Week in Review 2014 - 07/25

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

A close up of this week's free motion quilting design,
Dragonflies, by Gwyned Trefethen. The thread used is
a Marathon gold metallic.

It is time to talk thread again. When I first started quilting I barely gave what thread I used a second thought. I used Coats and Clark in whatever thread matched/blended with my current project. Slowly, ever so slowly I became more thread savvy. I went through a Sulky phase. Then I couldn't get enough of Aurifil. I still love Aurifil, I just wish they had more variegated threads in their collection. My love of variegated threads brought me to Superior Thread. The King Tut collection has been a favorite for years. I am also very partial to the shimmer achieved with metallic thread. Oh, the frustration. No thread that I use is more problematic than a metallic thread. When I need to be reminded of how to fix my thread issues, I turn to Superior Thread's website. They have many articles on how to work with thread. You might find the one on metallic threads helpful next time you are pulling out your hair as your metallic thread shreds and snaps every few feet of stitches. The reminder that finally solved my problem this week was shifting the orientation of the thread from vertical to horizontal. How your thread despools is key to not creating inadvertent snags and tension issues.

How my life thread has been despooling this summer is like metallic thread. Just when I think things are running smoothly it catches, shreds and breaks apart. I cope the same way. Patience, a deep breath a tweak and review, then I am on my way again. Little by little I make progress. One of the great things about blogging about my progress is that over a week, month and year I am shocked by just how much progress is made. It sure doesn't seem like that on a daily basis. Yet, proof positive follows, I can check several items off on my to do list.

1) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) - Done!

a) Deliver the quilt to the client. - Done!

The working title for this one is Night
Vision. The plan is to size it at 54" H x 36" W.
That means the frog will be ~ 18" square.

I don't know who was more thrilled when Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall was delivered. I knew it was a good a piece, but I wasn't sure how it would work in the space it was designed for. It worked beautifully. I felt honored that the client asked many good questions and was fascinated by all the fabrics, thread work and detail in the piece.

2) Wild Apple 12" x 12" Opportunity - (Due August 15) - Not yet, but I have decided on the piece and pulled out some of the necessary supplies to get this done.

a) Mat and frame the work.

3) Create a minimum of 5 designs for my next piece. - Done!

I have only shared the design I settled on. It is an
amalgam of several ideas. It is unfinished. All the leaves will have veins.

A full view of Gwyned Trefethen's
FMQ design - Dragonflies

4) Free motion quilting practice. - Done!

I tried my hand at coming up with another FMQ design. This one I call Dragonflies. I couldn't resist the temptation to execute it in a metallic thread. The design was inspired by the collage I put together for this week's Life Book assignment.

5) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done!

I learned a new technique in this week's Life Book lesson. It is how to transfer either a laser print (does not work with an ink jet printer) or magazine image to a mixed media piece using clear shelf lining paper. What fun!

Life Book 2014
Week 30's Collage

How will next week go? Will it continue to provide me with metallic thread style frustrations or run smoothly like a high quality polyester or rayon thread? Whatever life brings, I know I have the patience to plod along. My path is set as you can see below:

1) Wild Apple 12" x 12" Opportunity - (Due August 15)

a) Mat and frame the work.

2) Night Vision - (Due January 1, 2015)

a) Finish the line drawing
b) Print out the line drawing to scale
c) Start the piecing

4) Free motion quilting practice.

5) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.


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

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.