Peace and Joy

Christmas Eve, and the lights of the season shine out, bringing hope of peace, joy, and love.  From my house to yours, holiday wishes for everything good, and a bright and happy New Year!

Oliver did NOT like the cat Santa hat, so his expression is less than pleased, but he is a very happy boy with all the holiday activity, packages to unwrap, food to explore, house to clean, acorns from under the couch for fabulous kitty hockey.  I finally got a coffeemaker, his first ever, and he has been stalking its gurgling sound on the counter as I run plain water through it.  He is entranced.  It's the little things that give delight.

May your holidays be filled with "the little things."

Diane

Quilt Journeys: Three Quilters

The new exhibit featuring work of three quilters is now open at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY.  My quilts are part of this exhibit that shows the journey we all take as we travel through this grand adventure of quiltmaking, shown above.   It will run through March 13, 2012.

When I was invited to participate in this exhibit, although so honored, I was very reluctant to show my early work.  Then I decided the entire point was to allow the viewer to see up close the beginnings, the flickers of inspiration along the way, the development of techniques and skills, which allowed art and ideas to be expressed in cloth by the final quilts that are shown. 

It is a huge honor to have my work showcased at the National Quilt Museum, and I hope many of you can see this exhibit and be inspired in your own quilting journeys, by my work and the quilts of two other quilters.

Included are some of my very first quilts, done mostly with a walking foot and invisible thread.  My early free motion work is there, and the beginnings of the kind of quilting I love to do now show up in all the quilts, but the techniques and machine skills definitely improve as the quilts progress. 

"Through a Glass, Darkly:  An American Memory" is in the exhibit, my NQA Masterpiece quilt, and probably my favorite quilt.  It is a log cabin design, and I made it to work in color exploration, and it showcases my original free motion quilting designs as well.  I never tire of this quilt, and I hope you enjoy seeing it in person.  Below, after winning a Master Award at Houston, 2001.

Other smaller wall quilts are there, "Sixteen Baskets of Mud," "Rabbit in Green," "Mourning Too Soon" from the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. 

October Morning, 2000

Detail, below

"October Morning" was the last quilt I made with trapunto, cotton batt, and invisible thread, many original designs and some stencil designs still, and with a tiny amount of applique (broderie perse) in the center, that I had to do as the quilt needed it.  It is a Delectable Mountains traditional pattern.

Please read about the exhibit on the website of the National Quilt Museum, www.quiltmuseum.org to get all the details.  The other two quilters are Doreen Speckmann (also from Wisconsin) and Dorris McManis, and I know you will enjoy their quilts as well. 

I've been busy fussing with my quilting with Sparkle thread.  It is going well, but I SO definitely prefer quilting with #100 silk!  Soon the designs will be finished and my background work will be so relaxing, because it will be back to my #60 Sharp needle and #100 silk thread, smooth curves, no crunchy sound as the needle backtracks over stitches (eek), and faster quilting, definitely.  However, it does look pretty nice. 

One night I was having shredding issues, and switched to a new Jersey needle from a different pack and all was well. 

Oliver has sneaked in twice to bite the thread as it comes off the spool while I am quilting.  I did not see him.  He goes behind the cabinet, jumps up on my right, and before I know it, either wet thread is coming through or the thread is chewed in half, the needle breaks, I scream, cat runs off, door is firmly closed. 

Two nights ago a small spring fell out of the machine but I am forging on as it doesn't affect much except the presser foot lever.  It's now a bit wobbly and limp.  Onward!

Oliver has been banished from my room.  How he opened the door twice I do not know.  He is a clever boy.

Relax a bit during this hectic time of year.  For me, that is an hour or so of quilting in my room, door closed, lights on, music playing.  It does wonders for you.

If you learn anything at all from my exhibit at the museum it is that I did keep quilting, and yes, my work did get better!

Happy Holidays,

Diane

Small Business Saturday Shopping

I did my patriotic duty this past Saturday during the whole Black Friday shopping mania and supported locally owned business by going to my LQS, Bigsby's Sewing Center in Elm Grove, WI, and then out to lunch at a locally owned restaurant. 

I stocked up on a few necessary items:  Fabric!  Thread!  And the gorgeous sateen jacquard print by Lecien above, had to get the last of the bolt.  I had quilted on this the night before and it quilts so wonderfully and I love the colors, so this was not a huge decision to find it on sale and waiting to come home with me.

DH said "but what do you need it for?"  Oh my.

I also got some of the Kaufmann Radiance, the shimmery fabrics that are a cotton and silk blend and also quilt up so beautifully.  The gold fabric is some silk dupioni by Moda that I couldn't resist, so beautiful.  I'm working on a small project on dusty rose sateen and needed more of the YLI gold silk thread I'm using for that, and some of the YLI taupe Sparkle for the motifs, seen peeking out on my prototype, below.

This combo of thread and fabric is new for me, a departure from my more sedate ways, but it gives a very rich, vintage look to this little quilt, a Delectable Mountains pieced design.  I am considering it an experiment, and am loving working on the smaller scale, although I have to say, larger designs and quilting are easiser, this is quite demanding.  But fun, of course. 

And you might wonder how Oliver fared over the turkey weekend.  He loved the holiday, the lights on, the house cozy and all the cooking prep, the Packers game and all the yelling, more food prep, more veggies, delicious odors from delicious food. 

We did get him to lick a bit of turkey gravy from a small cat-sized plate with a pink design on it that went with his pink nose nicely, but mostly he loved the veggies.

For dessert he tackled the bananas while we were snoozing in the other room.......

I hope you support your local quilt shop and other locally owned businesses all the time.  The owners work so hard to find treasures and basics for us so we can be creative and have the tools and supplies available for our quilting.  They also find what's new and fabulous, keep our machines purring, and give advice and information.  I always learn something when visiting a quilt shop.

Hope your Thanksgiving weekend was wonderful, and now you can have a bit of time for quilting. 

Keep quilting - your work gets better every day!

Diane

Preparing for Thanksgiving

Soon it will be the big day!  Oliver helped prepare veggies for supper last week, getting in the mood for the feast this Thursday.  He is an odd cat.  Of all the cats I've had he is the only Vegan.  He loves his veggies.  He'd kill for carrot tops, Brussels sprouts, corn on the cob.  He chomps down raw green beans with gusto. 

If I have water-packed tuna and drain off a bit of the juice for him, he backs away as if affronted and horrified.  Tuna!  Our former cats would be aghast at his passing this up.

However, one of his funniest activities is wrestling a banana off the counter and throwing it to the floor, where he will continue to play with it and kill it for a long time.  We've learned the sacrifice of one banana is worth the joy he has, and the smiles we have.  Sometimes we hear the thuds from the other room, and knowingly say "dead banana."

Recently he has decided to try the bottom-of-the-bowl milk from cereal.  Just a lick of it left in the bottom, and he is on my lap ready to try it.  I think it took well over a year for him to believe the world has more excitement than veggies. 

But, no meat so far, no cheese or butter or peanut butter.  No fast food chicken nuggets or burger bites.  He is interested in any food that comes into the house, but maintains his dignity at his bowl of official chow, and stays a trim weight and is healthy as can be. 

Last Thanksgiving he ignored the meal.  I wonder if this year the tempting odors will lure him into trying....just a bite?? 

Hope your holiday will be wonderful with delicious food and many blessings.

Diane

YLI Sparkle Metallic Thread

I've been playing with YLI Sparkle thread, a twist of #100 silk, in this case ecru silk, and metallic thread, here in gold.  It also comes in silver colorways from pale to dark. 

The feather above is quilted on a very lightweight soft silk from an old blouse, washed and pressed.  In real life it is shimmery and elegant, really lovely with the slight sparkle or "fairy dust" from the thread.  It is a much lighter and more heirloom look, with a twinkle in the stitches, not heavy like a straight metallic.

Background quilting is done in pale yellow #100 YLI silk thread.

I used a #70 Jersey needle (YLI recommended Jersey needles for this thread) and had no trouble at all.  I could quilt at my normal speed, change directions smoothly with no fraying or breaking.  It looks really quite wonderful. 

If you are quilting through heavier fabrics, a denser batt or backing fabric, or a top with lots of piecing joins or fused areas, of course you would use a larger Jersey needle or even a Top Stitch needle. 

For every project with specialty threads you must try a stitch-out on the actual materials you will be using in the real quilt, and find the magic combination of thread, needle, tension, and stitch length that works the best, and looks the best.

#100 silk thread was used in the bobbin, and I lowered the top tension from default #4 to 1.75.

Thread spool was on the vertical spindle of the machine.

Many times owners' manuals will give so much info about needles and threads and how to use them on your particular machine, settings, etc.  Mine has pages of info, very nice.

Now I am busy quilting with a deeper shade of Sparkle thread on a medium colored fabric.  The feathers I have tried so far I did in the "old" method where there is no space between each one as in the one here, and I did backtracking or "travelling" to get to the next feather.  Again, it worked perfectly, and the doubling of the thread was not obnoxious or too noticeable.  It looks wonderful.  I'll post photos of that when this small quilt is finished.

If it turns out!  If not, I'll explain the problems.  It's fun to try new things and challenge yourself to improve your own style of quilting or give it a slightly new and fresh look.  I probably won't use metallics that often but I love knowing they are there in my toolbox of techniques for free motion machine quilting, and I know how to use them.

Try something new today, and keep quilting.....your work gets better everyday!

Diane

Quilting with Metallic Thread

A simple feather design quilted on soft, washed muslin with wool batt takes on an entirely different look when a metallic thread suddenly makes a surprise appearance!

After reading "Mastering Metallics" by Ann Fahl I decided to try out a few threads I had in my thread drawer.  Here I used Superior's "Glitter" thread, a flat type very sparkly metallic, and a #80 Jersey needle. 

I know it is not the type of needle recommended, but it worked so well for me with my YLI Sparkle thread, a silk and metallic blend, that I wanted to see if it would work on something more challenging.  I much prefer it to the horribly big spear-like #80 Topstitch needle.

It worked beautifully in my machine, a Bernina 730 with a rotary hook.  I used #100 silk thread in the bobbin, but could have used a fine cotton like Aurifil #50.

Top tension was reduced from default #4 to #2.  The thread was on the vertical spindle to keep it nice and taut and flat.  There was no looping or twisting or skipping stitches.  I used a fairly small stitch, quilted a bit slower than usual, and it worked well.

The larger the stitch the more sparkle/glitter you get.  But, the larger the stitch, the less puff in the batt, and the design loses its oomph.

The background quilting was done with pale yellow #100 YLI silk thread and really sets off the metallic nicely.  I think this thread combo has possibilities!

Next I am trying YLI Sparkle for a feather design on ecru silk fabric instead of muslin.  I'm using a #70 Jersey needle.  I'll post my findings later.

Below, another photo of the design. 

The sparkle of the thread is very apparent in real life, not so much in the photos.  Sorry about that.

What I didn't like about this thread is the lack of smoothness for smaller designs or close echo quilting. 

Curves were not smooth, and the stitches tended to go off a bit from a straight line.  On the back, the silk stitches looked perfect. 

I think it is an anomaly of this type of flat thread but I didn't like that it made my quilting suffer just a bit.  I didn't wobble, the thread did!  I would not use this thread for tiny designs or micro fills, froth, or baby pearls.

Sometimes it's fun to go off your normal path, and try a new road.  I am having some fun making these samples and will keep them around to remind me of possibilities for future projects.  I took notes with a Sharpie pen on the back so I can refer to what was used to create each sample. 

Oliver loved this thread; he let it run through his teeth as I quilted.  Yikes.

You must know your tools and materials to have success in your quilting.  Taming a thread is always a good thing, and knowledge is power.  Try something new today, just for fun.

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better everyday.

Diane

Happy Halloween from a sleepy Oliver, still in his nightcap.....!

The Fabric Matters

At our recent classes at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY, one of the key items I discussed was how to get dimension into quilting designs.  It's tough to go to all that work to find designs turn out flat and lifeless.

The design above was quilted on cotton sateen over wool batt, and had a soft fine cotton as the backing.  I used #100 silk thread and a stitch length of about 1.6 mm.  I did get dimension in the areas where the batt was left to fill the design. 

I realize it is NOT the same as stuffing the designs with extra batting ("trapunto") but I am quite content with this look.  It's easy to handle in a home sewing machine and just enough oomph to set off the designs.  I also quilt closely around them to flatten surrounding areas and make the design more of the focal point.  Thread color can also emphasize quilting designs.

 

However, some students consistently had problems getting any loft at all into designs.  After teaching for a long time and observing and drawing conclusions, I realized it is due to a variety of factors:

Batt, of course.  You need a batt with some loft in it to get designs to show well.  I currently am using wool batts, various brands and experimenting.  Some of the cottons work great as well, but remember, washing a quilt with cotton batting can cause shrinkage and puckering, making designs hard to see.  Wool tends to keep most of its dimension after gentle washing/wetting and air drying.

Stitch length.  In designs like Bouncing Bananas, below, or Headbands and Froth, if the stitch length is too big for the design size the puff will ooze out between the stitches, leaving you with a very flat design that is nothing but many stitches.

Here you can still see the individual stitches as well as the puff.  Stitches are not piled up, or so close it is a jumble of thread.  They are small enough to create a smooth shape PLUS create dimension and puff.  Correct stitch length is vital in creating puff.

Fabric choice.  The final crucial factor is the fabric you quilt on, even the fabric on the back of the quilt.  Sometimes when there was NO loft in designs at all, I would turn over the student sample only to see amazing loft on the BACK of the quilt.  The fabric used for backing had the proper hand and weave, thread count and finish, to allow the puff to appear.  The fabric on the TOP of the quilt did not. 

Many fabrics that we love don't work to showcase machine quilting.  Tight weaves, extra finishes, very dense fabrics, all can prevent the puff from happening. 

Even with a batt 1" thick, there would be little dimension if the fabric will not allow it to happen.  Sadly many batiks fit into this category, and that's why I suggest on my supply lists to save them for work at home, not in class.  Thread doesn't sink into them well at all.  They tend to be very flat when quilted, and many times affect thread tension adversely.

These fabrics can certainly be used, but if you plan on having areas in quilts to showcase quilting designs, do an audition on various fabrics before the top is even put together. 

Quilt up some prototypes, use the same fabrics, batt, thread, needle that you will use in the quilt.  Try various threads and colors,  adjust tension, see what works beforehand.  Plus, check for puff.  You want to see if the fabric will allow the designs to have dimension.

Sometimes spray adhesives used for basting quilt sandwiches can adversely affect puff as well.

Recently I had lunch with Ann Fahl and we were discussing the effect fabric has on quilting, how it prevents dimension, how some threads don't work well in certain fabrics.  She showed me her new book "Mastering Metallics" and she found that even with everything else done correctly, metallics don't work well or create problems in some cases because of the fabric.

Below, her new booklet, and my sample.  I tried some #40 Superior gold metallic with a Schmetz #80/12 Topstitch needle, #100 silk thread in the bobbin, on a mystery fabric that actually was so labelled.  It said it was a blend of silk, and unknown fibers.  It's a devil to quilt on, trust me, slips and slides and skews all over the place.  You can't see markings, and you can't see where you've already quilted.  I auditioned it several times for projects, and dismissed it as too difficult for the result.

However, I did get some nice dimension, and using Ann's guidelines in her booklet on how to place the thread on my machine, what needle to use, tension adjustments, and speed of machine, I successfully quilted a frond design with NO problems at all.

Even when several areas converged, everything went well.  There was no fraying thread, no skipped stitches.  I quilted slower than usual and that helped. 

Oh how I wish way back when I had had this book to help me when I first tried metallic thread!  If you want to use all the types of metallic and need some help, this booklet is perfect.  You can order it from Ann at her website, www.annfahl.com

So.....stop and consider everything before plunging into a project.  Selecting fabric to showcase your beautiful machine quilting to its very best advantage is worth the bit of extra time it takes.  After a while you will have experience in what works, what lines of fabric you love to quilt on, what backings work the best.  It's an adventure!

Meanwhile, keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.

Diane

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