Changing gears

After the frenzy of  more traditional quilting I spoke of last week, I dove into another frenzy, this time of painting and mono-printing fabric, in preparation for future, more creative, or art-y work.  This is more physically demanding work than I've done is quite awhile, and my husband and I spent some time figuring out how to make it less tiring on me.  So I worked in my studio, instead of out of doors.  This meant transforming the studio from a "dry" studio to a "wet" one.  This was much less demanding that carrying all of my supplies out to the garage and setting up tables, etc. out there.  I could also leave everything in  place over night rather than transporting it all back inside so the car could be garaged, over night. It then allowed me to work slowly over several days, rather than trying to do it all in one. The first day I got about 14 pieces painted, the second about 6, and the third about 10.  In the past I've made  +or - twenty, in a one day marathon, once or twice a year, which would set me up for work, over several months.  

The actual technique changed this time, mainly as a result of the on-line courses I've taken over the past 15 months.  I put much more planning into each piece, and chose to work mainly in sets of two or three pieces related by colour, with future piecing or collage in mind. I also worked with the expectation of adding future surface design, once the basic colouring was completed and dry.  I also chose a few hand dyed pieces, for additional surface work.

Here are some of the results. There is a third piece coloured to go with these two

This was a previously dyed piece that I tried to over print.  Didn't work well.

This is a series of hand-carved stamps that I hope to be able to use in collages.

This is worked with bubble wrap, but I found a large 1" size bubble which ended up looking almost like lips.  The second one is a shadow print, made by printing with the same paint after the first print has been made..

These are painted with the same colours, believe it or not.  

This is a lino-block print made with two different colours mixed on the same palette( red and fuchsia)

A cleanup rag, but I see possibilities in it

And finally, yesterday's work.  as you can see I was looking much more for pastels, that could take future surface work.  But still keeping with at least two of the same colour for future possibilities.

Changing Gears

Not feeling particularly creative lately, so decided to tackle getting rid of the massive stash of fabric I've accumulated over the past 60 years. I've been posting about the process as things moved along, but now I'm moving on to other things. A few years ago, my husband was helpful in cutting many, many fabric scraps into commonly used, size pieces. Recently, I was shocked to discover a box full of 4" pieces of fabric--three large Zip Loc bags packed full! So, over the past month, I've produced 7 smaller, charity quilts, using some of those pieces, and a small box of scraps. There are still enough squares for about 3 quilts, and the scrap pile now fills a laundry basket. Don't know how that happened! Here are some pictures. It was interesting how much creativity was involved. Each of these is about 36" square. The whole process left me very much re-invigorated, and the project this weekend is producing about 24 prints on fabric, with the objective of adding several more layers, and producing 4-5 finished pieces.

The Orange Quilt

 A couple of times I've mentioned that my next charity quilt will be orange.  This quilt is now sandwiched, ready for machine quilting.  The machine quilting will give me an opportunity to fully test out my walking foot, something I know little about.  This orange came about when I won a set of fat quarters in a raffle at the LQG.  They had been hanging around the studio for several years, before they were cut into 4" squares, when I was culling my commercial fabrics.  These squares were among the last few to be worked into charity quilts.  I think there are enough cut squares for one more quilt after this one.  Anyway, these are the two fabrics I won, the black is mainly pumpkins and the orange is witches, ghosts, and Frankenstein's monster.

I'm quite pleased with the finished result and hope the machine quilting only enhances the fun.  Since I hadn't added any special touches, as I had with the others, I made the border a little fancier.

Re-thinking the problem

The problem of the White on White Quilt has continued to bother me.  I had an idea of how it might be used in some assembled fibre/mixed media project, even if it had to be dyed, but then had a lot of trouble trying to come up with the right sort of  design.  I also found some very obvious black marks on the front of it.  So the quilting was finished, and the result disappointing. I washed and blocked the quilt, got rid of the black marks, but then decided that there was no way it would be useful in any future projects. Rather the design itself could be re-worked, should a project come to mind.  The problem was as described in the last post--a poor choice of batting, leading to very poor  visual discrimination of the various quilted motifs.  But it could still be useful as a utility quilt for a small child.  So to the donation pile it goes, once  some binding is added.

Here is a basic view of the finished quilt that shows how poor the loft is in the quilted motifs. 

This shows a better image, but required special lighting for the effect to be seen

Here are the hand drawn patterns that were used.  I must confess that once I got going, I used these more as suggestions than actual designs to be perfectly followed.  Since I was limited by a 4" width to the rows, the planned Victorian feather design, was very much tamed down, to the extent that may even be lost.  

My next step may be re-doing the Victorian feathers, but with a wider row, producing long strips of FMQ'g to be inserted in larger designs.

What determines a successful project?

 I have been slaving away on  my latest small quilt for about a week now.  I had to draft a very detailed pattern, transfer it onto the fabric and then stitch it, using a free motion quilting technique.  More than half the FMQ'g has been done. Yesterday I worked too long, and had to force myself to quit. Later, I took a good look at the piece and it just wasn't "right". 

This bothered me, even to the point that the problem kept percolating in my brain during the night, keeping me awake into the small hours.  Finally I realized that I had used the "wrong" batting.  There were three to choose from, and I chose the whitest one, as the stitching was to be done on white Kona Cotton.  This was a lovely, soft, bamboo based, commercial batting, but it didn't provide the "loft" that a feather based design requires. The whole thing is very flat and none of the beautifully quilted feathers show, even with stippling between the rows.  Amazing how quickly I fell asleep once that came to me! But, at this point I see no reason to carry on.

My reasons for making this quilt were three-fold.  Good FMQ'g requires regular practice, and my skill has deteriorated over the past couple of years without it.  I have donated such quilts in the past, and the organization has appreciated them, telling me that they would keep them for very special uses, such a for prizes in charitable raffles. This means that I have an excuse to make a fancy quilt, and to make it in a small size, gaining some practice while doing it.  But, it also requires my best work.  I don't feel I can donate anything that isn't my best work.

So I have a half-finished quilt and no use for it.  My FMQ'g skill has been exercised, but, if finished, the quilt won't be donated.  I have 5 other quilts ready to donate, and pieces cut for a sixth.

Am I unhappy?  Not really.  More disappointed  But, my brain is already considering how I might be able to re-work this into a very different project, where the very low loft won't be an issue.