Starting an art quilt

Today, we went to visit the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum in Golden. The Front Range Art Quilters Guild had a special exhibit there that runs through July 1.  The quilts there were inspiring.  From one that looked like an early gangster, to a three dimensional hummingbird, to a few that were totally abstract.  There was one especially that spoke to me, entitled the organza dress.

Fortunately, I came home inspired to be adventuresome (at least in the area of quilting and fiber arts).  I took a while to find a photo that also inspired me (the one to the right is a fuzzy rendition of the original photo).  It was from last year's birthday trip up Mount Evans.

After printing out the photo, which I'd used Kodak's Easy Share program to create a "coloring book" version (which is why the photo looks blurry), I needed to determine the size of my fabric art quilt.

I decided that when I was finished, I wanted to put the art in a black frame that I'd gotten a while back, so the size of the finished piece needs to be roughly the same size as an 8x10 photo.

Now that I had the size in mind, it was time to create a simple sketch.

From the sketch, I created the initial canvas.

Once the canvas was complete, it was time to start adding in details.  I still have a ways to go, but it is time to stop for tonight.

Fun with scraps

Over the years, I've had a tough time throwing out the small bits and pieces of fabric that are left over from various quilting and sewing projects.  Even pieces as small as an inch and a half square wound up in a plastic storage bin.  Until the plastic storage bin overflowed and the pieces wound up here, there, and everywhere.

Last night, I decided I needed to make a quilted note card in honor of the 4th of July.  And, I knew just where to start:  the overflowing plastic storage bin.

A year or two ago, I made a patriotic runner out of off-center log cabin squares.  I had cut too many inner squares.  And, of course, I'd saved them.  I dug through the plastic storage bin and pulled out a bunch of the squares.  It didn't take me too long before I figured out how I wanted to arrange them.  Once they were ironed into place, I realized that it was still missing something.  So, I looked through my tin of trims and found some thin red rick-rack.

Not bad for a handful of scraps.

Tonight, I revisited the bin.  I'd noticed several pepper-themed fabrics last night and decided I wanted to do something with at least one of them.

After playing with the three different prints for a while, I finally settled on the print with the yellow background.

A plain black background, an oval of the pepper fabric, and some back frilly yarn, and I have another quilted card ready to be placed on a card.

Gone to the birds. Again.

Now that the charity quilt is finished, I decided it was time to work on a couple of birds again.  I have a picture in my mind of a bird that I want to create, but I needed to get back into the mode of creating birds again before diving in and creating one from scratch.

I had started this little chick a couple of months ago.  Surprisingly, all the parts and pieces were still in one location.

I had, however, forgotten something fairly important:  it isn't easy working with something this small.  Adding in the head gusset and the back gusset were challenging.

I had to start working with the tiny, tiny pins again. Just picking them up is a bit of a challenge.

Then, I started attaching the head to the body.  That was when things got really complicated.  The directions stated that I needed to turn the head right-side out, put the head into the body, and pin the two pieces right-side together.  This makes sense.  And, it actually sounded relatively simple.

The reality is that it was actually quite difficult.

The opening was so small that once the foot is down, there is hardly any room left in the opening.

I eventually finished.  And, then started stuffing the bird.  I'm not quite happy with the way it turned out.  Even though I was careful to be relatively exact, there are still a few odd puckers.

I'm thinking that perhaps this chick needs some accessories.  Maybe a hat...or a boa...or...

I'm obviously not sure yet, but I think I'm going to finish this one--puckers and all!

And, the charity quilt is finished!

There are a few things here and there that I would probably do differently, but overall I'm pretty happy with it.  I need to clip a few threads yet, but otherwise it is finished. 

Whew. The quilting is done. Now for the binding...

 After many delays, some ripping, some wondering how I was going to make it work, etc., the charity quilt is now almost finished.  I just finished quilting it and trimmed the excess batting and backing fabric.

All in all, I'm happy with the way it turned out.  There are a few places that I wish looked a little better, and one area that I'm a little concerned about how the binding is going to work with it, but in general and considering everything--it will work!

Now, I need to go find some binding.  Ah--a justifiable trip to a fabric store!  Life is good!

Progress Made

I made pretty good progress on the quilt tonight.  Most of the times when I had to stop it was because I needed to adjust the weight of the fabric instead of the usual cause: thread issues.

The rhythm just felt right tonight, and the quilting flowed fairly well.  I estimate that I'm about 40% done with the quilting.  May the next session go as smoothly!

Let the Quilting Begin!

 Sunday evening I tried to start quilting the charity quilt.  I was able to get the backing, batting, and top together, but when I started quilting, I had nothing but problems.  I have a "test sandwich" that I use to begin quilting.  It is made from scrap fabric and scrap batting.  No problems showed up when I quilted on the test sandwich, but when I checked the back of the quilt after quilting about 14 inches, I had massive problems.  It looked like a bird's nest with the long loops.

Monday evening was a workout night, and after working out, I didn't feel like ripping out the stitches.

Tonight, however, I dove in.  I ripped out the quilting I had done on Sunday, and then changed the bobbin, changed the needle, and re-threaded the machine.  The first run on the test sandwich wasn't good.  So, I flipped the bobbin around and re-threaded the machine.  The second run on the test sandwich was better, but still not what I wanted.  So, I adjusted the tension, and the third test run worked.

Let the quilting begin!  The first couple of attempts, the thread broke after a minute or two.  I fiddled with the adjustments again, and off I went!  I probably have an area 3 feet by 3 feet quilted tonight. 

I probably could have continued, but this is a large quilt and that means a lot of weight to maneuver.  I can't imagine quilting without the foot shown in the photo to the right.  Since discovering this large, flat foot, quilting has definitely gotten much easier.

Although, I still always hold my breath when I check the back of the quilt.  So far, so good.  No large issues.  No large loops forming a nest in the back.  No tight stitches stretching the fabric.  And, no folds in the fabric.  Life is good!