My New Oliso Smart Iron

My New Oliso Smart Iron!

Hey, where is my new Oliso iron?  Has anyone seen it? Ha!

Oliso with a new quilt and an old one (Development)

Yes, I am at QuiltCon!  However, I am also working like crazy to finish up some quilts for another exhibit.  It is hard doing both at the same time, and sleep is scarce.  Which is why I did not notice, as I was quilting late into the night, that the back side of my quilt was getting folds, lots of folds.  And once the fold starts, it continues and gets worse as the quilting continues.  So it had to be fixed.  I was tired and very frustrated because it was the first time I tried to do a lot of quilting lines without checking the back.  Mistake!

If it had only been this one fold, I probably would have just repaired this section (on multiple lines of quilting).  But there were LOTS of sections that had folds like this.

This is the back side of the quilt.  It is another two sided quilt. So BOTH sides have to look good! The seam ripper is holding up the fold so that you can see where the actual seam is.  It is eating about 1/16 of an inch now, but if left un-repaired, that amount grows.

I am quilting in concentric circles, so I had about 10 lines to rip out.

And, I am not a fast ripper.  It was almost good for me though, because I was already doing my best (or at least I thought I was), and I had no idea how to keep this from happening again. And I am really good at basting, but when sewing in concentric circles, crazy things happen, and I have experienced a few of those disasters as well.  I had a new idea to pin baste, and then on my machine with BIG stitches, quilt some randomly spaced radial lines, taking those out as I go, along with the rest of the safety pins.  You can see below, the brown line of thread and the backs of the safety pins (yes, this is the back side of the quilt).

Unfortunately, all the folds were happening right along the edges of those brown basting threads because I forgot about the rip it out before sewing, and I was sewing over them.  Lesson learned. sigh....

I finished ripping and went to the first day of QuiltCon and found this fabulous new Oliso iron! It is so smart!  You can iron with it, and without lifting it, take your hand off, and it automatically pops out these retractable thingies that lift the iron off the work surface! Magic!! I used it to solve my problem.  I have never ironed a quilt during the quilting, but it worked to ease the fullness in during this giant mess of a problem, and allowed me to continue working.

Now watch as I take my hands off temporarily, and use both hands to smooth out the fullness of this large project. The iron pops up! (I will try to take an actual video of the magic, once my 'assistant' wakes up. I will post it on Instagram). You can also google this and find videos of it happening!

A close up of the magic:

Last, I was careful to press both sides of the quilted sandwich before proceeding with the quilting. And, with the 10 foot long cord, it was easy to get around this big quilt! Here is the front side:

Works like a charm!! So far I love this new Oliso iron!  And, it's yellow!!! (comes in other colors too!). And, if you buy it at QuiltCon, there is a discount. Check it out if you are in the market for a new iron.  I am looking forward to using it on many projects to come! And, because it rests in this position, I can be assured that it won't tip over and crash to an early death.  True confession: I have done that to two irons already.

PS. I do not work for Oliso.  If you have a problem with yours, you should contact the company directly.

Plenty to Go Around: hand quilting

Plenty to Go Around
80" x 80"
Hand Quilting

I love the way hand quilting looks.  I love the process of hand quilting.  It is meditative, slow, and calming to the soul. It also gives the quilt a very nice softness of texture.  And, I love that it looks somewhat organic compared to the perfect computer drawn quilting lines of newer technology.

I have been quilting since 1980.  The first quilt took about 15-20 years to complete.  It was all hand quilted, before I knew how to hand quilt.  Basically, stick the needle in from the top, grab in on the bottom side with the other hand, turn the needle around and stick it back up to the surface.  This is called stab and grab.  It works, so that's what I did.  It is not the reason the first quilt took so long to complete!

One year, I was at the International Quilt Festival, winding my way through the vendor booths, and I ran across someone selling these little gadgets for hand quilting.  In five minutes, I had a thorough lesson in how to hand quilt.  It was fabulous!  The tool was good too, but I don't use it anymore.  I prefer using my hands and a few other tools.

Above is a self portrait of my hands.  I can now quilt for hours on end, but afterwards, my hands feel kind of dead! Ha!  (Also, my back and shoulders for sitting too long!).  Meanwhile, what you see here is the wonderful Clover leather thimble with a metal coin.  The coin part is dimpled and allows me to set the needle without it slipping.  The leather part is super comfortable and soft.  I had worn out two of these fantastic little thimbles and so started this project with a normal full metal thimble.  Sadly it didn't fit and gave me a cut and giant blister on my finger. Nuts! It was totally worth driving to a nearby city for a new leather thimble that was in stock on the only night it snowed in Austin! Yes, I am dedicated to my craft!

You may have noticed the blue spots on my fingers? It is blue painter's tape.  Quilting without them leaves my fingers feeling like they have been needle felted, or tattooed without ink.  A bit painful and unnecessary.  I cut new little pieces of tape for each quilting session.  If you press on them for about 20 seconds, they will stick pretty well.  They also work to build up layers if one isn't thick enough.

Which brings me to the needles.  I use a LOT of needles, because I tend to bend and break them.  I have yet to find the perfect needles, but these Bohin needles come pretty close.  I used to think it was the needle (and inferior needles are problematic), but I have come to find out that there is a minor flaw in my quilting technique, and if I am not paying attention, I will bend the needle, making it pretty useless, and I am on to another one. I have tried lots of styles, but the Betweens and Sharps seem to be the best for me.

The quilting technique.

I like to load the needle with a lot of stitches at one time. I think this one has about 6 stitches.  I am never sure how to count those?? Meanwhile, really excellent hand quilters can get 10 stitches per inch.  I am not there, but also, I find that I prefer to see the little stitches, so I will aim for the size that is visually appealing.  The bending of needles comes when I push too hard on a needle that has lots of stitches.  It works better to use the thimble to push and load the needle with stitches, and then use some locking forceps to pull the needle through.

Last, I use a hoop.  It helps get the tension right and seems to work for me.  I have seen other quilters NOT use a hoop.  I don't know how they do it.  Magic!

And for this quilt, the Plenty to Go Around quilt, hand quilting is the perfect compliment for a quilt that has been hand appliqued, and all hand batiked elements. I love the way it looks in the concentric circles, which is also paired rather nicely with the symmetry on the front. The same lines add a different element to the story on the back.

i Quilt at Texas Quilt Museum

i Quilt at Texas Quilt Museum

It is an honor to have my quilt included in this exhibit of prize winning quilts from the Modern Quilt Guild at the Texas Quilt Museum! I am hoping to go see this one because La Grange is just a short drive from Austin.  I also know that they will be having day tours during QuiltCon, so that's pretty exciting!  The exhibit is up from January 9 to March 15, 2020.

"These 15 quilts, including Kathy York’s witty iQuilt awarded Best of Show in 2015, cover a wide range of categories and showcase the Modern Quilt aesthetic. Among the artists represented are Maria Shell, Stephanie Skardal, Kim Soper, Corinne Sovey, and Colleen Wooten. This exhibit was also curated by Dr. Sandra Sider."

Let Your Hair Down

Let Your Hair Down
32" x 53"

Continuing with my series of whole cloth batik line art is this one, Let Your Hair Down. This is probably no surprise to anyone here, but when I work, I can get....well...a little obsessive. It is hard to take a break. One of my personal goals the last couple of years has been to balance work and play.  So, this quilt is dedicated to the idea of letting my hair down and playing more! It reminds me of my hair loose in the water, a peaceful and relaxing moment. Mood.

I used the same process as my previous work.  This one was a bit more difficult because it required more layers to boil out, free hand drawing of the lines, and dense straight line quilting around all these curves. (Yes, I see the irony in the work to make this piece, and the actual theme of the work!)

This is layer 1 of the wax.  The smooth edged lines will get dye.

Next, layer 1 of the dye:

These will be pale when washed out.  Then, I will boil out the wax, draw the new lines and re-pin to the frame. Now, I have to decide where to put the next round of lines.  I feel a bit confused about how to draw them and have them interact in a flowing organic way with the lines that are already there.  To practice, I attempt on a full scale paper version first.  If I like them, I trace with Sharpie, if I don't like them....well, there's a big eraser, ready to go!

I taped the paper to the floor, and then taped the dried fabric on top.  I will try to follow the shape of the lines, but the best lines are drawn kind of in a giant arc and quick motion.  The lines on the paper will be more of a hint, "try to go this direction". The lines on the quilt fabric will not be identical to these, but they will be close.
Wax layer 2, then dye layer 2:

Perhaps, not surprisingly, it requires a certain level of concentration to put the correct dye in the correct place, and not spill any.  This time, I got lucky, all went to plan!

I repeated the process of boiling out the wax again, and then drawing layer 3 of the last round of lines, re-pin to the frame again.  Here is the wax for layer 3:

Layer 3 only has 2 new lines, but it looks even more complicated while working. One more wax boil out and the quilt top is complete.  Next up, the quilting.  I decided to outline each dyed line in a matching thread color, and then add vertical lines from top to bottom of the quilt.  The actual color part of the quilt will not be quilted at all, so will become a bit puffy in texture.  Here is the beginning of the work of tucking in the starting and stopping points of every line of thread that I sewed.  This level of detail makes a big difference in the overall look of the quilt; and though it takes a LOT more time and effort, it is worth it!

Long shadows at the end of the day, here is a close up of the back.

And though it may look difficult to quilt so many straight and evenly spaced lines, there are tools to help! My favorite is 1/4 inch masking tape.

A few more closeups of the front after the quilting is completed and all the threads have been tucked in:

I sincerely hope you like this one! And that it speaks to you.  Play is important. Play more! Yes!

Conversations

Conversations
52" x 33"

Pretty overlapping lines with the transparencies of the colors showing through. The boldness of the lines and simplicity of shape and form are so appealing to me! Fresh, modern, skillfully executed. Joy!

OR

Two overlapping sound waves, suggesting the concept of "overtalking". Conversations when two people are talking, perhaps over each other, and not really listening to what the other person is saying. When having a conversation, do you listen? or just talk? And then I realized how incredibly hard it is for me to listen when someone is saying something that I disagree with, or something I just don't like at all.  This happened to me when watching the impeachment hearings.  I found myself repeatedly hitting the mute button on my remote control, perhaps a universal experience regardless of which side you are on? And, it led me to think that this is where the trouble STARTS, not being able to listen to opposing viewpoints. Hence, the somewhat disparate color palette. And, this is where the discomfort starts for me, having an insight, and then trying to decide what to do about it....

Meanwhile, in the studio, some process shots for you. Some days I worked for hours and the time just slipped away, other days, not so much.  One thing that I did enjoy was working in cooler weather, even on the really cold days. Beginning the stripes of wax....

The first round of dyes:

Note the difference between the colors of the wet dyes above and the rinsed and dried dyes below. Getting ready to boil out the first layer of wax:

Drying on the line: (the image is actually reversed in this photo, this is the back of the fabric)

Adding the second round of waxed lines:

After adding the second set of dyes and boiling out the wax.  This is a photo of the basting stage, getting ready to machine quilt. It is so rewarding to see all the colors!!

The quilting. I decided to leave the color stripes unquilted.  I love how puffy and dimensional they look with the white background quilted. 

Thanks for visiting my blog! 

Plenty to Go Around: batiking the back panels Part 4

Plenty to Go Around, the back side, Part 4, project
80" x 80"

The top two panels have a few flowers, hills, and sky. Here are some of the spiral flowers.  The waxed over flowers at the bottom is the part that overlaps with the panel below, they will not be needed, and the pencil markings will come out during the boiling stage.  It is also very likely that part of this section will be trimmed off as the panels are sewn together.

This photo shows the flowers with the fence.

Here it is hanging on the clothes line, complete and nearly dry.  I like the way in undulates in the wind, kind of like the hills undulate on the panel.

The other top panel was so quick in comparison!  Just a few lines for the hills:

It was such a great feeling of relief for being so close to the finish line!  

Here is the final image of the back.  The panels have all been hand appliqued together.  This part could have been done with a sewing machine, however, my panels did not line up as well as I had hoped.  By stretching each piece of fabric individually on the frame, they stretched slightly, and not completely evenly, so that in the end, they did not line up well enough to just chop and sew.  But by carefully placing and turning under the edges of the panels as I went, with hand sewing, I was able to get the final image well enough, and keep the entire piece flat and square.  

I love the final design.  It is both simple and complex.  The colors are rich and hopefully the message is clear, or at least asks you to think about a very complex subject.  Next up the quilting.  I will be hand quilting this one, so it will take a while.  Hope to update you on the progress in about 4 to 5 months.  

Plenty to Go Around, the back side, Part 3

Plenty to Go Around, the back side, Part 3, project
80" x 80"

This panel has all the same flowers as the front side, but instead of done individually, cut out, and appliqued, they have been done in one big panel, all at once.  These flowers represent all that the fawn are fleeing to.  They could represent food (because deer are forb eaters), freedom, or even safety.

It began with the sketch, and then the applying of the wax to the sketch.  I think this panel had the heaviest application of wax because I put it between EVERY flower! Yes, completely nuts! But, it worked!  The first ones above are the giant flowers, about 16" across.

The next set are much smaller flowers.  If you notice, these flowers also have the tiny double edge, so that they look like the flowers on the front that have their edges turned under with just a hint of color past the white edge of the flower. 

These flowers were originally orange and blue on the front side, but I decided to make them all blue here. They will be done in two parts.  First they will be dyed, and then rinsed.  Then I will add more wax to the aqua blue, leaving just a thin outline of the flower that will be overdyed with navy: all while working on the giant single panel with all the flowers.

This set, like a number of the other flowers was also done in two stages of dyeing, so that different flower parts could have different colors.

Looking good! and ready for the dye. I am already thinking, this is a LOT of wax to boil out! Yikes!

Here are the layers of dye:

The final stage of this panel!  Sorry I forgot to take a photo after the wax was boiled out.  This is the stage where the dyeing is complete and I am rinsing the excess dye out with a garden hose. The dyes are still wet and looking super intense! I just love this stage, and sadly feel just a bit disappointed after the wax has been boiled out and the piece is dried as the colors fade a bit. You can see the very edge of the fence peaking out on the left side of the panel.  

Next week, I will show you the rest of the panels and the final piece!