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

Follow me on Twitter!  I will be using it to mention machine quilting tips as they pop into my head.....!

National Quilt Museum Classes.....Wow!

It was beautiful weather in Paducah, KY last week for my two classes at the National Quilt Museum, warm, autumnal, perfect.  Above, my first class, posing in the museum's main gallery with two of my quilts as backdrop.  Yes, there were onlookers watching us with either questioning looks or big grins, because this group was fun, talented, and really succeeded with their quilting.  It was such a pleasure working with them.

They had the wonderful opportunity to view the quilts in the collection plus several exhibits, shop, eat at charming downtown restaurants, have lunch at Bryerpatch Studio with Caryl Bryer Fallert, and generally enjoy all that the museum and Paducah offer.  What a terrific time we all had.

We certainly had an array of beautiful shades of denim!

I've scheduled this same class there for next Oct. 18-20, 2012 for experienced beginners and beyond.  I think this is a wonderful class and we get a lot accomplished in the three days spent together.  Because local shops close early we take a longer lunch break for either viewing the galleries (free to class members), shopping in the store on site, or eating out, shopping at the local quilt stores.  Contact Rebecca Glasby at the museum for information from their website.

I had a second class after a day catching up, recording a video interview for my part in an upcoming exhibit at the museum, doing some re-shuffling of samples, and oiling my machine. 

The second class was for experienced quilters and former students who worked on techniques and designs I suggested and also did some independent work with advice from me.  They were definitely troublemakers, as you can see in the photos below.

Joan and Susan came complete with accessories, and made me smile every time I noticed their bat headbands gently bouncing as they worked or talked, while moving their heads.  Susan is filling the bucket with chocolate bars, which we needed and ate!  The handle had flashing lights....

Doing some quilting as a demo for interested students.

Class #2, below.

Thanks to all for making my time at the museum fly by, your talent and humor and hard work were terrific.  I hope new students will sign up for next year's class where we'll explore free motion machine quilting on a home machine, take you to a higher level of expertise, and become friends and kindred spirits in quilting.  I know I'll see many of you again at quilting events.

Keep quilting - your work definitely gets better every day,

Diane

Autumn Leaves, Fall Feathers

Autumn leaves are beginning to appear here in Wisconsin, just touches here and there.  I always like to use fabrics in these colors that I love so much once fall arrives and inspires me. 

I decided to do a small feather frond as a class sample for my upcoming classes at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY.  I just read on their website that there are a few openings in my classes, which are the final ones I'll be doing for awhile.  I have no more scheduled for the future.  If you are interested, give them a call.  The supply list is fairly easy to assemble, and these classes are wonderful, Paducah a great place to visit.

We will be quilting feathers and there are two basic methods I've used over the years, so both are included in the sample, above.

On the right side of the feather, which I quilted first, I began by zipping along from the bottom up and totally forgot I was going to do them the "traditional" way, with no space between each feather.  The first feather on the bottom right does have that space, and then I quickly realized I was already diverging from my plan. 

If something is quilted well, I don't take out the stitches.  If this had been in a "real" quilt, I still would have left it in, and it would blend with the rest and be a bit of a quirky variation on the feather, but not wrong.

I made a quick mental readjustment, and the remaining feathers on the right side, plus the smaller feathers at the top are done the way I had intended.  Each one is quilted, then there is  "backtracking" or "traveling" over the top of that feather or on the center line, or "spine" of the feather, then the next feather is quilted.  This involves precision, experience, control. 

I learned how to quilt them like this in 1990 and quilted them like this for many years, over a decade and more.  I could quilt them quickly and efficiently, but students found it difficult to stay precisely on the previous stitches, and often had feathers that looked messy and uneven.  They were not happy.  I made it look so easy when I showed how to do it, but it takes a bit of repetition and skill to get them so precise.

I like how they look.  Neat and even and compact.  Smooth, classic.

However, I decided there had to be a somewhat easier way, and came up with "Echo Feathers," explained in my Quilt Savvy book. 

Instead of stitching over a previous line of quilting to get to the next feather, when I completed a feather shape and hit the spine, I simply bounced off the spine and echoed the line of the first feather about 1/8" away or less.

When I reached the top of the previous feather I had to create the new feather shape and quilt it, down to the spine once again, building from the bottom of the feather and UP so I could see the feather already quilted in front of the foot and space the next one perfectly.

Upon reaching the top of the design it is important to echo down the outside of the feathers already quilted, that same space that was left between each one, completing the design, and taking you to the bottom.  Then you can quilt around to the other side and begin building feathers from the bottom up, on the left side.

I could quilt these quickly, at one even smooth speed.  I rarely had to slow down, maybe just a bit at the spine for the bounce into the next feather shape. 

The left side has the echo feathers.  There is a small space between each one.  Sometimes this technique seems to define each feather more and make it stand out.  It is faster, and most students can master this with some effort. 

Try drawing them, use a stencil and quilt around those lines to get the flow and shape of the design in your mind.  It's impossible to quilt something with no marking if you don't know the shape.  Practice them, look at what's wrong, correct it, practice some more.  Draw, draw, draw.  Quilt, quilt, quilt.

Some beginners at feathers can only do two at a time and then they begin to deteriorate or become funky.  The answer to this is to quilt two, stop the machine, take a breath, look at what you've done, proceed to the next two.  Soon you will be able to do more at a time, and finally entire rows of feathers with no problem at all.

They look especially lovely like the one above as "leaves."  Instead of large leaves in designs, try some feathers instead.  Tuck some tiny feathers in your leaf designs.  Use leaves with feather designs! 

Get out some of the beautiful fall colors you've saved and mix in your other favorites for something fun to quilt.  I always tell my classes to "practice" on fabrics and colors you love.  You'll do better work.

Some will quilt feathers better and easier the old-fashioned way, and some will love the echo technique.  One isn't necessarily better or easier, just different.  Give it a try!

And keep quilting, your work gets better every day!

Diane

Houndstooth

Fall is right around the corner, back to school is just about here, and the sunbeams are streaming in at a new dazzling angle.  Oliver has found his old cozy spot on the soft throw on the back of the couch every evening, rather than his summer spot, stretched out on the hardwood floor.  The summer is winding down.

I was thinking of more grid-based designs using my June Tailor Grid Marker stencil that lets you mark those perfect lines with no gaps so quickly.  My first favorite background or space-filler was a cross-hatch grid.  Next came "Diane-shiko," the classic sashiko design but done not in circles that overlapped, but over a marked grid, lines removed when quilting is finished. 

Then came Apple Core.   My students embraced these designs and most could quilt them well with a bit of practice.  It gave everyone such a fabulous design basic to use over and over, giving a structured look to contrast with more circular flowing designs.  It's good to have structure.

But another one?  I wondered what would happen on a marked 1/2" grid if  only gentle wiggles were quilted on those lines, in both directions, "sort of" trying to cross both lines at the marked intersections, but not obsessing about it.  What would that look like?

The design, above, was my first effort, done on a 1/2" marked grid (lines are removed after quilting) with #100 silk thread, in a very subtle variegated green.  I don't like the distraction of the thread, but that is just me.  Many love the little surprises when variegated is used.

I did the vertical lines first, then horizontal to avoid stretch. 

It would have been easier if this had been marked "on point" with lines at a 45-degree angle to the edges of the fabric.  There would be no distortion at all, no pushing or pulling of fabric as you approach an already-quilted line or intersection.  Just a suggestion, as it does work ok quilted on the grain if it works for your design choice, but be careful of distortion.

Below, my second try, on a 1" grid with matching silk thread in green, next to the first sample on the 1/2" grid.  This was actually a bit harder to keep the wiggles small and not revert to the arcs in my other designs like Diane-shiko or Apple core.  It was harder not to create large wiggles.

However, like any machine quilting motif, repetition brings competency.  After doing this for a half hour or so, I could do it rapidly with minimal goofs.

I decided the design looked just a bit like the old wool woven Houndstooth, which I have always loved.  This gives a structured look with TOTAL forgiveness in quilting! 

However, and you know what I am going to stress:  Stitches must be even and consistent, tension correct, thread color a good choice.  I honestly think the most distracting thing about poor machine quilting is uneven stitches, especially very large ones. 

If you have stitches that are too large for either the type of thread or the design, the "puff" of the batt will not happen.  You will lose it.  It will seep out under those giant stitches.

With stitches that are too large, you tend to "see" them, not the design.  Stitches look like big chicken tracks. 

Slow down your hands.  Speed up the machine just a bit.  For some mysterious reason the most common problem I see in my classes is a combo of fast hands but slow machine speed.  Work on this.  Learn to move those hands smoothly and evenly, and keep the speed of the machine going fast enough to create the best looking stitch length.

Make up a sample and try this!  Use something beautiful, a scrap of silk or sateen so you can see the quilting, and the final design.  Once you become more proficient, try it on a quilt in an area you would normally use a grid.  Let me know what you think!!  I believe it would look great over prints, just like the other grid-based designs do.

And have a wonderful Labor Day holiday everyone, hope you can relax and enjoy the end of summer.  Soon I'll be seeing many of you at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, KY in October.  Please email me with any questions about the class if you have them:  dianequilter@sbcglobal.net

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.

Diane

Oliver claiming his spot in the "other" sink while I brush my teeth....

Oliver is Two!!

Today is very special, our Oliver is two years old!!  He has lived with us since he was 6 months old, a wild and woolly kitten who had been surrendered by his first owner to the Wisconsin Humane Society.  He is now a somewhat wild but totally wonderful cat, settled into ruling the house and us as well. 

He woke up this a.m. purring, happy, scampering about, knowing it was "his special day."  He especially liked the birthday singing, and the cake is fun to investigate and watch us eat (ridiculously yummy).  We dared not light the candle.

What a blessing a pet is.  We were reluctant at retirement time to take on a new young cat, but oh we are so happy we did.  He makes each day brighter, and happier, and more fun.  If we are bored, we say "where is Oliver?"  "What is he up to?" and he will stroll in and do something cute.  He helps us get through the bad times, and makes good times that much better.

I think he knows now we are his forever people.

Give your pet companion an extra hug today, or adopt one at your shelter who needs a loving home.  They give us so much in return.

Diane

Oliver posing as statuary on a very tall chest of drawers.

Phat Quarters Classes

Home from a wonderful trip to a charming town, Galena, IL, and a most welcoming shop, Phat Quarters!  The shop, above, suffered severe flood damage right before our scheduled event, but fast work, Jane and her intrepid staff managed to salvage inventory and move to a new location right on the busy Main St. in time to host our event. 

Classes were held in the new front room of the shop, with big windows and plenty of room.  Now that we have left, they can proceed to setting things up and arranging inventory, decorating, etc.  They were flying by the seats of their pants, with an old cash register, no computers, but none of us complained at all. 

We had two days of great classes, fun, excitement, and success!  The charming shops and restaurants were all on the same street, and in the beautiful summer days there we took advantage of it all.

Feathers were amazing, stitches improved, students were smiling.  I thank everyone in class and especially the staff for making this happen.  If you are in Galena, stop by their new place and see what's going on.  Fabric not damaged is on killer sale, great bargains to be found.  And yes, they have Berninas!

I stayed in a hotel at the outer part of town and it had the most perfect carpet that included scrolls, feathers, leaves, and spirals, and of course the ubiquitous tendrils, below.   Perfect to set the stage for class as I unpacked and regrouped before my lecture the first night, with vintage 35 mm slides.

I arrived home Wed. night thinking I just might have time to bid on my AAQI quilt online and own it myself, but by the time I got to it the auction was over.  Thank you all for your bids and support, and congrats to the final bidder who will receive this quilt.  I think it is one of my favorites, and I hope it will be enjoyed for a long time.

"Mourning Too Soon"

Teaching with talented quilters gave me many ideas and inspiration, and now I hope I can find some time to work on a few long delayed projects. 

Oliver of course scampered his little heart out when I arrived home, then settled down for unpacking and sniffing everything from foreign lands, well, IL at least, and purred in contentment as we rested and relaxed. 

Monday he will be two years old, and we must plan a party.  He is still a Vegan, although he has been licking the remains from melted frozen custard in my dish, his first real people food, definitely on the path to becoming a bona fide Cheesehead.  He is a cautious boy.  He much prefers corn husks, raw green beans, and any veggie. 

Thanks again to my Galena students; it was such a pleasure getting to know you in class.  Don't let too much time go by before you quilt some of the techniques at home.  Repetition is the key.

Keep quilting!  Your work gets better every day.

Diane