Maggy Quilt Gets a Paint Job

After showing my art quilt, Maggy Trees a Coon at my two bees and at the Carolina Longarm Quilt Show, I decided to revise it a bit.  The quilt had lots of freehand outline quilting in the negative spaces to represent trees and foliage, but the stitching really did not show up well unless examined up close.

Out came the Tsukineko inks, Fantastiks applicators, and Fabrico markers.  I tinted many of the quilted motifs and then heat-set with an iron.



Before painting



After painting


It is always kind of scary to take a finished quilt and start applying paint.  What if you mess up?  I wiped the applicators off on scrap muslin until they were fairly dry before touching them to the quilt.  No blobs, seepage, or errors occured.


After painting

 All the little branches and twigs were traced and filled in.

I hope the use of lighter colors for some of the trees gives an illusion of depth, which I think was lacking before.


Before painting




After painting



Painted tree trunks, branches, and foliage

Now Maggy is on another excursion.  I dropped her off at the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh.  The Fair starts Thursday and will last ten days. Maybe I will go visit her there before it ends!

Anything Art at My House

Yesterday the new Anything Art quilt bee had its first "hands-on" meeting at my house. Our theme of the day was painting fabric, especially with Shiva Paint Sticks and Tsukineko inks. Some of the ladies brought projects to paint, and others played with some quilted practice pieces that I cut up. It was a gorgeous day with a little breeze and pleasant temps, and we enjoyed lunch outdoors while sitting in rocking chairs or the swing on my big front porch. We painted either in my kitchen dining area or out on the screen porch. I also got out my Caran-D'Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons. So much fun! Here is everyone but Margaret, who left a little early, and me, out on the screen porch.

I tried out some of my rubbing plates with Shiva Paint Stiks. I think I need to purchase the Teflon grip sheet that keeps them from slipping. I like that the Shiva oil paints work well with dark fabrics. Many fabric paints are too transparent to show up on dark backgrounds.

As we shared our knowledge of the paint stiks, I learned a new way of applying the paints to the brushes. Usually, I use a hard stencil brush, and rub it in to the end of the paint stik. Several others recommended coloring with the paint stik on a paper palette or plate, then rubbing the brush into the dab of color. Brilliant! You could do some color blending that way.

Someone started coloring this quilted practice piece with the inks, but left it behind. I finished coloring it with this strange color combination.

And I emphasized the quilted swirls on this piece, that I had previously tie-dyed with Setacolor paints and quilted on my Gammill. This could become the front of a tote bag or something.

I have spent a lot of happy hours painting fabric, but it was really fun to share the activity with friends!

A Finished Baby Quilt

This is my little great-nephew Christopher, to whom I was introduced at our family beach vacation back in June.

I just finished sewing on the binding and label for his baby quilt.

I used some of the motifs from the border fabric to paint a label with Tsukineko inks.

This little guy was born in March, so I am a little late. He lives in the mountains of Tennessee, so I guess he will still be able to use this soft flannel and Minkee quilt. Rachel, I will mail it to you after I show it off at my quilt meetings. Tonight is Capital Quilters Guild, and Saturday is Carolina Longarm Association.

Work-in-Progress Wednesday

Okay, I know it is really Thursday, but I did not have the bindings sewn on yesterday!

Here is my little green trapunto quilt, with a shiny metallic fabric binding applied to the top and ready to be hemmed to the back. I came across this fabric in my stash when I was searching for something to make the birthday crown for my father's birthday. It is from the same line, but looks more like a colorwash of pastels along with the gold. There are a few Swarovski crystals here and there, but I am thinking of adding something else to add shine to the top. Glittery paint? The tinting of these motifs was accomplished with Tsukineko inks and colored pencils.


And here is its mate, with the same shiny binding. I also added Swarovski crystals, which were not in place last time I showed this WIP. This is the one tinted with Neocolor II watercolor crayons. I have been heat-setting with my iron using parchment paper as a cover.

Now I have something to stitch tonight when I go to my bee meeting. I never mind hemming the binding to the back. Although, often on these little quilts, I have opted to stitch down a fiber or ribbon binding instead of the traditional double-fold binding. Just had to use this gorgeous fabric on these two!


For information on how these quilts were made with sheer top, cutaway trapunto and shadow trapunto, see my post of August 27.

Ring of Peace

Now finished except for label: Ring of Peace, my newest trapunto quilt.

Ring of Peace, 13" x 13", 2008.

Batiste wholecloth top over cutaway batting, fuchsia felt, and regular batting. Quilted on Gammill Longarm machine. Quilted motifs tinted with Tsukineko inks and colored pencils. Embellished with hot-fix crystals, seed beads, and a double row of variegated fibers. Bound with hand-dyed silk ribbon.

I decide to make the roses look a bit like the popular Peace Rose, which features subtle pink and yellow tones on white petals.

I hope that Ring of Peace is a subtle reminder of my wishes for world peace.

The rose wreath was designed by Julie Mullin of Apex, North Carolina, and is included in her Earthlines: Flowers collection of patterns.

Ring of Peace, Back

Ring of Peace, beaded rose detail

Ring of Peace, detail

This quilt is being donated to my Guild's quilt auction to raise money for charity.

October 4

2:00 PM
Annual Heritage Day
Historic Oak View Park
Raleigh, NC

Isn't this a great poster? See more information about the auction on the Capital Quilters Guild website. They are also raffling an "Opportunity Quilt" with very personable kitty cats.

Wednesday Works-in-Progress: Trapunto

While working on the twelve-inch quilt for the Breaking Traditions exhibit, I decided to browse through my pieces of batiste and colored felt, and make a few more twelve-inch trapunto wall-hangings. I have made five of these before, and like the surprising colors, layers, and textures of the quilted pieces. They are especially fun to embellish with inks, colored pencils, and beads or crystals.

I have colored this one and added a few crystals. It may get a little more coloring, which would be fun to do on a day like today when the tail end of Tropical Storm Fay is finally bringing us clouds and rain.

This one actually has a piece of lime green fleece under the trapuntoed top. I think I like using felt better, as this has a little stretch to it. But I really like the pastel effect of using the bright color under the sheer white batiste.

I also made these two pieces, one with a cherry red felt layer and the other with hot pink.

The rose wreath is from a Flowers pattern pack by Julie Mullins, a fellow Carolina Long-arm Quilter. Julie lives in my county and has designed many continuous-line quilting patterns. Most of them are nature-related.
The feathered heart is from a pattern pack from Judy Allen. Everything else is just freehand. You can still see the blue marks on the heart.

These quilts are actually wholecloth quilts made from a sheer batiste. You mark the trapunto design, which is the white part. Then you quilt just the outside of the design with water-soluble thread. I use Vanish-Extra. No backing yet, just Quilters' Dream Poly batting. Do not use cotton! For this step, I mounted all three tops on the batting at the same time.

When you wash out the Vanish tread and markings, the cotton will seep through. Ask me how I know! When you are finished doing the trapunto, you have an awful-looking puckery thing like this.

Then you carefully cut away all of the white batting layer along the stitching line. Be careful not to snip the top! I managed to cut all three designs away with no cuts in the top layer this time.

Then you have the fun of auditioning a colored felt, fleece or other fabric beneath the top. They should all start with vibrant colors, because they pale considerably under the batiste. I also use another batting behind the felt to make these very textural pieces. A pretty, coordinating and busy background fabric helps disguise any quilting flubs.

I use fine polyester threads to quilt the final layers. On these, I used Sew Fine in the top and Bottom Line in the bobbin. First, go over the trapunto design, making a good attempt to follow the exact edge of the cut-away polyester batting. You quilt all the lines this time. Then, quilt the remaining background areas as desired. Since I like to paint these, I try to quilt in some motifs like flowers and leaves.

When you finish quilting, soak the piece in cold water first to remove the blue marker, and then in warm to dissolve the water-soluble thread. Here is the green piece after wetting.

On this one, I drew my own little freehand wreath and flower. Not too precise. I want the whole thing to look casual.

I had a problem with the tension on the other two pieces- it was not tight enough, and I've been picking out some of the motifs that were not going to stay quilted. They will go back on the machine for a little tightening up.

Yes, I quilt these little twelve-inch babies on my twelve-foot Gammill frame.

Thanks to Karen McTavish for all her instruction on making these shadow trapunto quilts in her book, Secrets of Elemental Quilting. She even has a DVD showing how to make them included in the book.

Coloring/painting was my own idea. I use Tsukineko inks and/or colored pencils. Lots of fun!

Carolina Woodland Spring is done!

Here she is, folks! The final version of Carolina Woodland Spring.

I spent a good part of my afternoon yesterday sewing my green silk ribbon artistically around the outer border, only to rip it all out twice. Finally I asked my resident art consultant, of which there is only one in the house, if he thought it looked better with or without the ribbon. Answer was a decided "Without." So, no extra ribbon. I did add some beads to the outer border of green squares.

The spring green binding is a Ricky Tims hand-dye fabric.

If you would like to see other pictures of this quilt in progress, scroll up to the Search feature and type in green trapunto quilt or Carolina Woodland Spring. I have been working on this thing since last spring, off and on. In fact, I made the pattern for the dogwoods after scanning real dogwood blossoms from my back yard.

This quilt includes

• cut-away trapunto (the dogwoods, trillium, and little white flowers in the white side borders)
• color trapunto (the light green background is lime green fleece showing through the white batiste top
• pieced squares of green fabric including dupioni silk, hand-dyes, hand-painted, and commercial cottons
• free-motion quilting on my Gammill Classic
• painting of quilted motifs with Tsukineko inks
• Embellishment with Swarovski crystals, beads, and embroidery floss

Thanks for looking! I am filling out my entry forms for the Machine Quilters' Expo show. It is not until April, but the show is juried this year, and entries are due on January 15.

Art Quilting Pod-Cast

If you are like me, you get excited about every new product or technique that someone has used to make a beautiful art quilt. After I see a quilt that is gorgeous, watch a video, get a book, or see a magazine article, I purchase the product...and then it sits unused until motivation or need provides the impetus to actually use it. This seems somewhat wasteful, but it has served me well when the mood has struck! For example, after seeing Marilyn Badger make her Magical Ponchos on Simply Quilts episode 1110, I ordered the silk tops, Angelina, and water-soluble stabilizer immediately. Then about two years later, I got it all out and produced my beautiful fiber shawl when I needed it to wear to a wedding.

Another example of products I purchased after a Simply Quilts episode are Tsukineko inks, Fantastix markers, and stands. I was inspired by the talented Lura Schwarz Smith and her Faces in Fabric episode. I also ordered two sets of her DVD's. Well, I have yet to complete my portrait quilt, but I use these inks constantly for other projects, including:

• painting quilt labels-those fabric markers dry out so fast, but these inks do not!
• coloring quilted motifs, such as on Spring Greens and my other trapuntoed quilts
• adding details to picture quilts, such as Change of Season and Golden Memories
• painting fabric
• re-coloring faded quilts and decorative flags, such as the Fourth of July quilt
• creating artsy backgrounds and images for fabric postcards

Anyway, the reason for today's post on this topic is that I just watched Linda Schmidt on Bonnie McCaffery's ladest Vid-Cast. Have you checked these out? They are short, free video segments featuring Bonnie interviewing various quilters. Linda is a fabulous quilt artist who uses many products to achieve life-like dimension and texture. She also teaches classes online at Quilt University. Take a look at this Vid-Cast and see if you aren't eager to sign up for one of Linda's classes, purchase some Puff Paints or Tinzel or Misty Fuse!

Coloring Old Glory

We are getting ready to leave for our Fourth of July LONG weekend today. I am trying to get everything I need ready- for staying six days and having a huge group in for a pig-picking. Yesterday I found this little quilt flag that I bought years ago at the Capital Quilters Guild show. It is hand quilted by someone whose initials are HBC. Anyway, I thought I would have the red, white, and blue proudly displayed on the cabin. But when I retrieved this quilt from the closet, it had faded badly from being displayed in the hot sun on my front porch. Got out my Tsukineko inks- and PRESTO, CHANGO- it is now bright and pretty again instead of red, white, and gray!

I hope you all have a safe and happy Fourth of July! I won't be blogging again until next week!