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!
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.
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. 
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. 
