Week in Review 2014 - 11/14

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

The second LifeBook 2014 lesson I completed this week.
It works like an Advent calendar. The feathers
lift up to reveal positive messages below. What looks like
doilies is actually my newest stencil.

I have been practicing free motion quilting designs that
might work for my sister's quilt. I stumbled upon
this on a YouTube video that appeared on the sidebar while
I was looking at something else. It is going to require
a lot more practice for me to achieve the "backwards"
feathers and transitions from one heart to the next.

Like many artists who work with fabric I started my journey as someone who enjoyed handwork for relaxation. I had done needlepoint, crewel, knitting, crocheting and sewn some clothes for myself and my daughter. I tried quilting in 1974 when the only book I found was on English paper piecing. I bought Laura Ashley remnants to make the quilt with. I worked on that "quilt" on and off for a couple of years and don't think it ever grew to even a 12" square. There is a reason you don't paper piece thin wale corduroy. :) I gave up on that quilt, but not on the idea of making a quilt some day. 

Then Eleanor Burns came on the scene with her Quilt in A Day series. I took an evening class at the local high school. It was an 8 week course to make a quilt in a day. Thank goodness that quilt was auctioned off for charity. Ugly is too kind of a word. What that class and that quilt did give me was the courage to make another and then another. At first I followed patterns, considering myself quite adventurous when I changed the colors. Then I started modifying patterns. Now  all my work is my original design. What I called myself has changed with time, too. I have been a quilter, quilt artist, textile artist, fiber artist and now, although I still gulp when I say it, I call myself an artist. 

I was getting so frustrated doodling and redoodling the
feathered heart motif that I played with a simpler pivoting
heart motif that is echoed.

This week I have started to call myself, Gwyned Trefethen, Private Eye. Clearly I listen to far too many mysteries while I work. Why the new title? I lost some ground this week when my thread started breaking while I was free motion quilting. It takes perseverance to follow each lead in order to resolve the dreaded thread breaking problem. I tried all the usual tricks without an improvement. Then I added a bead of Sewer's Aid to the spool. I've done this before for metallic thread, but I was using my favorite Superior King Tut cotton thread. I'd never needed Sewer's Aid for that before. Sewer's Aid is a liquid silicone that allows the thread to glide smoothly through the eye of the needle, but also through all those other eyes and the tension discs. I could tell the hang up was in my tension discs, but loosening the tension didn't help and I feared if I loosened it too much the tension needed for even stitching would be thrown off. It was the combination of dogged checking the usual suspects and the eureka moment when the problem was diagnosed and resolved that allowed me to close yet another case of (said in a deep resonant voice) the dread thread break.

Another section of Night Vision is quilted!

I didn't spend all my week as a Private Eye. You can see by what got accomplished that I was mostly in artist mode.

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

I continued to free motion quilt the leaves of Night Vision. I have about 1/3 of the quilt to go. I am setting myself a goal of finishing one bobbin's worth of free motion quilting every studio day. Since I use Bottom Line thread those bobbins last for hours.

a) Finish the quilting 

It takes courage to make the most
of a bad situation. 

b) Blind stitch the frog in place
c) Square up the quilt

2) Free motion quilting practice. - Done

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done

I completed the assignment from the week before and this week's as well. Yeah! I am caught up again. I am rather fond of the self portrait. It doesn't look much like me. However, I made another leap forward with capturing light and shadow. Even more impressive I very creatively got myself out of a jam when the left eye was ruined when my pen gushed just as I was adding the pupil. My solution was a very creative, contemporary, runway worthy hairdo. :)

4) Surprise for my sister (Due November 24)

a) Finish piecing the cut strata. - Done!
b) Sandwich the quilt - Done!
c) Start the quilting - Not yet.

A teaser from my sister's quilt. This is the one that will
be quilted with a heart motif.


Which persona will dominate next week? Personally I am rooting for the artist, since there are many things I am eager to tackle. 

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

a) Finish the quilting
b) Blind stitch the frog in place
c) Square up the quilt

2) Free motion quilting practice.

3) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. 



4) Surprise for my sister (Due November 24)

a) Start the quilting
b) Square up the quilt
c) Bind the quilt
d) Add the label


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.

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.

Machine Quilting with Leah Day - Week 6

This week was much easier, since we have been stippling for six weeks now, stippling has become second nature. Well, almost. There is still the occasional glitch, but that has less to do with stippling and more to do with equipment/technical difficulties.

The assignment this week was to finish the prior week's quilt with stippling in the background that surrounded the stars, as well as in the sashing and borders. The key to successfully completing the assignment was to devise a route to follow. I started at the tip of the star point in the center block that points to the right and headed down the sashing, filling in the star backgrounds that adjoined the sashing. When I reached the border I pivoted the quilt 90 degrees and filled in the lower background triangle of the center block. Once that was done I pivoted the quilt 90 degrees to fill in the other sashing and adjacent backgrounds.  At the top of the sashing I pivoted again completed the border by going around counter clockwise. I never boxed myself into a corner!

Micro, Mid-sized and Maxi Stippling

The image above showcases the three sizes of stippling used to make this table runner. I selected a Marathon polyester variegated thread to quilt the star and an unknown brand polyester thread from my stash for the background and sashing.

The rich plum  polyester thread I selected stands out nicely in the lilac background pieces and completely disappears in the sashing fabric. An issue I ran into with this thread was that it required a thread stand to glide smoothly off the spool. I struggle with the best place to locate the spool next to machine. If I place it behind the machine the quilt bumps into and can result in problems. I placed it to the right of the machine. Sometime in the process of unspooling the thread puddled, then snagged. I sensed something was up, but just a nano second before I snapped the needle. I moved the spool from the horizontal feeder to the vertical feeder and added a band of netting. That solved the problem this time.