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 old 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.

Total hours invested to this point:  12.25

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….  I spent 3 and 1/2 hours this afternoon cutting very teeny tiny squares and got 12 of the fabrics cut.  Did you know that out of the long side of the fat quarter, you can get at least 80 good little squares?  Heck!  I did not cut more than a couple inches of fabric off any of the pieces.  It’s not really back-friendly, tho…  OH! my aching back!!  I had to quit for the day.

Total hours invested thus far:  12.25 + 7.5 = 19.75

Palette for Standing Bear Quilt

The oh-so-very-small pieces.

1.15.10
Today, I continued cutting fabric for another 3 and 1/2 hours 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 was ready to begin placing the little squares on the fusible; I worked another three hours 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.

Total hours so far:  19.75 + 6 =25.75

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.

Total hours so far:  25.25 + .33 = 25.58

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 an hour and a half tho 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.

Total hours so far:  25.58 + 2.5 = 28.08

1.21.10
I got to work on Standing Bear for 2 hours and 45 minutes 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).

Total hours so far:  28.08 + 2.75 = 30.85

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!  Today I worked 3 and three quarters hours on him.

Total hours so far:  30.85 + 3.75 = 34.60

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.

Total hours worked on this project so far:  34.6 + 1.5 = 36.1

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 (2 1/2) to work on Standing Bear.  I was able to finish hie 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.. another 45 minutes!  The more I work on it, the more I am compelled to work on it… I think I am addicted.

Hours spent on this project so far:  36.1 + 3.25 = 39.35

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. I pieced for 2 hours today.

Total hours invested so far:  39.35 + 2 = 41.35

1.27.10
I got to work on Standing Bear for just a bit at lunch and again at the end of the day for a total of and hour and a half.  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!

Hours invested to now:  41.35 + 1.5 = 42.85

1.28.10
I redesigned the area around the feather today and worked a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes on doing that and placing pieces.  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!!

Hours so far:  42.85 + 4.25 = 47.15

1.29.10
Yippee!  Today I finished the “piecing” of Standing Bear!!  It took me 8 and 1/2 hours today to get to this point.  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.

Total hours piecing:  47.15 + 8.5 = 55.65

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.

Hours devoted to Standing Bear:   55.65 + 2.75 = 58.40

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.  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.
Hours devoted to Standing Bear:    58.40 + 21.5 = 79.90 hours (I think I will round that to an even 80 hours)

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!

It’s official!  I am a klutz……  I am now a full-fledged member of the rotary-cutter-finger-slicers society.

It was always hard for me to imagine how someone could cut their finger with a rotary cutter.  Sure, they are a rolling razor blade, but surely no one would put their finger in the path of the cutter (or would they??).  It all happened in slow motion (a phenomenon that I don’t really understand, but this is how those traumatizing events happen to most people)…..  I was doing a paper pieced block and using my handy-dandy add a quarter ruler (I love that ruler) when out of the blue my cutter veered off the path of the edge of the ruler and rolled right over my left index finger… full force!!!!  YeeeOwwwwiiiiii!!  It did not hurt; it did not bleed at first; and it cut the whole chunk of flesh off along with a small sliver of my fingernail.

Now I must regress for a moment….  it was just a month earlier to the day that my Mom did the very same thing.  I ended up taking my Mom to the ER and after they xrayed her finger to make sure she did not nick the bone, she had 13  stitches neatly placed in the end of her finger.

Now the difference is Mom had sliced into her finger while I sliced a chunk completely off.  For me there was nothing to stitch to so I did not bother to make the trip to the ER.  I just applied pressure because once it started bleeding, it was profuse. 

End of the story:  now, three and a half months later, the fingertip is still healing inside and somewhat tender to the touch and the spot is not numb, but is tingly when pressure is applied.  However, there is barely a scar visible.  Now, how can I prove that I am a full-fledged member of the rotary-cutter-finger-slicers society?  I bet they aren’t going to let me into their meetings anymore…..

Here’s hoping that you are never initiated into this club!

Rotary cutter did it!!

When you display your quilts, it is very important to evenly distribute the weight over the width so that it does not distort or damage the textile.  100% cotton muslin is a fine choice to make any sleeve, but some may want to make a matching sleeve using the same fabric as the back to “hide” the sleeve.  Also, you may want to consider using the leftover fabric scraps from the top of the quilt to sew together a piece of fabric the size you need for the sleeve.  This is a good idea because the sleeve can provide original fabric if at sometime in the future the quilt needs a repair.

The sleeve should not be considered a permanent part of the quilt and therefore should never be stitched into the binding.  The exposure of the sleeve to the wooden dowel over time will eventually cause the cotton to deteriorate and it will have to be replaced.  This is the same reason that your sleeve should be made to completely encase the wooden dowel so that the wood never touches your quilt; the sleeve can deteriorate and be replaced, but damage to your quilt will be heartbreaking!

The instructions you find below in the PDF are for a 6 inch finished sleeve.  You can adjust the width to make it smaller by cutting a smaller width of fabric to start.  A good rule of thumb is to cut a strip that is twice as wide as what you want the finished sleeve width plus one inch.  You will lose about an inch in the seaming process.  So if you want a four inch sleeve, cut your fabric nine inches (4 + 4 + 1 = 9).

Hanging Sleeve Instructions

Click the link below to download the PDF.

Binding Tutorial (self paced)

Please let me know how this worked out for you after you try it.  I have worked very hard make this understandable for all levels of quilters; you can help me improve it by sending me your comments.

Thanks!

Big Cat

I have been longarm quilting since 1999 but have just begun to explore the world of art quilts.  This is my first blog and all about my journey (the good, the bad, and the ugly) in quilting.   I hope you find some useful information here about quilting.

Thanks for taking a look.