Friday, November 10, 2023
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Painting On A Finished Quilt
Painting On A Finished Quilt
When looking at totally finished quilt one day and realizing that something was wrong with it (and I mean even after putting a name label on it, and entering it into a show) is a heartbreaking experience. You might have to put it in the closet for months or years as a solution comes to your awareness. This happened to me, with my Sheep Creek, MT quilt. The mistake was probably made from all of the moves around the country I make, while working on a quilt. A fence railing piece must have "rotated", and I never realized it until it was too late. But was it really too late? I don't like to give up, as the quilt meant so much to me, but the error, that perhaps only I noticed, irked my soul.
Here is a before and after picture of the quilt. Do you see the difference? Below them is the photo I took, which the quilt was designed from.
I dream about quilting, so solution ideas popped up in my dreams. As perhaps, I could take the quilt apart, fix it, and then put it back together? The problem of rotating that asymmetrical piece of fabric, meant that it would not fit, and I did not have anymore to replace it. Also, the quilt had been appliquéd using fusible web (which might never come off), and then finished with a tulle fabric on top. Therefore, taking it all apart could cause more damage than benefit. Perhaps painting the fabric would work? I researched online, advice from others about painting tulle fabric, and saw that it had been successfully done using acrylic paint. So I did a little sample to make sure. Here is an image of that, and the paints I used.
After painting, the paint must be heat set, so I used a blow dryer. I am thrilled with the results!
Thursday, July 19, 2018
Summer Quilt Class at MISA
Madeline Island School of Art (MISA) is on the largest of the 22 Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. It is a bilingual place with road signs written in English & Native American (Anishinabe / Ojibwe / Chippewa). Madeline Island is is the spiritual center of the Lake Superior, Chippewa, on Lake Superior.
For the quilt class, I selected Valerie Goodwin's "The Complex Composition", for July 9th to the 13th. I departed from Butte, MT, so 3 Delta flights were needed to get there. I went from Butte to Salt Lake, St. Paul, to Duluth. Then MISA had a nice driver John pick me up and drive me onto the 20 minute ferry ride from Bayfield, WI, which docks at LaPointe on Madeline Island. MISA is then a quick 1.6 mile ride on from there. Students are to arrive on Sunday, the day before classes begin, for a welcoming reception at 3 PM, but my flight to St. Paul arrived late, therefore we had a late take-off, so I missed the flight to Duluth and had to catch a later one. Inevitably, I missed the reception.
Then early the next morning (before class started), I went to set-up my sewing machine that had shipped from New Jersey to MISA by FedEx, and found that the sewing machine light came on, but not the screen light. It would not operate. I felt such despair, however I found that MISA rents Bernina brand machines. So I had to rent a Bernina and deal with FedEx to figure out how to make a damage claim. I tried to do this subtlety , along with listening to the teacher , when the class started at 9 AM. I was not familiar with Bernina brand machines, so I had to learn to operate that. The Babylock Symphony machine that I had shipped was a great machine that I had just had serviced before the trip. Upon opening the FedEx shipment box, and unloading the machine, I noticed the plastic on the side of the machine was bent out of place, and the metal plate below the needle had popped up. I think this shows that the 71 pound box had been dropped. The box itself had a bent bottom side and some punctures on the bottom of the box.
There were two other classes going on as well at MISA, one of which was Painting and the other Mixed Media. We were free to walk around and check them out when we had time, though the painting class went on expeditions everyday to paint the beautiful scenery on the island. Never the less, everyone came to meals, where we got to intermingle. I must say the food was delicious! I had not requested vegetarian meals, though I often eat that way, but hey had plenty of vegetarian food, and also got to eat local fish, chicken, and beef. They supplied dinner 2 nights, but lunch and breakfast everyday, with plenty of snacks available anytime, if anyone desired. Our sleeping rooms even had a microwave, small refrigerator, and a coffee maker with supplies.
This quilt class was for intermediate to advance quilters, and had 9 students. The teacher Valerie Goodwin is an architect/professor/quilter. She struck me as a very talented artist. As a teacher, she gave us many ideas, but let us do our own thing, with helpful suggestions and advice.
Class began with learning about different types of maps, for example; Climate Maps, Resource & Economic Maps, Political Maps, Physical Maps, Road Maps, Topographical Maps. Maps have always fascinated me, which was interestingly the similar response from all the other students in the class. Our class goal was to combine different perspectives and aspects of the location we picked on our map quilt. If you look deeply into Valerie's quilts you can see more and more. They have a depth of interest.
I was torn between choosing between 2 subject ideas, weeks before the class began, as Valerie requested that we send her pictures of areas that we were interested in doing. She could then help us narrow it down before class, to save classroom time for actually making the quilt. Other people told me that it was exceptional for her to work with us before class even started. She also helped me locate other map sources on the internet, which I was not familiar with. My subject ideas were Strathmere, NJ and Woodbine, NJ. I decided to start off with Strathmere. In fact, the class opened my mind up to so many more ideas to pursue. Working on them is such fun to me, even though I make many mistakes along the way.
I had never used silk organza before, which is a semi transparent fabric, so this class showed me ways it could be used in a quilt. One mistake I made along the way, was when painting it. Using a white organza to paint the colors I would use for my ocean and bay, I had painted it my first and second blue colors (Valerie recommended 3 shades of blue for the water). I protected my work surface by painting the silk on plastic bags taped to the table. But the plastic was so dirty after this that I had to discard it and find something else to use. So to substitute I tried using a poster sized print, of one of the maps of Strathmere, I had had made at Staples. My fabric paint was so diluted with water and paint medium that it soaked right through the silk organza onto the poster. The ink from the poster stuck permanently to the organza. It was a wonderful discovery.
The photo below shows my hand behind one of Valerie's masterpieces, illustrating the transparency of silk organza.
Daylight lasts until 10 PM during the summer, since Madeline Island is at a high latitude. So MISA has bikes we can borrow to ride to town or around the island after class. I totally enjoyed that and even got a little lost because of misinterpreting the Indian language on the road sign. But I was not worried because the island is only about 16 ,miles circumference and I new I would end up in familiar ground eventually, and looking forward to running into a delicious ice cream parlor, where I could take a break along the way. I just needed to get back to MISA before dark though, as there is no light pollution there. They even give you a flashlight at MISA to help you find your way around campus after dark. The art studio is open 24 hours a day, and one night some of us even worked in the studio until 11 PM. Enjoying some wine and chatting while we worked.
Sandy Evans won the opportunity to take the class, with a stipulation that she would make a map quilt about MISA. MISA seemed to be using our class for marketing, as they were also filming us while we were working. I always seemed to be fixing mistakes when they were filming me (darn), instead of showing my creative genius (haha). But I must say, we all agreed that we seem to learn more from mistakes. Sometimes(if not many times) new inventions or dicoveries are found that way., as I learned from painting on top of ink jet prints.
These photos were taken on the last day of class, when we were asked to hang our work and discuss it. No one had finished their quilt top except Susan Ziel, who amazingly, had even made about 7.
For the quilt class, I selected Valerie Goodwin's "The Complex Composition", for July 9th to the 13th. I departed from Butte, MT, so 3 Delta flights were needed to get there. I went from Butte to Salt Lake, St. Paul, to Duluth. Then MISA had a nice driver John pick me up and drive me onto the 20 minute ferry ride from Bayfield, WI, which docks at LaPointe on Madeline Island. MISA is then a quick 1.6 mile ride on from there. Students are to arrive on Sunday, the day before classes begin, for a welcoming reception at 3 PM, but my flight to St. Paul arrived late, therefore we had a late take-off, so I missed the flight to Duluth and had to catch a later one. Inevitably, I missed the reception.
Then early the next morning (before class started), I went to set-up my sewing machine that had shipped from New Jersey to MISA by FedEx, and found that the sewing machine light came on, but not the screen light. It would not operate. I felt such despair, however I found that MISA rents Bernina brand machines. So I had to rent a Bernina and deal with FedEx to figure out how to make a damage claim. I tried to do this subtlety , along with listening to the teacher , when the class started at 9 AM. I was not familiar with Bernina brand machines, so I had to learn to operate that. The Babylock Symphony machine that I had shipped was a great machine that I had just had serviced before the trip. Upon opening the FedEx shipment box, and unloading the machine, I noticed the plastic on the side of the machine was bent out of place, and the metal plate below the needle had popped up. I think this shows that the 71 pound box had been dropped. The box itself had a bent bottom side and some punctures on the bottom of the box.
There were two other classes going on as well at MISA, one of which was Painting and the other Mixed Media. We were free to walk around and check them out when we had time, though the painting class went on expeditions everyday to paint the beautiful scenery on the island. Never the less, everyone came to meals, where we got to intermingle. I must say the food was delicious! I had not requested vegetarian meals, though I often eat that way, but hey had plenty of vegetarian food, and also got to eat local fish, chicken, and beef. They supplied dinner 2 nights, but lunch and breakfast everyday, with plenty of snacks available anytime, if anyone desired. Our sleeping rooms even had a microwave, small refrigerator, and a coffee maker with supplies.
This quilt class was for intermediate to advance quilters, and had 9 students. The teacher Valerie Goodwin is an architect/professor/quilter. She struck me as a very talented artist. As a teacher, she gave us many ideas, but let us do our own thing, with helpful suggestions and advice.
Class began with learning about different types of maps, for example; Climate Maps, Resource & Economic Maps, Political Maps, Physical Maps, Road Maps, Topographical Maps. Maps have always fascinated me, which was interestingly the similar response from all the other students in the class. Our class goal was to combine different perspectives and aspects of the location we picked on our map quilt. If you look deeply into Valerie's quilts you can see more and more. They have a depth of interest.
I was torn between choosing between 2 subject ideas, weeks before the class began, as Valerie requested that we send her pictures of areas that we were interested in doing. She could then help us narrow it down before class, to save classroom time for actually making the quilt. Other people told me that it was exceptional for her to work with us before class even started. She also helped me locate other map sources on the internet, which I was not familiar with. My subject ideas were Strathmere, NJ and Woodbine, NJ. I decided to start off with Strathmere. In fact, the class opened my mind up to so many more ideas to pursue. Working on them is such fun to me, even though I make many mistakes along the way.
I had never used silk organza before, which is a semi transparent fabric, so this class showed me ways it could be used in a quilt. One mistake I made along the way, was when painting it. Using a white organza to paint the colors I would use for my ocean and bay, I had painted it my first and second blue colors (Valerie recommended 3 shades of blue for the water). I protected my work surface by painting the silk on plastic bags taped to the table. But the plastic was so dirty after this that I had to discard it and find something else to use. So to substitute I tried using a poster sized print, of one of the maps of Strathmere, I had had made at Staples. My fabric paint was so diluted with water and paint medium that it soaked right through the silk organza onto the poster. The ink from the poster stuck permanently to the organza. It was a wonderful discovery.
The photo below shows my hand behind one of Valerie's masterpieces, illustrating the transparency of silk organza.
These photos were taken on the last day of class, when we were asked to hang our work and discuss it. No one had finished their quilt top except Susan Ziel, who amazingly, had even made about 7.
Susan Ziel
Sandy Evans
Gayle Cepparo
Danita Rask
Leslie Pope
Sue Walsh
Robin Roderick
Sue Perse
My work in progress of Strathmere
My warm-up project of "Map of MISA"
View from my room at MISA
P.S. From Gayle Cepparo and Valerie, I learned about Empty Spools Seminar quilt classes at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA. It is on the beautiful Monterey Peninsula, which also has great places to play golf! I plan to go.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Serenity horse quilt
The idea for this “Serenity” horse quilt began years ago, when the photo was taken in Ireland on a Robert Sharon Chorale trip to a horse retreat for retired famous horses, also called a stud farm. This horse just looked so serene, lying in the meadow.
It took me years to figure out how I was going to make something out of the photo, and even as I am working on it now, decisions are still being made along the way. For example. I originally wanted to thread paint the horse, but first thought that I must paint the horse on fabric, then thread paint on top of it. Well it turned out that I like the painting so much, that I am a little afraid to ruin it with the thread painting, but I am going to stick it out and try. One problem is that I must use tulle to hold down the raw edge appliqué, then thread paint, then add batting and quilt, then add border and binding, and last but not least name patch and rod holder. But I wonder if in this stage, if I should thread paint without the tulle, and then add it later when I am going to do the quilting. I could also consider thread painting with the batting, as it can act as a stabilizer.
The border in the photo above is not sewn onto the quilt. I will have the batting and backing large enough for the finished size, and will add the border later.
Any suggestions?
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Ecoquilt for Ecoflight
Bruce Gordon runs a non-profit company called Ecoflight, which uses flights from a prop plane to show people issues on the ground with our environment, from the air. Perspective is important for our point of view.
I like helping non-profit organizations by giving them my quilts, that might help them in some way. I have given a choir quilt to the Robert Sharon Chorale, and so far three of my quilts to Yemin Ord Youth Village in Israel. I have also taught others how to make blocks for a quilt which I would complete for The Jerome Golden Center For Behavioral Disorders and Scripps Research.
Jane Pargiter is Bruce’s assistant and took the picture I selected to use for a quilt from a flight over Arizona Dam of Lake Powell. That flight was taken as part of a student educational program they have.
The piecing method I used was learned from a class I took at the Daytona Beach AQS show in 2016 by David Taylor, though I varied his method a bit. I was attracted to his method, because it did not leave raw edges. The pieces were then machine appliquéd with a minute zig-zag stitch. He also taught us to appliqué the pieces onto a fabric background, which certainly helped with stabilizing the appliqué stitching. I started appliquéing from the top of the quilt, but then worked from the bottom up, when I got to the dark water, from which I appliquéd the water reflections on to it and the cliff. The airplane will be appliquéd at the end.
Fabric paint helped add dimension to the landscape, but thread painting and quilting will also add to that.
EQ7 helped me design the border, and also determine the size of the quilt. The design I came up with symbolizes a plane’s propellers. I love pieced block borders ability to draw attention to a quilt and tie it together.
This quilt is not finished yet, so it will be exciting to see how it comes out!
Friday, November 23, 2012
It is the day after Thanksgiving and I have so much to be thankful for. Besides being able to pursue making quilts for the love of it, I am also a breast cancer survivor. My story has just been included in a new book by Dr. Roger Khouri, MD, FACS and Dr. Thomas Biggs, MD, FACS. It is titled, "Your Natural Breasts: a Better Way to Augment, Reconstruct, and Correct Using Your Own Fat".
Dr. Roger Khouri treated me at the Miami Breast Center in Key Biscayne, Florida. He is quite a creative inventor and artistic surgeon, who uses liposuction to obtain fat to use to create your breasts. He also augments breasts that do not have cancer. For more information, check out: www.miamibreastcenter.com/
Things happen in our life, that help you learn how to appreciate everyday (even the bad days), as they can lead you to greater paths, if you let them. So I have to recommend all women to check out this book.
So the answer to the question at the top is: Creativity!
Friday, January 27, 2012
South Florida Fair 2012
The bodies of the riders were made with embroidery thread and the heads made with little wooden jewelry balls. The red and yellow fabric in the trunk of the ride came from fabric I purchased South Africa. Geometric shapes are popular there, maybe because they are so dazzling.
On my last blog message I mentioned, that I was looking for ways to RESHAPE A QUILT FOR ACCURACY IN PREPARATION FOR PHOTOGRAPHS. I had heard that photos entered into contests can make or break your chance of winning. One interesting article I found is listed here:
www.ehow.com/how_8008993_square-quilt-top.html
But this article talks about resizing just the top of the quilt, before it is combined with the batting and backing. But chatting with other quilt guild members, revealed that it can also be done on a completed quilt, but that you need to pin the damp quilt (stretched to size) on your design wall. I would put towels on the wall, before I pin the quilt on it to dry. Also, it is recommended to use "T-Pins".
Let me know if this works for you.
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