New Quilt

Earlier this summer I dyed fabrics in 2 diferent color runs, blue/violet and yellow/green. I used various combinations of blue - sky blue, cobalt, electric blue and grape, reds - chinese red, light red, fire red, and fushia, yellow - lemon yellow and golden yellow, and black to get a large variety of hues and values of each color.

These fabrics were sewn to create a pieced background. The blocks were arranged to form a light source coming from the top left down to the bottom right. To me piecing the background gives more subtlty of the value changes.

The focus of the quilt is an old stone smoke house. Pictures were taken and enlarged for my pattern.

I want the house to look very dimensional and have been making samples of different tehniques to get this effect.

Return for the results.

Weeping Cherry Tree Quilt

My neighbor has a beautiful weeping cherry tree in the corner of her yard. Springtime, its pink blossoms cover the branches; summer, the leaves are lush; fall, the leaves are golden and orange; and winter shows the skeleton of the tree. Pictures were taken each season, fabrics dyed, discharged, overdyed, painted, stenciled and stamped. I had the makings for a quilt. I started with the pictures and photo enhanced the colors, cropped and used filters to get pictures from each season. I printed them on cotton lawn fabric. These were fused onto background fabrics with curvy edges.

I pieced background squares using a crazy patch design and sewed them together with the photo picture pieces.

Something was wrong. It wasn't coming out like the picture in my mind. I looked at it for days and couldn't come up with a solution. It was driving me crazy, time to step back and work on something else.

The quilt top hung on my design wall for a while, I needed some input. Two of my quilting friends, Martha and Eda critiqued the quilt for me. Using their comments, I went back into the piece. The large spring photo I made brighter since this was the focal point. The pieced background was too chaotic and distracting, so I toned it down with gesso. I then stamped leaves over it to take away some of the brightness of the pinks and reds.

This was better but I still was not overjoyed with it. I should have just given up. But, I had put a lot of work into it, so it was getting quilted. I stitched in the ditch around the pictures and meander quilted with dark green thread in the background. Because of the gesso painted on the background, the stitching is not good. I couldn't keep a good tension and sometimes it would skip stitches or the thread would break. The pictures needed quilting to keep the density of the quilting even. For these I used the braches as a guide.

Below is the final quilt.

Even though this quilt wasn't a success, I learned from it.

1. Not to use a busy background, the color values were too varied in each block.

2. Make sure my pictures are clear without distracting elements in the background.

3. Stitch first then paint on gesso. The gesso makes the fabrics stiff which makes quilting irregular.

Finished hosta quilt

I've been working on the machine quilting of my hosta quilt. I quilted in veins on each of the leaves in 100 weight silk threads to match each of the leaves. Here's a detailed picture of a couple of the leaves.

I did a stipple stitch on the pieced background.

Next, I did a curvy in and out design for the mulch.

I finished the edges with a facing. Directions are on Grace Knowles blog http://www.barnyardchatter.wordpress.com/

I've said this before, her directions are precise and clear, and the results are great.

Here's a picture of the finished quilt.

New Work in Progress

I started working on a hosta plant quilt. I started by taking a photo and enlarging it.

I trace over the key elements then posterize it on the computer.

I use this enlarged picture to trace onto freezer paper for my templates. I used my hand-dyed fabrics for the the leaves. I painted starch onto seam allowances and pressed back onto the freezer paper. Then, removing the paper, I appliqued the units together with invisible thread and blind-hem stitch onto stabilizer.

The right half

and the left half.

The pieced background for the hosta was a rail fence block irregularly cut.

I added a piece of fabric to the bottom for the mulch. I like to do a pieced background to add extra interest.

Then I added the hosta to the background and blind-hem stitched it to the background.

Needless to say, this was not done in one day. It took over a week working on it daily. Decisions on how to machine quilt need to be made. I'll have to give this some thought.

Will keep you informed on my progress.

Just Started Blogging

I have fin--ally decided to blog. Hopt to keep your interest in how I work with photos and techniques.

I just got a letter in the mail from Studio Channel Islands Art Center in Camarillo, California that I've been accepted into their show. I'm soooo excited!!! This is my first time exhibiting in an Art Center. Before sending the quilt out, here is a picture and close up of the quilt "Hall's Pond".

I used various hand-dyed fabrics of my own to make the stones and reeds and fused them onto the pieced background of commerical batiks. Raw-edged applique was used as a quilting design. The piece is 12" X 12".