Many of us quilters are serial crafters - myself included. Counted cross stitch was my "gateway" craft. I started stitching when I was pregnant with my first son who just had his 31st birthday.
After years of cross stitching (which I still do occasionally by the way), I thought I would try weaving. Back about 16 years ago I bought a used Baby Wolf floor loom (Schacht) and took beginning weaving classes at Yarn Barn here in Lawrence.
It's been a while since I've had anything on my loom, but I was intrigued by a class offered recently by Yarn Barn on making crimp cloth. The samples were really cool - a cloth with pleats. The pictures of Dianne's (the teacher) garments were fantastic. So I signed up for the class, chose my yarn, and then worried about all the skills I'd lost over the years.
Dianne Totten is a great weaver, artist, and instructor. Her garments are gorgeous. Every day she wore a new vest. I was so wowed that I didn't get pictures of most of them. I did get this one of a couple of her vests from her slide show.
The crimped fabric has a wonderful drape and the garments were very flattering on all kinds of body shapes. OK, so I hear you . . . what the heck is crimped fabric?
Crimped fabric is woven like most other fabrics, but the yarns in either the warp or the weft need to be a synthetic and then you put in an additional thread that will be used to scrunch the fabric up and pulled out later. I did a weft crimp - you can see my pull threads in this pic - they are the yellow ones. After pulling the yellow threads tight and tying them, the fabric sits in a steam bath for 30 minutes, and Voila! Pleated fabric!
So I tried several different patterns with the pull threads. 4 by 4 offset (in the pic above), 6 by 3, poofy rows, and large poofy circles. I tried using weft threads in various colors - turquoise, green, dark blue, pink and red. I have a binder full of samples and some ideas to make some crimped scarves.
It felt good to be weaving again. I did have to ask basic questions to refresh my memory. But after a while, I was doing OK. I still have a bit of an issue keeping my edges (selvages) from drawing in. I've signed up for a beginning weaving class this summer so I'll be making some placemats and kitchen towels by summer's end! And maybe my loom won't feel neglected any more.
Curious about weaving? Check out Yarn Barn of Kansas!
In among the foundation piecing on Cat Tail Memories (yes, I've decided to name her), are some lovely applique cat tails and stems. What's the big deal about applique, you ask?
Well, Judy does applique in a WOW way. In each of her patterns that includes applique, she includes lazer cut sheets for each applique shape. Stitch-N-Peel sheets. These sheets are a cellulose material that softens when washed so you can leave it in. It can't be much easier than that!
All you have to do is peel the paper off the sticky side of the applique sheet and stick it to the wrong side of your fabric. Then cut it out with a .25" seam allowance, add a little glue stick and turn the edges under. And Voila! Each group of cattails leaves gets 3 or 4 of the fuzzy cuties.
The applique shapes in this pattern are quite simple. Some of her other patterns - Paradise in Blooms, Pepperdish, Cactus Rose, Diamond Wedding Ring, and Flowers for my Wedding Ring (I'm sure there are more) - have extremely intricate applique that would be so easy with Judy's Stitch-N-Peel method.
Curious? If you want to try Stitch-N-Peel in other applique patterns, you can order it from Judy's website.
P.S. If you missed Chapters 1-4 of my Cat Tail Memories posts, you can read them here.
Chapter 1 - Design
Chapter 2 - Color and Fabric
Chapter 3 - Preparing Papers and Fabric
Chapter 4 - Foundation Paper Piecing
I met Noriko Endo at an ASQ quilt week class in Phoenix AZ in 2014. The result of that class was a small wall hanging I called Autumn Path. I blogged about that quilt early last year. I sold Autumn Path and I have been missing my baby. So I decided to make another one. Oh, and I'm also talking about the technique at Sassy Sewists at Mea tomorrow - so gotta have a sample!
For several months I have been saving photos on Pinterest to my board called confetti quilt. The best photos (IMHO) for this technique are impressionistic looking landscapes - scenes that don't have a lot of sharp, crisp edges. After our trip through Colorado, Idaho and Montana last fall, I had been thinking about doing an aspen quilt. So while looking for aspens, I found this picture of this birch which I thought was beautiful. It had all the right aspects - good lines, multiple colors, some details to thread paint. Perfect!
I dug through my stash and found some batting that would do. To tell the truth, I hadn't labeled this piece, so I have not idea what brand it is. Then I found some batiks that would work for the basic background - light blue for the top third, and dark green for the bottom 2 thirds. As you can see, I didn't even press the fabrics. There is going to be so many layers on top of this that a few wrinkles don't matter.
A few days ago, at my guild small group meeting, I whacked some batiks strips into little pieces - confetti, and saved them - first in a muffin tin, and then I found a perfect storage bin at JoAnn. I felt like I had a palette of paints ready to use to make a masterpiece!
I imagine layering the fabric like a painter would layer paints - starting with the farthest bake layer and then moving forward. I sprinkled my "paint" down on the background using the picture as my guide. Then I added the tree trunks that stand "in front" of some of the leaves. Next came the first layer of tulle.
I found the tulle at Hobby Lobby. They had probably over 20 colors. I was tempted to try a dark red or green, but settled on my standby black. It doesn't add color, but tones down colors that are too bright. So now I have a layer of tulle over all the little pieces of confetti. I pinned it together and brought it carefully to the machine. Even though I was careful, I still spilled bits of fabric all over my studio.
Using the Bernina Stitch Regulator, I stitched down the tulle/confetti/background/batting/backing sandwich to keep most of the confetti in place. Now I added the top layer of confetti - the leaves that are in front of the tree trunks.
Now comes the fun part - the thread painting. I used Isacord thread in several colors and stitched bubbles, leaves, and squiggles over the leaves. I added the highlights on the tree trunks with a light grey.
I have a few more highlights and shadows to add and then I get to figure out how to finish it - binding? facing? staple to an art canvas?
Check out Noriko's book and try your hand at painting a confetti quilt. It's fun, uses scraps, and lets you practice your free motion quilting. Just a note of caution - put something over it or keep the cat out of the studio while you are working on it - also don't leave the windows open. Ask me how I know!
Inspiration - It's everywhere! Nature, architecture, other textiles, and of course other quilts.
My Pinterest board "Photos that Inspire Quilts" is jam packed with pins of ideas or subjects that I think would make great quilts. Pics of flowers, animals, landscapes, or abstract lovelies.
Everytime I travel, I see carpets, tiles, paintings, vistas from an airplane window that would make great quilts. Vacations are great opportunities to explore and experience landscapes and colors that would make great quilts. Our trip 4 years ago to the Galapagos Islands provided lots of ideas. Lava flows, birds, tortoises, sand, water - they were all gorgeous and all worthy of a cool quilt.
Of course other quilters are a huge source of inspiration. Before Pinterest, I used to comb through quilting magazines, tearing out pages of gorgeous quilts. I had files of pages - traditional, modern, colors I liked, applique quilts. Now, I don't need paper pages anymore to get and organize inspiration. Don't you just luuuuuvvvv Pinterest?
I have boards related to modern quilts, HST quilts, jelly roll quilts, applique quilts, landscape quilts, circle quilts, spiral quilts, crazy quilts, and a general category for "quilts I like". There are so many - I will NEVER want for inspiration. Not only do I have stash beyond life expectancy, I have ideas beyond life expectancy. I'll have to live to be 200!
There are so many quilts out there waiting to be born. Big sigh . . .
Where do you find your quilting inspiration?
Wow, its been quite a week with the Kaw Valley Guild's Quilt Show. The Show is now behind us and I am catching up with housework (yuck) and sewing (yeah). The show was a success by many standards. A lot of hard work by many people and also great fun and inspiration.
So, now that I am a bit caught up, I can work on my Judy Niemeyer Cattail Mixer. In previous chapters I designed and colored the quilt on Quiltster, and prepared the papers and fabrics. In this chapter I am working on one series of cattail sections. One of the best features of Judy's quilts is her method of assembly line sewing.
Actually, it should be assembly line sewing, pressing, folding, and trimming. Because the mantra here is "what you do to one piece, you do to all pieces". For Judy's patterns that could mean 4 pieces, all the way up to a hundred - on the border for example. In this case I have four sections.
For those of you who have done foundation piecing before, this is pretty much the same method. What is different is that you do several at the same time.
The first step is to lay out all your pieces that you prepared in Chapter 3. I aligned them in the order that they will be sewn with the "sew side" towards the top. In this case, I had 11 pieces of background and cattail leaves.
When doing foundation piecing, you should reduce your stitch length so that the paper is easier to tear off. Its a bear to rip out if you make a mistake though . . . curse words have been heard coming from my studio. Judy recommends 1.6. So I adjust my trusty Bernina and I'm ready to go.
Following the "do it for every piece" method, I lined up the first 2 pieces of fabric on each of the 4 papers. The beauty of foundation piecing, is that you just have to be able to sew on the lines. You get perfect points on difficult patterns just by sewing on the lines. I sew on line 1 four times. By the forth time, I really know that line well. Practice makes perfect!
Second step is to press the seam open - yes, 4 times! I sometimes use getting up to the ironing board as exercise (don't tell my trainer Zach), but this method saves those trips. I iron all 4 papers at the same time. I guess I'll have to do real exercise instead.
Step 3 is to fold the paper back and trim the excess fabric away. Judy recommends a long piece of template plastic because you can get a good fold all along a long paper. Using an "add-a-quarter" ruler butted up against the template plastic gives you a nice straight cut edge.
Now you do it again with the next piece of fabric, then the next, and next, sewing on lines 2 through 11 - you get the picture. I now have 4 raggedy papers, so obviously there are still a couple of steps left.
Step 4 is to sew the registration lines using a basting stitch. This is one of the brilliant features of Judy's patterns. The registration lines help you put the sections together. This section has 3 registration lines on each piece.
Now the last step, the fun part that really gives me a feeling of accomplishment - trimming the papers on the outside cutting line. If the lines are straight, I use a ruler. If they are curved I do it free hand.
So now I have 4 left side cattail sections complete. In this pattern there are a total of 4 different sections - 2 corner sections (left and right) and 2 center sections (left and right). As soon as I complete the 4 right side sections, the cattails will be done and I can move on to the inner border. The cattail sections include some applique stems and cattails which I'll address in the next chapter.
Keeping life curious with Judy Niemeyer!
Right! The design is finished (Chapter 1). The colors are chosen (Chapter 2). All using Quiltster. All that was fun, but now the real fun begins. First step - preparing the papers and cutting the fabric. Get ready to invest in ziplock bags!
Judy's patterns are foundation paper piecing patterns. The patterns come printed on newsprint and are printed precisely so that if you align them carefully and then staple them together, you can cut them all out at once. The instructions say to trim them within about 1/8 inch of the outside line. I've occasionally been a little sloppy with my cutting - trimming about 1/2 to 1/4 inch away. It makes it a little more difficult to place your pieces properly so that they cover the space completely (for those of you new to foundation piecing, this will make more sense later).
Once I have all the foundation papers cut for the center section, I put them in a ziplock bag. Now it's time to cut the fabric. Before the fabric gets cut, the fabric layout sheets (also printed on newsprint) are cut out in the same manner as the foundation papers. However, the fabric layout sheets are cut right on the outside cut lines. This is so that you can lay them accurately on top of your fabric stacks.
Fabric stacks??!! Yes, with Judy's method, you can cut stacks of fabric - saving time and possibly cut fingers. The instructions tell you how many of each color of fabric to stack. Then you place the layout sheets on top, paperclip them together, and cut the whole stack at once, cutting on the "cut" lines. The Quiltworx folks are geniuses - they even give you the proper order to cut the pieces out. This whole process saves time, fabric waste, and ensures fabric is on the proper grain. Judy has a video of this process on her YouTube Channel. Check it out!
My center section uses 3 colors - 2 for the center spikes and the light teal for center background. Then I also had bright green and dark green "ribbons". Most of these fabrics were cut in a similar fashion and put into the ziplock bag for the center section. The pieces that will be used for foundation piecing are cut over-sized and the template shows the grain line and which side will be the side that you sew on. Several pieces - including the dark green ribbon - are cut exactly the size needed to sew on and might be marked by stitching reference points. Although I am showing a pic of the center section stitched and put up on the board, don't worry, I'll cover the foundation paper piecing process. I just wanted you to see the colors.
You can either cut all the papers and fabrics at once, or tackle it a section at a time. Remember your ziplocks! My quilt has 4 sections, each section requiring at least 1 bag, some needing as many as 7.
OH, I almost forgot something. How do you know, besides looking at your Quiltster picture, which fabric is used where in each section? This is so cool - for each section the instructions have a place to put a tiny slice of each fabric - a key code if you like. Don't even think about skipping this step. Many times I looked back at my key to make sure I was using the correct fabric.
So now my papers are cut, fabrics are cut and everything is waiting nice and neat in multiple ziplock bags - labeled with a sharpie of course. Quilters should buy stock in ziplock bags and sharpie markers!
Next Chapter - Judy's assembly line techniques for foundation piecing.
My introduction to Julie Herman of JayBird Designs was at the Sisters Oregon Quilters Affair - the workshop week before the annual outdoor quilt show. I've had the pleasure of going there twice - once in 2013 and again in 2015.
One of my courses on the first trip was Chopsticks. I thought it would be the perfect pattern for a series of crazy purple, salmon and greeny/gold fat quarters I bought on a cross country road trip. They were wild and at that time, a little outside my color comfort zone. I added a sashing fabric that was even more outside my norm. I call this one Hazardous Material because the acid green evokes a feeling of toxic material. I love it!
Julie's class was awesome. As she says, her "superpower is geometry and design". And Boy is she a s-hero. She puts such thought into her designs. She designed a set of rulers - Hex N More and Sidekick - that are used in most of her patterns. With these rulers you can cut so many shapes. And they all play well together!
So this workshop got me hooked. The next quilt to come to my attention was a BOM called Toes in the Sand. I loved the colors. Loved the look of the repeating triangles. Kelly Cline quilted my Toes in the Sand. And of course it was perfect.
I don't know if this was Julie's first BOM with repeating shapes, but I was hooked. First Triangles, then . . .
Hexagons - Park Bench. I am hoping to teach this at Mea Bernina and I had so much fun making the shop sample. Turquoise, green, and orange fabrics on a dark blue background. Stunning if I do say so myself.
Ok, so now I was on the lookout for more. The next one I did was Gravity - in fact I just finished it last week and it is in the "to be quilted" pile. Following Julie's style of repeating shapes, Gravity is a series of 18 diamonds. This quilt was offered by several shops as a BOM in solids, but I chose to do it in batiks instead of solids and I really like how it turned out. It was quite a challenge to get enough batiks of the right colors and I argued with myself about whether to continue Julie's design for the dark to light background, or just do a dark background. In the end, I went with her original design. It still needs to be quilted, and it's huge! This is my 6'2" son standing on a chair holding up the quilt.
I have several other JayBird patterns and BOM waiting to be started. The one calling my name the loudest is Sweet Tooth.
So, I highly recommend Julie's classes and patterns. Julie is a fresh, young designer and great teacher. Her patterns are fun, interesting, geometric beauties. Oh, and I just saw her post on FB that she is expecting her first baby. Congratulations Julie and and hubby Lawrence.
Curious about Geometry? Check out Julie and JayBird!
So I tried several different patterns with the pull threads. 4 by 4 offset (in the pic above), 6 by 3, poofy rows, and large poofy circles. I tried using weft threads in various colors - turquoise, green, dark blue, pink and red. I have a binder full of samples and some ideas to make some crimped scarves.
