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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

 

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

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

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.  

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.

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?

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.

History of quilts as maps

November 5,2014

Placing maps in a quilt has a long tradition in North America and links Canada with our neighbours to the south.  Before and during the civil war, quilts made by black slaves and safe people along the underground railway contained secret map legends and route information that helped the fleeing slaves  along the " railway" to Canada.  It is also believed that many of the traditional quilts patterns of today originated in Africa where men were the main textile makers. The famous log cabin pattern for example, is thought to indicate to a fleeing slave that the house is a safe house.  The log cabin quilt would be hung over a fence or railing as if to air.  To the white slave keepers and their overseers it was just a blanket, but to the slave it was a marker of freedom.

There is a beautiful picture book called, Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson (and available on Amazon)  which tells a story of how slaves secretly embedded maps and codes. I have used this book many times during Black History month in my classroom. I have also posted a link below to a government of Canada website that shows the various quilt patterns that were thought to guide the black slaves and the famous "conductor", Harriet Tubman.  Because slaves could not read or write the stories of embedded maps and legends and codes are oral traditions.  I can't help but think that it would be interesting to embed some of these coded quilt patterns into my own map quilts.  For example using a very small log cabin to indicate your own home on a map quilt, would show it as a safe house. The Bear's Paw was meant to show a trail or path. Tiny bear paw quilt blocks showing a favourite route on your own map quilt would add another level of legend, beauty and creativity.  Check out the link below to discover what other quilt patterns were thought to mean to fleeing black slaves.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/multiculturalism/black/black_white_codes.aspp

I believe that the art of mapping has importance in our culture.  When we map, or look at maps we begin to understand the relationship between place, the community where we live or work and our own lived experiences.  It gives a stepping stone for discussion and years later a legacy that ultimately tells important things about the maker and what was important to them at that time in history.Turning a map into a quilt adds permanence and artistic licence to create something wonderful, beyond just the waterways and roads.

If you do a search for map quilts on Pinterest or google images you will see see some amazing images of other people's work, including this one which came from google images and shows beautiful use of colour and heavy over quilting to express the argicultural fields.  Ready to start your own?  Inspired yet?




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