Monofilament...Love it or ??

I suppose the jury is still out on this discussion, at least for me.

A couple of months ago I was fortunate enough to take a class from David Taylor. I'm sure if you've seen his work you'd recognize the name (or the other way around...). He's an amazing quilter with such artistic sense, and the way he pulls his works of art together are through machine applique using monofilament as a top thread. Makes sense, as the monofilament pretty much can not be seen (both figuratevely and literally). His technique is really quite simple and I have started to embrace it quite a little bit. I almost didn't even take the class once I saw that it was machine applique, but I tried the class anyway, thinking, "I can always stand to learn something new". I did learn something new and am quite glad I took the class. But, that darned monofilament...

To call it a thread may be a stretch. Ha! That's humorous in its own right as that monofilament has quite the stretchy quality to it. I think I like the idea of using it...I think my machine tends to think otherwise. It likes to twist and get tangled and get stuck and then it messes with the tension, so while I'm sewing, I have to constantly watch what the top thread is doing as it's threaded through the machine while also watching where my stitching is going (I think I need more eyes to watch everything)... 

Practice, though, over and over, and listening to my machine, I'm starting to "hear" when the monofilament is tangled and know it's time to stop sewing and give the monfilament some attention (as it's clearly begging for some), and then I can go back to sewing. Thank goodness that machine applique isn't a "sew at the speed of light" kind of activity.

In the end, using the monofilament for machine applique does produce rewards, and like a game of golf, keeps you coming back for more. You make that one cool looking applique item (or golf shot), that you figure, "I've got this", even though you know there's a frustrating part coming (a bad shot, or in the case of monofilament, a tangled mess). You just have to keep on keepin' on, though... As I worked through the tangled messes, I have managed to create a cool rendition of the Earth, using David's technique and the spool of monofilament I received in the class. The creative fun with the technique just opens up another door of design, and I think I'll continue to explore the fun it can produce. My Earth has overlapping colors which help create a transparent nature, along with a large leaf to just change up the shapes and bring in another interesting component that's "Earth-like".

Close up, you can see some of where the stitching got more prominent that I'd like...but...I think it still works...

Despite the frustrations some of our materials provide, sometimes perseverance and practice will pay off. My current piece is for a musically-inspired quilt challenge, so I'm trying to see if I can get my piece put together for our show in October.

Here's my contemporary rendition of the Earth.  I think it's kind of cool with the overlapping, transparent circles. 

Have fun embracing new techniques as you might find yourself pleasantly surprised. As with most things, you just have to figure out how to work with the different technique personalities.

Cheers!

Linking up with Nina Marie @ Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

...and Free Motion Mavericks today. 

Welcome Back! It has been a while...

 

STARDATE:  -299063.82 (or December 8, 2023)

Well, greetings from a long-dormant blog.  Life got crazy starting in 2020 and while folks found themselves in a myriad of unknown situations, life for me somewhat stayed on course as my job kept me monumentally busy (along with life events) and I lost any time really to post to a blog.  I wanted to; thought I’d have all kinds of time, working from home, but this darned software implementation has been a buggar.  Going on three years now, it’s still not implemented.  But, I finally decided, it’s time to stop focusing on that and start getting back (at least a little bit) to those things that I enjoy and love.

So, after plowing through making a large quilt for the annual Guild auction, I am finally finding some time to refocus on some projects (okay, call them “UFO’s”), so I’m happy about that. The Guild also had a challenge to make 12” art quilts depicting one of the seasons.  I worked through many ideas, but ran aground due to time.  In a creative burst, though, I did manage to pull together a couple of small quilts and here’s a couple shots of what I created.

One depicting a cold winter’s walk through the trees during an early sunrise... 

"A Winter's Walk" depicts a winter sunrise in Colorado.  Due to time changes, we actually get to see the sunrise on the way to work, and they're often stunning and deep rich in color.

My first real attempt at "thread painting"

And one depicting fall in all its glory as the Ash trees turn fabulous shades of red, yellow, purple, and still hang on to some green.  The sun and sky shine through, and I attempted to capture that feeling...

It's supposed to hang diagonally so the tree is straight up and down...

Fall was created by piecing the tree and its background together, then cutting roughly ¾” squares of different batiks to make the leaves.  I tried to leave some of the blue and yellow sky shining through to convey the feeling that the sun and blue sky were peeking through all the colored leaves.  That’s what these massive Ash Trees look like in the fall – at least in my mind.  I put netting over the whole thing and quilted through the netting. 

Winter was created by just free-piecing scraps of fabric together.  I somewhat designed this in the spirit of Bob Ross (you know, the “Joy of Painting” painter??!)…he always does the beautiful winterscapes with the sun shining through the winter sky haze.  I think I should have started with the dark sun in the center and moved to light as I went outward, but I kind of like the interpretation that just, well, “happened”.  The distant trees are gray while the closer trees are dark, navy blue.  Then, I attempted to do some thread painting on the trees to try to “shape” them into the round-ish beings they wanted to be. 

Meanwhile, I’m working on pulling old items out of the “I’ll get to it” bin, and actually…well….get to it.  I’ve readied one quilt for actual quilting.  The quilt is one I was working on when my pup passed away…so, it’s been 5 years or so that the quilt has been waiting to get completed. So, hopefully over the next few months, I can make some progress.

 

Cheers & Happy Quilting!

The Turtle Wins the Race, Right, Rabbit?

While working out this morning I found myself listening to one of the TED Radio hour podcasts from NPR.  Odd topic it was – “Slow”.   The subject focused around appreciating that sometimes, things move slowly for a reason, and that high-tech may not be the ultimate savior of everything; that slow is sometimes the best, most effective approach to a problem or issue. 

Then, as I was looking through a few blogs, it kind of hit me – I am a “slow” quilter.  But, I like that.  I’ve never been one to only want to sew in a straight line – I like curves, I like hand piecing, and I like taking my time to enjoy the process of making the quilt – top to bottom, back to front.  I think that’s why I can easily get frustrated with new patterns and "new" ideas – because some of those are aimed purely at the notion of how fast can we churn out a quilt and move on to the next.  I'm not the rabbit, I guess, and want to enjoy the process of making and composing a quilt - and making it my own.

I see this notion of "slow" relating in one of my latest endeavors – make this quilt that uses 3 ½” blocks – little pieced star blocks.  And, oh yeah, it’ll take 256 (yes, that’s 2-5-6) of them.  But, that’s just the start.  In addition, it takes numerous additionally-cut 3 ½” squares.  What am I?  Nuts for taking on this project?  Yeah, probably so.  But having to make 3 ½” hunter’s stars was a challenge for me.  I normally like to work with big, bold patterns and this one is small (small!).  But, last weekend, I accomplished (crossed the finish line) what I thought would take a lifetime – over 256 little, 3 ½” hunters stars completed. I think this actually took me about 2 years, working off and on.  I admit, I must have gotten overzealous when cutting the last star pieces (probably because I saw the light at the end of the tunnel), and cut a few too many.  Oh well – completed as they are, I’ll use them somewhere. 

Here's the quilt I'm patterning from.  Lots of squares.  But, for me, that's dull, so I'm mixing up the colored squares and free-piecing scraps to add more interest.

So, out of a fabric I bought on-line – and it looked really neat on line, but when I got it, I kind of hated it and set it aside – I now have 256+ star blocks that I smile at every time I look at them.  Funny, when something is cut into little pieces and sewn in a different configuration, something once icky becomes enjoyable.  Lesson learned:  don’t discount those fabrics you don’t like:  cut them up and you may find they take on a new life.  

The original fabric, being cut into 1 1/4" strips to make the stars.  I didn't like this so much to begin with, but cut apart and paired with the white star, I really like the effect.

So, here’s what 256 star blocks look like. 

Staging for keeping track of all the pieces I needed for each star. A block of Styrofoam comes in handy.  

Close up of the 3 1/2" stars.  I liked some of the printing on the edge of the fabric, that I included in the stars.  Gives some clues as to what fabric was used.

And, to complicate the quilt further – instead of cutting all those additional 3 ½” squares to put the block together, I decided to modernize and retro it at the same time by creating the pieces I need out of scraps sewn in wonky ways.  I rather like this treatment as it adds more interest to the quilt.  If I have a path to choose  - one easy and one hard – I’m pretty much taking the “hard way home”.  I’ll get there; it will be slow.  But I enjoy this process and enjoy the excitement that free-sewing can provide.  It’s a bit of freedom that comes along with the process – it’s challenging and fun at the same time. 

This is the finished block.  Each block will look slightly different as I free-piece the colored side of the block.  I'm doing this instead of cutting all those 3 1/2" squares.  I like the effect more as it provides much more interest (at least it does for me).

This the back of the block.  Just for fun.

Have fun in what you enjoy doing.  I think it frees your mind to be even more creative. Linking up with friends this week, after being gone for a while... 

Happy Quilting!

Observations and Musings While Creating

What an interesting several days it has been.  Like other states in the West, Colorado is suffering from wildfires and one of the worst droughts we’ve had since 2012.  I know that sounds like nothing to folks from California who have things much worse than us in Colorado.  Still, the days feel weird because we’re getting all the smoke (and ash) from the wildfires, even though we’re many miles away from them.  The days are unusually hazy, ozone alerts are in effect, you can feel the burning in your lungs and eyes, the sunrises and sunsets are highly colored red, there’s an odd reddish/orange glow to the natural light, and a distinct smoke smell fills the air.  Hot and dry.  I’ve hoped for rain for some time now, but it generally seems to pass us by.  When we do get any, it gets gobbled up by the earth so quickly you can’t even tell it rained.  I’m hoping weather patterns will shift…and soon. In the meantime, I try to appreciate the flame red glow of the circular sun as it sets in the evening.  You can look straight at it and not bother your eyes because the smoke is so heavy; it feels almost like the light of an eclipse.

There is beauty, even in this smokey haze.  And, I guess maybe it teaches us to appreciate different things – or to just learn to develop an appreciation for what comes your way, knowing that, eventually, this too will pass and things will get back into some level of balance.  That’s how I view the pandemic, too, I guess.  There’s a reason for it – the reason, though, hasn’t made itself known. Maybe the reason is within ourselves to learn to develop appreciation for simple things – or get us to start invoking our creativity.  I get a post from one of our local eateries that we frequent – the owner writes the posts himself and ponders a lot of the things going on today.  I find his posts interesting as he and his crew work tirelessly to stay in business – and stay sane, themselves, through all of this, and how they invoke their creativity to stay afloat.

The quilt guild I’m a member of started a “jelly roll” challenge as a fundraiser for the year, since most of the general fundraising activities were curtailed, because, well, you know…  The challenge was to make a quilt using a jelly roll (or 2 ½” strips you cut from your stash).  I decided to invoke my creativity and create something that is made with a jelly roll, not exclusively, but in part, because I wanted to try to create something different. I invoked my creative inspiration (as I often do – being inspired by the likes of Ruth B. McDowell, and others) and drew up a leaf, standing tall.  I knew, when I drew up the pattern, I wanted to use red as the background (I’m not sure why, I just did), and I wanted the leaf to be a prominent strong point – BOLD – in color and stature. So, here’s where my creativity landed me for the last couple of weeks. 

The start of figuring out what fabrics to use...and cutting apart the pattern...

I’m now piecing the “piece” and hoping I can get it completed in time for the fundraiser.  I’m slow in starting, but sometimes seem to work better under pressure of a deadline.  The leaf is made from jelly roll strips – those 2 ½” wide strips that normally I don’t use.  I buy yardage (grunt, grunt), not precut items (we all have our preferences!).  So it was a bit of a challenge for me to figure out how to use 2 ½” strips instead of whole pieces (I may have cheated but they never said the WHOLE quilt had to be made with the strips… Yikes…maybe a technicality…).  I wound up sewing strips together, then cutting out the shapes I needed, which helped create the leaf structure itself, even if in an abstract way.  The piece is about 20” square, so hopefully I can get it done in the next two weeks.  I love using fabric with varying scale, and was able to select all the reds from my stash (they aren’t jelly roll strips).  We’ll see where it goes. I admit, when I look at it, it makes me smile.  Maybe because it is bold – or maybe because it’s a design I created and executed…

More fabric choices made... I just love the red and white contrast to the greens...

Arrgghh...a little yellow on the photo coloring, but you get the idea of where it's headed...

Meanwhile, I finally sandwiched another quilt – a retirement quilt.  I might get it completed for a friend who retired 2 years ago.  (I think I said I could be slow…)  So, it’s on the quilting table and I’ve started on it.  This hot weather will drive me to the basement where it’s cooler, so I’ll be doing some more quilting on it soon.

Pinning always takes a while, but it's ready to go.  I offset the quilt with an applique border on one side.

I noticed on Pam’s blog (Applique Paintbox), that she said the selection of Kamala Harris as the VP candidate with Joe Biden gave her hope.  I am glad to see a woman potentially making it to the White House.  I think our country is long overdue.  I think we’ve been so polarized in this country for far too long.  We need to get back to a place where we can respect each other – maybe not agree all the time – but come to a place in the middle where we can function again – creatively solving issues instead of stagnating.  We just might make it this time.  Time will tell. 

Keep on finding your creative voice.  It’s there – channel it and watch it grow.

Cheers!

Linking up with Nina Marie at Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever

How the Yellow Brick Road Became Star Flowers

Stardate 2017.187.1

Just what do you do with blocks that you’ve diligently pieced according to the pattern, then kinda don’t like the way the quilt top looks when you lay it out on your design wall?

That was my dilemma.  So, the blocks got shoved into the closet…for a year or so.  I didn’t want to deal with them.  Wasn’t happy with them.  They’d just remain a “UFO”.  But, one day, I thought to myself, “Self, what if you cut those blocks apart and set them in a different pattern?”  Turns out, that was the defining moment – and the trick to liking the blocks again.  So, I started cutting them apart, and here’s what emerged from the rubble:  A quilt I L-O-V-E! 

I think the problem with the original quilt – which was the Yellow Brick Road pattern -  was that the all of the colors were a bit to bold, and in mass they just got lost in the shuffle with none of them really standing out.  Plus, the original design didn’t have any “breathing room” for the eye; nowhere for the eye to relax and pause.

The smathering of blocks from the Yellow Brick Road pattern The high saturation of all the colors gave me heartburn when it was all together in a mass...

Enter the Star Flowers quilt design/pattern from Love of Quilting - March/April 2014.  

With the star pattern, now, the eye had a place to stop and rest; a place to linger and look at the quilt without becoming highly overwhelmed.  The white – a common tool in the contemporary quilter’s stash – became the exact component needed to break up the heavy, strong colors. 

Under construction and after the original pieces had been cut apart and placed in a new arrangement with the white to let the eye rest.  Ahhh.....

So, what did I learn from this little endeavor? 

• 1    Sometimes, when you think things aren’t going your way, they actually are.  You just need to revamp your vision.
• 2.    Those unwanted blocks can turn into the belle of the ball.
• 3.    Don’t be afraid to explore different ideas. 

This was a challenging quilt to set together because it was loaded with Y-seams and lots of areas where using a partial seam really helped get those points matched up between stars. 

I finally set out to quilt it – after being inspired by Karen McTavish and the McTavishing method, I decided I’d try my hand on this large quilt.

McTavishing in the white diamonds of the quilt.  The quilting really lends motion to the quilt.

I started by using 40 weight King Tut quilting thread.  While it worked okay, it was very bulky thread and really shows where you had to backtrack on your quilting.  So, I got the hair-brained idea that using 100 weight polyester thread would do the trick.  Boy, did my machine NOT like that thread.  So, I then found the Aurifil 50 weight cotton thread, and it actually worked out really well.  The machine mostly liked the thread (they played well together for the most part) and the stitching didn’t seem so “thick”.  So, off I went, attempting to get this quilt done to enter into the fair this year (which is at the end of July), when…darn it!!!  … the needle came loose and jammed in the machine, so now the machine skips stitches.  A call to Bob – the guru of machine repairs…we’ll see if he can work his magic and I might still have time to finish the quilting in time for the fair…

The quilting in the center stars came out cool...I didn't realize it when I experimented with the quilt design, but it made a secondary star in the center of each star.  Fun!

Things I learned while quilting the quilt top…

• 1.     Make sure to cut ALL the tails and dark threads from the fabric on the back side of the quilt.  (I forgot…and now have dark spots showing through the white fabric, when you look at it close (and a judge will…))
• 2.    An extra layer of batting would have helped the quilting show through better.
• 3.    Thinner thread breaks more easily.  So, be patient as you work on the quilting, and realize that if you use the same color thread as your background (or what you’re quilting), some of your mess-ups won’t ever really show. 
• 4.    Stitching in the ditch using a ruler can be HARD.  But, like Karen McTavish said, “Do what’s hard”. 

In the words of Bob Ross, the painter, we don’t make mistakes, we have “happy accidents”.  That’s that this quilt is – a happy accident.

A larger view of the quilt.  I'm really enjoying how the quilting is enhancing the overall quilt. Lots of hours, but fun to watch it come alive.

 Here's hoping you have some happy accidents in your quilting adventures. 

Linking up with friends at Busy Hands Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Quilting Progress - Slow but Steady...

Stardate 2016.159.01

Gosh, things have been busy lately.  Between trying to plant the garden, hail storms, rainy weekend weather, and other general life challenges, I haven’t been doing as much quilting as I would like.  Things slowed down (somewhat) over the Memorial Day weekend and so I was able to spend some time sandwiching a quilt and now I’ve begun the quilting process. 

All pinned together and ready to get quilted.  Yep, I use straight pins to hold the quilt together and no spray basting.  In fact, I don't baste at all.  Never have liked it and just didn't get used to it...

I like the actual quilting – it’s fun, albeit challenging at times to try to figure out what you want to do, get the machine tension correct, and keep your free motion in good motion so stitches are similar in size.  A lot to juggle, but that’s part of the fun, isn’t it? 

Here’s the progress so far on the quilt my sister and I are working on for our niece.  My sister left the quilting part up to me (no pressure there!), so here’s where I’m taking it so far. 

Let me just say, white stitching on white fabric is hard to photograph in artificial lighting.  The lighting doesn’t really do the stitching justice, but you can at least get the idea. 

As I remembered a conversation my sister and I had about what would happen if our niece decided to take the quilt with her as she went off to college, and so I decided I would personalize the quilt in a subtle, but hopefully effective way.

Can you see her name in the quilting?  I had fun designing and quilting this.  May be hard to see, but it's a pale green thread. The other thread, for the rest of the quilting, is white.

I had seen this type of quilting done as I cruised other blogs – Devoted Quilter (Leanne) calls the type of quilting “flow quilting” and I’ve also heard of it referred to as “graffiti quilting”.  I saw another blog which talked about quilting around words to get the words to stand out in a quilt.  I’d swear it was Studio Dragonfly, but my brain escapes me now.  At any rate, I put those two pieces of the puzzle together and quilted our niece’s name in the quilt using a light green colored thread.  Then, I finished out that row of quilting with white graffiti or flow quilting, in part because I felt then the Dresden plates would carry their own weight and the quilting would secure all of the open-pressed seams – make that area stronger.

So, now, I’m working my way through other parts of the quilt, and I’ve learned a few things so far:

1. ·       Straight lines are just tricky on a sit-down machine, but with continued work on mastering that skill, the lines will get better.
2. ·         Graffiti or flow quilting is fun!  It’s very free-form and who cares if you change things up – that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
3. ·         With straight lines, slow and steady wins the race.  If you go too fast, you can get off track real fast and spend more time ripping out stitching than actually sewing.  Keep calm and stitch on. 

     And, just for fun, here's another quilt I've started on (ha!  started a good year ago) ...but more on that next time.  Have fun in your quilting adventures! 

Linking up with Let's Bee Social! @ Sew Fresh Quilts...

May the Force of Creativity be with You!

Stardate 2016.125.1

(Couldn’t help but acknowledge “May the 4^th Be With You day, and all those Star Wars fans!)

Collaboration.  That’s what a lot of us quilters like to do.  We get inspired by the works of others and we gain creative momentum by working with others.  As my sister decided quilting was a hobby that she would enjoy, and as she fancies the more contemporary/modern quilting genres, and as I tend to lean towards a bit more traditional quilting, we thought we’d have some fun and make a quilt for our niece who will be graduating in 2017. 

We started out with each of us picking two or three blocks which we thought might work well together.  Because we are all from Colorado, we decided a pieced Columbine flower block (one of Ruth B. McDowell’s blocks) was a natural fit in a quilt that would be useful, but also memorable for our niece.  For anyone who doesn't know, the Columbine is our State Flower, so we thought it'd help remind her of Colorado, no matter where she went.

One of the blocks which would make it to the final quilt...

 We started off thinking we’d combine the Columbines into a field of Columbines and use pinwheel blocks to blend out the background.  Then, I think, my sister and I both decided getting that quilt pieced together might take longer than we had.  Keep in mind, we started planning the quilt project in 2014 sometime....  So, we’ve been on a long road to what we finally got.  After our revelation, my sister made a mock-up of a quilt that kept some of the Columbines, but introduced some different elements, and she laid them out in a “row” format.   

 

One of our mock-up designs...

Another mock-up. This is the one we chose, which is laid out in a row format

The quilt became more contemporary/modern, and yet maintained the elements we thought were important. 

 

We both agreed that a purple and green theme, coupled with yellow, would be an impactful color choice and would make the quilt zing.  We think we achieved that zing - and somehow managed (not on purpose) to pick her school colors.  That's just a bonus...

I think the quilt reminds me of what folks are now dubbing a “row quilt”, where the rows of the quilt are one block or one theme and then enough rows are added to make the quilt as large as needed. 

A shot of the actual quilt...only a few of the rows...

 The weekend before my sister moves to Texas (yes, this is a bit of a bummer), we got together and pieced like mad to get the rows set together and to basically get the quilt top finished before she moved (she didn’t want to have to pack it…which I understand!).  Now, the quilt awaits FMQ by me…no pressure!! 

Here's the actual quilt top...ready for quilting.

 I’ll keep posting progress as my blog will be a main spot where she’ll be able to see the progress on the finishing of the quilt.  I’ve found some light lime green thread and think I’ll quilt mainly with that…we’ll see.  Sometimes, I change my mind as I go (who doesn’t??)…

Now, we’ll look for ways to collaborate over long distance as we are pretty happy with the results, and have another niece graduating in a few years, and it’s never too early to start stirring up ideas. Doing this project together has sure been fun, so we look forward to future collaborations... 
Linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts - Let's Bee Social...