Week in Review 2013 - 03/22

Close enough is this week's mantra. I aim for 3 full studio days each week. There are times, like this week, due to foreseen circumstances, that I need to adjust my studio time. As of this posting I have managed 2 1/2 studio days this week. I may be able to squeak in the final 1/2 day. However my photographer (husband) won't be here to take photos of that half day progress. For this week, 2 1/2 days of change between postings is close enough.

Despite shorting my week by half a studio day, I did manage to meet all my goals, or at least came close enough. Here is how the week ending March 22 went:

1) Pictorial Painting

Pictorial Painting assignment #2 - Canyon

I am taking Pictorial Painting taught by Annette Kennedy through Craftsy.com. My attitude about taking classes is to experiment, enjoy the process and learn. What I create will never appear on my website, nor will it be eligible for exhibition. Therefore, I feel no need to "fix" issues. This is another case of close enough.

a) Select the fabric for Canyon. - Done!

If this were my design versus a class I would change out the ground fabric, probably using the same fabric but its backside. This way there would be a stronger contrast between the mountains and the ground. It isn't a problem on the right side, just the left side of the piece. I believe this will be less problematic once the piece is painted, since there is a thin dark line to painted exactly where the brown/mustard mountain meets the textured ground. For now, it is close enough.

b) Cut the fusible backing according to the templates. - Done!
c) Use the fusible templates to cut the fabric. - Done!

I even managed some bonus work. I laid out the fabric on my muslin backing and fused it in place.

2) Express Your Love

a) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. - Done!

Detail from Express Your Love showing the ray done
in Zigzag Spiral.

The goal was to use a new filler pattern of Leah's that she titled Zigzag Spiral. This is actually two patterns, Zippling and Spiral combined. I opted to use it one of the rays. It is the most central red/variegated ray on the bottom of the image. The pattern combined with my color choice feels very southwestern or fiesta like to me. Perhaps that is because I am heading to the southwest soon, so it is on my mind.

b) Continue quilting the hair. - Done!

Detail from Express Your Love showing the hair
as it appears today. 

I added the thinner of the two white streaks, done in the Cat Hairball pattern and the farthest to the right Stacked Flame strand. This is better than close enough. I am luxuriating in such a rich mane of hair.

c) Finish the Iris Still Life by adding a sleeve. - Done!

3) Reflection (Absolute deadline April 23, 2013)

Detail from Reflection after the red branches
have been added.

a) Make and adhere the red branches to the quilt. - Done!

My original plan had been to make bias tubes from a luscious deep maroon fabric to form the branches. Then I would add detail through fabric clumps and french knots. However, even the skinniest of bias tubes was too thick. I scrapped that idea. Next I thought I would paint the branches. This was better, but I don't yet have the dexterity and knowledge of paint and brushes to achieve the thinning and thickening of each branch that I hoped for. I was wary about thread painting the branches. I feared the heavy stitching required might distort the quilt. However, I discovered the section to be thread painted is not extensive in area and that area if it is outline stitched before the thread painting is done the quilt really doesn't distort. There is no need for a hoop or stabilizer, since the quilt had already been quilted it acted as a stabilizer or basting would.

A second detail showing the lower branch from Reflection.

I couldn't resist showing a second detail image from Reflection. Thread painting the branches allowed me to apply two of my recent Leah Day lessons. I marked the swoop of the branches using assisted free motion quilting. I didn't mark how the branches would taper or where to add the buds and leaves. These I did by eyeball while running the machine. The thickest sections of the branches are done in Cat Hairball stitch.

c) Square up the quilt for finishing. - Done!

b) Make the binding.  - I opted to face Reflection versus binding it.

Reflection with 75% of the facing stitched down.

I have been mulling over whether to bind or face Reflection since I first started working on it. My instinct was to face it.  I have faced approximately five quilts before Reflection using a variety of "no fail" facing methods and have been disappointed with the results every single time. However, once I opted to thread paint the branches binding the quilt just didn't make visual sense. The branches need to appear as though they start somewhere off the quilt. If binding comes between the quilted branches and the implied start of the branches image would feel off. I thought I could continue to thread paint the binding after it was applied. My fear was that would flatten the binding noticeably under the branch "extensions."

How could I paint myself out of this corner? My plan was to research facing methods. Maybe there was a YouTube demo that would show me how to have more success.  I sat down at my computer to start researching and in one of those powerful moments of serendipity a fellow Visioning Project member had e-mailed me a link to her favorite facing method. I tried it and for a first attempt and am very satisfied. The corners don't look like dog ears, the quilt turns nicely to the back so that none of the facing is visible in the front and it even finishes nicely on the backside of the quilt.

Tips, Techniques and Thoughts...

It can be so tempting to take the easy way. I would have been much more comfortable binding Reflection. I have binding down and find it a pleasant respite after the challenge of designing and making a quilt. My muse started whispering, then speaking and finally shouting "this quilt MUST be faced." I am glad I listened.

If you are interested in giving this facing method a try it can be found on Susan Brubaker Knapp's website. Even if you don't want to try your hand at facing, drop by Knapp's website. Her quilts are outstanding.

I will be traveling next week and therefore not working in my studio. However, when I return I intend to pick up where I left off. Here is my plan for the week ending April 3:

1) Pictorial Painting

a) Mark the fabric for painting.
b) Watch the portion of the lesson that demos how to paint the Canyon piece.

2) Express Your Love

a) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.
b) Finish quilting the hair.

3) Reflection (Absolute deadline April 23, 2013)

a) Finish stitching the facing.
b) Make and attach the sleeve.
c) Make and attach the label.
d) Add Reflection to my website.

Week in Review 2013 - 2/01

A hint of what is to come.

 I zipped along this week.  It feels good to be hitting my stride with my art work. Everything seems to be pulling together with ease and joy. Although I didn't do everything I set out to do during the week, I made a conscientious decision to revamp my goals in a more logical manner. The amount of work completed was the same or more than I planned, just with a slight diversion from the plans.

Here is what I had in mind and how I differed from the plan for the week ending February 1, 2013:


1) Shore's Edge

a) Finish the beading on the beach panel. - Started.

b) Seam the beach panel to the ocean panel. - Done!

The Ocean and Beach panel are joined
using the quilt as you go method.

c) Appliqué the foam panel to the quilt. - Done!

Next comes the foam.

d) Add a scattering of beads to the foam and ocean to indicate bits of foam and spray. - Opted to save this for next week.

Let the beading resume. Note how the shell and sand
beading under an inch of ocean are paler in comparison to
the shells nestled in the sand.

Detail of the painting of the flower.

The Calla Lily is painted.

2) Pictorial Painting



a) Watch the segment on how to paint the flower. - Done!

b) Paint the flower. - Done!

Although I am blown away by what I was able to accomplish, I can't help but be aware of how much more practice would be needed to choose a subject to paint and execute it without guidance.


3) Express Your Love

The golden rays are created with McTavishing. The upper
right corner red ray is done in my version of Boomerang. The
remaining red rays were quilted using micro zippling. Note
that the same red variegated thread was used for all three rays.

a) Finish McTavishing the final six rays. - Done!

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. - Nearly Done.

Leah came up with two assignments this week. One was to quilt some rays using micro zippling. The other was to quilt some rays in the Boomerang stitch. Zippling is like stippling, only instead of meandering curves the quilting line is straight with angles to help with turns. I didn't do the Boomerang stitch. For some reason my hands naturally made triangles - so I stuck with that while following the flow of Boomerang. The final product is similar in thread build up do to travel stitching.

4) Not part of the original plan for the week is my Canada Geese quilt with the working title of Reflection - Pieced the background.

My plan for the weekend February 8, 2013 is to:


1) Shore's Edge (Absolute deadline March 21, 2013)

a) Finish the beading on the beach panel.

b) Start adding a scattering of beads to the foam and ocean to indicate bits of foam and spray.

2) Pictorial Painting

a) Quilt the Calla Lily practice piece.

b) Bind it.

c) Make and attach the hanging sleeve and label

3) Express Your Love

a) Finish the final ray I plan to quilt using the Boomerang stitch.

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

4) Reflection (Absolute deadline April 23, 2013)

a) Determine how to best add the geese to the quilt.

b) Start adding the geese.

Tip/Technique/Philosophy - thought for the week:

If I were to be diagnosed with OCD it would stand for Organizational Compulsive Disorder. It's true - my spices are shelved in alphabetical order with the labels facing forward. My fabric stash is folded, scraps are nestled within their matching folded fabric and the bundles are shelved by hue and then value. I bring the same OCD to my computer files. A common way for me to begin a file's name is with  the date. The system I use is the "Gregorian big-endian starting with year (Year-Month-Day). In this format the most significant data items is written before the lesser data items i.e. year before month before day." (Reference Wikipedia) Today's date would be 130201. For Leah Day's project today's picture can be found under Documents:Quilt Related Files: Leah Day 2013:Express Your Love: 130201 Express Your Love. This way all my files for a quilt project begin with the earliest work and end with the most recent.

Quilting Along with Leah Day - Week 38

Lost Data - Front

Leah Day's assignment this week gave me another much needed pass at Jagged Lines. My struggles with last week's Jagged Lines assignment helped me zero in on my area of confusion (how to start and end the gaps.) When I watched Leah's video for Lost Data (Jagged Lines filled with Zippling) I paid particular attention to this trouble spot, pausing and rewinding the video multiple times until it sunk in. Then I practiced a few rounds with pen and paper.

Got it! One more free motion quilting pattern to add to my repertoire.

Detail from
Lost Data

Lost Data - Back

Detail from Lost Data - Back

The learning curve on Lost Data was typical of so many of life's challenges for me. It isn't that I am completely befuddled. Instead, I am missing one key component. The problem is discovering what that is and mastering it. Once it is learned the question becomes why was it so difficult in the first place? I choose not to dwell on that. Instead, I accept there will be many more moments of confusion in my life. I take heart in the knowledge that eventually I figure it out, all the more satisfied for having done so.

Quilting Along With Leah Day - Week 17

From Top to Bottom - U's, L's, Tessellated F's, H's
and Mixing and Matching

Leah Day is back from a much deserved time away from creating Quilt Along assignments to provide her groupies with the next challenge. When she left off Zippling was the topic. The distinguishing feature of Zippling is its sharp angles and straight lines. This week the focus was on the building blocks to create a Circuit Board quilting. Like Zippling, a Circuit Board  uses straight lines. However, the angle is no longer acute, instead all angles are right angles.

Leah had us start with the most basic shape of a circuit board - a squared U. Next we tried tessellated F's, an H and L combo, before ultimately attempting to design our own circuit board.

Detail Showing a Mix of Straight Lines, Solid Right Angles
and Some Beginner's Learning Gaffs

I find it easiest to mark my fabric with horizontal chalk lines in order to guide my scale when I am first learning a pattern like this one. It is like practicing script on lined paper versus blank paper. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I only got lost once while executing the various letter designs. (Naturally, that is the spot my husband focused in on when in photographed the close up of my practice.) For a first pass I managed to keep predominately straight lines and right angles. I found it helped to stop at the angle versus in the middle of a line. This made it easier to create the right angle. If I continued to run the machine as I executed a right a angle I would invariably soften the angle with a slight curve.

It is helpful to have many free motions patterns that I am comfortable with and can turn to, so that no matter what quilt I design, I have the perfect quilting pattern to accompany it. Would I use Circuit Board again? Probably not, at least until I am fluent enough with it to avoid channeling and the appearance of rows.

Quilting Along with Leah - Week 16 - Zippling

The latest Leah Day assignment is zippling. It is done in a similar fashion to stippling, but without any curved lines, just straight lines and angles. I tried and tried to work out the design first with pencil and paper, but it eluded me. So, I opted to skip mastering drawing out zippling and to go directly to the sewing machine. In order to ease my panic I opted to have fun with fabric and thread.

Close-up of Zippling Showing Off the Aurofil Variegated Thread

I purposefully selected black fabric and a lovely glossy Aurofil variegated thread in jewel tones. Much to my elated surprise I had no problem zippling when I attempted it at the machine. If sharp angles and straight lines make sense for a quilt, zippling will be my choice.

I did zipple in rows. I found it more difficult to hide my rows with zippling than with stippling. I can detect channels between several of the rows.

Full View of Zippling Showing Gaps in Rows