viewing dense multi step designs with lots of echo quilting. It also intrigues me how the same design executed by different artists can look so different. I think the design in the upper left looks like ornaments. Wouldn't it make a great design for the background filler of a Christmas quilt? I also see potential for the echoed daisy motif on the lower left for a future Zentangle based quilt.

3) Visioning Project - Read and practice the next  Facebook tutorials. - Done in a manner of speaking.

I did post to my FaceBook page and post an event. I also redesigned the template for my blog to give it a more professional, polished look. Finally, I signed up through Ed2Go for an on-line class on Photoshop Elements to beef up skills with that application.

Next week should be another week focused on FMQ. However, there are a few more projects I would like to attend to as well. Here is the game plan:

1) Finishing a bobbin's worth of FMQ on each of my three studio days on ZenBlossoms

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing

b) Free Motion Quilting

3) Visioning Project - Continue to post on FaceBook.

4) Start sketches for Tickling the Ivories, the quilt that will be my next focus. 


I am now linking up to two blogs on Friday's. The first is Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project and the second is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays.