Sunday, 7 December 2014

The power of the quilt - a contest

December 8, 2014

The Contest


Today is the day after our winter choir concert! Fellow quilters Mary, Jane, Holly and Linda will relate. We were all there. Between the dress rehearsal and the the performance, the choir (Muskoka Rock Choir,) has to stand for upwards of four hours singing our lungs out.  It can be quite exhausting, especially on one leg, but it is also exhilarating.

I had a great email yesterday from an old quilting buddy who has since moved to Fonthill, Ontario.  I haven't seen her or talked to her (she isn't on FB) in a long stretch, so it was great to catch up by email.   She was an early mentor. Already a skilled quilter when I began, Jennifer helped and encouarged me and many friends to become better at the craft.  She is always willing to share her tricks of the trade.  It made me think about the bonds that quilting helps us form. From her I met her dear sisters, also skilled sewers. Makes me think that those women who presided over the old time quilting bees knew all about this.  Better than any social media, quilting brings us together, face to face, in artistic productive pursuits that allow us to bond and grow.  Singing does the same thing, but it is more inviting to men than sewing is, although I am not sure why.  My son-in-law is a skilled wood worker and he once commented that sewing and woodworking had many similarities.

So I am hoping that people will share some of the bonds they have formed over quilting/sewing in the comments section.   Some people have mentioned that they have had trouble using the comment option.  I think if you open the comments section at the bottom of this post  (click on no comments)and when you go to share, scroll all the way to the bottom and share as "anonymous" the comment should first come to me for moderation and then I can allow it to post.  Alternately, you can email me (tghowell54@gmail.com) and I can post your bonding story in a blog post or put it into the comments myself.  Put the word contest in the subject line of your email. If you want to use your name, just add your first name to the end of your comment.  Post as often as you want.  More posts, more chances to win.

As an added incentive, I have a landscape quilt that I will give to one lucky person who posts and signs (first names only are fine). You have until Dec. 25 to post a story.  I will put the name of everyone who posts in a hat and draw one lucky winner on Boxing Day. 

When I start to think about the power of the quilt to bring us together, I have many stories.  It is so hard to narrow it down to just one, but here goes.  My grandma Jessie, used to live with my family in a Toronto subdivision in the winters when I was growing up.  There was always a quilt on a frame in the family room or the living room.  In the long winter afternoons, my mom and grandma would take time out to thread a needle and quilt one of the lovely tops that grandma had made over the summer in her home in Teeswater.  I remember one year my mom thought it would be fun to have grandma teach the neighbourhood woman how to quilt (those were the days of stay at home moms).  There may have been a method in her madness because this meant that many hands would be available to help and the quilt would be finished much faster.  It ended up that many woman began to join the quilting afternoons including immigrant woman.  Many days when I came home from school it was a league of nations in our home.  The tea and coffee were on the sideboard and many accents were heard.  The quilt introduced some of these women to Canada, to the English language and to friendship.

So what's your story - simple, short, long, involved....it doesn't matter.  Post for a chance to win!  And visit the blog often to read what others post.  Every quilt tells a story and you can too!



Friday, 5 December 2014

The Provenance

December 5 2014.

Time is flying and the holiday season will be upon us sooner than we can imagine.  Despite the fact that our initial November dump of snow took a beating in the rain that followed, we have another foot of the fresh white stuff that fell on Wednesday.  The world is freshened up once again. Today was a busy day as I continued to nurse my broken ankle, but put that sitting time to a good use by sewing the provenance on each of my landscapes.

Google defines a provenance as follows :

prov·e·nance
noun
  1. the place of origin or earliest known history of something.
    "an orange rug of Iranian provenance"
    synonyms:originsource, place of origin; More
    • the beginning of something's existence; something's origin.
      "they try to understand the whole universe, its provenance and fate"
    • a record of ownership of a work of art or an antique, used as a guide to authenticity or quality.
      plural noun: provenances
      "the manuscript has a distinguished provenance


Quilt made by grandma or her mother,
 probably in the 1940s
All of us probably have an old quilt around our house that was made by a grandparent or a relative. Antique stores often have beautiful, soft, old quilts made by the loving hands of someone. Unfortunately, most of these timeless beauties do not have a provenance on them and as they get passed from generation to generation no one really remembers where they came from or who made them. Fortunately, there are quilt collectors out there who can usually date the quilts based on the fabrics and batting used, but that doesn't help us determine  who the maker was.  What a shame that all those talented, hard working artist women go unknown and not named.  In the old days quilting was utilitarian. Quilts were for warmth.  There worth as works of art was certainly secondary.  I hope woman are changing that notion in the 2000's as we continue to craft incredible works of quilted art.



I have a great quilt that my grandmother made me when I was in my early twenties.  Grandma was among the last of the quilt makers who preferred (more out of financial necessity) old clothes or bed sheets for fabric.  She cut all the pieces with scissors, not rotary cutters, and many times sewed the pieces together by hand. All the quilting was done on large wood quilting frames, surrounded by chairs for would be quilters, over the winter in her living room or ours. She once told me that I was among the worst hand sewers she had ever met ( I hated hand sewing).  I didn't take any offense because it was impossible to duplicate her beautiful even stitches or take her laughing comments very seriously.  As a legacy to her, may I say that Jessie C. McTavish-Howell was one of the great quilters of her time but apart from her family, completely unknown.  I like to look at quilts in antique stores and wonder if any were hers.  Unfortunately, no one will ever know.




Grandma's provenance
The provenance on this quilt that she made for me, as you can see from the picture, has only my name and the year the quilt was made,1977. There is no mention of the quilt maker. Grandma was well into her 80's when she made this one.  I really wish she had signed it as a lasting legacy to the quilt making skills she had honed over years growing up on a farm near Teeswater, Ontario. I knew of only one other quilt that she put a similar provenance on and that was one she made for my brother.  She made many quilts over her 86 years but whoever has them now, will likely have no idea they were made by her hands. 


The fact is that all quilts are art and they are the artistic expression of someone. The patterns, fabrics, size, materials used for the batting (old clothes were once used),  colour choices and even the style of the quilting, whether by hand or machine, forms a historical record of the time the quilt was made. Each quilt tells a story about the quilt maker. A provenance is a record of who made the quilt.  It is a historical record and it  is really important that you include one on every quilt you make (although I am guilty of being so happy to be finished a quilt that I skipped that last step of naming and signing it....too bad).

So here is my advice to you:
1) give all of your quilts a name
2) include your own name
3) include the year and place the quilt was made
6) if it is for someone special, include their name and relationship to you (i.e. For my daughter, Heather) 
7) if it is a gift celebrating a special occasion, like a wedding, birthday, graduation or anniversary be sure to include that too

 It is great fun to think of a name for your work and it usually ties the quilt to the story behind it. Sometimes I have a name for my piece before I have a plan for  how the quilt will look.  Included with the name should be where and when the quilt was made.  I usually write, Muskoka 2014 (or whatever the year is).  I sign the provenance in my own script.  

 Nancy's Choice is the name of a lap quilt I made with my cousin Nancy.  She is the person responsible for getting me into quilting.  Diagnosed with a lethal cancer in her mid 40s, she thought quilting would be a way to tie family and friends together with an activity that we could do together during her treatments and times when she needed recovery and bed rest. We all agreed, some of us reluctantly!  During one of her times free of chemo and radiation,  a group of us took a quilting course in Muskoka.  I didn't finish the quilt until Nancy was quite sick.  It seemed appropriate to name it after her.  Quilting was her choice and in fact, she selected all the fabrics for this quilt as well.  I named the people who took the course with us on the provenance.  The quilt forever tells the story. It reminds me that she once lived and laughed with me.  It reminds me of the bond of friendship we all shared at that time. 

My grandmother used embroidery, directly onto the quilt for the provenance she put on mine.  Some people use ink jet printers to make labels on contrasting or coordinating fabric. Some people prefer free motion quilting or embroidery.  The important thing is that the provenance will stand the test of time.  I prefer to use a permanent fabric pen on a piece of fabric and hand stitch it to the back of the landscape, lap or bed quilt.  I press it to set it.  Art quilts won't likely be washed and so fabric pens and hand stitching work very well.

On a happy note my skier landscape is complete.  The provenance for it is to the left.  I called it Solitary Skier.  It is from a memory of skiing towards an island on Skeleton Lake but it could be a combination of many memories of skiing frozen Muskoka lakes or Georgian Bay, always with a dog at my side.  I love this landscape.  It incorporates the use of white paint to show a bit of snow falling against the land in the distance.  It also uses some sheer fabric on top of the snow to soften the snow a bit.  Winter skies can be so cool and often a blueish grey.  I tried to get that cold feeling but also to  balance it with the warmth a skier feels when he or she is moving or when the sun makes a peek out.  It is going to be hard to sell this one; to give it up.  It tells quite a story.



Solitary Ski



Monday, 1 December 2014

First sale, homemade gifts and framing fun!

December 1, 2014.

December is the month of giving and there is nothing better to give than a beautiful, thoughtful handmade item.  My husband is busy working on driftwood and stumps making beautiful coat racks and end tables.  Last year I took several gorgeous old wool sweaters that my mom had knit way back in the 70's and made my daughters mittens out of them.  Various family members also felted pictures, made cozy flannelette pillow cases, wooden candle holders, mason jar lanterns and chalkboards from old frames. My older daughter made a family set of prayer flags. None of these ideas are particularly original.  Pinterest and Etsy provide tons of inspiration.  There is something so wonderful as giving and receiving something homemade .Quilting opens up a world of opportunity.

I am happy to report my first two sales of my quilted landscapes.  I sold my "Secret Lake" on Etsy with great excitement. It was shipped yesterday.  Another one was sold to a friend for a wedding gift.
Ready to be shipped.
  The thing with designing and making quilts from your own memories is that selling or giving them away is almost like giving away a pet, because there are so many wonderful thoughts and memories wrapped up in them.  And of course, there is always the anxiety that the person who purchases it won't love it the same way you did!  It does however, feel very good that someone appreciates and likes your art and creativity.  Thank you dear customers.

 The real secret lake, which remains small and nameless on maps, does exist and  is mostly unknown to all but a few of us.  My family and I hike there from our home one or two times a year.  My favourite time to go is at Thanksgiving.  We love to lie on the warm rocks in the moss and gaze up at the sky and across the lake.  The rotten remains of an old cabin, add mystery to the lake.  Who used it?  How long ago? Thinking about someone in that small space in the dead of winter allows the imagination to go wild.  Stumps of trees all around the cabin indicate there was someone there at sometime in the cold. Judging from the height of the stumps, there was significant snow on the ground.  This cabin is far from the main road.  Rusted remains of an old wood stove are still evident in the rubble.   I think I will have to make another secret lake landscape from a different perspective.  It is, of course, impossible to ever make the same quilted landscape twice.  Winter may offer a very different view as would spring, when the ice melts and the lake comes alive again. Ideas are brewing.

Secret Lake
 My Etsy store is called Piecefullandscapes.  I hope you have visited or will visit soon.

I am just finishing the quilting on my latest landscape, Starry Night.  My husband saw it and  had a brilliant idea.  He brought home some very old windows from a job site he was working on. Starry Night fits in the biggest part of the window but there are also all those tiny windows to fill.  I am working on an idea to do small quilted landscapes in the teeny windows that all tie in together with Starry Night.  Suggestions gratefully accepted.


Stay tuned to see this finished product.  Meanwhile, I am just doing the hand sewing on my skier landscape and it will be posted on Etsy when completed.



Friday, 28 November 2014

The Secrets of Binding and landscape quilting on the vertical


November 28, 2014

I have posted a link and the actual video, to the best video quilt binding tutorial I know.  The tutorial is by Jenny of the Missouri Star Quilting Co.  All of my quilting friends use this tutorial especially the part near the end where she shows you how to join the two ends of the binding together on the quilt.  It is magical.
http://quiltingtutorials.com/all/ultimate-quilt-binding-tutorial/  or watch the following:



Watch it a couple of times. You will shortly be an expert in binding a quilt!

Here is a new quilt that I finished the design and now need to quilt and bind.  Starry Night was made by placing strips on the vertical rather than on the horizontal.  I kept all the backgrounds the same starry fabric.  I varied the height of the horizon line.  I wanted the moon to cast a glow so I highlighted the edges of some of the trees with yellow fabric.  Adding the child on snowshoes gave the picture perspective.  It was such a fun landscape to make.  Thanks Susan for suggesting a snowshoe quilt.  This popped into my head immediately and I couldn't wait to get started.

Tuesday, 25 November 2014

Landscape Course Photos- November 24 and November 26

November 28, 2015
Linda, Mary, Jeanine, Franny, Holly, Lecko and Louise show off their landscape quilts.  Way to go !

Learning to put trees on that are stylized.
Selecting colours.
Two great courses in landscape quilting this week.  On November 24 a group of seven women gathered to learn how to do "quilt as you go" landscape quilting. We learned all the techniques and as you can see the finished products were pretty spectacular.  A quick lesson in binding and everyone should be finished up.
 

 On Wednesday I had the pleasure of working with Joni Newman of Quirks and Quilts on stained glass landscape quilting.  A group of three women met for the day long course at Muskoka Quilting in Bracebridge. For this course, we selected one of Joni's patterns, this one is Killbear Provincial Park, and learned how to applique her design onto a piece of black fabric. ( check out her Ontario provincial park series of stained glass quilts and her Postcards from Muskoka quilt on her website quirksandquilts.com)  The end result is stunning, ( I am just quiltng it now) but I am hoping to design my own stained glass landscape from a photograph.  I am already brewing ideas in my head.  Joni suggests a thick black marker and a photo is a good starting point to making your own, followed by the removal of details in the picture.  The one pictured below is one of Joni's easier stained glass quilts, having less teeny tiny pieces to applique.  Isn't it great?  Stay tuned, she is planning to teach a courseon how t designn stained glass quilts this spring at Muskoka Quilting.










Monday, 24 November 2014

quilting the landscape

November 24, 2014  Quilting Tips

What a great day of making fabric landscapes with my "manager" Mary, who was actually my right foot today and with Louise, Linda, Lecko, Holly, Jeanine and Fran.  It was an honour to have such great students to work with.  Below I posted just a few of the landscapes in their early stages that these artistic gals were producing..  I was too busy as everyone finished to remember to snap pictures but I know that Mary got some that I can post later.


Quilting tips:

Just about everyone got to the quilting stage today.  Here are some tips as you finish up your work.

1) Stitch length should be about 3.5

2) Use cotton thread and have some variegated thread or shiny thread in a variety of colours on hand to add to the overall look

3) Keep bobbin thread a constant colour

4) Change thread as you change fabric colour.  For example, blue sky looks great with a blue variegated thread but when the blue changes to purple, change the top thread to purple too.  Sometimes contrasting threads be great.  Sometimes if I have a sunset landscape, I use thread to make the reflection in the blue water.  For example, if there if yellow in the sky, I will do some quilted lines in he water with yellow too.

5) Quilting gives the landscape a lot of texture and motion. Consider sewing a variety of different lines, some wavy (water looks great wavy) and some straight.  Be creative.  For example, waves in the foreground are big but they get much smaller in the background. Grass blows in the wind so make the quilting lines very wavy.  Sky can be made to look windy with your quilting lines.

6) Keep your quilting lines nice and close together.  This builds nice texture.  I think one quarter inch between lines is a maximum.  Try not to cross your lines.

7) Don't quilt over any appliqued details, but rather sew these down with a thread the colour of the applique, inside the appliqued shape, to hold it down should the glue fail

6) Switch the side you start your quilted lines from 

7) Consider leaving some small parts of the landscape unquilted.  For example, I have left clouds in the sky with no quilting lines.  Details you want to stand out can be effective if left unquilted but make sure this is only a very small part of the landscape.

Hope this helps as you embark on quilting your landscape.

Saturday, 22 November 2014

Appliqueing details and ebellishments

November 22, 2014    Drizzle on top of 2 feet of snow.  High of plus 12 Monday,  Weird weird Muskoka weather.

Secret Lake
Lots of times beautifully designed quilted backgrounds speak for themselves and need no further embellishments.  If you are doing a table runner that might need to be washed some day (although I suggest that all quilted landscapes are in fact art pieces and not daily functional pieces that should ever be washed) you don't want to add appliqued details. The appliqued pieces just won't stand up to machine washing.  The fact is your landscape may already tell a story without any extra embellishments being added.  These two pieces are about 12" x 40" and look great on a dining or coffee table, but they can look equally as stunning hanging on a wall.  They have no appliqued pieces, because I believe both designs speak for themselves.

Sunset over Bella Lake
There are times however, when I really want to add something more to my landscape to impart my message.  I love this part and for me little details make the landscape come alive and spark the imagination of the viewer..  Sometimes I applique the details using Steam a Seam to stick the pieces down.  Sometimes I applique netting or crinoline or sheer fabric to give the landscape a sense of watercolour or fog or snow.  I have also used acrylic paint.  Painting a piece of fine netting and then laying it down on the fabric and pressing gently can impart a feeling of falling snow. One word of warning, try paint techniques first.  Fabric is way to expensive to waste on a failed experiment.

Here are some examples of landscaped backgrounds embellished with appliqued pieces.
Sailboats added to scene

This was my first landscape with added details. I made this piece after visiting PEI last summer.  The views of the fields and beaches from our rental house were wonderful.  I thought that small sailboats would give the picture dimension. The sailboats were put on with steam a seam.
In this one, which is my own personal protest against all the monster cottages that are now on a section of beach on Georgian Bay where I grew up, has a representation of the old cottage that we used as children.  It is actually sewn directly into the background.  I have done the same thing on a background of farmers field.  I sewed a red barn directly into the background on the horizon.


This was just the beginning of putting together an appliqued skier on a winter scene (see last blog post for the final representation).  Like I play with fabrics I also play with the embellishments.  I kept the skis but I redid his top -- too much white and his head and I added a red toque (very Canadian eh!) I also added our Gordon Setter Caber beside him.  It takes some playing and some thought about colour and value when you are adding appliqued embellishments.

Tips for appliquing:  Once I have the applique stuck down with my iron, I always sew a straight stitch  all around the inside of the appliqued piece because I don't like it when/if the appliqued pieces starts to peel off just a little.  The instructions for using steam a seam are on the plastic that comes with it.  Steam a seam light probably works best.

Friday, 21 November 2014

Colour Value

November 21, 2014

Four feet of snow has fallen this week and as I write this our roof is already being shoveled in anticipation of the forecasted rain showers tomorrow.  In the over 30 years we have lived here, we have never seen this much snow this early before.  A month until the official start to winter and already we are battling the constant squalls and snowfall. Unfortunately, my broken ankle means I am of no help when it comes to snow removal.

Looking at colour and value
Last post I talked a bit about fabric colours when making the background.  Quilters know that colour value (the lightness or darkness of a colour) is also very important to a pleasing finished product. If you have too much of one value or none of another, your landscape may seem flat and lifeless. There should be lights, mediums and darks in every piece but they don't have to be in the same amount, just ensure that each value is represented.  Painters can mix white and black to colours to change the values, but quilters don't have that luxury.

 When I am getting ready to make a new landscape I gather the fabrics I want to use in piles. I try to determine if my colour choices are going to work  (see last blog post on the colour wheel) and if I have a selection of colour values.

See the yellow peeking out?  The piece I am going to being working on is a winter snow scene in a forest snowshoeing  at night.  Snow is cold and the colour of the sky is cold (blue) so I knew that I would need something to warm the scene up.  Yellow or orange seemed reasonable.  You will note that I have light (whites for the snow), medium (light greys that will be tree trunks) and darks (the blues for the night sky and dark tree trunks.  I know that I will have to adjust as I go but this is a pretty good start.

When I think about snow I think about all the colours that I see.  The shadows are often purplish and blueish hues and the white is never all the same colour of white.  I want to represent this in my landscape.  Unfortunately a photo does not show you all the different whites I have piled together and then sewn to make the snow look shadowy.
Playing with the scene before sewing it down

The idea for a winter snow scene came to yesterday when I posted a photograph of a landscape quilt with a skier and a dog in the foreground on FB (see image at the top of the Blog post).  Immediately a friend commented that she wanted a snowshoer in a similar scene.  I couldn't fall asleep last night as I first envisioned this landscape and then thought my way through how to do it.  I started this evening, but its far from finished.  You will see that I spend quite a bit of time playing before I commit fabric to the sewing machine.

As I played with the fabrics and the scene I had in my head I realized that the background sky should probably be consistent right across the picture.  I also knew that the trees needed to be more organic and less straight.  The orange was changed to yellow, which seemed more pleasing and bright.  I was hoping that the little bits of purples and yellows would look like abstract shadows.
It starts to come together

I am always anxious to get sewing.  Notice that I decided to run strips of yellow moonlight on one side of the trees as I get closer to where the main hit of yellow (the moon) will be.  I plan on having a snowshoer in the foreground looking up at the moon dancing among the tree trunks. I feel like the shadows on the snow are having the abstract effect I wanted.

See if these couple of pictures will help you understand how I attach the snow bottoms to the tree trunks and night sky.






Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Fabric - colour choice

November 19

A freak November snow storm that dumped almost two feet of the white stuff on Muskoka and my daughter's wedding have interrupted my blog flow.  But now that the sun is out (apparently temporarily) and at least some of  the wedding paraphernalia has been sorted and boxed so I can once again turn my attention to blogging! November 24 is the next course that I am teaching (the location has been moved to my home to accommodate my broken ankle and lack of locomotion). I am so looking forward to sharing quilted landscapes with others.  It has been a long fall since snapping the old ankle bones!!

On November 28, my good friend and fellow quilter Mary and I are taking a landscape quilting course at Muskoka Quilting in Bracebridge.

Joni Newman design - Killarney Provincial Park
Joni Newman from Quirks and Quilts from Stittsville is teaching it.  If you haven't checked out her website, go to it now http://www.quirksandquilts.com.  Joni designs appliqued stain glass quilts of Ontario provincial parks, that are absolutely wonderful.  The patterns are for sale. I purchased mine at Muskoka Quilting in Bracebridge. Adding your own fabric choices when making the patterns will put your own touch to these designs although Joni's suggestions are terrific.

I just read on Joni's website about a line of fabrics coming out in the new year that are perfect for landscape quilting.  Debbie Suffern let me have a sneak peak when she had examples at Muskoka Quilting.  The fabric is called "shimmer" by Sandscapes.  Have a look at Joni's website if you want to see this great new fabric. It has a lot of movement and also some metallics in it.  Can't wait.


Many people have mentioned to me that colour and therefore fabric choice in landscape quilting is the most difficult part for them.  The human brain seeks "colour harmony".  Here are some tips from the website :http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory.  I suggest you may way want to look at this and other websites that describe colour theory.

When putting together your landscape you should think about the colour wheel and how it can help you design a soothing landscape or a landscape based on colours in nature.  One painting teacher I had reminded me that if we wanted a landscape (painted or quilted) to look like a photo, you might as well just take a picture with a camera and frame it.  The artist (quilter, painter, sewer)  brings the photo to life by reinterpreting it.  One way to reinterpret it is through colour choice.  Of course fabric has a textural quality to it as well which adds wonderful dimension to the landscape.  So when you are buying fabric thinking about colour and texture is a good thing.

1. A color scheme based on analogous colors
Example of an anaologous color harmony  
Analogous colors are any three colors which are side by side on a 12 part color wheel, such as yellow-green, yellow, and yellow-orange. Usually one of the three colors predominates. 
I think example of this might be the various colours of blues and purples or blues and greens in water.
2. A color scheme based on complementary colors
Example of a complementary color harmony
Complementary colors are any two colors which are directly opposite each other, such as red and green and red-purple and yellow-green. In the illustration above, there are several variations of yellow-green in the leaves and several variations of red-purple in the orchid. These opposing colors create maximum contrast and maximum stability.
3. A color scheme based on nature
color harmony in nature
Nature provides a perfect departure point for color harmony. In the illustration above, red yellow and green create a harmonious design, regardless of whether this combination fits into a technical formula for color harmony.
In my winter scene of blues and purples, my skier should be in reds and oranges in order to create some colour harmony and make him stand out against the background.
I keep threatening and I will get to the next stages - putting on the foreground details and quilting.  I will.
 Hope this helps with colour choice.  



Wednesday, 12 November 2014

November 11, 2014   Lest we forget.  Remembrance Day 2014

Here are some great photos from  my creative landscapes course held on a beautiful lake in Muskoka on a rainy fall day.  Six wannabe landscape quilters gathered to learn the fine art of quilt as you go landscapes.  It took a bit of convincing to get some of them to give up the normal precision required for quilting and switch their thoughts over to worrying about colour value, abstract design and letting go of the "photographic" image they had in mind.

Sherry begins adding details.  See the line of trees.
 What a great day!  Day one, after an entire day, everyone finished their backgrounds.  It took another afternoon to quilt and add the foreground details and binding. Everyone went home after day two with some hand sewing to do on the binding.  Looking at these photos will give you some great inspiration for backgrounds.

The backgrounds are complete.


Saturday, 8 November 2014

Sewing the background: Quilt as you Go ..or quilting creatively

November 8, 2014

Once I get the background pretty much laid out on the design wall, I start to sew it down, using a quilt as you go method.  I sandwich cotton quilt batting with a piece of cotton quilt fabric for backing.  Cut both of these just about an inch bigger on all sides than you want the finished piece.. I hold these two pieces together either with pins (smaller landscapes), spray baste (only use outside or in very well ventilated spaces) or just thread basting. Once this is done, I begin stitching down my background strips..  I usually start at either the top or bottom but if I have a horizon line, I can start there too and work up to the sky and down to the ground/water/foreground. Each strip gets placed right sides together on the last strip sewn down.  You don't have to sew a straight line.  I move the fabric i am sewing down so that it is more organic in feel and has movement.  This can be the really creative part.  Ensure that each of your stips is no more than 1"- 2" (or less).  I usually like to sew with about a 1/4 " seam, but this can be less as well.

Tips:

1. Lengthen your stitch length to about 3.5
2. Alternate which end you begin sewing from to keep the piece flatter
3. Chose a bobbin thread that looks great on the backing and stick with this thread throughout for consistency, the top thread can be any cotton thread.


After each strip is sewn down, press well setting the seam.  Make sure you press both sides of he landscape.  Use a hot iron. Steam is your choice. Pressing well is essential for a great finished piece.

Now you are ready to begin sewing on each of the next strips one by one.  Notice how my strips are not straight across and have motion in them.  This is all part of your overall design.  Also notice that I have a lot of strips which makes the colour more snow like.


Here is how I keep my fabric colours sorted and easy to find.  This is an old hoosier and i found the perfect size plastic containers to store fabric!  I just read about a quilter who sorts by value, not by colour.  Great idea.  I sort by colour, for now.  How do you sort?




Thursday, 6 November 2014

Quilted Landscape - the design and layout

November 6, 2014


 Today I started pulling together a winter scene quilted landscape. I always start with the background and build it first.

 I tried to think of all the colours of snow: blue, purple, dazzling white, shadowed, grey and sparkle and then what colour the sky might be if the sun was just coming up on a winter day.  I pulled these colours from my fabric stash.

 I had looked at lots of pictures of snow contemplating how to make it look real in fabric. Landscape quilting takes some planning and so I layered the backgound fabric strips representing various snow and sky colours thinking about value and colour  Did I have some dark and some medium and some light values?.  I knew the sky would have to be deeper blues, or brighter blues than the snow, which is in the lower part of the landscape.

Once I had a rough idea of the background colours I began thinking of the foreground.  I knew I wanted a cross country skier and maybe a dog slightly off to one side.  On the other side of the landscape I wondered about placing a tree or two for balance.  In my head I am thinking of those lovely cross lake skis on the lake close to our home and the utter vastness of the ice.

 A design wall can be really helpful at this point. Placing the fabric strips on the design wall allows you to see them close up and from a distance and move them about before sewing.. I always do a rough cutout of at least one element of the foreground to help me with perspective and layout.  This element, i my case, the skier  should go up on the design wall long before any sewing is done.  Playing with the colour layout and the foreground elements over a couple of days ensures you get it right.   Can you see my skier?  I put him in a Canada jacket with large maple leaves.  This probably won't work in the end because the white of the jacket doesn't stand out against the white of the snow very well. Too bad, because I love the maple leaves. The yellow is hopefully going to give a feeling of warmth on a cold winter morning.

Stay tuned for how I sew the backgrounds together once I have the design right.