No. 29

No. 29

55.5" x 40"

Today's work features that horrible threat to relationships, miscommunication. The one that creates hurt feelings that linger even after the miscommunication is discovered and corrected (if you are lucky enough to find out...). And it all hinges on the ability to trust, something created from birth to about age 1. Simultaneous parallel talking without listening surely cannot help.

 

No. 29 was inspired after I made No. 18. I think the words that we say have a strong impact on relationships, so I wanted to do another version. What does this piece say to you?

No. 18

The design process started by arranging the paper cutouts on top of No. 18, to try to see what size the piece would be. It's a good starting point, but needed just a few adjustments.

After the top was completed, I tried another round of design...

Yeass! This works great! On with the quilting. I did not have backing fabric for this one, so I cut up some fabric from my stash and made a floral patchwork on the back. Here is a shot of the machine quilting in progress.

And one of the machine quilting of the stem after the applique was finished.

The handquilting, and the 1/4" tape for marking the lines. I really like using this tape because it bends around curves (unless they are too small), and you can keep moving it until you get a line that you like.

 

A chaotic scene from the back as I attach the hanging tube...

And last, a detail shot.

No. 27

No. 27

65" x 33"

 

This work in my relationship series is about avoidance, or possibly mutual avoidance? I find this one very personal. As I try to show up and face the good and the bad, I find it frustrating when I am faced with avoidance. As I get older, I realize that it is a self protection strategy, and I have become a lot more forgiving. And while looking for insight, I have discovered that I also have used avoidance in sticky situations. I am also very astutely aware that timing and kindness play big roles in conflict resolution. 

 

After sewing the half square triangle blocks for the background, it is fun to change directions and work on the applique shapes. I like to use gradients to show movement. I grabbed a color palette from my stash, and then carefully selected choices for the stripes in this piece.

 

After piecing the stripes, I press the edges under, and hand baste. Then they are ready for applique.

Then the hand quilting. I usually wait until they are appliqued on the piece before thinking about the design elements of the hand stitching. I might play with the masking tape on the quilt to try out different ideas, or possibly sketch some ideas. This one took about 15 sketches before I arrived on one that I really liked.

It is frustrating to make such wonderful selections of thread choices, in this case, another gradient, and then have it barely show up. For this piece, the thread gradient looks better in real life than in my photos of it. Yet another reason to see fiber art in person!

 

Next, the binding. It is machine stitched to the front, wrapped around the edge and then hand stitched to the back. I love these little clips for holding it in place while I hand stitch it.  

It also feels FINISHED when I get to this point, but it's not. It still needs a hanging tube and a label on the back. And it is truly finished when I take the photos and post it here! I ran out of backing fabric to use for the hanging tube, so I opted to use up some of my hand dyed batiks that I made a long time ago.

Here's a view of the entire tube section:

No. 26

No. 26

60.5" x 42.5"

Affectionately known as "pursuit". 

The background palette:

This one had a lot of design challenges. To determine the size of quilt I will need, I usually lay out the pieces on the floor or sometimes on top of another quilt that has the half square triangles for the background. Then I know the relative scale of the piece and how many blocks I will need. In this case, I used the humps and some blue painter's tape.

The original idea began with 4 quadrants like this:

...which was fine, but not great. This set of fabric choices in this array made me astutely aware of the lower right corner. It looked too dark to me. I tried rearranging the pieces, it was still not good. And it may not be obvious, but at this point, the blocks are only sewn into long strips, so I rearranged them vertically.

Ooooh, I liked this a lot better! It did require some "unsewing", and "resewing", but the results made it worth it. 

Then I drew my paper templates, cut them out and arranged them on the background. I will arrange, and rearrange the pieces until I see what I like, taking photos along the way to compare the options.

This was the original idea.... And, it is also nice, but it does not convey the feeling I am trying to evoke with this piece. The subtle directions of the 'humps' makes a big difference in the conceptual content. This one reads as "swimming along together". Also, a nice sentiment, but not what I was aiming for. 

Once I switched the top and bottom, it worked a LOT better. 

Like the others, the quilt was quilted, then the shapes were appliqued on top, and then more quilting. I love this 1/2 inch masking tape to help mark the lines I will sew.

A few shots of the hand quilting:

 

It is interesting to me, to start with a vague idea, and then watch it evolve as I make the quilt. Things change, ideas get threshed out, until everything is perfect!

Love how this looks in my aqua room!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No. 25

No. 25

35" x 54.5" 

 

This piece is a reminder that the relationship I have with myself, affects the relationships I have with others. Working towards self knowledge and acceptance helps to center me and ground me. This one also reminds me of the expression, "bloom where you are". 

 

The quilt.

Every time I look at this, the top half feels smaller than the bottom half. I have foolishly counted the blocks multiple times to confirm that they are the same size. And, so, I learn more about colors and their relative weights....

 

A closeup of the quilting:

If you look closely, you can see that the quilting threads are different colors in different directions. I always worry a lot about what color of quilting thread to use. And, I usually find that it doesn't really make too much difference....perhaps I am wrong about that?

 

The handquilting:

I tend to pull the quilting thread too tight, which causes massive tension problems. And so, I use the hoop to keep the tension even. As for circles, one of my favorite ways to mark them is to draw them on freezer paper and iron to the surface of the quilt. After quilting, they peel right off, and then I can cut it to the next smaller size, and iron it on again. The hand quilting is probably my favorite part of this process and I am always sad when I finish it.

 

The path not taken.

I love this color palette! I tried inserting these into the blue hump shape and it looked terrible. It was so terrible, and so wrong, and yet the colors are so pretty. It surprised me by taking a different tone than I wanted for the piece. So, they did not get used. I did save them, perhaps for a future quilt?

No. 21

No. 21

32" x 23"

What is it about a simple repeating pattern that is just so intrinsically appealing? I also love the organic nature of the little arches. I wanted them to look like individuals and not carbon copies of each other. I think it does that.

I started with making some blocks. Although this is a photo of the blocks for the background, I started with smaller ones to make the pieced HST arches. I wanted to see if I could make them into an arch shape by varying the width of the seam when joining them. It worked! Which meant that I could proceed with the rest of the quilt. I love looking at the blocks when they are chain stitched together!

I worked simultaneously on creating the background.....and....

Making all the arches: The black ones were hand drawn onto freezer paper, cut out (with a seam allowance), and then edges turned under and hand basted. The black ones were significantly easier to make than the orange and pink ones! All those seams of the HST blocks had to be turned under to prepare for appliqueing. 

Once I had all the arches ready for applique, I finished piecing the background, and prepared it for quilting. I remembered some old fabric I had that I thought would be perfect for the backing! It is from my brief stint as a fabric designer.

I love the simplicity of the straight line quilting. Here is my first arch after it has been hand appliqued in place, and the basting stitches have been removed. Ahhh! Satisfying! Now repeat 15 more times!

A view from the side of the finished quilt. 

Great texture! I love how the arch shapes sit on top of the fabric. I did not want to quilt them because that would flatten them. 

The last part was choosing to use a facing instead of a binding. This allowed the design to flow to the edge of the work. It was a good choice for this piece. 

Thanks for stopping by!

No. 20

No. 20

36.5" x 36.5"

This one started from a small watercolor sketch in my notebook. I was surprised when I finished the quilt at how closely it resembled the sketch. 

It is difficult pulling a color palette when using solids. They never seem to look like what I think they are going to look like. For this one I used only fabrics I had in my stash. This meant I had to do some planning and some math. As you will note, each additional row outward gets bigger, which means that for the outer rows, I needed to make sure I had enough fabric. This quilt is small enough that it did not ultimately make much of a difference.  However, when I started it, I loved it so much, I thought about going really big! And, I probably can still do that on another quilt, it just takes more planning to ensure I have enough fabric.  

I really enjoyed working with all the blue combinations for the blocks.

I also enjoyed adding the pops of thin color strips on the design wall, and then slowly filling in with the blue blocks. The process of working with the colors was enjoyable!

Also of note: the building of this type of quilt, starting from a small point and building outward, tends to distort the shape after a few rows.  To adjust for that, I carefully trimmed each row after adding it to the whole using a large cutting mat with a grid on it. The unintended consequence is that while adding each row and handling the quilt top a lot, previous rows will come unstitched. It is really important, right after trimming, to add a small stay stitch across the seam (at the edge). This prevents the unwanted unraveling of my work.

After completing the top, the basting is next.

Then the quilting. I opted to work from the middle outward to machine stitch the pink and orange strips. Then I tucked the thread ends inside the quilt sandwich. This allowed me to remove all the safety pins before doing the hand quilting. 

I really love the combination of machine quilting and hand quilting. Although this example is not the most innovative of artistic choices for this quilt. Quilting adds texture to a quilt, and I like to balance that texture in a way that does not interfere with the design choices of the quilt top. 

Last up with the binding, hanging tube and the quilt label.

I had fun with the hand quilting for this project even though it takes longer. It is nice to add balance to my work by slowing down.