Cloth, Stitch, and Thread

Starting to audition thread for the first ballerina quilt.

I am working through making several quilts with a ballet theme.  I have drawn four patterns and here is the first one in progress.  It’s mostly play right now as I am not sure how I want the end product to look.  I keep adding more textures to the floor area and am really liking how the layering is looking, but I am not liking the really bold larger prints.  Might have to tame those down a bit.

This post is coming a bit late, but better late than never.  October 15th was my birthday and since I am now somewhere in my mid-50s, I have decided to call my birthday New Year’s Day.  I don’t feel the need to count the number of years that I have been living on this planet anymore and honestly, sometimes I have to count up the years to figure out just how old I am.  Birthday celebrations are out the window and now I will be celebrating New Year’s Day on the anniversary date of my birth; after all, it really is sort of the start of a new year, isn’t it?  It’s the start of my personal new year… and my “New Year’s Resolution” this year is to start posting more on my blog.  Even if I just check in to say hello, I am going to improve my blogging skills.  Hang onto your hats!  Who knows where we will end up!

UPDATE!!  UPDATE!!
Eleanor has been located!!  How many months have I been searching for her?  (Can’t remember!)… I came across her all rolled up inside a piece of fabric that I pulled out for a new project!  I am so happy to have her living out in the open again with all my other “in progresses”.

Well!  So much for organizing my studio space!  I thought that a little organization might help me keep up with my “stuffs”; and I could find things when I needed them; I even built a nice size design wall.  Actually, the design wall prompted all the organizing.  I really needed a good one that could hold the items I placed on it so I bought some foam core at the local home improvement store, cut it to size, covered it with a heavy weight cotton batting and… Tah-Dah!! it holds all the pieces I place on it.  Well, I put Eleanor (the elephant appliqué) in a safe place while I was nesting for a few days; she was living on my old design wall the would not hold heavier pieces.  I was always picking her up off  the floor.  Now do you think I can find her???  Heck no!  She is no where to be found… not where I thought I had put her… I am so sad…  I really wanted to finish her background with a gorgeous blue ombre.  I really wasn’t happy with any of the other background I had made for her as seen in a previous post.  Where, oh where is Eleanor??

1.8.10
Ok, so this will be an on-going subject.  I am determined to create at least three works this year using three different and new techniques.  (New, meaning that I have little or no experience with the technique.)  The first project is going to be a portrait of the Ponca Indian Chief,  Standing Bear.  I found (online) a fantastic photo of him that is just beautiful.  The problem I have is that it is online, so the quality is not so great.  The technique that I am using for this quilt is:  mosaic piecing.  I am changing it up a bit, tho, to fit my needs.  I will be using 1/4 inch square patches (yes, you read it right:  one quarter inch square) and no sewing.  Obviously, the pieces are so small that sewing them would be impossible; they will be fused instead.  Over the course of several days, I worked with the photo in photo editing software and coaxed it into a pattern which is positioned under some very light-weight fusible interfacing.  I had to print the pattern off three times tweaking it until I was satisfied that it will work.  In the photo, he is wearing a neckband that has a zig-zag design in it.  I am afraid that it won’t show up very well in the finished quilt, so I may have to do more tweaking to bring out that little detail.  Also, he has a feather hanging from behind his head over his left shoulder that I am concerned will be lost in the mosaic effect.

Chief Standing Bear

1.14.10
Today, I laid out all the possible fabric choices for this quilt so that I could audition a palette.  Much easier said than done.  Most of the fabrics I chose were batiks.  I thought batiks would be much easier to handle in the oh-so-very-small-size and also, the colors are great and the textures will give a lot of interest, not to mention that I have a bazillion in my stash that I have never used (or used very little of) mostly in the fat quarter size.  The palette is 24 gradations of sepia-tone-ish colors.  The original photo was sepia so I decided to stick with that look and since it is one of my favorite photo treatments, it works on many levels!  Choosing 24 values was not easy, but I finally got them picked out and then took about an hour to order them.  Even after I settled on an order and left them to lay alone for awhile….. when I went back for that last look, I swapped a few around.  I’m sure they are not correctly ordered by value, but this is my first time doing this too and I found that it is not really easy to order by value even with the ol’ Ruby Beholder.  I even copied some of the fabric in B/W with my scanner to get a better idea of value.   I have never really worried much about value except in the broader light-medium-dark aspect of fabrics.  Now to cut fabric….  did you know that out of the long side of a fat quarter, you can get at least 80 little squares?  Heck!  I did not cut more than a couple inches of fabric off any of the pieces’ but a lot of them did not come out square and had to be tossed.  It’s not really back-friendly, tho…  OH! my aching back!!  I had to quit for the day.

Palette for Standing Bear Quilt

The oh-so-very-small pieces.

1.15.10
Today, I continued cutting fabric to complete the full 24 values.  At about number 18, I was ready to call it quits, but I continued on anyway.  I’m really stoked about this portrait!  I sure hope it turns out as beautiful as it is in my head.   After cutting all the values, I am ready to begin placing the little squares on the fusible; I some on that and had to quit for the day.  I am trying to sit on a tall stool to save my back, but I like to “hover” over the pattern to place the pieces.  I like looking directly down on it to get the tiny square placed exactly right.  I found that using tweezers to place the piece and a fine pointed dental tool to tease it into place works very well.  I am truly enjoying placing the squares on the pattern.

First day of "piecing" is finished.

1.16.10
Today, I worked only 20 minutes on the piecing and there is not much change from yesterday’s photo so I did not take a new picture today.

1019.10
I am very sick today and left my studio early to come home and hibernate.  I picked up a bad head cold (complete with fever) and I feel like a pile of crap! (To put it nicely.)  I did piece for a short time and took a picture to prove I am making progress.  I have to be careful that my sleeve does not drag across the pieces already placed so that I do not muck up the work I have done so far.

1.21.10
I have been itching to work on Standing Bear today!  I am truly amazed at how his hair is emerging.  I think I might have found a new technique that I will enjoy using on many more quilts!!  Tomorrow, I plan to work on this quilt all day….. or as long as I can… I am still very sick with sinus crap (ugh).

01.22.10
I planned on working all day on Standing Bear; I am very anxious to see the face appear.  I am, however, very sick with a sinus infection so I am going to the doctor this afternoon to get some antibiotics.  So far he is looking pretty good and the neck band is beginning to take shape.  I may have to tweak it still when all the pieces have been placed to bring out the zig-zag motif a bit more, but I am impressed at how it shows up at a distance… it may not need any tweaking!

1.24.10
I wanted to work on Standing Bear yesterday, but just had too much to get done and still don’t feel that great, so I did not get to go to my studio until this afternoon and only for an hour and a half.  That’s okay; the satisfaction I get from working on this quilt even for just a few minutes will keep me going until I can get back to him.

1.25.10
Today I arrived at my studio at my regular time, but I was waiting for an overnight package to arrive, so I took full advantage of those hours to work on Standing Bear.  I was able to finish his eyes, forehead, some hair and nose.  I just can’t wait to see this finished (I’m sure you will get tired of reading that line as I have already overused it)… but it’s true!! I stayed awhile longer this evening just to work more on the face!  The more I work on it, the more I am compelled to work on it… I think I am addicted.

01.26.10
I stayed late to work on Standing Bear… I NEVER stay late after working all day, but he just calls to me…. and I have to obey!!  :)  Take special note of the very light goatee he is wearing… it is barely visible in the photograph, but it does come through in the mosaic…  I am very surprised to see that!  The zigzag neckband is showing up, but not as much as I want it to… so I am sure I will be messing with that before I set it with an iron.

1.27.10
I got to work on Standing Bear for just a bit at lunch and again at the end of the day.  His whole face is done now and I will be working next on the feather that falls over his left shoulder.  I think in order for it to show up nicely, I will have to darken the background a bit on that upper right corner.  I have already removed some of the pieces I had placed and will replace them with a value that is about 4-5 shades darker.  Stay tuned!

1.28.10
I redesigned the area around the feather today.  The feather is showing up really nice now, and I am happier with it.  I hope to work on it all day tomorrow.. who knows.. maybe I can finish the piecing!!

1.29.10
Yippee!  Today I finished the “piecing” of Standing Bear!!.  The top right and bottom left corners were very time consuming and tedious.  I had to ignore the original pattern that I made and improvise because the photograph was torn in those places.  I reconstructed some of the right-most bear claws on his necklace and made up a background for both corners.  The top right was first and I completely re-did it three times.  What i learned on that experience is that if you place a small quarter inch piece of fabric, it has to come off pretty much the same way..  you cannot just brush them off… that will pull the well placed ones adjacent out of place.  I found that out the hard way, as usual.  Anyway… it took alot of time to pick up each of those pieces… have no idea how many, but probably several hundred.  Then I wasn’t happy with the first or second backgrounds… I am posting pictures of all the renditions…. I think the third one works best.  The first had too much contrast, the second was just crummy.  The next challenge was that some of the points on the right-most bear claws in his necklace were not clear because of the tear in the photograph.  I used my digital camera to help me “see” which squares needed to be changed out to create the claws.  I think they look pretty good!  I had to do this with four claws.  Finally, I had to recreate a background int he bottom right.  I guess, this really is foreground, not background. He is dressed in a dark wrap, so I did not like the original coloration that came out in the original pattern.  It was too light and looked out of place.  I carefully picked up all those (hundreds) pieces and replaced them with what I thought would be appropriate.  I like it much better.  Whew!!  Now… how am I going to quilt this?  I have a few ideas running through my head.  I will have to be sure before I start… There will be no turning back once I start.  I have a feeling that there will only be one shot at the quilting on this quilt.  Picking out stitches over quarter inch pieces of fabric does not sound like a good idea.

Bad Background upper right: too much contrast in the pieces

Background #2 upper right: Just plain crummy…. the dark line behind the feather is too strong

Much better background…

Bear Claws need work and I don’t like the bottom right section: not dark enough.

Finished!! or is it?? I still want to tweak that upper right corner… but i also need to quilt it…

2.3.10
The answer is:  NOT finished!  After living with Standing Bear in the above condition, I decided he had to have a nice border.  I spent 2 hours today squaring him up and adding two borders; he looks spectacular now!   I had some difficulty in the squaring up process as I really did not want to cut off anything, but had to to make it square.  This quilt had to be either 24 inches square or 36 inches square, and he was already 24.5 * 25.   Squared him at 24 inches and that meant that I had to cut off a full inch from the length.  I did not want to cut into his head, so I took it all from the bottom.  I love the bear claw necklace and hated to cut into it, but I had no choice.  It looks fine…  the necklace still looks great and I think I like having some of it “hidden” under the border.   As I was looking at my stash to pick a border fabric it occurred to me that I really did not know what color to choose.  I did not know if there was a special color in the Ponca tribe that a chief should use, or if there might be a color that was taboo.  I certainly did not want to put a color around a Ponca chief that was taboo!!  So!  I called my friend Rebecca at Rebecca’s Indian Trading Post to ask her about it.  She told me that the Poncas in the Omaha area are very earthy people and I should choose a very muted color or better yet choose an earthy brown/tan.   I decided to use a small strip of black around the main portrait and add a lighter tan tone-on-tone outer border to bring it up to 36 inches square.  The next step will be quilting it.  I have a few ideas, but I’m not going to share anything yet.   Hopefully, I will have time next week to get him completely finished!!  Stay tuned…..  Oh!   I forgot to mention that I spent 45 minutes fusing him yesterday.

4.12-22.10
Ok… I spent 16 hours quilting him and another 5.5 hours, trimming, binding (by hand), adding the sleeve, and blocking him for a total of 21.5 hours for the finishing part.  I used two battings in this quilt, a layer of Legacy soy batting (50/50 soy/cotton) and a thin layer of Legacy 100% wool on top of the soy.  It quilted beautifully on my longarm and I am very happy with the result.

I am in the process of constructing a background where my elephant can reside……

Which one do you like best?

Background 1

Background 2

Background 3

Background 4

Background 5

Background 6

Background 7

Background 8

Yippeeeeee!!  I entered both the Orang-Utan and the Big Cat in the Machine Quilter’s Showcase annual judged show and won a couple of ribbons!  I am still walking a few inches above the ground!  To see all the quilts that won awards and ribbons, please visit:  http://www.imqa.org/MQS2009/2009Winners.htm

My Mother-in-Law passed away in the month of February this year.  She and I had our differences, but I think that the main problem we shared early in our relationship was that we both dearly loved my husband and we both were very strong-willed women.  This combination spelled disaster for our budding relationship (I met my in-laws the day I married my husband) 34 years ago.  I will not go into detail about our “spats” as they are unimportant at this time.  What I will tell you is this:  although she was a strong, southern woman, she set an example for me in forgiveness and grace.  The bottom line is the fact that I did not want my boys to grow up seeing their mother and grandmother at odds, so….. I swallowed my pride, picked up the phone, called my Mother-in-Law and apologized to her for anything and everything I could think of even though I felt she owed me the apology.  She graciously accepted my apology and we began to re-build our relationship from scratch.  That was twenty some-odd years ago…. now she is gone and I miss her dearly.  I am so happy that I picked up the phone that day and swallowed that bitter pill of pride.  Anne became a good friend to me and we bonded very deeply after that.  I feel very blessed to have had her in my life and to have shared a lifetime of events with her.

Sometimes I think about how our lives would have been if I had not made that call.  Would we have stewed in bitterness and despised each other more every day?  I don’t even want to think about how that may have turned out, because bitterness breeds hate; and hate breeds intolerance; and intolerance breeds more bitterness.  It becomes a cancer of the soul…… and then your soul dies because it has no kindness to nourish it.

Love those around you, be kind, be gentle, be patient.

Have you heard the bru-haha about the newest issue of Mark Lipinski’s Quilter’s Home (March 2009)?  Basically it goes something like this:  Mark has published a cutting edge article on art quilts titled How far is too far? Shocking Quilts by Jake Finch.  JoAnn’s Fabrics and Crafts is refusing to display this issue because they are concerned that some of their customers may find it offensive.  Mark (being the smart and forward-thinking person he is) sealed each issue in a clear plastic sleeve.  Unless you tear the plastic open, you cannot peruse the magazine in the store.  I am sure Mark thought this would be prudent and appropriate packaging for this issue. Not so,  for JoAnn’s Fabrics.  If you are active on some of the online forums and discussion groups, you probably are aware that many are calling for a boycott of JoAnn’s Fabrics because of their refusal to sell this issue.  So for what it’s worth, here is my opinion on this matter:  the last time I looked this was a free country, Mark can publish his magazine however he wants to; JoAnn’s can choose what to sell in their stores; consumers can purchase any item they want in any store that sells it; I don’t see any problem….  I bought the magazine at Borders.  No big deal!  Let Freedom Ring!!  Yippeeee!  We are a free country and this is just a small case demonstrating that fact!  I am sure some are fuming at this, but come on!!  Boycott JoAnn’s Fabric stores??  Just because their marketing director does not want to display this issue?  This is what makes this country so great… we all think differently… What ever happened to honoring diversity?  For accepting people the way they are?  Come on ….  I say:  Go for it Mark!  Be strong JoAnn’s!  And to those boycotting:  get real.

(A note from Mark:   The issue that could not be sold at Jo-Ann will be sold at Sam’s Club instead this time around.)

Orang-Utan

My Orang-utan is amost finished!!  I am so excited about how s/he is turning out… don’t know yet if this is a boy or girl Orangutan….  what do you think?  There are more pictures on the “wip” page but here is just the face for now.  I plan to do a bit more embellishment with thread and I need to add a swarovsky crystal in each eye for a sparkle.  I so want this to be a girl… but when my family and friends look at the piece, they say “him”…  maybe I need to glue some false eyelashes to her? 

Now… I am already thinking of the elephant portrait that will be next.. then a giraffe….  then…  I’ll have a jungle before long!