One of my favorite quilt books is available again...

I don't have time to do a full-on review this week, but I wanted to get the word out that one of my favorite quilt design study books, which had been out of print for a year or so, is now available for sale again. Woohoo!!!

Check out Heather Thomas' A Fiber Artist's Guide to Color and Design. It's available on Amazon (in paperback) or through Landauer Publishing (in print or ebook).

It should suffice as enough of a review to say that my quilt design study group has used Thomas' book for the last year and it has been far and away our favorite book to work with. To whit: we're nearly finished with all the workshops in the book. When we have completed them, we have decided to "wing it" by each member of our group taking a month and choosing a topic to lead the rest of the group through, still using this book as our foundational text. We'll pull in other resources as well based on whatever the challenge is that month, but we all really like this book and feel there's more we can get out of it if we spend even more time with it.

It really is a great book--good content, good layout, good explanations in the workshops (practice sessions)...all around very useful resource. You should definitely check it out!

OT: A Weekend Jaunt (No Quilting Involved)

Although the now-traditional Memorial Day Sew-In (#MDSI) was alive and well this weekend, I was unable to participate because I was off doing other things. DH and I have been ships passing in the night the last several weeks due to both of our travel schedules and evening work engagements and such, so we took a slightly-spur-of-the-moment trip up to Stratford, Ontario, for the Shakespeare Festival. My husband did the math for how long our relationship with Stratford was...math that can only make one feel very old. Stratford was our first big consistent weekend trip when we were first together. We were laughing this past weekend about how in some ways, we "grew up" at Stratford. We attended plays there almost every year for the first 12-15 years of our marriage before we switched to going to Niagara on the Lake (also in Ontario) more frequently. Now that our kids are (sort of) launched, we've decided to start a new tradition of going to Stratford in the spring/early summer and staying with NOTL for our anniversary weekend in the fall. Nice bookends to the season.

We left Friday afternoon--after a rather tempestuous morning involving having to put in an emergency call to the plumber. Ahem.

Fortunately, what looked at first like it would be hugely expensive and quite possibly require ripping out a lot of the tiling in our upstairs bathroom turned out to be a simple and inexpensive fix.

At least, plumbing-wise. The ceiling may be another matter. (No tiling was harmed in the making of this photo.) But we'd planned on getting some painting done anyway, so this probably just pushed the matter up a bit on our timetable. In any case, we were able to leave on vacation only about 90 minutes later than we'd planned; we still made our dinner reservations in Stratford Friday night.

Also despite a very rainy Friday, the rest of our weekend was absolutely perfect weather-wise. Mid-to-high 70s, brilliant sun, gorgeous. We went paddleboating on the Avon River (yes, it's really called that in Ontario, too) Saturday morning, saw "Crazy for You" Saturday afternoon, and "King Lear" Saturday night. Long day, but really nice. Both performances were phenomenal, although I have to admit that "Crazy for You" was a bit more fun. "King Lear" is, of course, just all-out depressing (spoiler alert: just about everyone dies), but it was very well performed and included Colm Feore in the lead.

There are no shows on Sunday so we were able to just "chillax," do more walking in the sun, have leisurely meals, and even spend a couple of hours in our little coach-house studio suite at the B&B reading. Perfect vacation. We zoomed home on Monday to make it in time for a ballgame with DH's family--we have a minor league team here in my hometown. Again, perfect weather.

The results of the weekend are (1) a more relaxed spirit, (2) a renewed memory of how much we love plays at Stratford, (3) fun times with family, and (4) a little bit of a sun tan to start the season.

Here's the photo gallery:

A Finish and a Flimsy (or: A Flimsy Finish)

One of my last minute impulse retreat projects was "Building Blocks," a pattern by #twilter and listener Jackie of Sew Excited Quilts (@sewexcitedquilt). Her pattern is available on Craftsy.

I had bought it and printed it off a couple of months ago because when I saw her posting about it on her blog, I immediately thought it would make a great donation quilt. When I was packing for retreat last week, I stumbled across the print-out of the pattern and checked the fabric requirements: one charm pack and/or 36 5" squares, 1 1/4 yard fabric for background, plus backing and binding. I thought, "Why not? I've got me some charm packs!" (I talk more about the whole 5" square thing and why I didn't use my scrap squares in this week's podcast episode.)

Laying fabrics out to avoid having three of the same pattern appear in a single block, like they do above. (This got changed before sewing!)

Laying fabrics out to avoid having three of the same pattern appear in a single block, like they do above. (This got changed before sewing!)

It was a great impulse project! It only took me maybe three hours, all-in, to have the top cut and pieced, including what I finished up at home. At that, it probably only took me that long because I took my time piecing the blocks together on the top to try to make sure fabrics weren't crowding up together and such. If I'd been in get-er-done mode, it would've gone a lot faster.

The charm pack is "Good Morning," by Moda. Can't tell you what the background fabric was--it was from my stash. But I loved that sunny yellow with the charm pack. Good morning, indeed!

So here's the top complete.

It was a very foggy morning when I took this picture on my back patio so the colors are off. It's a little more saturated than this. Hopefully when I get it quilted and am ready for the full reveal I'll have a better picture.

Still n' all, won't this be a cute donation quilt for a baby? (It finishes up somewhere in the neighborhood of 42"x42".)

I may have to do another of these. Did I already say I got me some charm packs?

So the other finish this week was something that was also quite spur of the moment. In moving some fabrics around on my shelves I came across a Stonehenge panel and four coordinating fat quarters I'd bought maybe...ummm...four or five years ago? Every now and again I pick them up, look at them, think, "I should use these or give them away," realize I'm not quite ready to do either, and put them back on the shelf.

I'd done that again this week. Only this time, my daughter happened to wander into the sewing room, and she fell in love. As I was explaining the problem (four fat quarters not being quite enough fabric to actually do anything simple in terms of borders and such, and me not wanting to spend the time at the moment to get all creative on its little fabric butt), she said, "But the panel would be great to hang in a window like stained glass!"

Since she's game to do that in her dorm room next fall (senior year!), I pulled out my fusible 1/4" Steam a Seam and went to town.

So here's her new window dressing. This is simply the panel with the selvedges cut off either end, and the edges pressed to the back and fused down.

I love fusible.

The only little bit of sewing I did was on the ends of the hanging sleeve, although I could've fused that too, certainly. I just went into auto-mode and was sitting at my sewing machine before I even thought about it.

Here's a picture of the back--the fused edges (pressed 1/4" inch, then folded over another 1/4" to fused so it'd have a clean edge) and the hanging sleeve. The sleeve is made the way you often make sleeves, but I fused it to the back instead of sewing it because I didn't want any sewing showing up on the front. Depending on what kind of window she has, she should be able to slide a tension rod in there to hang it up. We'll see what happens.

The four fat quarters? Well, they'll either go into my stash or end up being a giveaway at some point. But at least now this is one less bunch of fabric sitting unused on my shelf mocking me!

Retreat Report with Pics!

To listen to my report on last weekend's guild retreat, check out the latest episode of my podcast. Meanwhile, here are a few pics! This isn't the complete photo-report as some projects will be photographed later.

So, for now, here are the blocks I finished on my jelly roll sampler, a project that's been in the works for a few years.

Jelly Roll Sampler block 10

Jelly Roll Sampler block 10

Jelly Roll Sampler block 11

Jelly Roll Sampler block 11

Jelly Roll Sampler block 12

Jelly Roll Sampler block 12

And, ta da, all 12 blocks together. Approximately three years of piecing. (Well, okay, three years of a couple of hours at a time on retreats.) As you can see, it's mostly a low-volume quilt although that dark burgundy fabric really jumps out in these pictures. It's not quite that stark in real life. I'm going to let these blocks brew on my shelf for a bit until I have time to get them to a quilt shop to find the perfect sashing/border fabric. 

Sorry, I really don't remember the name of the jelly roll. By 2011 when I started this it had already been on my shelf for awhile, and I may have inherited from my Mom. So who knows hold old the line is now?

Here's the (in)famous scrap bag/pin cushion retreat project. And yes, true to what I said in my podcast that my friend would be able to finish the second one off right-quick, she's already emailed me that it's done.

 

Here's the electric seam ripper I talked about on my blog--this was my friend's (I took the picture at retreat). I immediately came home and ordered one for myself. I've got it in hand now, although haven't had to rip a seam out with it yet!

And you know what else I figured out? I've been thinking about getting one of those seam rippers that has the big eraser-like knob on the end that helps you get the broken thread pieces out of the seam after you're done ripping it. Well, I discovered on retreat that the end of my Fons & Porter stiletto works the same way!

I just held it like an eraser, rubbed it across the threads in the seam lines, and they brushed right off. O, joy! I just saved myself $7 or whatever that other seam ripper costs. Let's not do the math with what I just spent on the electric seam ripper, though.

And here's a general photo gallery of shots from around the grounds. A couple are panoramic if they work well in this gallery setting. Also, I discovered I could mess with the panoramic feature on the phone, so there are a couple of photos that I've entitled "When Worlds Collide" and "The Edge of the Earth." See if you can figure out which they are.

Another Momufo complete--and not by me!

When Mom passed away in 2009, I was the only quilter daughter. Technically speaking, I'm still the only quilter daughter although now I have a sister who's--ahem--dabbled her toes a bit. In any case, at the time, going through Mom's incomplete projects mostly fell to me. I sorted them out into those I wanted to complete myself versus those I'd be okay giving away to others to complete.

Those I was okay with sending off to other homes, I brought to a guild meeting one evening and asked if anyone would be interested. Several folks took the bait and I distributed most of those I had brought with me. The rest went into various donation locations. 

This week, one of Mom's UFOs (long ago designated as Momufos) came back home to roost. This one had originally been taken by Jan, then, when she was cleaning out some of her stash last year, Lori saw it in a stack and liberated it to go home with her. Where it then sat for awhile.

You see, the issue was mostly that it was round and had no border or anything, so although (to my recollection) the top was pieced, it would've taken some doing to finish it off adequately. Frankly, my guess is that's why it had been a UFO in the first place--Mom probably lost steam! 

When Lori heard about my niece having the first baby of the next generation on my side of the family, she looked at this piece again and sudden inspiration hit. At our guild meeting earlier this week, she presented me with the reworked UFO as a completed baby quilt. It's adorable. I said I'd likely keep it at my house for my great-niece to use when she's here, but also to give me the option of having it to give to another baby whenever my great-niece gets a sibling or a cousin. (My great-niece has several baby quilts to her name now, between me, her daddy's mother who's also a quilter, and my non-quilter-so-far-sister who made her a cuddly minky blanket. So I don't mind holding this one off for awhile!)

Thanks, Jan, for keeping it safe for a bit, and thanks, Lori, for the inspiration that made you finish it off! It's a nice memory of my Mom to be able to hand down to another generation at some point. 

 

Hand-Dyed Results--A Little More Experimentation

I did some more ice-dyeing last weekend; I'm not entirely thrilled with some of the results but that's the serendipity of this method--you never entirely know what you're going to get. Most times, it's a wonderful surprise and you get funky-fun things you could've never managed if you'd tried to control what was going on. Once in awhile, though, you get the other kind of funky. The not-so-good kind. That being said, beauty is the in eye of the beholder so who knows?

Some background: I've been testing out different types of dyeable clothing and accessories to see what I might want to continue working with. So far, I've not landed on anything other than scarves--and possibly the wrist-wrist warmers--that I've loved. Well, other than baby clothes. Those are just dang cute. In any case, you'll see here some more of my testing.

First up: A tshirt done with Fuschia, Grape, and Boysenberry dyes.

I ended up piling too much ice on this one in an attempt to cover all the pieces I was doing in this one dye bath. The items were therefore soaking in dyed ice-melt and blurred some of the normal ice-dyed effect. I'm also not keen on the way the t-shirt fits, although it's wearable. So, the results are nice enough but nothing to dance a jig over.

Twist-shirt front

Twist-shirt front

Next up, another style of t-shirt. This one has a twist in the center. I actually own a few store-bought shirts in this style, so I was jazzed when I saw a dyeable version on Dharma's website. However, I'm also not keen on the way this one fits--I ordered it in the larger size I used to wear rather than the size I'm wearing now, knowing that typically dyeables run a bit small. And yet, it's still tighter than I like. I knew that before I dyed it so I was more willing to try out a new color combination as well as a new fabric-manipulation technique on the shirt as I had nothing to lose--I wouldn't be wearing it in public anyway. (BTW, I've now ordered one in a size larger than I've ever worn in my life. We'll see if that one works!)

Twist-front back--the spiral is a little more evident here, as is the migrated purple dye

Twist-front back--the spiral is a little more evident here, as is the migrated purple dye

This one was done with Antique Gold and Old Rose, and I spiraled the shirt before putting it under the ice to echo the twist on the front. I think I sort of like the color results, although it's not a combination I can wear myself--not particularly flattering for me. Yellows are generally not my friend. I do like the spiral effect, though you can't see it as well on the shirt as you can on another example coming up. What I'm a little annoyed at with this one, though, is that I followed a tutorial on a hand-dyer's blog about using Retayne and she swore she dumps all her colors in one bucket and has never had a problem. I trusted her. And yet, some of the purple migrated onto this shirt. I'll be going back to separating my colors. Not blaming the blog--there are just too many variables.

And then, just for kicks n' giggles, I threw in a few scrunchies.

They're not exciting, though not bad (although the gold/rose is a little more muddy on these). It's not worth doing ice-dye on them because there's not enough surface area to really see that effect. So if I do more of these in the future I'll use different techniques.

And then there was the fabric.

First, one that was in the fuschia/boysenberry/grape container--I like this color combo. I'll probably use it again in the future.

However, again, too much ice = too much water = muted ice-dye effect. Nice, but not exciting. Still n' all, I could see this being a background for something or getting cut up into smaller pieces for a scrappy-project or...whatevs. It's nice enough.

Then there's a more standard and striking ice-dye. I tweaked up my current-fave combo of Teal and Black (629? Can't remember which I used) by adding in some Intense Blue. I very much like that combination. This is one that'll sit on my cutting table for awhile so I can play "Rorshach Test" with it: IOW, "What does this design look like to you?"

And, finally, I spiraled this fat quarter the same way I did the twist-front t-shirt, but in this sample you can really see the spiral.

Again, this is the Antique Gold and Old Rose combination. I think I could like it as long as I'm not wearing it. It's kind of weird, but sometimes weird can be good. (It looks a hair more green in this picture than in real life--lighting is such a difficult thing!)

I also did a few more onesies as a gift for a new grandma in our guild. (I'm posting this after she'll get the gift so it should be okay!) The baby is a boy so I went for the gender-stereotyped-darker colors. It was fun playing around with mixing my dyes to get colors I liked. I used Ann Johnston's trick of having a piece of fabric that you drip a little of your dye combination onto to see what color you're making and what you might want to add to it. Helpful, plus I'm developing quite a fun piece of fabric with multi-colored splatters on it!

I photo-edited a big black box over the one that's personalized. You can see the last letter because last time I posted photos of a onesie I'd personalized without showing the actual personalization for privacy reasons, I got a couple of requests to see how the lettering worked.

And here's a closeup of the lettering. This is done with a stencil and Color Magnet. I've learned that Color Magnet works best with diluted versions of the dye color; that way, it's more obvious where the Color Magnet has drawn more dye. If the dye is too saturated, the Color Magnet disappears altogether.

The stencil has sort of a "Disney's Animal Kingdom" feel to the font. If I'm going to keep personalizing stuff, I should probably buy more lettering stencils. But it's kind of a pain and time-consuming to do so I don't see a ton of it happening in my future.

I had a few other results too, but can't post them at the moment for reasons best left unexplained. Until later. I've already got ideas for what I want to work on next in my dye studio, but it's likely to be another couple of weeks before I can get back down to the basement--which means I may completely change my mind about what happens once I'm there!

A Finish! Scrapitude--or, as it's known in my house, ScrapiBonzaTude

It's finally totally, completely, without a doubt, done!

Scrapitude done and on my bed!

Scrapitude done and on my bed!

I had it quilted at Mt. Pleasant Quilting Company. I only asked for a pantograph (all over design) on this because to do anything else on a quilt this size would've been too expensive. I left it up to "quilter's choice" on the pattern and just ask for a thread that would blend. Here's a detail of the design. (The thread is a light beige.)

And finally, the lovely border fabric that pulled it all together. I think I already talked about finding this fabric in a previous blog post--it wasn't what I went looking for, but it just made the quilt sing! The motif speaks well to the shape of the star in the blocks, and it echoes many of the more prominent colors in the quilt. Love it.

Because of the motif, my borders are something like 9" wide. So the entire quilt came out to around 96" square--which was, as it turned out, just the size I needed to drape over our tall mattresses and reach to the top of the box spring with it's dust ruffle. I've never had a blanket or bed covering that did that on this bed. Woo! I hadn't planned that specifically when I chose the border, but boy, was it a nice outcome!

Because this quilt is so large, and because the border fabric is an Australian aboriginal fabric design (Stella Black by designer Cathy Turner), I pulled in my Head Australian Quilting Consultant, @ozzypip, and asked her for any Australian slang terms that meant "stinking huge." (Okay, I may not have included the word "stinking" in my query, but it was definitely in my head!) Philippa consulted with some of her compatriots and sent me a list of possibilities. Although she warned me that "Bonza" is older slang, I decided it was the one that worked best in this case. Hence, "ScrapiBonzaTude" was born!

And so, ScrapiBonzaTude is finally complete. Just in time, too. Yep, I'm already working on a secret mystery project scheduled for launch in early 2015... (and this message will self-destruct in five seconds...)

Craftsy Class Review--Creative Ways with Whole Grains

Craftsy Logo

I've finished watching the five lessons of the class "Creative Ways with Whole Grains," with Anna Bullett, executive chef at Cooking Light. I haven't done any of the recipes from the class (so I don't have any pics--sorry!) but certainly picked up a few tips for the next time I use quinoa or make a risotto. This is a freebie class so I figured I had nothing to lose and might pick up some healthy ideas along the way.

After the short introduction that assumes you don't know anything about Craftsy (that's why they offer these freebies, after all), there are four lessons that move from definitions and general information about whole grains, to pilafs and bakes, breakfast, and risotto.

I think I'm particularly intrigued by lesson four, which is using whole grains for breakfast. Beyond oatmeal, Bullett offers a few new ideas for some breakfast grains. Quinoa for breakfast? Definitely a thought! She cooks it in light coconut milk mixed with water, adds a bit of brown sugar and a little bit of salt. Throw some fruit on the top when it's done and you've got a healthy, filling breakfast with a tropical flare. I believe I'll be trying that out sometime in the next couple of weeks. She also talks about steel-cut oats in the slow-cooker--which I'm already a fan of! She suggests a tweak to my usual recipe, though, that I'm willing to give a shot--sounds tasty.

Anna is easy to watch, although I'd wish for just a little more of a natural feeling to her presentation. She's a good teacher, but it does feel a little overly scripted compared to some of the other food-related classes I've taken on Craftsy. Still, that doesn't take away from what you learn and...again...it's free!

So, if you're looking for a quick cooking lesson with some healthy new ideas, I'd definitely recommend this class. And...did I already mention...it's free?

The Basics:

  • Five lessons, from about 9 mins to 17 mins (absent the <1 min intro lesson).
    • Lesson 1: Intro to Craftsy
    • Lesson 2: About Whole Grains--great background information about what makes a whole grain a whole grain, what to look for on labels, why they're healthy, etc.
    • Lesson 3: Pilafs and Grain Bakes
    • Lesson 4: Whole Grains for Breakfast
    • Lesson 5: Whole-Grain Risotto

Again, that link is "Creative Ways with Whole Grains," with Anna Bullett. I'll post pics later on if I do the breakfast quinoa thing!

(Transparency statement: Clicking on Craftsy links or banners on this page helps support this podcast and blog. Thanks!)

Birthdays all around!

birthdaytreat.jpg

Happy birthday to Bubba Jr, @ltdermdvm's Golden who's turning 14 today! Sammy sends birthday greetings and had a piece of birthday Milkbone in his honor. (It's blurry because although he posed for me he was a bit impatient to get at that treat! Princess Doggie's hindquarters in the background show her wagging tail as she quickly downed her birthday Milkbone. She's highly suspicious of cameras as a rule--no posing for her.)

Meanwhile, it's Craftsy's birthday too! They're having a big sale this weekend, through Sunday, May 11th, ad midnight Mountain Time. The banner on the right sidebar will take you to the sale, or you can just click here. Selected classes are up to 50% off. Yeah, I'll probably be checking it out myself, sigh. (Usual transparency statement: using Craftsy links on this page helps support this blog and podcast. Thanks!)

And, what am I doing for Mother's Day? Also a birthday of sorts--after all, it's a couple of births that got me the name "mother," right? Well, the day itself is still a bit under construction. I'm waiting for the first-born to let us know what hours he's working so we can plan around him. Meanwhile, yesterday the second-born came home from college for the summer, and she brought her bad cold with her. She ignored my pleas to pack those cold germs in a box and leave them there. I'm just hoping that cold doesn't turn out to be her Mother's Day gift to me.

I'm still recovering from a couple of back-to-back busy weeks with work, but I'm awake enough today to be decently productive. I got groceries this morning. Woo. Better than I did last weekend!

icedye51014.jpg

I also got this in the works.

Indeed, it's about 70-something degrees outside and our lilacs are a few days away from blooming, and yet I'm still ice-dyeing. I can't help myself. This batch is using some color combos I've not done before, and the one in the center is my new Antique Gold dye, so I'm anxious to see how that plays with the ice--as well as how it works with the Old Rose dye I combined it with. The one in front is Fushchia, Grape, and Boysenberry, and the one in back is Teal, Intense Blue, and a little Black (629, I think, but might be 628, not sure which one I grabbed off the shelf). I've got some fat quarters in each as well as some clothing items. Should be a fun rinse-out in the morning!

Groceries. Check. Ice-dye prepped. Check. Chicken breasts in marinade for grilling tonight. Check. Shower. Check. Lunch. Check.

Hmmm. I think it's time for some Scrapitude binding!

A finish! Disappearing Pinwheel

Remember how this all got started?

Well, it's finally done! Drum roll please:

I had it longarmed at my LQS and, as usual, said "quilter's choice." I didn't have a strong opinion about what I wanted, so I let the experts decide. Here's a close-up of the design and thread they chose. (Sorry it didn't come out very clearly--my portable quilt hanger had problems holding the quilt still while I was doing the close-up. Should've just used a table at that point.)

 

I'd picked it up a from the LQS a couple of days before I left town but didn't get to it; I was still half asleep from my week of meetings when I tackled the binding this weekend. Fortunately, binding is the kind of thing I can accomplish without having to be overly awake. That being said, I'm quite pleased with how much I've progressed in my skills with doing binding entirely by machine. This one turned out the best yet! I just need to go in and tack down the diagonal seam on the mitered corners by hand to make it look clean. Maybe I should always wait until I'm in full-on zombie mode before I sit to do a machine binding...

April Craftsy Class Update (Delayed)

Since I was out of town sitting in meetings this past week while the calendar changed from April to May, I'm a few days late posting my monthly update on progress made in Craftsy classes. That actually fits. I haven't made much progress in Craftsy classes anyway, so not like I was rushing with huge reports or anything.

Online Quilting Class

To whit: I'm still working on Ann Petersen's Beyond Basic Machine Quilting. I've been trying for a few weeks now to piece together the background I'm going to use for the class project. I mean, really--one big center piece of fabric, slap on a couple of borders, one with cornerstones. I could have it whipped out in a couple of hours on a Saturday. I've just had problems finding a couple of hours when I was (1) not awash in other more urgent projects, (2) not busy doing other stuff, or (3) not sick or recovering from trips! Yiminies. April was a tough month. (May doesn't promise to be much better so my May Craftsy Class update might be equally slim.)

New Completions

  • I completed Carol Ann Waugh's Stupendous Stitching class in early April. See the blog post with my review and completed project here.
  • This was a quick turnaround one: One of the Craftsy emails this month advertised several new freebie classes available, and I bit. I picked up Creative Ways with Whole Grains with Anna Bullett, executive chef at Cooking Light, and finished watching it within two or three days, even cooked a whole grain for dinner one of those nights (though not using her recipe). I'll do a review in later blog post.

Classes in Progress

Current count: 2

  • Thread Art with Lola Jenkins--still in the "thinking about" stage, although I did buy some Prisma colored pencils with a 50% off coupon at Joanns last weekend to use on this project.
  • Beyond Basic Machine Quilting with Ann Petersen. 'Nuff said.

Classes added this month

1 freebie. But completed immediately (see Newly Finished section above).

Classes To Be Completed

Current count: 18

Completed Classes (all topics)

Current count: 22 (+2 from last month)

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A Finish-- "A Walk in the Woods"

As I talked about in my most recent couple of episodes (154 and 155), I had some homework to do for my design study group around "luminosity." Luminosity, if you're not familiar with it, is making it look like there's an internal source of light in your quilt, as if it's glowing. This is a tricky thing to achieve--it all has to do with value and placement of colors next to one another and such. Just having contrast doesn't necessarily equal luminosity. (This is one of my favorite examples of a quilt with luminosity.)

In any case, I saw this as an opportunity to use one of my favorite hand-dyed pieces from last summer. This is one of several that I refer to as my "tapestry hand-dyeds," because they're a half-yard of fabric, measuring roughly 18" by 42" or thereabouts, and turned out such that I don't see myself ever wanting to cut them into smaller pieces; therefore, I imagine them becoming backdrops for some sort of a long, rectangular, "tapestry-like" wallhanging.

And so, I introduce you to "A Walk in the Woods."

Walk in the Woods complete

Walk in the Woods complete

I wanted the hand-dyed fabric to be the stand-out here, so I kept my quilting and choice of thread more subtle. As it turned out, perhaps I went a little too subtle: When it's on the wall and you stand more than about five feet away, you almost can't see that it's been quilted at all. Oh well, I'm still quite pleased with the way it turned out.

Quilting in progress

Quilting in progress

The above was a picture I took of my quilting in progress. I'm still learning my FMQ and decided to just haul off and have at this one, trying to stay loose and happy while I was doing it. It actually turned out pretty well. A few places got a bit whonky, but again, can't see it from five feet away anyway!

Detail of bottom

Detail of bottom

Detail of quilting around the middle-ish

Detail of quilting around the middle-ish

Detail of quilting at top

Detail of quilting at top

I also did a little perspective, though not religiously so, on the leaves--the ones at the bottom are, for the most part, larger, and the ones at the top are, for the most part, smaller. I tried to make it all one continuous vine but I did end up having two different places, if I recall, that I had to end and start over somewhere else because I worked my way into a corner and would have had to backtrack over my own lines further than I really wanted to. But you can't see it, so let's let that be our own little secret, shall we?

Faced binding detail

Faced binding detail

This was the first time I did a faced binding. I like it. I want to do it again. And again. And maybe even again. Thanks to Susan Brubaker Knapp for her tutorial!

Oh, and I got all those purple scarves done.

(The ones on the bottom of the right-hand pile were my first three test scarves.)

Sprouting Purple Scarves

I may not have crocuses, but I've got me some scarves!

Purple is the signature color of my organization; consequently, I spend a lot of time dyeing things purple for work-related purposes. I'm doing some scarves that we'll be using for a special event coming up, so I started the process this weekend.

First things first: I have to decide, "Which purple?" I own three variants of purple dye. Two are new to me, the other I've used a few times but it behaves differently depending on the fabric. So this weekend I dyed three scarves, one of each purple, so I could compare to see which one comes closest to our signature color.

Left to right: Boysenberry (MX 802), Grape (MX 801), Reddish Purple (MX 804)

Left to right: Boysenberry (MX 802), Grape (MX 801), Reddish Purple (MX 804)

Reddish Purple (804)--on the far right--is the one I've been using for the last year. Unfortunately, when I mixed up my dye concentrates I realized I was nearly out of that one, so it's a more dilute version than the others. It would be more obviously red-purple if it were full strength. However, I think I like the Grape (801) well enough; it's the more blue-purple scarf in the center. After dropping a bundle at Lancaster I'm trying to hold off buying any more dye for awhile, so I'm going to hold off replacing that 804 and work with the 801 instead for the time being.

Boysenberry is dang pretty, but not even in the ballpark of signature so the scarf will find other uses. And I'll have fun using the color in future dye projects!

So, now that I know what color I'm going to use, the next decision I have to make is: How fancy do I want to get? Stay tuned...

 

Ice-Dyed Neutrals Report

I only had a little time for fabric arts this week, so I stuck a couple more half yards in an ice-dye bath with the neutrals again. I just love seeing how these colors break and mix and meld.

To begin with, though, this is the first time I've had snow dyes and ice dyes side-by-side (especially using the same dyes) so I can see the difference in results. They're both very nice, so it just depends on what you're looking for.

Here is my original snow-dye from last week (this may be a better picture than the one used for the original post because I was trying to conserve space due to the volume of photos!):

 

Snow-dye with nuetrals

Snow-dye with nuetrals

Other than the fold lines--sorry--you can see that the design and colors are more muted, more "swooshy" than crystalline. And because of the way I had manipulated the fabric and put the dye on, it ended up with a very nice gradation (not intentional, but a wonderful surprise!) The effect reminds me of photos from nebula in space and such.

And here are the two ice-dyeds using the same colors this week:

Ice-dye neutrals version 1

Ice-dye neutrals version 1

Ice-dyed neutrals version 2

Ice-dyed neutrals version 2

The first one I just sort of scrunched and mooshed up before putting the ice on; the second one I did a little more of a pleat, though not a strong one, and then circled it around a bit to get it to fit under the ice. That creates that sort of...ummm...spinal effect, if that's not too creepy a description.

The four colors used: Stormy Grey (MX 6160), Old Rose (MX 5220), Ecru (MX 5223), and Camel (MX 5181). (Names are Prochem.)

I have a friend who's already expressed interest in buying one of these though I'm waiting to confirm. I just have to figure out some details!

By the way, Craftsy is having a Spring Flash Sale this weekend--selected classes up to 50% off through midnight Mountain Time Sunday! (Using this link helps to support this podcast and blog--thanks!)

Talkin' 'bout some hand-dyes, oh yeah

Yes, indeedy, the mad quilt scientist (who even has her own hashtag, 'cause she's just that cool) has been busy in the basement again.

The stationary tub has been cured. Oh, my, but water slurping down a drain as it should is such a lovely sound.

To catch up on dye progress since my last post on the subject...get ready for a boatload of pictures! (Some of the pics are singles, others are galleries. The galleries are set to autoplay but also have controls so you can move through them at your own pace. If you're getting this by email and the galleries don't work, you may have to view it on the website.)

This time I re-did the pastel version of the gradations from the Frieda Anderson class in Lancaster (and her book). The Lancaster ones are on the right, the new ones are on the left.

Just as in the first gradations re-do, most are about the same but a couple of colors vary pretty significantly. And, just as in the first gradations re-do, there are oh so many possible reasons why.

I do think I didn't dilute my concentrate quite as much as we must have in Lancaster, since mine aren't quite as pastel-y. But I'm quite okay with that.

Still n' all, I like what I ended up with, so all's fair in the world of hand-dyeing.

 

Then I did a different kind of gradation--gradation all on one piece of fabric.

I'd taken a picture of these in their dye baths so you could see the before-n-afters, but can't find the picture now. Sorry about that. I did sort of a loose pleat on one and a scrunch on the other, folded them in the middle to get them to fit the container, and laid them lengthwise. Then I poured three different colored dyes on them in sections--one in the reverse order of the other. These were still the pastel (diluted) versions of the dye concentrates--turquoise, fuschia, and yellow, which is why they look a little washed out. They're half-yard lengths, if you're curious. Don't even ask what I'll do with these. No idea, but that's not really the point for me!

And here's a gallery of other random bits I dyed trying to use up the rest of this set of dye concentrates so I could move on. I included the picture of one in the dye bath--it's a great example of how some colors are quicker to move into available space than others. That turquoise, he's an aggressive little fella. "Me first! Me first!"

And there was evening and there was morning, the second day. (Well, okay, a few "second days" later.)

This past weekend, I finally got myself over to Lowes to ask if they had the equivalent of a remnant bin of PVC pipes. I only needed sections about 12" or so long, and didn't want to ask them to cut that length off several different widths. I was hoping they'd have a scrap bin or something. Some of you may already have your eyebrows raised. "Has this woman never bought PVC pipe before?" Nope. I've now learned that home stores routinely carry 2-foot lengths of certain widths to be used as couplings or whatever. I am now the proud owner of four PVC pipe tubes ranging in diameter from 1 1/2" to 4". Whee! I was finally ready to do some shibori!

Shibori has all sorts of facets to it (I own this book for future playing), but what most people are familiar with is wrapping fabric around a cylinder and either tying it tightly with string or using rubber bands. The wrapped fabric then gets shoved down to the bottom of the cylinder creating a number of folds. When it's dyed, the folds create visual texture.

I was using Mixing Red, Lemon Yellow, and Deep Navy Blue on this one. The navy blue is a new dye for me so I wasn't sure how it would behave. Turns out, it's just as aggressive, if not more so, than the turquoise.

Here's a photo of the shibori dye bath.

shibori.jpg

And that turned into these...

I did one with just the navy blue because I wanted sort of an indigo effect. However, due to it's aggressive nature, the blue paid very little attention to the resist of the rubber bands so the resulting shibori pattern is very subtle. I like it, but next time I'll dilute the dye more so perhaps it becomes a little more humble in its approach.

And then I went back to my ice-dyes. As I've mentioned before, ice-dyeing is the best way to break a compound color to see all the colors that go into making it. I decided to ice-dye my two black dyes (628 and 629) side-by-side to see if, by breaking down the colors, I could see a difference.

Here's 628.

Kind of fun to see all the blue, yellow, and a bit of red appear here and there!

And here's 629.

According to ProChem's website, 628 is more of a blue-ish black, and 629 has more of a green cast to it. They were described to me as one being a bit warmer and the other a bit cooler. I've yet to use either in a circumstance in which it seemed to make a difference, but I haven't really pushed the envelope yet either.

Going back in time a little bit: The weekend before last we had a spring snowstorm. Not altogether unusual around here, though the 11" in my backyard the next morning was pushing it, in my opinion. I decided to find the silver lining and did some snow dyeing.

Yummy. Love this one. I used Stormy Grey, Old Rose, Camel, and Ecru (ProChem names) because I thought these neutrals would break in interesting ways. I was right!

Next up, turquoise and fuschia. This one didn't have as interesting a result because (1) turquoise and fushchia are pure colors so nothing breaks and (2) they were the leftover pastel versions of the dye concentrates I'd mixed, and with the snow, they just became even more dilute. Still, pretty enough...

And, for the last bit of snow-dyeing, I went back to my standard favorite mix: teal and purple. I just can't stay away from these--different results every time but always gorgeous!

And the last little gallery--all the other bits I tossed into dye baths. Some more yellows since I'm working on "luminosity" for my design study group (although after this I found something else that's just PERFECT to use for that homework assignment...but I'll keep that under my hat until later); a tshirt of mine that had gotten stained so I tossed it into a dyebath of colors I had handy, not overly worrying about whether the color would work with the embroidery; and my first test run of wrist warmers. Which I love and have been wearing for the last two days, so I'll definitely be making more of those!


 

Just a quick note

With thanks to someone who left a (friendly but) anonymous comment on my blog pointing me in the direction of a website I'd not seen before, I've now been able to add a button in the right hand sidebar that allows you to convert any blog post to a printer-friendly PDF file. I've updated the recent post about Scrapitude accordingly. You'll also want to check out www.printfriendly.com. You can add it as a bookmarklet to your browser and convert most websites.

I love it when people let me know about things that make my life easier...

A Finish! Craftsy Class Review: Stupendous Stitching

I finally finished another Craftsy class, and this one has been a l-o-n-g time in process. I first started working on this sometime around January 2013, made a little progress, hit a stopper, and subsequently let it languish until sometime around mid-January of this year. That wasn't because it was difficult, or boring, or something I wasn't enjoying; it was pure "Dang, I can't finish this until I..." and then getting distracted before I completed the "until I..." portion.

But I'm done! Woot woot! And so, I can now officially post my review of...

Carol Ann Waugh's "Stupendous Stitching" class on Craftsy

I did have a whole lot of fun with this class!

Well, that is, I had fun once I finished this.

The first part of the class is making a "Stitch Bible." Carol Ann suggests starting out by creating a record of every stitch your machine can make. You start stitching each stitch in the default settings, then you make it wider, then longer. As she points out, some designs actually look like they're completely different stitches once you start monkeying with the settings. This was an extraordinarily helpful project--as she comments in this lesson, we probably have boatloads of stitches available to us on our machines that we've never used. Ahem. Yep. Now I've always got a quick reference. (And yes, they do look quite different stitched out for realsies than they do in the little diagram on my machine, so there's that, as well.) You can tell I didn't worry about having matching pages--I just used scrap fabrics and scrap threads so it's not a very pretty Stitch Bible. But I wasn't going for pretty. I was going for functional...and done.

Yes, this was the step that hitched me up and made this class take me over a year to finish. I made the first page or two, ran out of the stiff stabilizer I was using, and took about a year to get back to buying the supplies and creating myself enough pages to finish this. Over Christmas break this year, I got the remaining pages prepped so I could blast through and get the Stitch Bible complete. Boy, was that tedious work! Useful now that it's done, but mind-numbing to complete.

In this detail photo you can see the copious notes I took, ahem. Since I was generally using about the same settings every time, I didn't bother writing them down. It's enough for me to see the difference in stitch.

This was before I had an appropriately-sized grommet-maker. So I stabbed a hole in the corners with very sharp, pointy scissors. At that point, stabbing the pages over and over again with a sharp object was a bit therapeutic. This really was a tedious endeavor.

Ah, but once it was done, on to the fun stuff!

Carol Ann spends an entire lesson on how to choose a background for the Stupendous Stitching project. She does a great job showing choices that would work well and others that wouldn't work so well, and explaining why. It took me some deliberating to settle on which of my hand-dyes would work best for the actual class project. I needed something interesting, but not too busy.

This was the winner. I thought the sort of circular "blasts" of color might give me some design inspiration as I went. (It looks a little more vibrant/busy in this photo than in real life. I think you'll see that better in the finished reveal.)

The first step is couching. You couch a few lines on the project that sort of lay the foundation for everything that comes next. I ended up buying a special couching (piping) foot as the foot my machine came with didn't have a deep enough groove for the couching I was doing. This is the "Pearls and Piping" foot--I believe it's the one Carol Ann recommends in the class. I love it. It's a great foot. The one trick is remembering to move the little plastic piece that sits on the bar where it latches onto the shank--that little plastic piece adjusts the placement of the foot in relationship to your needle, which changes where the needle hits in relationship to what you're couching. Got it? This caught me up a couple of times--I'd get started and take a few stitches, then realize I'd not adjusted the little plastic piece. Still n' all, a great foot.

I had a blast using some great sari ribbons and sari yarns--ribbons/yarns created from scraps of old Indian saris. Beautiful stuff, bought a couple of packages of them two or three years ago, never knew how to use them. Wow, did I have fun! Well, except that the sari ribbons had a lot of fraying along the edges that eventually caused a bit of a mangled rats nest under the needle.

I call shenanigans.

Fortunately, nothing broke, and after 10 minutes with a very sharp pair of snips, tweezers, and a quick vacuum with my mini-attachments, we were back in business.

I used three large sari ribbon pieces and one narrower sari yarn. They added great color and texture, but the three ribbon pieces were a bit visually overwhelming. I sent @knittyAJ (AJ of The Quilting Pot podcast and I Knit N Quilt 2 blog) a quick email, since she'd done this class last year at the same time I started, to get her suggestion. She suggested I get over myself. Well, okay, she said it a whole lot nicer than that and it was one of the options I'd said I was considering in the first place, so I agreed. Thanks for the "call a friend" lifeline, AJ! Very helpful. I decided to leave it until much further in the process to see if doing everything else would soften the impact.

The next step is using your decorative stitches. Here I got to play with a whole lot of gorgeous threads I've collected over the years and, again, never really knew what to do with. (This was just what I started with--I added a lot more later!)

You do more lines with decorative stitches, and then you do some hand-stitching as well.

I had a whole lot of fun trying out some new stitches and getting ideas from the Creative Stitching book by Sue Spargo that I reviewed on a podcast episode awhile back. I got pretty good at French knots and lazy daisies, although my daisies were a bit hodge-podgey in size and petal direction. I choose to call it whimsical and move on.

Here's another example of my couching and some hand stitching.

In this one, you can see my ultimate solution for those overwhelming sari ribbons. When I was doing my hand-stitching, I decided I could try hand-couching them down and seeing what happened. I liked it! Nothing had to get ripped out, and now they're all interesting texture without taking over the piece.

(The hand-couched ribbon is on the left. The thicker couching on the right was sari yarn machine-couched. Hand-stitched lazy-daisies, hand-stitched threaded chain on far right.)

And some more detail of decorative stitches, hand-stitching, and couching.

You can see how much fun it is to just cut loose and say, "What can I try to do next??"





By the way, when you take this class (and you know you will!) pay attention when she says to stop the hand stitching a fair amount inside the edge. I didn't. Oops. I cut through some of my knots when I trimmed up the edge and had to go back to hand-tack a couple of my hand-stitching ends back down. Glue may have been involved.

You can also see in this picture the rat-tail binding technique she shows--a new technique for me! I had a little trouble with it here and there because I was using a braided cord that frayed like the dickens when I cut the end, and I also had very thick couching pieces that my zig-zag had to wrestle its way over. I used my Pearls n' Piping foot again for this step and it worked much better than my regular presser foot. Still, I couched over it twice to be sure, and then had to shave off some frayed ends with my snips. It's a nifty technique, though.

So here's all the fun stuff I played with through this process in one shot.

Pretty threads from a variety of sources, hand-dyed perle cotton from Laura Wasilowski's Artfabrik shop (bought in Houston a few years back), sari ribbons and yarns from Meinke Toy (check out their "toy boxes").

And, of course, my hand-dyes. (Also a hand-dyed on the back but there's a reason that hand-dyed piece ended up as backing. It's not exciting enough for a picture, but it's similar colors to the front.)

And here's the final reveal:

 

Sure, there's some things I'd approach differently if I were to do this again. I enjoyed it, though, and I did learn a lot about my machine, using different materials, and hand-embroidery. I can easily see myself using the techniques I learned from this in other projects, or creating "stupendous stitching fabric" for other uses, as Carol Ann Waugh shows in the final lesson (see "Basics" below). And I could imagine doing a few 9" or 12" blocks with this technique, set into a wall quilt with other blocks. That could be cool. I could see adding beadwork, or including needle felting....Lots of possibilities here!

So, if you're in the mood to play, to use a lot of intriguing materials and methods, and just be foot loose and fancy free for awhile (her mantra through the class is "there are no mistakes!"), this is exactly what the quilt doctor ordered. I do recommend this class. Once that dang Stitch Bible was out of the way, it was just a-whole-lotta-rockin' fun!

Again, that's "Stupendous Stitching" by Carol Ann Waugh. You won't be sorry.

The Basics:

  • 11 lessons, ranging from 5 minutes (the last lesson) to about 30 minutes.
  • After the introduction, the first lesson is a very helpful overview of the kinds of materials you could use; then the next lesson talks about the Stitch Bible. The following lessons then take you step by step through the process, with a ton of helpful tips along the way.
  • Last lesson is about five minutes of ideas for other ways you can use Stupendous Stitching techniques--pillows, purses, shoes, tablet covers, and the like.
  • The downloadable materials were great reference, and one, the "No Mistakes Poster," is worth sticking on the wall in your quilt studio!

(Transparency statement: using the Craftsy links on this blog help support this blog and podcast. Thanks!)

 

 

Happy Fourth Podcastaversary! And There's Presents! (Giveaway)

(If you've already read this blog, note that the Craftsy class giveaway information has been updated!)

This is the closest I can get to sharing a cake with y'all, but I can give you presents!

Following quickly on the heels of the 2014 Quilty Resolutions First Quarter Check-in Giveaway and Linky Party that just ended at midnight last night (I'll announce the winner on my podcast episode this afternoon), it's time to celebrate my fourth podcastaversary with a HUGE giveaway!

With thanks to sponsors the Fat Quarter Shop and Craftsy, I have two big prizes to give away!

You could win...

... a $30 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop!

Start dreaming now. What wonderful, beautiful, funky, pet-able fabric could you buy from the Fat Quarter Shop for $30? Wheeee!

To enter this giveaway, use this Rafflecopter widget to enter.

 

But wait...there's more!

You could win...

One Craftsy Class, Winner's Choice, for Free!

(Please note: updated information!) The winner will be able to choose which Craftsy class s/he wins!

To enter this giveaway, just click here.

If you're already registered for Craftsy, you'll just log into your account; if you're not already on Craftsy, you'll be prompted to create a Craftsy account (for free). Once you do so, you'll be entered into the giveaway! Craftsy will choose the winner using Random.org. Craftsy will let me know who the winner is and Craftsy will email the free class link to the winner.

I posted my first episode of Quilting...for the Rest of Us on March 28, 2010. It's been four great years of making new friends, learning a lot of new skills, and (of course) messing up a few times along the way. But I've had fun, and I'm looking forward to the next...however many...years! So come in, have a seat or hang out by the kitchen island like most of my guests do, and join me in my celebration, won't you?

Spring Postcard Swap and A Tutorial

(Looking for the 2014 Quilty Resolutions Check-in Giveaway and Linky Party? It ends at midnight Saturday! Click here. Meanwhile...)

Kati and I both got one another's postcards, so I can now do "the big reveal" blog post!

Kati of Kati's Quilting and Sewing (and one of my #twilter peeps!) and I were partnered up by Sandi of Quilt Cabana Patterns for Sandi's Spring Postcard Swap. I love doing these postcards! It's a great, bite-sized way to try out new techniques, play with design principles or color combinations, and just all around have a good time.

Here's the postcard Kati sent me--a much-needed glimpse of spring while it was still snowing outside (despite the calendar).

It's wonderful! I love the colors she used, the shape of the tulips and the leaves, and the stitching designs. I especially like how the leaves look like they're jumping right up off the postcard. They're so happy!

Thanks so much, Kati! It's still sitting on my desk, reminding me that yes, spring WILL come eventually!

And here's the postcard I sent Kati.

I was double-dipping and used the postcard as homework for my design study group. We were supposed to do something using a triadic color scheme, so I chose purple, orange, and green. I made the "binding" by fusing narrow strips of one of my hand-dyed fabrics down, intentionally cutting it so I'd get the gradation of color along the edges.

I would've been happier if I'd used a brighter white background, I think. The cream color sort of tones everything down more than I'd like. Overall, though, I was pleased with the results. I mailed it in an envelope, though, as I wasn't sure the thread fabric would survive if I didn't!

Here's a detail shot--I was trying to catch the light so you could see the sparkles in the orange center. That's caused by the Angelina fibers I included in the thread fabric.

You can also sort of see that I did a running stitch a little in from the edge of the thread fabrics to tack it down securely but allow for some fringing on the outside all the way around.

I got to play with a couple of techniques on this.

The background and leaves were basically crumb blocks I made using random pieces of fabric--no foundation. I just started stitching stuff together until I made something big enough that I could then use to cut my shapes/background from. It's an age-old method, though I used Victoria Findlay Wolfe's 15 Minutes of Play book for inspiration. I've not done it before, though, so it was fun to mess with!

The petals and center are made from "fabric" I created using thread and water-soluble stabilizer. I did this technique once a year or more ago as a test project. This time, I wanted to see what would happen if I created a larger piece to cut into shapes. It worked great, though you need to use it for something you really want fuzzy edges on.

I've showed this to a couple of people and they wanted to learn how to do it, so I'm including a tutorial here. I didn't make this up myself, but have seen the technique in so many places now I honestly can't remember where I saw it first, and I just do it off the top of my head with no reference to specific instructions anywhere. So don't give me credit for the technique...just for this particular explanation of it!

I didn't remember to take pictures of each step, so I've added the pictures I did remember to take here and there; sometimes they relate to the step, sometimes they're just so you can see a little detail here and there. I'm also posting them slightly higher res than usual so you may be able to click in closer to see the detail of the thread fabric.

Thread Fabric Tutorial

To do this, you need:

  • Water soluble stabilizer. There are several options for this type of stabilizer; yours may not look like mine as mine's quite old at this point (Sulky brand, inherited from Mom, probably at least 5-7 years old or more). You just need a stabilizer that dissolves in water, regardless of brand or appearance.
  • An embroidery hoop that will easily fit within the throat space of your sewing machine, and is narrow enough to be able to fit under the presser foot. (Mine's an 8" diameter plastic cheapo-model; works great for this!)
  • Thread in the color of your choice to use for anchoring everything down (variegated is very nice; type of thread doesn't really matter much--whatever works best for you in free motion quilting);
  • Scraps of yarn, funky thread, cording, tiny scraps of fabric, Angelina fibers, or other textiles to create the fabric. Avoid anything too nubby as it might rip the stabilizer while you're working.
  • A bowl of water or a sink, and a drop or two of fabric softener (optional)

A note about color choice: Use whatever you want--the funkier the better! Make sure you've got at least some color variation for interest, but also keep in mind that the more you stitch, the more the colors of textiles will get blended into your stitching thread. On my orange piece, I went back in with a different variegated thread at the end because it had blended too much and didn't have quite enough color variation for my taste. That's the beauty of this technique, though--you can keep stitching away until you're happy with the results!

The Play-by-Play

1. Cut two pieces of water soluble stabilizer approximately the same size, a few inches larger than you want your finished piece to be.

2. Lay one piece inside one half of your embroidery hoop. (It's easier to do this now than move it into the hoop later when it's covered in scraps!) Make sure enough extends outside the hoop that it holds firm when the hoop is assembled. Press the stabilizer down so it's sitting on the table surface, and squish the sides over the sides of the hoop as much as possible--the less the scraps get shaken around later when you put the hoop together, the better.

3. Randomly spread your scraps of textiles, fibers, and so forth, on the stabilizer within the space of the embroidery hoop. Be sure to leave enough margin around the edge that you'll be able to get your sewing machine presser foot as far to the edges of your scrap pile as possible. You can pile scraps on top of each other, but try to keep the level of the pile fairly even all the way across. The thicker/more evenly spread your pile, the more opaque your thread fabric will be; a looser, more spread out pile will give a lacier effect. You don't have to be exact about it, but it helps in the stitching if things are pretty even. Higher spots can catch the presser foot and cause problems. If you have a longer length of yarn, loop it around on itself a bit to create interesting designs. Adding some Angelina fibers can create fun sparkle. Cut loose and play with what you can throw in there!

4. When you're satisfied with your collection, lay the other piece of stabilizer on top of it and secure it in the embroidery hoop. Note: Have it so that the stabilizer lays flat on the surface when it's in the hoop, not raised from the surface. In other words, it should be the reverse of what you'd normally do if you were embroidering by hand. Does that make sense? (You should be able to see that in the picture here.)

5. Now comes the really fun part! With a great thread in your machine, and your machine set up for free motion quilting, slide that puppy under your needle and go to town! Stipple, loop-de-loop, jiggidy-jaggedy...just make sure you've stitched enough to secure all those little bits and scraps down. As mentioned above in the "piling your thread" section, stitching more densely makes a more opaque thread fabric, stitching more spaced apart makes a lacier effect. Just make sure you stitch enough that the fabric actually holds together when the stabilizer is removed.

What's even better? Tension doesn't matter! If you see skipped stitches or "eyelashes" on the back, who cares? You're creating fabric! Thread nests can be easily disguised simply by stitching over them again--they become part of the texture of the fabric. (Ahem. Ask me how I know.)

The only problem that can occur in this step is if your stabilizer tears apart while you're stitching. (Again. Ahem. I know these things because....) This can happen if your pile is uneven or you have a textile that's too nubby, as mentioned above. Dull needles may also cause it. Small rips--just back up, and stitch over it to make sure the thread fabric is intact. Big rips, carefully dismantle the hoop and lay a third piece of stabilizer over the top, then start stitching again.

6. When you're happy with where you're at, take a deep breath, grin, then pop that sucker out of the embroidery hoop. If you want to avoid too much extra goop having to dissolve, you can trim off any excess stabilizer as I did in the picture here, but it's not necessary. Soak your thread fabric in a bowl of warm water to dissolve the stabilizer, or follow the directions on the package. I found it helpful to soak it for awhile, then rinse it under running water and rub it gently in my fingers, and then soak it again. I think I did this maybe three times over the course of a couple of TV shows that evening. In the last soak, I added a couple of drops of fabric softener--it helps release the last of the stabilizer and make a more pliable thread fabric.

I don't know exactly how long it takes to dry, since it was a full day before I had time to get back to it again, but I'd allow a few hours to be on the safe side. You can always hit it with a blow dryer as well, depending on what fibers you used.

Use good fabric scissors to cut it into shapes if desired. In fact, if you can, try to use really, really good applique scissors--the kind with the little grippy teeth work great to slice right through the variety of textiles without shredding. Again, I just used a straight-stitch about 1/8" in from the edge all around to stitch mine down, but you can attach it by hand, or tacking it in a few places--all depends on the effect you want in the end.

This is a super-super fun technique. I've gotten in the habit of saving all the raveled threads off the edges of my newly-washed hand-dyes for future use as thread fabric!

So, gonna try it? Huh? Huh?

 

March Update on Craftsy Class Progress

(If you're looking for the 2014 Quilty Resolutions Check-in Giveaway and Linky Party, click here.)

Dang, but I've got too many blog posts all backing up on each other right now! It's apparently either drought or downpour around here in terms of my blogging. Or, perhaps I should say, "blizzard or spring," which is far more apropos of the climate out my window.

In any case, it's pretty much time for the monthly update on my 2014 Quilty Resolutions goal of completing as many of my Craftsy classes as possible. I'm posting this now rather than waiting until the 31st because I have a lot of other stuff to get done this weekend--probably not including a Craftsy class, unfortunately.

I feel like I've had a lot of forward motion this month, but no actual completions. I'm re-ordering how I normally present these lists so that most recent stuff is on top.

By the way, before I get started, you may want to note that Craftsy is currently having a big sale on fabric and yarn right now, through Friday at midnight. Click on the banner on the right  of this page to take you directly to the sale, though you can use any Craftsy link on this page and find the sale info once you're there.

Classes in Progress

Current count: 3

  • Stupendous Stitching with Carol Ann Waugh--so dang close to done! In fact, so close that you might be getting another blog post in a couple of days with a finish. I debated going ahead and counting it as done anyway, but in the name of truly holding myself accountable, I can't quite bring myself to do that.
  • Thread Art with Lola Jenkins--I haven't actually done a whole lot on this yet other than watching all the lessons awhile back and choosing what image I'm going to use, although I've had some further thoughts in the last couple of weeks about things I might do on the project. So, if "thinking about it" counts as progress...
  • Beyond Basic Machine Quilting with Ann Petersen--still waffling between using some of my hand-dyes to make the basic wholecloth quilt project as she describes for this class, versus just pulling her designs and using them on a UFO. Her class designs might work well on my Rapid Fire Hunter's Star that's still waiting to be quilted, but I also think her class project would look great done with my hand-dyes. Waffle...waffle....

Classes added this month

Dang it. 1. I blame @nonnie_p.

  • Design It, Quilt It: Freeform Quilting Techniques with Cindy Needham. Nonnie was tweeting away one afternoon a few weeks back about how much she loved Cindy Needham's classes and how much they'd helped her and gee, wasn't it great that her classes were on sale... "Dang you, Nonnie!" {shaking fist in air over head}

Completed Classes (all topics)

Current count: 20 (+0 from last month, but see comments about a near-completion above!)

Classes To Be Completed

Current count: 17 (will change to 18 when I add my new class to this list...)

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