Embellishments in Progress

This afternoon I played with my little "shards" art quilts- painting and embellishing.  My sewing room is on the third floor, and it was kind of cool to be up there and see the tree branches blowing around outside,  thanks to Hurricane Irene.

Here is "Reflection," before...

and after embellishing.

To play on the word reflection, I added more quilting with a shiny turquoise thread.  I used an aqua silk sari ribbon to form a circular space that could represent water, and ironed on lots of Swarovski crystals.  I painted some of the quilted areas with metalllic Lumiere paint.  The edges are zigzagged with metallic thread.

Here is "Sweet,"  before...

and after.

I used Lumiere paint to add some color and gleam, as well as Swarovski crystals in the center of the flowers.  The outer edge has a funky pastel fiber zigzagged for finishing.

Here is "Spirit," before...

and after.

I liked these before, but I like them after, too.  I have one more to embellish, and I'm still trying to decide how to hang them.  Tune in!

My Fabric Painting Lecture

No, I have not been up at our mountain cabin with no Internet service this weekend...I have been home with no Internet service! Something is wrong with our modem or router, and our service has been very sporadic. But it is working right now...hooray! We also un-installed the hated Internet Explorer 8. And now I can drag and drop my pictures in Blogger again!

You know all the fabric painting I have been doing? I was making samples for the program I presented at the Carolina Longarm Association meeting at the Forest Lakes clubhouse in Louisburg, NC. I made a new name tag to wear to Capital Quilters Guild meetings. This one has Shiva Paint Stik stenciling on hand-dyed fabric, needle-felted strap, and Swarovski crystals and ribbon.

While I was painting almost everything in sight, I noticed that my CLA name tag was looking white and boring, so I painted it with Tsukineko inks and Setacolor paint, and free-motion quilted it on the Long-arm with Tie Dye variegated thread and a metallic gold thread running together through the machine. It also has Swarovski crystals and a dyed fluffy fringe that I purchased at the Symposium from Artistic Artifacts.

We were planning to have a quilt show in September, but that has to be postponed because the church that hosts us will have to have sprinklers installed per the fire marshall. That means I still have time to make one of the challenge quilts. Here are two beautiful ones already quilted by two of our members, Suzanne and Donna. The object is to show what a difference the quilting can make.

We had a good show-and-tell with several beautiful large quilts. Here is Ann Hull on the right with the quilt she made from the Guild's Block Party blocks.

And here are the John and Dottie, a husband-wife team, with a gorgeous quilt that she pieced and he quilted.Then it was a terrific pot luck lunch, and on with my program. I started setting up my tables about an hour before the meeting. Charlie saw me with my car packed up and said, "I hope you enjoy your trip to Paris!" I brought a LOT of stuff.

I had Shiva Paint Stiks, Setacolor paints, Lumiere paints, Tsukineko inks, Neocolor II water-soluble crayons, Prismacolor pencils, Pigma micron pens, a few acrylic paints, and lots of tools and samples. I was asked to talk about the kinds of fabric paints I use, as well as how I go about embellishing a quilt. There was not really time to do much of a demo, although I did peel back the film on a Shiva Oil Paint Stik and load some paint onto a stencil brush. I also showed how I rub the Fantastix applicators on fabric to get most of the excess ink off before applying any color to the fabric. Here is my Shiva Paint Stiks display.

I got the little denim jumper at our local Goodwill thrift shop for $2.59, and stenciled some flowers, butterflies, and ladybugs on it for 3-year old granddaughter, Lily. I brought some ladybug buttons, red polka dot ribbon, and some rickrack that I may use to further embellish the dress.

These are my Setacolor transparent paints and a piece I painted and quilted.

and Tsukineko inks in their workstation with two Fantastik applicators for each color. I love that you never have to clean the applicators...a real plus if you have ever had to spend time cleaning paintbrushes. Those are my Lumiere paints and Necolor II crayons behind the inks.

After talking about the paints and other materials I brought, I had a trunk show of my painted and embellished quilts. I told the story of my "Something Girly" shadow trapunto quilt and my persistence in solving its problems. You can read about it here and see why I named it "Trouble."

I always enjoy the mixed reactions to The Green Man quilt- I think I will enter it in our show so I can hear the comments elicited by this, my strangest quilt ever.

So, now I still have to put everything away, but I am doing some sorting and re-organizing in the sewing room first. I spent several hours going through stuff on my cutting table, ironing board, and sewing table, but I have much more work to do. Anyway, I think my talk was a big success and I am relieved to be finished with it so I can move on to other projects.

I am very grateful to Donna Sontag for taking photographs during the program, and helping me pack up my dog and pony show at the end of the meeting.

Wednesday Works-in-Progress: Zen Garden Embellishments

Do you ever have trouble deciding whether or not to embellish your quilts with beads, paint, fibers, or other objects? I already made the decision to paint over some of the quilted motifs with Shiva Paint Stiks, which has transformed this piece from a piece of quilted fabric to an art quilt. I began to see the illusion of a pagoda, fence, waterfall, creek, and flowers. I have already added some blue-green beads to the waterfall area.
I will be adding more gold beads to define the gold "structures."

If you are going to embellish, it should certainly make a positive addition to the quilt's design, theme, meaning, or appearance. What I usually do is gather my containers of beads, ribbons, jewelry, silk flowers, buttons, and fibers. I pull out anything I think might work with the current project. Then I lay them on the quilt to see if I like the project better with or without the extra "stuff."

Below is an old brooch on the left side. I like the way the aged patina of the metal looks when contrasted with the gold and copper metallic paint. I may use it.

I am not opposed to adding silk flowers to add dimension to this piece, but have decided against these beautiful coral ones because I don't like think the warm color adds to this serene piece with cool colors. I will save them for another project.

Work in Progress- Carolina Woodland Spring

With all my Christmas projects complete, I decided to get out my green quilt named Carolina Woodland Spring and see what I can do to finish it. See my blog post of September 7 for the last photos of this piece.I added some more color to the quilted motifs, and some beads and embroidery for the centers of the dogwoods, trillium, and wood anemones.
I am trying to get it to talk to me about what else it needs. I think that next I am going to trim the outer green border to a nice organic shape. This whole thing is way too linear! But I like the way it is coming along.

Lily-bug Label

Lily's quilt is ready to be delivered to her this weekend. I finally made the label and sewed it on. I used photo-transfer fabric to print a picture of us from last Christmas, when Lily was six months old. I happened to be wearing a flannel shirt with flowers in just the right colors to match this quilt! Since I used yo-yo flowers on the front, I added a few on the label. I also found a ladybug button. Doesn't it look like Lily is reaching for it?

I added pictures of this quilt to a new album on my Webshots site, if you have not seen it in my earlier posts.

How to Embellish Lily's Quilt

Here is the top of Lily's quilt without any embellishments. What to do in the big blank in the square?









Here is my original idea- spell out her name in yo-yo's and buttons. These are just placed on here to see how they look. Typically, I embellish AFTER quilting. I also want to add some beads on the insects, and maybe more yo-yo's on the flowers.







Here is a closer look at the yo-yo's and buttons. I'm thinking of first appliqueing cloth letters, then embellishing. I think that would make the center complete better with the strong outer border.





The flowers, dragonflies, hearts, and ladybug are from the book Bugs, Blooms, and Bullfrogs by Pat Sloan. I used a fused 1/4" bias tape in a marbled green for the vines.

I am so ready to quilt this and get it done, but we are leaving on vacation Saturday, and I really need to do some preparations! I'll take it to my bee meeting tonight and see what the ladies think.

Embellishing Workshops with Melody Crust

I recently spent two very inspiring days at workshops sponsored by the Capital Quilters Guild with quilt artist Melody Crust of the Seattle area. Day 1 featured ways to embellish quilts with beads, ribbons, and embroidery. Melody brought many examples of her creations, including some beaded and embroidered purses to die for. She has written a book called Quilt Toppings: Fun and Fancy Embellishment Techniques, which of course I purchased. She signed it with the inscription, "Don't ever let anything be ordinary"- I'll try not to! Seeing Melody's quilts made me remember that all quilts do not have to be bed-size. Many of hers were only the size of Artist Trading Cards, or business card size. But, they were not stiff like ATC's, they were just tiny little quilts, often with beaded edges, thread painted flowers, and embroidery. What a great way to try new techniques! Melody's website is www.melodycrust.com. She allowed us to photograph her quilts, but I chose to buy her book or view her website with its gorgeous photographs. Her husband is a professional photographer!



We were each supposed to bring a project to embellish. I couldn't think of what to bring, so I did a pillow top in the colors of my baby granddaughter's room. I did not get much done on it during the workshop, but have lots of ideas! When I got home I added embroidery and beads to two quilt labels. One is for the basket quilt made by my sister-in-law's grandma. I recently finished it for her and will enter it in our quilt show. The other is for a small embellished quilt I made called "Spring Greens."




Day Two featured the use of Shiva Paintsticks and foiling on fabric. This one was lots of fun for me. She brought many boxes of supplies, so I added quite a bit to my collection of paintstick colors. We mostly used stencils (which she also supplied, or we could use our own) and applied the paintstick with stencil brushes. I made a few future quilt labels while I was there. After lunch we played with foil, and applied it with stencils or stamps. My only previous attempt had not turned out too well, so I was glad to learn how to do this. I made a few pretty foiled pieces that have gone into fabric postcards to sell at the Capital Quilters Guild show on March 9-11. They will be offered for $5.00 each, with proceeds to go to cancer research.

Here are the foiled postcards I made from my workshop samples. You can see more in the Fabric Postcards album at my Webshots site http://community.webshots.com/user/quiltnc/.