Basketweave

Basketweave quilt is finished.  I used 1 roll each of classic red and blue Kaffe Fassett 2 1/2 strips along with my own hand dyed fabric.  I was lucky to purchase the Kaffe fabric at our Voices in Cloth show earlier this year in March.  In an earlier post, you can see how it was constructed.  Very free form.  For instance, I took the first strip that was cut into 2.5 x 6.5 inches and pieced them together with my 2.5 x 2.5 squares.  Then I worked on the next strip.  After I used up all the blue roll, I worked on the red roll.

 The Kaffe fabrics are such a joy to work with.  The colors and free form just interplay so well with each other.  At first I thought oh the dot fabric would detract and stand out too much,  there are 4 dot fabrics, but can you spot them from 10 feet away?  no.  Somehow the busy weave (positive space) makes the calming plain (negative space) work well with each other.

 This is a close up view.  I was hoping to capture the metallic thread I used in the quilting.  There is an Amy Butler fabric on the back.   I put Glitter Metallic thread in the bobbin case and free hand stitched the flowers from the Amy butler fabric.  It sparkles.

This is going to be a wedding gift for a good friend who we've known for over 30 years.  This is his first marriage.  He is so calming and reserved and she is so energetic and positive.  Perfect for each other.  Who would have thought?

Ann Horton Workshop

I took a one day workshop Monday with Ann Horton on designing quilts with textured embellishments.  It is too bad that it was only one day, because there was a lot of information in the class.  Thread painting, digitized embroidery and textile applique ....they all sound so intimidating, but like anything else once you try it, it can be fun.  

 This is a picture of what I accomplished in one day.  We drew out our picture first on paper, then free hand cut out our images with a scissors.  For the hills and fence posts, I turned the edges under a quarter inch with an iron.  Then I sewed it in place using my general foot.  Do you see the negative and positive space created by the fence posts?

 I changed my general foot to the free motion foot to make this butterfly.  We used tear away stabilizer, drew a butterfly on it and then placed a piece of organza on top of the drawing, then hooped it all.  I used three different colors on this butterfly yellow, golden and brown.  I haven't done it yet, but she said to tear away the stabilizer, cut the organza and place the butterfly on your quilt.

At the top left of the top is a cut out bird from fabric that Suzi let me have.  Thank you Suzi.  On that last hour of class, Ann was showing us how to stitch the bird.  Her sample quilt had grapes and a bird on a branch.  She changed about 8 different color threads in her demonstration.  Shading, outlining, choosing color to make the bird and grapes just pop out at you.  The master at work.  She has hours and hours of experience at doing this and made it look so easy.  I wish.  Another technique she showed us was to stuff the flowers and leaves with a little bit of stuffing and applique it on.  Haven't gotten to that part yet.

I am going to try and finish the flowers, finish the butterfly, finish the bird and not worry about how great or not so great it looks.  Try the new techniques.  Wow I actually made a butterfly.

Sashiko thread

I wish I had taken the time to look through this book before I started hand quilting my clamshell sampler.  The book "The Classic Quilting of Sashiko" is an 1998 publication from Quilter's Resource publications.  It looks like a Japanese publication that has been translated to english.  The graphics and projects have a very Japanese feel to them.  Thankfully the centimeters are also translated to inches.

I don't remember how I got this book, but I do remember my Mom giving me her Sashiko thread stash.  She had taken a class in Hawaii and had some wonderful samplers made with mostly the white thread against the traditional indigo fabric.  I guess she was planning to make more colorful samplers with the thread stash that she collected.  I am very fortunate to have these, since they are probably very expensive now.

 As an example, I purchased these 2 small packets of sashiko thread from the "Calico Cat" store in Hawaii for $3.95 each.  These small packets are about one third the size of the upper threads.

 This is the sampler that I worked on with the Sashiko thread.  It is a clamshell pattern using some of my hand dyed fabric and other japanese fabrics.

This is the back of the clamshell sampler which shows the knotted threads.  After I read the book, I realized that I was not supposed to knot the thread, but take 2 or 3 backstitches.

Doing this sampler made me realize the following.  Do your homework.  Learn as much as you can about something. Take the time to read the instructions.  You'll save yourself time and a lot of knotty situations.

Fabric Postcard

I was asked to make a fabric postcard by Cindi for a group present.  She gave us instructions on how to construct it which I read and promptly forgot where I put the directions.  I did remember that it had to be 4 inches by 6 inches and to sew a paper backing to the fabric with satin stitching.  With this in mind, I took scraps from my current project and made a small version.  The Basket Weave pattern that I am working on calls for 2 1/2 inch wide strips.  For the postcard, I decided to use 1 1/2 wide strips.  This is how it came out.  Pretty good.  Postcards make nice small projects and it didn't take much time.

 This is a picture of the project that I am working on now.  It is still not done, but I love the way that it is coming along.

 After hand piecing the patches together.  I finally figured out a way to machine piece the patches.  This is a
picture of the basic unit.

  

If I have time, I am thinking of writing down the instructions on how to piece this quilt.  It is based on a picture of a beautiful quilt from the 2012 Tokyo quilt show.  Of course, that quilt used tiny tiny 1 inch pieces.

Marjan Klupfel Monday Workshop

 Marjan brought a lot of patterns and hand dyed fabrics  for her plantasy workshop.  She showed us how to trace the pattern onto the wonder under release paper.  Reminder, the pattern will be reversed when you do this.  All the fabrics that were dyed in the Saturday workshop, I used in the Monday workshop.

 I chose the simplest pattern.  The dragonfly.  I was able to trace and cut out all the pieces on Monday.  I was going to start sewing the pieces down, when I realized I forgot my darning foot.  Oh well.  I finished it today and just have the binding to work on.

 Marjan showed us how to use Angelina fibers and foiling using wonder under.  I made my dragonfly wings with the foil on the bottom and angelina fibers on top.

Another trick she showed us was to fuse two fabrics together and just stich it onto the quilt to make it three dimensional.  This gave the quilt a lot of movement.

Marjan Klupfel Saturday Workshop

Last week Saturday, I helped at a dye workshop held by Marjan (pronounced Marianne) Klupfel.  Her supply list said to bring 5 yards of pfd fabric or pre-washed white and 1 yard of pre-washed black fabric.  I brought 7 yards and wished I had more.

Her system of dying fabric in plastic bags made for a very easy fabric dying with a lot of results.  I made two sets of 6 gradation dying with.

Golden yellow gradation

Brown gradation

These two half yard pieces were either painted on with foam brushes or folded and the dye sprayed on then wrapped in plastic garbage bags overnight.

I used a 4 inch pvc pipe to pole wrap these 3 pieces.  Instead of string pole wrapping, I used about 6 rubber bands and squished it onto the pole.  Then they were dunked in the soda ash solution for a minute.  With a plastic bag protecting the table, I squirted or painted on the dyes.

With my last yard of black fabric, I cut it in half and pole wrapped each one lengthwise and the other width wise using the rubber bands.  I used a foam paintbrush to brush the clorox bleach on the black fabric.  This was Kona Cotton fabric and the brown color just came out.  Others who used Joann Black fabric had a brilliant red color.  The pole was then dipped in a bucket of water, then a bucket of water with sodium thioxide and then a bucket of water.  Beautiful.

Wheelchair Bag

This is the wheelchair bag that I made for Doris last year.  In less than a year this bag has been ripped at the handle base, the buttons were replaced 3 times and the small flower buttons are almost all gone.  Everytime she goes through close doorways, the bag would get tugged and pulled on.  The fabric held up, but the buttons and stitching needs to be reinforced.

This is her replacement bag.  It is made from marrimekko fabric with fused hula girl and turtle.  Doris really loved the hula girl and she said the turtle looked so real.  It feels so good to make something that is used every day and looks good.  This is the front of the bag

This is the back of the bag.  The buttons are put on the back so they won't get caught and torn off.  Hopefully this bag will last a little longer.