Technique of the Week #5 - Wholecloth Painted Surface

Project Hours: About 4 hours
Design and materials: 1 hour
Execution: 3 hours

The idea for this week's quilt came from an episode of Quilting Arts, Season 4. After watching Sue Kelly show how you could paint over a quilted surface with oil paintsticks, I decided on a faster approach with a "dry brushing" technique of my own.  Paintsticks take 3-5 days to dry and cure before they can be heat set.  Ths is done with fabric paints and cured in 1 hour.
The Octopus was freedhand drawn with a chalk fabric gel pen, and then quilted over in Blue thread to match the background.  I chose dense quilting and a couple of bubbles to add interest to the background.
Once the piece was quilted, I ironed it from the back so the front would have as much heighth as it was going to get.  Using a piece of cardboard as a pallate, I daubed on some paint and got my paintbrush wet.  Here is the "dry brushing" part, where you get a lot of the paint OFF of the brush and glide it over the "hills" of the quilting, leaving the "valleys" paint free. It takes a lot of passes witht he dry brush to get the amount of paint to show up.  This was a lot of fun!

It's my birthday, and I have present for you! - Recycled Doorstop tutorial!

This is a super easy, super fast way to make a cute decorative doorstop!  In my house we have these additional bathroom doors that separate the toilet from the rest of the bathroom.  These doors never stay all they way open, and when changing the toilet paper roll one day I discovered they make the best door stops!  A bit of a fabric remnant makes them pretty and they can match your decor.

You will need:
-Empty toilet paper roll (or a cut down paper towel one)
-a stapler
-fabric remnant that covers the paper tube all the way around and about 4 inches longer on the ends

-needle
-thread (I used embroidery floss)
-cellophane tape or Scotch tape

-(optional) dried beans, pebbles, or other heavy filler.

Step 1. Staple one end closed on the paper tube.  Leave the other end open.  The stapled end is the one that will go under the door.

Step 2.  Take the fabric and wrap it around the tube. Make sure the cut/raw edge end of the fabric gets tucked under and ends up on one of the flat sides of the tube.  Use a piece of tape to hold it in place while you sew.

Step 3.  Fold the end of the fabric on the stapled side and stitch along that end to close up the fabric.  It may slide off the end of the tube, and that's ok, you can just push the tube back in when the edge is sewn up.  You can use a decorative stitch, or even take this to your sewing machine and sew the line, I chose not to because I was lazy.

Step 4.  If your tube shifted, now is the time to push it back in all the way against the new seam in the bottom.

Step 5. About an inch away from the top of the cardboard, make a running stitch in the fabric.  You will be pulling this thread to gather the end of the door stop.   If you have heavy doors, now is the time to add the pebbles or beans to weight your doorstop.  

Step 6.  Pull the thread to gather the fabric and tie a secure knot to close your ruffle.  Remove your tape placeholder on the side of the tube.

Step 6.   Put your doorstop under your door!  The fabric gives a little tooth to your stop, and the tube bends slightly to keep from marring your floors or door.
Enjoy!

Technique of the Week #4 - Pentel Fabric Dye Pastels

Project Hours: About 3
Design and materials: about 1 hour
Execution: About 2 hours
This weekend I was in Zion, IL for a quilt retreat, and I needed a portable, yet artistic technique to try.
I got these fabric pastels at a recent local quilt show, and they are very much like using art pastels for paper.  They are soft, get all over your hands, and smudge very easily.  But they are pretty neat.  I used a white fabric background for this piece, and used my koi fish design from last week in reverse.
Follow the directions about ironing, and be sure to cover the work like they say to.  The dye will migrate to your covering surface, so make sure you don't put it face down on the ironing board.
I washed this with some harsh hand soap to see if the color would fade or wash out, and my wash water was clear and there was no fading!  The fabric was slightly waxy before it would get totally wet, but still has a nice hand.
The price for a set of these can't be beat, so give them a try!

My Kadomatsu and Year of the Tiger display

I forgot to post pictures of the kadomatsu display I put up this new year.  I have a cute animal zodiac figurine set from Japan and I got to put up the adorable cute tiger for 2010.  
I got some kadomatsu this year to add to my little display, which resides in my china cabinet.  You may remember my kadomatsu quilt from last year's weekly Japanese culture series of weekly quilts.  Now you can see what I was trying to depict. Kadomatsu means "gate pine" and is used in doorways to attract spirits to them.


You are supposed to put them up after Christmas and take them down on January 7th.  Traditionally you burn them after the 15th to release the spirits inside, but as mine are plastic I doubt they were made to be burned.

I'm going on a quilt retreat this weekend and am super stoked to get some things finished up!

The amazing super duper project of 2010

Often, the most rewarding projects you make are not for yourself, but for other people.  
I have offered to my sister to make her flowers for her wedding.
Not just any flowers.  Fabric ones.  For the whole wedding party.

I have some lovely designs for fabric flowers already, and never really realized them as patterns for sale.  But, I will be trying these patterns over and over and over again for this wedding.  So I'll be really good at making them, at least.  The white ones here were my pattern samples, made in white to get a sense of how they will look.



The math is was astounding on how many to make of each of the designs we have picked for her flowers. Luckily, my sister decided to make some last minute changes to the hydrangeas.   I did the math on how many flowers of each type will be needed, and also the calculations on how much time each flower will take to make to get a true sense of how much time I will be on this project.  It's alot, but doable in the 8 month time frame considering my weekly quilts factored in (oh, and my full time job).

I have already heard from the bride that she wants to help make them, which I think is super sweet, and should be loads of fun for us to do together.  We had a blast selecting fabrics and can't wait to see how these turn out!

Technique of the Week #3 - Painted Fusible Web

Project Hours: About 3
Design and materials: about 1 hour
Execution: About 2 hours

This technique I had heard about on Quilting Arts TV.  Pokey Bolton does a quick demonstration of it on the show, but I got more information about this technique in Jane Davila's and Elin Waterston's book Art Quilts At Play.  

The texture of the WonderUnder is visible in this technique and I don't know of any fusible that is completely smooth, so this technique will always have some element of surprise.  I was pleased that my koi fish came out looking like it had scales on it. I also realized once I was finished that I could not iron the image after removing the backing paper... It would stick to your iron.  


That said, this was an easy, quick, and fun technique.


I am going ona  quilt retreat this upcoming weekend, so it should be lots of fun to get my sewing groove on for 3 days uninterrupted. 

Technique of the Week #2 - Bleach Pen

Project Hours: About 5

Design and Research- about 2 hours

Execution - About 3 hours

So the LED light up squid got lots of attention from Craft blog and other various websites, and many thanks to the folks that commented and asked about the project.

This week's technique is taken from a book called Fabric Embellishing, in a chapter about discharging fabric. I could have used all of the methods in the book, but I chose to buy and try out a fabric bleach pen.  

The image is my representation of the Kraken.  A new version of "Clash of the Titans" is coming out this year, and the 1981 version is a beloved movie of mine.  My DH is playing God of War 2 on the PS3 and he also encounters a Kraken as part of the Greek mythology in the video game.  So much to my surprise when researching this lil bugger, the myth of the Kraken is NOT Greek at all.  It's Scandinavian.  And it's a gargantuan size squid or octopus, not a reptile/man thing.  This was interesting timing to learn this news, as we had just booked a Scandinavian cruise.  So the "tentacle" of fate has reached out to me once again, and I could not pass up making a version of the Kraken.

Things about this technique...  Shake the bleach pen well before using.  My first two tries the bleach was runny and bled much more than this final one.  Also, work in a well ventilated area or use a mask, it's still strong.  Follow the Anti Clor directions well.  And I thought the use of this unusual batik made for even more interesting discharged areas.  

Technique of the Week #1 - "Soft Circuitry"

Project hours: about 7
2 hours design + research
5 hours execution


I got a fabric circuitry kit for Christmas, and I had been dying to try some of the things from Craft/Make magazine about fashion technology. I thought this could be adapted to a quilt, and I was pretty ecstatic with the results.

First off, this is an interpretation of a taningia danae squid.  I say "interpretation" because not only is it a cartoon version, but the tentacles that exhibit the bioluminescence are exaggeratedly long.  Oh well!  I was researching cephalopods for my themes and came across bioluminescence and thought this was a great connection for my LED circuit project!

Here is a photo of the back of the quilt so you can see my "circuitry".  Basically, I took 2 blue LEDs and connected the positives to the back side of my coin cell battery holder, and the negatives to the front. The battery does have to be inserted correctly.  The "holder" is just a folded over piece of cloth, sewn to the back after I connected the conductive threads to the right poles.  It's nice and tight, and the battery has a good connection inside.  This holder has a benefit of being flat against a wall if I were to hang the quilt. 

A great start to my goal for a "technique a week"! I plan to provide the hours each one takes me to execute so you get a good idea of how intricate some of the methods are.

Weekly Quilts in 2010

I will be doing weekly quilts in 2010, however, I have opted to do something a bit different (again) this year.

The last two years took themes and expanded them out over the 4 weeks of a month (sometimes 5). This worked great in some instances, and less so in others.  The hard part was the travelling for work.  It was hard to take some of these themes "mobile". Sometimes the themes left me uninspired after I got the original idea out of my head.  Some would have worked better as a larger piece, so I left detail out that I would have preferred to have tried.


One of the things I liked about the first year of weeklies is that they were often technique based. The whole reason I did some of those pieces was to work with a new material or try a technique out.  So I have decided to go back that way, and use the weekly pieces as an educational exercise.  


I have two other concepts I'd like to incorporate somehow this year, either in monthly works or something to that effect.  First, like 2008 was the "Year of the Pomegranate", 2010 is the year of the "cephalopod".  I am not joking that I have seen squid and octopuses EVERYWHERE.  They are a dominant theme lately, and I think it's kinda cool.  So that's one concept.  

The second is that I am voracious researcher.  I love to learn something new, and the things I learn are so very eclectic that there has to be some theme that can be taken away from the learning.  

So, expect to see works in new techniques, often with themes based on something new I have learned recently or cephalopods.. ha ha!  Happy 2010!

Starting off with something new in 2010

One of my goals for 2010 is to blog more often.  I wasn't very good at this in '09 and I can be better in '10.  

To that end, and to try my hand at something art-y, I decided to try a little cartoon.  

I warn you, I CANNOT draw.  Really, I have no perception of depth or balance in this arena.  So these aren't going to be the best, but I can try.  I do work in the comic industry and have spent 2/3 of my adult life reading them, so I should be able to get some strips going.  I can do cutesy little faces and blobs, but real items and backgrounds are NOT my thing. 

My plan is to do one a week.  We will see how this goes!  

One of my next posts will be about my weekly quilt series in 2010.  I hope you'll stay tuned for my adventures.