Cilenia Curtis Designs

Quilt Artist while living a Simple Sustainable Lifestyle

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Sewing and Quilting

Hanging Sleeves on my Art Quilts

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I get asked occasionally how I hang my art quilts on my walls so I thought I’d make a little post about it.  If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.  Next one I make I will take some extra photos showing more details.

There are lots of options when it comes to deciding how to hang an art quilt.  For many years I just used Command Strips.  But living in a very very dry climate, they only last about a year or so and loose their stickiness.  Which suited me fine as I’m always changing up what I have on my walls.   But, I really should have a more permanent way to hang.

I had made hanging sleeves the traditional way for previous quilts, but seemed over board for these smaller art quilts and I don’t like the bulk of a rod at the top or how the round rod curls the top of the quilt if too large of a rod.  Then it hit me one day as I was using a wooden yardstick to measure out an area on my design wall… “Why not use this instead of a wooden or metal rod to hang?!”  It’s flat, cut to size easily and readily available in any home improvement store… CHEAP! like 79 cents cheap!  And I just so happen to have a bunch of them I got for a little project I had not done yet.

Now…. how to make a sleeve better.  Really only need the corners.  Thought about just two loops on the back, but had seen someone put triangles into the corners before also.  Faster and more secure IMO plus you would never see the wood from the front or side.  It’s so simple and is attacked during the binding portion of the quilt.  And if the quilt was over 24″ long, I could always add a center loop to make sure it didn’t sag. Perfect answer for any wall hanging quilt not longer than the 36″ length of the yardstick.  If over 36″ I have an idea too.  Use a piece of cheap wall molding that is flat.  They even sell it pre-finished white! Also flat and comes in very long lengths if needed. I have some of that laying around too from home improvement projects.

Here’s a couple photos of the back of the quilt to help explain what I did. Think I need to dust a little? That could be daily here with desert winds. LOL Hanging Sleeve for Art Quilts

Showing a larger art quilt one with a center loop.

My Process: Cut two squares of fabric to match the backing of the quilt at 4″ square and fold in half on the diagonal wrong sides together and press. If I need a loop in the center for a little larger art quilt, I use a 5″ Sq that I hemmed on two sides, then fold and press in half.  Place the squares on opposite corners on the backside at the top of the quilt with raw edges in the corners. Pin or use basting glue to hold in place. Place a center loop in center if used.  Sew on the binding as usual to the front side of the quilt and this will sew the squares in the corners at the same time. Flip the binding to the back and hand sew using a blind stitch as usual to finish off.Cut a wooden yardstick about 1/4″-1/2″ shorter than the quilt width INSIDE the binding.  In other words, don’t measure the binding width, only from where it is sewn on at the squares.  I use my handy miter box to make a clean and straight cut but you don’t have to use one if you don’t have one. Hit the cut ends with a little sandpaper to make sure no splinters are there. Insert into the squares and hang!

To hang on the wall, I use a level and pencil to mark two small horizontal lines about 2-4″ smaller than the yardstick I cut, depending on the overall size of the quilt, and at about 1-1/2″ lower than I want the top to be at.  Then I hammer in two small finish nails on those lines. Hang my art quilt.  Always level and I can slide it a little side to side if I’m trying to line up with some other items.

Here’s a photo of several on my wall. Love how all lay flat without any hanging rods showing.  Looks more like artwork I think. 🙂

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DIY Quilting Ruler Holder

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I’ve been making a LOT of quilts lately with babies on the way and some long over due one for the other grand-kids. And in doing so, I’ve been using a LOT of my various rulers.  Issue is, I really don’t have a good storing system for most of them.  I have Quilting Rulers, Template Rulers, Cutting Rulers… and on and on.  I by no means have as many as most quilters, but I do use what I have consistently.  Such a pain to figure out where to store them so they are handy when I want to use them.

Currently I have the majority of smaller ones in a plastic letter holder on my shelf above the ironing table and that works for most of them, but not the larger ones and the smaller ones get lost in there.  I store my larger ones on little command hooks to the side of my cutting table.   Those are my most frequent used and that works for me very well. But that doesn’t work for my 16 1/2″ Square one which I use for squaring off quilt blocks. Need something to hold them all except for the long cutting ones I use daily.

I searched for something on the internet and found several for sale at various places.  Huh… well, for about $2 of wood, and maybe an hour of time, I can make couple! So I went to designing a couple that would fit my personal work space. 🙂  Now, nothing against the person who makes these and sells, but come on! $42?!

And the ones that store on the wall won’t do as my walls are filled with no room to spare.

So here is my design.  I did this up in 3D in my CAD program so I can show the Mr on sizes I want.

My quilting foot rulers are thicker, about 3/8″+.  My template rulers and cutting rulers are about 1/8″-1/4″ thick.  I only need maybe one slot or two for the quilting foot rulers, so the rest of the slots can be narrower so I can fit more slots.  I figure a 2×10 piece of wood would work well, (we have several in the garage just waiting for a purpose… this does NOT help my anti-hoarding speech I give the Mr monthly. LOL ). Has enough weight to hold my largest rulers and enough depth.  That’s the nominal size so in reality it’s 9 1/2″ x 1 1/2″.  Cutting it to be 18″ long should work well. Then I can store it on the shelf above the table all within easy reach.

First slot should be 1/2″ wide and rest can be 3/8″ wide with 1/2″ to 5/8″ between slots. Or 1″ from front to front of the slots.  This gives me plenty of room between to store my instruction sheets with the rulers between the slots for the specialty rulers I have too.  Make it 3/4″ deep and give them a slight angle towards the back to hold the rulers in place to lean towards the rear.

Side View

Top View

Pretty simple yes?  I think so.  I can stain it and seal it up with a spray polyurethane to make it nice looking and easy to clean.

And if better half wants to get real ambitious. We can make it into a stand easily by cutting a 45 degree angle on the front and the slots angled same and adding a piece of wood to the back to hold it up like an easel. 🙂 But I’d be happy with either one honestly.

Rear view

OK, back to work, (play time really), for me.  Have two baby quilts to finish up and another one is in the cutting stage half done.  Need to cut and iron a ton of 20″ background squares and waiting on the remainder of the fabric to arrive to cut the rest of the quilt.  Ordered all same day, shipped from same place… but coming a week apart. Go figure. LOL

Want a peak at one of them? I plan on writing up the directions for this one and posting. I’m calling it Grayson’s Block after the very special soon to be born baby boy I’m making it for. I’m really loving it and think I may have to do a larger one too.  This is crib sized. Looks greener in the photo than I think it is.  Has more of a teal green coloring.  Inspiration came from traditional blocks cut up and reorganized to create bigger blocks.  Don’t think I’ve made a traditional 12″ square blocked quilt in 30 years plus. LOL 

Can you tell I need a bigger Design wall or more of them? LOL Had to roll up my plane quilt temporarily while working on these. BUT, I have a plan for that.  Ordered some fleece and going to add a roll up design wall! Hopefully when we move I will have the room space of my dreams. 😉 And that perfect LED lighting the Mr has promised me. That or I’m taking over that living room and dining room downstairs being unused. LOL

And I still need to finish quilting my own bed quilt… been hanging over the stair railing for a few months now. Got frustrated with my sewing machine and table trying to do such a large quilt and needed a break… one day… one day maybe I can get a long arm quilting machine. Sigh… still dreaming. But with the price being about the same as car… I have to keep my priorities in check. Besides… need that bigger Studio first. 😉 All in the plans for our new homestead.

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Art Quilt Challenge Week 2 – Art Dolls

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For my Art Quilt Week 2 I actually did two small art doll quilts.  The whole point of these was to awaken my muse and try new techniques.  I decided to use one of my Art Dolls I had created in digital and bring her to life in fabric.  I needed some Studio  inspirations and two sayings were ringing in my head.  “Be True” and “Just Breathe”.  One for my muse and one for my health. LOL  If you remember, I’ve been dealing with high blood pressure for months now and have taken back up meditation and yoga when I’ve feeling stressed. I thought a little reminder to breathe was a good thing. 🙂

First thing I wanted to try was changing up that collage background I had tried with the previous art quilt.  I took a bunch of my scraps of one material and cut them into squared up pieces.  I laid a  piece of my fusible fleece batting cut to 10″x14″ on my ironing board with fusing side up and then proceeded to lay out all the pieces taking care to make sure to overlap each so none of the fusible glue was exposed.  Just for good measure, I used my pressing sheet over it to make sure I didn’t get any of that glue on my iron.  Some of the edges overlapped were still loose and I didn’t like that so I used a few tiny dots of washable glue, that has a Fineline Applicator Tip for a top, to hold them in place. Ironed again. I liked it better than my previous background, but didn’t like how the edges showed through so much. It was a cheaper thinner fabric from my scraps than I use now.  The only fabrics I buy now are batiks and a high thread count of 100% cottons for dyeing.  I am now totally spoiled by the quality of fabric. 🙂 But hey, one of my 2016 goals is to use up all these older scraps from my stash so it’s ok. If I did this again, I think I would do this on a piece of white cotton fabric using fusible web instead of fusible fleece and that may have avoided this issue.

At this point, I decided that I wanted to make this borderless and added a backing on top and sewed 1/4″ all around the edges, leaving about 3″ or so to turn, to make my quilt sandwich and just did a pillow case enclosure.  Then I turned right side out and folded in the unsewn edge 1/4″, ironed, and sewed around the entire piece about a 1/4″ in from the edge.

Steps how I did the base quilt.

I quilted the base at this point just an all over freeform swirls. Then the fun began!

From here, all that was left to do was iron on my girl, tag and sew on my buttons and trinkets.  She now sits above my work area to remind me to just breathe. 🙂 Because she took me all about an hour or two to make, I made another one that day also. I did decide to use fabric letters on the 2nd one and cut them out quickly and easily using my Brother Scan N Cut.  All I did was iron a piece of fusible interfacing to a piece of fabric, chose a preloaded font, then sized and arranged to fit the fabric piece.  Boom! Perfectly cut letters I then ironed onto my background. I could have used this for my Doll parts too if I had thought of it.  Need to find it a better home than under my cutting table.  Not a big hassle to pull out to use, but also not sitting out to remind me to use more.   OH  New project for the Studio!  Find better homes for my wide format printer and the Scan N Cut. LOL  If only this room was a foot wider, many of my problems would be solved….  Sorry, I digress.

I have always loved making my art dolls in mixed media and digi and they just make me happy to look up and see them on my wall. Now I have some lovely reminders each and every day to look up at. 🙂  I hand sewed a couple paper clips onto the backs to use as hangers and I was done.  Was a good afternoon.  Just love when I have an idea and can actually start and finish all in one day. RARE, but was nice.

Wonder how I make my Art Dolls in Photoshop? Check out my Art Dolls class if you are interested in making your own.

Supplies Used for this Project for those with inquiring minds.  These links are my Amazon affiliate links, so  I do receive a small income if you use them.  It doesn’t cost you any more, just helps me offset the cost of keeping up my site. I only recommend what I have tried and like and has the best prices also.

Scraps of various fabrics from my Stash

Fusible Fleece Batting

Washable School Glue

Fineline Applicator Tip

100% Cotton Connecting Threads brand of various colors

Heat’n Bond fusible interfacing

 

 

Art Quilt Challenge Week 1 and the Backstory

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As promised, I’m posting my first 4 weeks of my self imposed weekly challenge.  I can say at this point this little exercise has made my creativity BOOM!  Here  I am 7 weeks later and I have so many ideas I had to start making lists of future projects so I could get them out of my head and focus at my tasks at hand.

I’ve also made a decision to open the dreaded UFO (Unfinished Objects) Boxes.  For those who don’t quilt, this may be a new term to you.  But for us obsessive compulsive quilters, we have MANY of these items.  Patterns we’ve tried and didn’t like or got stuck on.  New techniques we wanted to try and learn and have basically a sample of an item. Even items that life got in the way of or a lack of a certain supply we needed to finish and it got put on the back burner.  End result, I have pulled them out, ok, I’ve pulled out SOME of them, and have made another self imposed challenge to finish them up or incorporate into something useful.  If I really find something that I don’t even want to deal with, I will offer it to my fellow quilters in my Quilt Guild.

Back to week 1.  This was how it all started.  I had seen the AWESOME portrait art quilter, Tammie Bowser, on Quilting Arts TV Episode 1607-2 while I was catching up on my 1600 series of shows, and was fascinated with her technique.  I wanted to create one of these of my little Miss Bailey, but knew I had to learn and master the technique before taking on a portrait.  Now they do have a free Gerber Daisy Pattern, which had disappeared being uploaded, and when they did finally get it up, I had to finish some quilts with deadlines in process so it became one of my UFOs… see where this is going? LOL  Eight months later I got back to this one.  It’s another reason why I’m doing the self imposed challenge.

I never did do the Gerber Daisy from Tammie. I chose to use one of my own flowers.  I was also really overwhelmed looking at pixel boxes of her pattern and decided I needed to modify the technique of how to make the pattern that made sense to me and was a little easier on my eyes.  She used a free program to turn the photo into ‘boxes’ of value pixels.  I don’t have the program and it’s no longer available anyways.  So being a Digital Artist, I felt I could wing this on my own.

Choosing the flower was easy, a coneflower.  One of my favorite flowers in the garden.  For this first one, I simply had the photo blown up and printed at my local Staples store.  They ‘accidentally’ printed on a thicker poster paper instead of the thinner Engineering paper I had requested. They thought they were doing me a favor. LOL   A lot more difficult to see through as I was tracing my pattern.  Now they understand why I’m printing these photos and their purpose.

I also had it printed in color this first one.  Next time, need to do a black and white only.  Easier to see also.  Then I could just deal with values and not worry about color.  I found when I printed this in color, I became obsessed in trying to match up the colors and even dyed a few swatches of fabrics to fit in.  NOT what I wanted this exercise to be.

Lesson 1:  Use my Photoshop to convert to a black and white photo for my pattern.  Will be less inhibitive to my creative flow.

Lesson 2: More of a hind sight, but next one I will use Photoshop filters to set my values and maybe even the cut lines for the pattern added.

Lesson 3: Decide the number of values and colors in the beginning.  Saves some aggravation later.

Onto the technique I wanted to learn.

Tammie uses a different kind of fusible web than I had always used.  Hmmm a little more money, but might be worth it.  She uses Steam a Seam 2.  The advantage is that it is a little sticky after removing the paper unlike regular fusible web.  I could see how handy this was while assembling.  Ok, broke down and bought some at Amazon, even though I had a ROLL of Head N Bond Light sitting on my shelf.  It comes in 9″x12″ sheets for the printer and needs to be cut down to print if you don’t have a wide format printer like I do.

She prints out the image onto these sheets of Steam a Seam.  I chose just to trace by hand. I numbered by values as I traced and put a big X in the background areas.  Wasn’t sure at this point how I wanted to handle the background other than I wanted a graduated color from dark to light as a sun ray might look.

Lesson 4: Make sure to print or trace onto the paper side that is less sticky.  If Tammie knew this, she neglected to mention it on the show.  Learned since I made this that Steam a Seam has a lightly sticky and a heavier sticky side.  You want the lighter sticky on top where your pattern is so that while cutting out the template pieces it sticks more to the foundation fabric than the template pattern.

Next step was to use a cheap muslin fabric for a foundation background and peal the paper backing off one side of the fusible web and adhere it to the muslin.

Next step for Tammie was to use an exacto knife and small scissors to cut away that top paper (being careful not to cut through the web and fabric below.  Ok, THIS was NOT working for me.  I had way to many times during this first one where I cut completely through and made a mess of it. Sure, practice made it better, but I did NOT like this at all. Had to be a better way…. for me at least.

She then used the cut away paper top as her pattern to cut the fabric. Adding a scant 1/8″ border around so that the pieces overlapped just slightly to avoid any background showing.  Hmmmm it doesn’t stick like a freezer paper template would while cutting.  Slipping all over.  Made for too much of an inaccurate cut for my liking.  But, keep going.  Don’t give up on this technique yet.

Then you simply take your cut fabrics and place them in the exact spot you cut the top paper template from.  Because Steam A Seam is sticky, you can remove and adjust easily.  Nothing is permanent until you iron it down.  I LOVED THIS!  OK, sold on the product at this point, just not the process.

Some of the ‘In Process’ photos.  Click to enlarge if you like.

Next step was to quilt.  I made my quilt sandwich and mostly just did as Tammie did by quilting the edges and “doodle quilted”, (her term of an all over small quilting random pattern), over the background areas.  I wanted a sketchy artsy look and did thread sketching with black thread like it had been drawn onto the fabric.  Was not so easy to do…. Can not tell you how many thread breaks I had… nor will I tell you how many times I had to walk away so I didn’t throw my sewing machine out the window. LOL

Lesson 5: This Steam a Seam 2 was too heavy or thick for any detailed thread sketching.  Made for a lot of frustrations during the quilting.  Might have to stick to my feather weight or light weight Heat N Bond fusible web next one.  I understand this product is great if you don’t want to sew down all the edges, but it just was not the end result that wanted and had in my head.

 

Added a black binding to finish and look like a framing of the art.

The Finished Piece

The Finished Piece

I kind of lost the excitement of this art piece at this point.  I didn’t like the process, I didn’t like the end result as much as I thought I would.  The number of values was too little for my liking, the collage background was so not my style and it looked more like an abstract art to me than I wanted.  Everyone else liked it… just not me.

I take notes while I’m learning a new technique.  So it was off to the web in search of how some other quilt artist’s techniques worked and to pick some brains of fellow art quilters I know.   Come back for the next few weeks challenges to see how I started combining processes, changing up some techniques and products to better get to where I wanted to go.  I will just chalk this one up to bunch of lessons learned. 🙂 What works for others does not always work for me.  I still LOVE Tammie’s work, but need to find a way to make it easier for myself and to make it my own also.

TV-Snack Tray to DIY Mini Ironing Table

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When I’m sewing quilts many of the times I have to press seams constantly.  This was an issue for me because I had to get up from the sewing table, walk over to the ironing area and press, walk back, sew, get up, walk over… you get the idea. LOL

I had seen MANY pins on Pinterest about turning a wooden TV tray into an ironing board.  YES! Then I could just fold it up and tuck away when not in use or take it out while I’m working.  No extra space or desk area needed!

So off to Amazon I went. Yes, I love that place.  I found one at a reasonable price and free shipping with my Prime account.

Here it is out of the box. (You can see where I had my ironing board at that time. Aaaaallll the way across the room. LOL This was back in Sept. 2014. Can’t believe I never shared a post about it. Oops!)

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How I created it – You can click to enlarge images if you need to.

I think this took me about an hour to make after letting the paint dry.

Supplies I used:

Staple Gun

Satin Finish Black Paint (could use a spray paint too, it’s just what I had left over from doing the book shelves.)

Wooden Snack Tray

Poly-Therm Heat Reflective Fleece

Untreated Cotton Duck Canvas Cloth for cover,  The first time I used plain cotton fabric, lesson learned.  Didn’t hold up as well with all it’s use over past two years.  I have since recovered this in the untreated Duck Cloth.

Here she is today.  When not in use, I fold up and store right next to my HUGE DIY sewing table. (For another post lol).

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I use my Steamfast Mini Iron or my Clover Mini Iron depending on what I’m doing instead of my full sized iron.  That lives at my oversized Ironing Board that I made also after this.  Made it the same way using a 2 foot by 3 foot piece of left over plywood from another project. Sanded down the corners and attached the batting and cloth exactly the same way.  I love love love having this larger area for ironing!  It sits centered on top of a book shelf for now.  Have to be cautious about not pressing down near the edge, but until I find and get another vintage treadle sewing machine base, (should have NEVER sold mine!), it will live here.  When I do find one, I’m going to mount the board on top of it. 🙂 For now it’s totally movable and I even put it on the cutting table when ironing long huge pieces of fabrics.

2'x3' Ironing Board

Then it will look like THIS!  Sigh… Makes my heart sing. LOL

trendle table

Art Quilt Week 5

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I know… starting with Week 5?  I will get the first 4 up and back date.  Promise!

YES! Finished up my 5th art quilt for my self inflicted challenge to complete an art quilt each week!  Almost thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish this one on time as I ran out of the colored thread I wanted to use. But thank goodness for Amazon Prime and had new thread in 2 days. LOL  It measures 18″x24″ and most of the fabrics, except for the solids, I had hand dyed previously.  I also added just a little bit of some watercolor inks to give a few areas a little more depth.  What I also did different on this one was add a little extra shredded up batting to certain areas so that it had even more depth.  Very hard to see in the photos, but in real life, it turned out just like I had hoped.

Purple Passion Art Quilt

Purple Passion Art Quilt

Some Detail Images

This one was made from a small 8×10  water color ink quilt I had made last year. I really loved it, but wanted to do a bigger one… In fabrics, not painted.   I scanned in the small one.  Changed it to a black and white format and played a little with the contrast and levels to get good contrasting values to use as a template for a larger one.  I then uploaded to my trusty nearby Staples for printing on a large 18×24 Engineering print. They are starting to wonder about me and printing these florals. LOL But after I explained what I was doing it made more sense to them. Now they made me promise to bring in one to show them. LOL

So here’s the original one I did last year. Painted on whole cloth piece of cotton fabric and then did thread sketching and quilting.

Inked Water Color Art Quilt

MY PROCESS BRIEFLY

I promise to take photos of my ENTIRE process next one! This has been an evolving process the past month and I have tried MANY techniques to get here.

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Creating my template pieces on freezer paper.

After I received my Engineering print, I used a black permanent  marker to outline my values to create a template and numbered them  Then I taped it to a window (my south facing sliding doors), and laid freezer paper over and traced and numbered again.  Smaller ones I can use my light box but it’s only 12″x18″. Doing this served two purposes.  I will have my original print to refer to as I assemble the quilt, and doing it on freezer paper I would then cut up the pieces and be able to iron them temporarily to the front side of the fabric as my template pieces for cutting.

At the same time I traced it completely again onto a piece of Fusible Mid-Heavy Weight Stabilizer webbing. No numbers, just the basic outlines using a Frixion Pen that would iron away later.  (Won’t do that again, will do on muslin like I did the last one.  That fusing caused me a lot of issues while thread sketching and also the weight was just too stiff for my liking.  Does make for a very nice finished stiff art quilt though as I thought it would. LOL Maybe add after the thread sketching is completed.  Will test out and let you know.

Anyways…. Then I take all those numbered pieces, iron to the front side of my fabric swatches, added my fusible web to the back of the fabric and spent the afternoon cutting them all up and kept each value organized in little trays. Then it was puzzle time!  Actually, this is my favorite part next to the thread painting. lol  Yes, I’m a puzzle freak!  I don’t iron it down until every is there completely.  I use a very tiny smear of Tacky Glue in the center or ends of each piece to temporarily hold them or pins.  Why? because I have put one together that I ironed and as I worked around the piece, I decided to change it up a bit.  Can’t take it back off or move things slightly to fit better if it is already ironed down, but using just that tiny drop of glue I can lift it off and move easily.

Here’s one photo are it partially going together.  See the  freezer paper on top.  I LOVE when I get to take it off and reveal the colors below.  It’s kinda like opening a Christmas present. LOL  After I have this portion done, I hang it up on the design wall and decide if I want any more detail added.  Little bits here and there sometimes make a huge difference in the overall piece I think.  img_3366

All put together here and ready for the thread sketching and quilting.  What a difference the thread sketching makes in my humble opinion. Looks so plain and simple at this point.  I don’t square it up until after all the sewing is completed. It will get a bit wonky during the process depending on how densely I sew different areas.

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Took me a few days (had sewing machine issues and had to do a total clean out again.)  Sorry, I know one person for sure is going to wish I had taken photos of that and how to do. LOL  I will next time. But with as much thread that has gone thru that poor little 30 year old machine this past month, no wonder she needed it! LOL

 

So here is an overall photo of my October Quilts besides my small Art Girl I did as my first one. WHEW!  Onto the next!  Going to do a Magnolia Tree branch. Got all my fabrics dyed the other day waiting for that thread to arrive. LOL

October 2017

Hope you enjoyed seeing into my Studio and if you have any questions on anything, please feel free to ask. I’ll do my best to answer.  Do you art quilt? I’d love to see what you are up to also!

Scrap Stash Project: Modern Crib Quilt

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Modern Crib Quilt

I had seen a  modern quilt on Pinterest that I just loved! I thought I had saved the pin, but it doesn’t seem to be there.  Wasn’t a pattern, just an image so when I do find it, I will put the credits here.  But…  I thought, “Hey! I have all these scraps left over from making Kara’s quilt, I should make something from them like this!”  It’s a very basic construction using a log cabin block technique.    So I gathered up that basket of scraps and went to work.

EDIT:  Finally found the quilt artist I got my inspiration from! Her name is Pasqualina. She was on Instagram, not Pinterest like I thought. No wonder I couldn’t find it when I was desperately trying to find it again. LOL  Here is her instagram https://www.instagram.com/ergo_ago_pasqualina/  I LOVE her work.

I cut strips of white and a red fabric in 2-1/2″ strips and sewed together.  Then using one of my fab cutting templates, my Quarter  Cut by June Tailor, I cut the strips into 2-1/2″ sets.  This tool makes cutting so fast and easy! I use it a lot.

Cutting strips using my Quarter Cut

Cutting strips using my Quarter Cut

Cut up strips

Cut up strips

Chain piecing those cut strips onto another long 2-1/2" cut strip of background fabric all at once.

Chain piecing those cut strips onto another long 2-1/2″ cut strip of background fabric all at once. Cut sets apart, iron seams open.

Then taking the previous strip pieces and chain piecing again onto another background strip onto opposite side.

Then taking the previous sets and chain pieced again onto another 2-1/2″ wide background strip onto opposite side.  This makes for very fast piecing and I use this chain piecing technique whenever I can.

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Iron open the squares while still in a chain. Another speed tip I’ve learned over the years of quilting. img_3183

Snip apart the squares.img_3184

Square up the squares.

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Then I cut various widths of the white background fabric from 1″ to 2-1/2″ and inserted same size color strips. I used these to continue to make my log cabin blocks being mindful of color placements.  When you have a ton of scraps, it’s easy to do this.  Some of them I actually sewed into long strips first and then sliced the widths.  Even faster!

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I first placed the red centered squares on my Design Wall.  Then I took each one and added the strips to get to this point.

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The I used various sizes of white squares and added the “logs” around them so that I got a shattered color effect moving outwards towards the edge of the quilt.  Took a little thought, but with having a design wall it was easy to see what colors I wanted to add where.  Added batting and backing, quilted in straight lines moving outward from the main center design. Added the binding and DONE!  Took me a few days, but this was really a fast way to make this quilt and using no pattern!

The Design Wall white area is 4′ x 6′ to give you an idea how big this ended up being. 🙂  I LOVE my design wall! Made it myself using 1-1/2″ foam board and covered it will a heat reflecting batting and then a white and a black fleece fabric.  Many pins on Pinterest on how to make.  I used duct tape on the back to attach the batting and fabrics and then hung it on the wall using heavy duty Command Strips.  I’ve since cut this into two (the white and black areas). It was just leaning on the wall propped up on my shelves here.  But, there’s a light switch under there! LOL This shorty couldn’t reach the top if I had hung it above the switch plate.  Oops! LOL  But worked out perfect in the end. 🙂

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Now Baby Aiden has a matching fun colored scrap quilt like his Mama and Daddy.  🙂 OH!  See the drawer under the crib here?  That’s another one of those left over drawers from that broken down dresser that has a new life as a shelf unit in the garage.  Need to paint it to match the crib yet, but it gives some extra storage space that would normally be unused under the crib.  It holds all his cloth diapers and onesies. I plan on putting caster wheels on it also.  Time… never enough time. 😉 I had 5 days to get this room cleaned out and painted for when they would be arriving.  Not bad huh? LOL

 

Ok, I’m not really a Hermit, I just pretend to be one on TV

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Not really, but kinda! LOL  So I had to make a decision this month to renew my hosting site or just let it go.  Actually, it was a harder decision than one would think.  I look here and it’s been almost a year since I posted anything. Short version…  I had gotten so discouraged last year when my blog was compromised and the easiest solution at the time was to wipe it all.  I had so much here, but 90% of it had to do with an industry/business I no longer wished to be a part of.  Whole other story.  Maybe one day I’ll open up about it, but not today.   So, I went back to my roots for many reasons.  Playing with colors, fabrics, design, art that made me happy in short.  Yes I still use Photoshop, but in a different way now.

I also wanted a simpler life.  I wanted semi off the grid, but that is not in my foreseeable future for financial reasons mainly.  I needed to develop a plan for that.  A plan to save money, to get out of debt, to live simpler, healthier, happier.  So I’ve been plugging away at that for the past year.

Then a few months ago during a routine eye exam that showed I had very very high blood pressure and then a follow up  with a Dr, I found out why I had the constant headaches, the lack of energy to do anything, the mood swings, the all around feeling of blah and gained more weight than I had on me 9 months pregnant… it was my health.  Most of which can be due to heredity, but only because I let it get this far.  Bottom line, I was dealing with extreme high blood pressure, over 200 to be exact, Insulin Resistance and Metabolic Syndrome.  Ugggg, yes, ME! Who doesn’t do sweets very often, eats hardly ever processed foods or fast foods, and rarely takes even an aspirin and has had low blood pressure all my life.  Was a real awakening experience.  The Doctor of course wanted to treat only the high blood pressure…. of course he did….  Treat the symptom, not the cause.  (Have I ever expressed publicly how much I distrust and dislike the modern medical field?)  Well, I do.  But, if I let this go and not take the meds, I was being told I would most likely be either dead within a few years, or pushed to taking tons of meds for Diabetes and worse.   NOW, let me say this… and maybe you’ll understand a little better why I expressed the distrust…As I said, the first and only action that was being taken was to take blood pressure meds.  I had to INSIST on a full panel of blood work and even had to say what I wanted to make sure was included.  I wanted the cause!  After a stern look, the doctor did order this, plus the meds.  Which was the first of 6 so far as the first 5 I was allergic to and didn’t even lower the blood pressure at all.  I patiently waited for the blood work results while going thru swollen zombie mode with each medicine.

So… as I do with anything I want to learn or know more about, I went into research mode. I read more on blood work than I care to admit, I read every single thing I could find in all my medicinal herb books, and I googled and read all I could find.  Now I had a better understanding of the cause and how to attack it.  Still on meds, still not working as the doctor would like, but after the one emergency room visit with more blood work done, I learned I was improving those numbers with my new diet and lifestyle.  So I’ll keep plugging away at it and hopefully can be off meds entirely within the year.

So on to bigger and better things.  I have had SO MANY projects I have been doing over the past year, and wanted to share each one, but each time I look at them I got overwhelmed at where to start. LOL  Maybe I’ll just add one at a time no matter the time line.  I have been sewing, quilting, doing some art, refurbishing furniture and rooms and playing in the yard as always.  I’ve actually gotten quite a bit accomplished over the past year playing hermit. LOL  So hopefully I can make a commitment of getting some posts up here of my path and keep up with current ones too.

Currently I have a personal goal to make one art quilt a week.  I started this a month ago and have completed 5 so far. Yea me!  I’ve loving the process and I use either my photos or artwork for the inspirations and/or templates. Here’s a little peek at what I accomplished one week. This is part of a series of coneflowers I’m doing. Need to take some photos and then I can post more. I am selling these, so if you are interested, take a look at my page My Quilt Projects.  Any that are not sold by Spring of 2017 will be sold at Art in the Park then.

I was also asked by a local sewing group I belong to if I planned on teaching a class how I do these.  Maybe… it would include the Photoshop work along with the entire process of creating the art quilt.  Will have to see if there is enough interest to justify the time involved to create the class.  So if that interests you, leave me a comment or let me know.

Till next time!  (hopefully sooner than year lol)

Coneflower Art Quilt 18"x24" $500

Coneflower Art Quilt 18″x24″

 

 

Going Modern with Improv

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I’m in LOVE with this process and the results!

Modern Improv Quilt I wanted to try, force, my hand at improvisational quilting and do lots of negative space so I could get creative with some free motion quilting from the latest class I took at Craftsy.com from Ann Peterson.  I quilt on a small machine, so this was always beyond my ability to quilt such detail on a full sized quilt.  Not anymore! Ann has so many tricks and tips that in no time I was zooming away with so much ease. I also switched threads and stopped using discount thread that was always breaking and giving me issues.  I now only use Auriful Thread and the difference is like night and day! I buy it by the cones for the best deal and it even is less expensive than buying cheaper big box threads.  I now use exclusively for piecing and quilting.

So how this all began!  I have these highly coveted fabrics I collected and have been hoarding for several years.  I had not decided what I wanted to do with them.  I also wanted to make a modern improv quilt that I could really play with shapes and color.  So one day I just decided to do it! LOL  I put the fabric pieces up on the design wall and played and played with placement for color.  The background started out as an off white cream but changed half way through the playing to black.  Main reason? This would be a quilt for our couch and I have this big black dog that thinks he’s a person and sheds more than you can imagine. LOL  But, in the end, I am really glad I changed this to black.

This is what it looked like at first on my wall. (Yes, still waiting for BF to bring me some insulation board to make a real design wall!) lol  I wanted sweeping color/design from one end to the other. From here I just grabbed pieces of the fabric and began to create very improvisational blocks and areas. This was NOT easy for me, I always follow a pattern either someone else’s or my own. Design Wall Improv

Then it began to take shape and kept adding to it. The plan was to do a small area each day.  Well… I loved the process so much I couldn’t help myself and in a few days it was completely pieced! LOL

Improv design progress

Improv design progress

Then the real fun began! marking all the quilting.  I don’t use traditional marking tools any longer. I now use a welder’s marking chalk pencil.  It works awesome! Marks beautifully and comes off easily.  My BF suggested it when I complained about the normal white marking pencils and how difficult it was to come off.  He brought me some from work and works great and VERY cheap! Box of 50 for like $5. I also use the Fixitron pens for light fabrics.  Iron’s right out!  I don’t use those quilter’s markers any longer that I might accidentally iron over and make permanent.  Yea, ask me how I know. 😉

I knew I wanted a very geometric design to compliment the geometric piecing design.  Can you tell the engineering draftsman is trying to come out?! LOL  WISH I still had all my old drafting tools! But I figured it out using what I had. I also wanted to soften it up a bit using some circles and swirls in the quilting. I have a ton of inspirations on my Pinterest board, and even tho most are done on a long arm machine, after Ann’s class I felt ready to try my hand at doing on my domestic sewing machine. Marking the Quilting

It was quite the learning process.  And yes there are several mistakes or oops in this but only myself (or my daughter Kallie) will see and point out. LOL But I’m chalking that up to lesson’s learned.  It was VERY difficult for me to let go like this.  I’m such a planner and over think my designs.  I forced myself to let it go and have fun! I really worked out of my comfort zone.  I had designed the entire thing on the computer, but soon realized my intuition of working with the color and improv was proving out to be a much funner process! No measuring! LOL So I let it go. I couldn’t be happier!

And half way through this I got a new free motion foot also for my sewing machine.  WOW! What a difference that made also! It’s a ruler foot that I got as a set with some rulers.  I wanted to be able to quilt straighter lines like the big girls in free motion and not have to turn a large quilt so much on my machine trying to use my duel feed walking foot with a straight stitch setting.  There is no looking back now! I am hooked! Still learning how to use fluidly, but it’s coming along!  I also want to add some better lighting at my machine.  I found that the machine’s light reflected on the ruler and made it difficult to see where I was going. (Hence some of the boo boos that happened). Want to take that out and have more indirect lighting.  But all in all, I am improving by leaps and bounds now doing this on my small machine.  Thank you Ann!

Some of the details. quilting detailsQuilting detailsQuilting Details

Scrap Mission: New Quilter’s Carry All Case

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My little story of how this perfect for me case came to be. 🙂

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How it all started! So what to do with failed dye fabrics?  Cut them up and practice curved piecing! With cool blues and purples seemed logical to make watery curved lines.  Why were they failed? You can’t see from the photo well, but I didn’t mix the powder dyes well enough, and didn’t come out the exact colors I was looking for. This was from last spring when I was experimenting and self teaching hand dying fabric.  I have many pieces of ‘failed’ fabric pieces… but as you will see, nothing is wasted! LOL

This long 18″x36″ piece stayed this way for a few months.  Then I cut a large circle out of my favorite section for a watery planet for my grand-son’s Science and Space quilt. Really need to write up that post!

Hand dyed fabrics that didn't come out how I planned

Hand dyed fabrics that didn’t come out how I planned.

Cutting and sewing curved piecing. Trying out a new technique to learn.

Cutting and sewing curved piecing. Trying out a new technique to learn. By the end of the 36″ length, I had it down!

Now what do I do with it? Well, I needed to practice some free motion quilting techniques for an idea I had for that Science & Space quilt too!  Free motion quilting with a ruler, circles, swirls… just did what came to mind and what I had seen on pinterest that inspired me. IMG_2855

By the time I got half way through I felt like I didn’t have good control using my bare hands, and I hate wearing quilter’s gloves for gripping.  Got an EXCELLENT tip from a fellow quilter.  ‘Use those rubber spongy type of shelf lining mats!’  So I cut up some into about 4″ squares and tried it out.  There was a HUGE “AHA!” moment here! Think I did the happy dance too!  If you haven’t tried this, DO IT! No more taking on and off gloves or fingertip gloves to do thread, and no more sweaty hands in our heat.  This worked awesome and I could not believe how much better I could control the fabric movement! I was actually making perfect circles! Well… almost perfect. 😉 So I finished off the other end of this scrap piece and then put it aside to finish the quilt.  And this sat for a few months. LOLIMG_2856I had it on my design wall for a long time… there had to be SOMETHING I could make from this! I rarely make quilted things just for art, they have to have a purpose. Yes, I’m anal like that.  Really need to break out of that box!

Hmmmm Then it hit me! I hated my quilter’s carry bag.  I had had it for close to 30 years. Simple zipper bag with zipped pockets inside like a 3 ring binder. I used it to carry supplies to Guild meetings or to a friend’s house for a Quilt Circle meeting or play day. It was basic, not very pretty and didn’t hold my items like I wanted.  Plus I had tools I wanted to bring that didn’t fit and others not just all thrown into a zipper pocket. I wanted it organized.  I searched and searched for carry bag that would work.  Found tons of inspirations, tutorails and ideas, even bought a pattern for one thinking I could adjust easily… nope, not exactly what I needed. I wanted it to fit MY needs, MY tools.  Something I could even use to carry from the upstairs studio to the downstairs for when I wanted to do some sewing in the family room instead of my usual box.

I knew exactly what items I wanted to have with me. Plus my rotating cutting mat which is 12.5″ x 12.5″ had to fit along with my Clover mini iron.  I laid them all out on the table and began to make notes of measurements. The rulers, tools, etc etc etc.  I made a sketch in Photoshop (I used the grid layout for square inches), of laying out everything so that it would lay out in a book type format and when sides were brought together nothing would fall out and leaving enough room for my bulky items like thread and the mini iron to fit too. This took a while, changed my mind several times how best to lay out and I knew I would need a space between the two sides to accommodate my mini iron bulk. Perfect spot for a pin cushion area. I even used previously made carry cases and noted what worked and what didn’t work… like need to make pencil sleeve a little snugger so they don’t fall out, or pockets deeper to hold spools better.  I have several small hand sewing cases… good for a couple spools and needles but my scissors were always falling out if I want’s careful. So I planned the crap out of this. LOL Carry All Sketch

Found some scraps of black and a batik fabric that would work for the interior pockets and a piece of left over black felt to make a rolled pin cushion.  I used fusible web and fusible stabilizer for all the pockets to give some stiffness. I wish I had taken photos along the way but I plan on making another one for a friend so I will make sure to do that when I do. But it is pretty easy once you know the sizes you want of your pockets.  Add a 1/2″ to length and width for seam allowances and make sure you size your pockets with a little wiggle room or snugness for your items. Measure and test everything.  OK, OCD showing, I know. lol

Fuse the batting and stabilizer to the wrong side of pockets, place these right sides together with the fabrics for the interior of pockets (black in my case), sew leaving a small opening and turn right side out and put a finish stitching on the tops of the pockets to not only look nice, but close the hole and also give a little strength. Think twice about order of sewing the pockets together and on the backing as some lay over other pockets.

Add some handles to the two sides and stitch the entire inside to the outside quilted piece.  Add some binding and call it done! The planning took far longer than the sewing.  Once I had the plan finalized, I put this all together in a morning.

A place for everything!

A place for everything! Even a pocket for my current issue of Quilting Arts magazine and a pocket for patterns or freezer paper etc etc etc. I have everything I need except my sewing machine! Rulers, add a quarter ruler, pins, needles, pens, marking tools, thimble, seam ripper, scissors, cutting wheel, cutting mat, threads, mini glue bottle (made from a left over Scribbler’s paint), glue stick, mini iron and an ironing mat (not in picture but slides into the mini iron pocket rolled up), and various extra needles in a CD case.  I’m a happy camper! Just fold it up and ready to go!

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And it stores all these items nicely right next to my sewing table.  In fact!, I can fold it up other way and have a little handy tool area. NOTE: I don’t leave my cutting mat in this as I have a southern window exposure and would NOT be a good thing to have that in the sun! So it sits there under the case and the case protects it while not in use. Don’t EVER leave your cutting mats in sun or hot spots and always lay flat for storing or they will get warped and be ruined… ask me how I know! lol IMG_2865

Lessons here? Figure out what you want to have with you and make a plan (then plan again, check dimensions three times of your items), and make your own carry all bag! This doesn’t have to be just for sewing tools, think kids! Markers and books case to have for road trips or to take along to a friend’s house or even an easy way to carry from room to room and outside.  All stays nice and organized and can hang on a hook for easy storing.

And the best part?! I used up some more scraps! And even better? I used up some practice materials. Better than just tossing it.  No, it’s not perfect, I was learning. But it is a nice reminder of how far I have come also.  I have that dyeing mixture down, I can do curve piecing like a pro now, and now can make pretty free motion swirls and circles and turned the whole process into a useful item for myself.  Yes, doing the happy dance. 🙂