Freezer Paper resist

Something I have been wanting to try is using Freezer Paper as a resist. I remembered seeing it done on The Quilting Arts blog. I started by cutting some snowflakes just like we did as kids except I used freezer paper. I pressed the paper (glossy side down) with a dry iron onto the right side of my pre-washed fabric to get it to "stick" and then applied paint.
Uh Oh.....I had thinned the paint with water quite a bit and when I looked at the reverse side of the fabric it was totally saturated with colour. I thought that this was probably a big mistake but decided to leave the snowflakes in place and wait until it dried completely.
To my surprise the "resist" still worked. When I lifted off the paper shapes there was indeed the image I was hoping for.
Not wanting to waste those perfectly good snowflakes I decided to see if the freezer paper would "stick" a second time.
I placed them on a dark background, pressed them in place and then simply stitched all over the paper.
I added free motion stitched snowflakes to one and little silver foil snowflakes to the other, trimmed them up and finished them as postcards to drop in the "mailbox" for the postcard exchange at our next guild meeting.

Midnight Snowflakes & No Shoveling Required
I'll be looking forward to more "playtime" to explore the possibilities using freezer paper and paints, dyes, crayons, markers...........anything messy really.

Discoveries

I have made several really cool discoveries this week, some of which are being applied to projects I am working on for juried shows that I plan to enter in the spring so I can't share just yet.....ah but I will .............I promise!
There is one I can share with you though.
Have you seen a product called "sew slip"? This is a thin sheet with a small round hole in it made as an aid for free motion machine quilting. The idea is that you lay this on the bed of your sewing machine, the opening is placed where the needle goes up and down and the sheet, being static "sticks" to your machine. This is supposed to reduce the "drag" on your quilt and help it glide more easily. These sheets retail for around $25 - $29.
I was skeptical about how well these sheets would work so a friend loaned me hers to try. The quilt did indeed appear to move a little more smoothly with this sheet in place.
Now the question of the day was........Could I make one of these myself?.......................Oh Yes I can and you can too!
All you need is some inexpensive clear vinyl, I used a 6 gauge. Just ask for 6 gauge clear vinyl at your local fabric store, they'll know what you are looking for. ( 8 gauge may also work but I think the 12 gauge might be too thick and therefore not as pliable )
Make yourself a pattern, a basic rectangle 18" x 12". On one end, mark a small circle 6" in from top, bottom and side.
Lay your pattern on top of the vinyl and cut it out. Carefully cut out the "hole" and you are done.
Place the vinyl on your sewing machine bed so that the hole is situated in the proper place to allow for ease of sewing. Now, I have to tell you that on one of my machines it stuck.....no problem, but on the other the vinyl could still "shift", so if this happens to you, don't worry. I took a slightly moistened paper towel and wiped my machine bed with it, then, put the vinyl back in place. It worked perfectly. I stitched for several minutes with out any shifting at all.
Since every machine is different you can now customize your own sew slip to suit your needs & you are absolutely sure that you will not be leaving behind any sort of tacky residue on your machine.
If you try it and you love it, let me know :-)

Some of my favourites

My Quilting Arts magazine arrived today......I can rarely find them on the store shelves so I finally decided to subscribe and my first issue arrived just minutes ago. I am excited because there is always something inspiring in this publication. So as soon as I finish this post , I will curl up with a fresh cup of coffee and dive into the pages.


I thought I'd show you some of the products I use most. When I hand quilt, nothing beats this leather thimble. I've tried other leather ones but did not like them and I have tried many of the metal ones with no success at all. (Can't seem to keep a metal one on my finger) The thimble-its are a great help in keeping your fingers from getting sore when "feeling" for the needle point under the quilt.
The Teflon sheet comes in handy for a great number of things, it is see through to aid in proper placement when working with fused applique. I also have a Teflon cover for my iron, which keeps it clean and I never have to worry about glues transferring where I don't want them.
This summer at the Goderich Quilt show I purchased a Sketch and Wash pencil made by Generals, I love this pencil for marking on fabric, it goes on smoothly, having to use almost no pressure and it DOES wash out. These pencils can be found at art supply stores.
For marking on dark fabric, this fine tipped white ink marker by Clover is terrific. The ink becomes more visible as it dries and stays visible until you take an iron to it at which time it totally disappears.
Those quilting gloves are by Fon's and Porter and I like them so well I have several pair. They are one of the few I have found that actually fit me properly.
The scissors are a pair of Gingher applique scissors that I have had for approximately 12 years. They have seen a lot of use, have never been sharpened and still work as good as the day I got them.
See those needles? Those are what I use when basting a quilt. They are easy to thread, very strong and the extra length makes the basting process a breeze.
The variegated threads in the photo are Sulky Blendables. These are my favourite threads to use for lots of detailed quilting. They really enhance the look of your design.

Ribbons

You may have noticed that most of my work is not from patterns, magazines or books, although I do occasionally adapt a pattern, I prefer to do my own thing.

I don’t really know what I am doing………maybe, for me that is a good thing because since I don’t know the rules, I do not restrict myself to playing by them. I get an idea and just try it out to see what may come of it.

I feel incredibly fortunate to have time in which I can play, to discover new and interesting things while completely enjoying the creative process.

Although I have always had the encouragement of family and friends, I’d quite often wonder if they were just being kind.

While helping out at our guild’s Harvest of Quilts show, I had been approached by several people expressing an interest in my work. I was simply amazed at the wonderful comments I received.........I actually have fans! How exciting is that?

I had entered a few pieces into the show and was thrilled to learn that once the ballots were counted, my work had earned 3 Viewer’s Choice awards. What an honour as there is a tremendous amount of talent among our guild members and it was evident at the show.

In the wall hanging category, my piece titled Earthbound was chosen as the 1st place winner.

In the miniature category, Glen Etive was voted as the 1st place winner

with Viking’s Bane earning 2nd place.


I hope to continue to play,share my discoveries and maybe even inspire.



Check out those one of a kind ribbons....Very cool!

Needle felting

While shopping at our guild's Harvest of Quilts show, I purchased some needle felting tools.

This past weekend, I finally had a chance to play and see what I might do with them. I had received a quick demonstration of how to use these tools at the time of purchase. Wool felting machines are now widely available but I like the fact that these tools are so portable.
Basically, you lay the roving (shredded wool) in a shape you like and then "stab" at it with the needle to get it to mesh with the fabric which is laid across that thing that resembles a scrub brush.
The colours the roving is available in are simply fabulous. I am quite sure that is what attracted me to them.
I decided that needle felting could possibly add more dimension to my work.

I began by making a cone flower............yes, that is supposed to be a cone flower!

I was not entirely impressed but I was sure it could be "enhanced" ( well I hoped)
A bit of thread painting was added and it began to take on a much more pleasing shape.

Here is a look at the back, as you can see I added a fair bit of thread.
But what to do with this?...............well of course, make a postcard.


I combined a few scraps, laid the angled cut cone flower piece on top and practiced my free motion quilting. Now I am all set for our next postcard exchange.

hmm..... How many days till spring?

Hands on Christmas

This year, as member of my quilt guild's executive I will be required to teach/demonstrate a Christmas craft at our December meeting. It would need to be something that can be done quickly, mostly by hand and require only a few supplies.
Oh No , this was going to be a challenge. Wanting to come up with something a little different, I decided that since Christmas is for kids why not play like children.
I got out my crayons and got to work. I first sketched an image I was pleased with and traced it onto off white pre-washed cotton fabric. Then I began colouring just like we did way back when.
I did try to stay within the lines.
Once it was coloured I added a few quick strokes here and there using a fine tipped pigma pen to add a bit of detail.
I then used a dry iron to "set" the crayon (although if you really try some colour can be rubbed off )
The next step was to create a quilt sandwich to make this piece ready for a little hand quilting. A variegated cotton thread was used to outline all of the holly leaves and stems.
The hand quilting will likely have to be finished at another time and most certainly the machine quilting. I machine quilted a very small stipple in the center and then just had fun doing this sort of bubble looking stitching. It kind of resembles snow don't you think?
I did add a few beads but this could be left fairly simple and used as a table topper center or go wild and junk it up with beads, baubles and ribbons for a small wall hanging. Here is what the reverse side looks like.
I guess we'll see how many members are actually interested in doing this, either way I 'm good, I mean come on now, would I really have to "teach" the use of crayons?
I hope to be able to post pictures when we work on this project so you will need to check back to view the results.
I will be conducting a machine quilting workshop in January...........how do I get myself into these things? so I thought that members who wish to finish up the machine quilting part could bring this piece and use it for practice. There will be sign up sheets at the next guild meeting for both the Hands on Christmas project as well as the machine quilting workshop.
More on the machine quilting workshop later.

More Postcards

This past week's brief blast of the season to come inspired "Winter Trees". This is the time of year when we can have bare trees and pockets with lots of snow while other areas remain green and lush. With this one I used coloured pencils to draw a scene, added a little thread painting & free motion quilting.
The "snow" is actually a bit of white cotton batting. Who says the batting has to be in the middle?


This next one I'll show in it's stages. First I made an interesting background with 2 prints and a curved seam. Then I cut out some shapes and fused them in place.
I backed this with a layer of stabilizer.

With a light variegated cotton thread, I began stitching, lots and lots of stitching. I continued until I had all of the elements covered with thread.
I then switched to a deep blue rayon thread and added yet more stitching

At this point I added the stiffener ( or batting ) and began to outline every thing with some free motion stitches, quilting was added on the stems and veins, a few curly Q's and it was finished.
See how the use of thread can bring about such a dramatic change to the look of your fabric.

What shall I call this one? How about "Thread Leaf".

Postcards

Making fabric postcards are a great way to try out ideas. They don't take a lot of time or resources. Here are a few examples of postcards I have made resulting in asking myself "what if?" What would happen if I tried to use paints, rubber stamps and ink, T shirt transfer paper, how about a technique I've been wanting to explore? Even free motion stitches can be tested on a postcard. Most of all I just give myself permission to play.

Here I used an image from a stencil. I lightly penciled in the honeysuckle and then used watered down acrylic paint (nothing fancy) just the inexpensive stuff available everywhere.
The outlines are drawn with a fine tipped sharpie. Believe it or not it is actually washable after heat setting with an iron.
This is called "Painted Honeysuckle".


So how about rubber stamps? They seem to be everywhere but I did not want to spend a small fortune to find out if this idea would work. So it was off to the dollar store in search of supplies where I picked up a few small ink pads along with a stamp. Then I looked around my home to see what I had handy that could be used to make simple shapes.
I used the stamp I had purchased and placed it randomly on the fabric. The dots are made using the head of a screw & pen tops. The shapes that resemble flowers were made using the hardware that will hang your broom or mop. Once again I got out my trusty sharpie marker and did some outlining. This piece is also washable after heat setting.
I call this one "Playing with Ink".
I find it difficult to come up with names for my quilts so making postcards can also be good practice at giving your works a title.

How about using T shirt transfer paper? It also helps with your skills at the computer. Once I have an image I am happy with, I simply tell the printer that I am using a transfer paper and it will reverse the image for me. Follow the few simple instructions that come with the paper and you can do most anything.
For this one, I printed a number of quilt blocks, cut them out and ironed them onto the fabric, did a few quilted spirals and I was done. Since they are all star blocks
I have called this one "Seeing Stars".

A friend of the family ( who is a passionate quilter) was about to celebrate 60 years of marriage. She enjoys receiving a postcard from me now and then so I thought I would just have to make one to commemorate this event. I, unfortunately did not get a picture of the finished card before mailing it but here is the image I created, then transferred onto fabric just like Seeing Stars above.


What a great way to send a "one of a kind" greeting!



Of course you can take advantage of scraps of fabric just too lovely to toss away. Here I cut a spiral and some ray shapes, fused them to a beautiful batik to create some sunshine. I then put a layer of tulle on top of this so that I need not worry about the raw edges fraying ( although that might have looked cool too!) and added the machine quilting.
This was one of my 1st postcards I think I named it "Catching some Rays".






Don't forget all those novelty prints out there. Have you ever bought some thinking that they were kind of neat but really have no idea what you will actually make out of them? Well, with some paper backed fusible web and a little imagination you will soon find use for even the strangest prints you own.

Here I have just placed a few leaves on my fabric added a couple of rubber stamp images and then used a variegated thread for the quilting. I can not remember what this one was called.






This next one is a novelty print used with a twist. I know that you can use fusible web under fabric but what if I wanted to use it on top of one and under another?????
The fish and plant life were fussy cut and simply laid on the fabric, I then layered a fusible web the size of the entire postcard on top of them. Next came a piece of drapery sheer, with a Teflon sheet I pressed the whole works with a dry iron and the result gives a cloudy appearance which I thought was quite effective. This was "Catch of the Day"



How about trying a new technique? I have seen and admired shadow applique and thought it might be a good candidate for a postcard. The pieces of stem, flower and leaves were all placed on the 6 x 4 inch fabric and then a sheer layer was laid over them. I did a straight stitch around all of the elements and then just had fun trying a new free motion quilting pattern.
This is "Morning Fog"


I enjoy being able to play and not worry so much about trying to achive a perfectly finished piece. I am always happy to find a fabric postcard in my mailbox.

MyQuilts Part 6

This piece is called Earthbound. I was very pleased to learn that it had been accepted into The Grand National 2008 show titled Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, held at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.
This work is really the result of my wanting to know if I could create a somewhat larger, more complicated piece than I had done to this point using the top stitched curve piecing method I so enjoy.
The answer is YES I can.
I began with not much more than a doodle that kind of, sort of, looked interesting. I played and developed it into a reasonable drawing on 9" x 12" sketchbook paper. The image was then projected onto a large piece of paper which was taped to the wall and traced into it's current size. This image would be traced again so that I would have a second layer to "map" how each individual piece would be added.

If you are unfamiliar with this technique, let me explain the basic premise. Each piece is inserted next to another. Each piece is turned under on one edge and then is placed to allow it to overlap another so that there are never any exposed raw edges. So to be successful at this you must take the time before the first piece of fabric is cut and decide how you plan to insert each piece. Here on the right you can see pretty much the whole drawing as it lies on my cutting table.

Left is a close up view of the water area. The arrows indicate which edge I plan to turn under.
If you like jigsaw puzzles you most likely would enjoy this process. Quite often I would think to myself.........I"ll just go and put in a few pieces.........but it can become a bit addictive and you find yourself there for very long periods of time. The actual piecing alone took me 120 hours, add to that the drawing and redrawing, "mapping" which is quite time consuming, preparing it for quilting and the free motion quilting itself, this piece took close to or possibly even exceeded 300 hours in making. Knowing that, would I do another similar piece? You bet!


I also had the idea, ( since this was not yet complicated enough) that I wanted to put all of the left over bits onto the back of this quilt. I kept every scrap of freezer paper and fabric....If it was not large enough to be of any real use I chopped it up into tiny little bits and scattered it across the entire back, placed a layer of drapery sheer over and then made sure this quilt was basted very well in preparation for all the wrestling it was in for while I did the free motion quilting on my domestic machine.
Then a thought occurred to me. Uh Oh! Can I actually quilt through the layers of the quilt and all of that fabric and paper I just crammed on the back? I guess I will find out. Not wanting to risk making a mess of this piece I decided to make a small landscape with lots of seams close together similar to what I was working on, added all that garbage to the back and see what would happen when I quilted it.
It worked surprisingly well so I was able to get back to the business of completing this quilt. I am quite happy with the result.
If you have an interest in seeing the other works that were exhibited at this year's Grand National check out the online catalogue and for past exhibits visit www.grandnationalquiltshow.ca
It was a fabulous show as usual with some of the most amazing works by quilt artists from across the country. I was thrilled to have the chance to be a part of it.

The LFQG's Harvest of Quilts show 2008

WOW! I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the show. What an astounding array of quilts. The welcome desk was very welcoming..........yummy stuff in the tea room.........fabulous items on the tooney table and great shopping! I thought the slide show of the challenge pieces was a wonderful idea, talk about a mix of traditional with contemporary.

The talents and creativity of our guild members could be seen in every single quilt on display from the tiniest miniature to the largest bed quilt and everything in between. The comments I heard from those taking in the show were nothing but positive. I am so glad that I choose to become a member of this guild.

A lot of planning an effort goes into a show like this and it was evident everywhere you looked.
Great job ladies.............rest up......... the next show is only 2 short years away.