I can’t remember the last time I made something for our home. I’m usually quilting for a show or a challenge, or for a custom order. Or even just to add to the inventory in my Etsy shop. But this table runner was made specifically for our new dining table.
A few months ago I attended a VMQG sponsored workshop with Marianne Haak. Marianne demonstrated her QAYG techniques, and we all practiced making blocks that were about 18 x 18 inches. I made 3 blocks – with no specific plans for them.
When we recently bought a new dining room table with a dark gray glass top, it cried out for a bright and colorful table runner, and I remembered my QAYG blocks. I cut 2 of them down to about 12 inches wide, and referring to Marianne’s excellent tutorials, I added a section to one block, then joined the various sections together. The table runner is 69 inches long by 12 inches wide. In the left photo below, you can see it on the table. In the right photo, you can see it on my design wall – the front and the back.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
I usually show my progress on a quilt through several posts, but I didn’t blog about this one because it was going to be juried. It’s now been accepted for the exhibition, so I’ll show my entire process – start to finish – in one post.
It’s for a new Fibre Art Network exhibition, titled ‘Canadiana’. All pieces are 18 inches wide, and the length is anywhere from 24 to 54 inches.
I had initially thought I would make another Vancouver cityscape, but the 18 inch width was feeling restrictive. Then I remembered a photo I took a couple of years ago of the Lions Gate Bridge as we walked along the Stanley Park seawall. It fits the vertical format much better than a cityscape. I love the teal tones of the bridge, and wanted to use realistic colors for that. But I decided to make the sky a warmer lavender-blue shade for better contrast.
I won’t make you read all the way to the bottom to see the finished quilt – here it is. (But if you’re interested in how I made my full size pattern and how I constructed the quilt, continue reading.)
As usual, I used Picasa to edit the photo. I cropped it, lightened it, then used the ‘pencil sketch’ effect to get a line drawing. I printed that version of the photo on letter size paper and used a pencil to fill in a few missing details.
I like to have a full-size pattern and a full-size mirror image pattern. I use the full-size pattern to position the various pieces, and I use the mirror image to trace pattern pieces onto freezer paper and/or paper-backed fusible web. I’ve found a nifty way to get both patterns. I photocopy my line drawing onto a product called Fun-dation. It’s a semi-transparent foundation material that comes in letter size sheets and can be run through a printer. Because it’s semi-transparent, you can see the mirror image on the reverse side of the sheet. The image can be photocopied and enlarged from either side of the foundation sheet. (The reverse side is a little fainter, so the printer may need to be set to a darker setting.) My printer can take 11 x 17 inch paper so for this pattern I enlarged my images by 400% and printed the full-size pattern on 4 pieces of paper.
I used a similar process to what I used for ‘Swoop’ – my quilt of the Skybridge. (And it was so easy to look back on my blog post and read about my process – I didn’t have to wrack my brain to remember what I did and why.) As with ‘Swoop’, the larger parts were constructed from freezer paper templates with edges folded under and the smaller parts were fused raw edge appliqué.
The fused units were constructed on parchment paper laid over the pattern. When they were complete, I just peeled the fused unit off the parchment paper and pinned it on the design wall. Here is the cross brace section under construction.
I needed to make sure I had enough value differences to make the bridge look three-dimensional and solid. So I auditioned a lot of teal fabrics before starting construction.
I made the sky background and quilted it before I added the bridge. I positioned and fused the bridge components, then straight stitched the edges.
The large main cables are fussy cut from a great striped fabric – the white-gray-black stripes look like the cables are lit from above by the sun. The vertical suspending cables were made from 2 strands of white embroidery thread couched in place.
Title and artist’s statement – I usually think about this while making the quilt and jot down descriptive words and phrases as they occur to me. I also did some internet research about the history of the bridge. Several sites used the words elegant and graceful to describe the bridge and that really resonated with me. On the day of the deadline for entry I still hadn’t decided on a title. As I was writing the artist’s statement, editing my description down to 50 words, I used the phrase ‘air of elegance’ and decided that would be my title.
The Lions Gate Bridge has been an iconic landmark of Vancouver BC since 1938. Its striking teal colour and slender metal structural towers lend it an air of elegance. Here the bridge soars over the seawall in Stanley Park, then spans the First Narrows of the Burrard Inlet.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
At the last VMQG meeting, we revealed our round robin quilt tops. We started in February and we’ve been adding to each others’ blocks every month since then. This is my starting block, and how it looks after 8 months. I love how it looks! I just have to figure out how to finish it off.
And this month’s block lottery is circles. I’ve made 4 so far.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
I haven’t posted for a while – mostly because I was in Victoria BC last week, visiting family and friends.
While I was there, we visitedSatin Moon Quilt Shop to see the ‘It’s Time for Colour!’ traveling quilt show of 36 small quilts by CQA (Canadian Quilters Association) award winners – including one of mine – ‘Rainy Day Girls’. Here are some of the quilts hanging in the quilt shop. You can see all of them (with better photos!) here on the CQA website.
I finished the dog portrait I’ve been working on for about a month, and shipped it off to its new home. I love how it looks!
A few months ago, I was invited to submit my quilt ‘Swoop’ for inclusion in the sixth annual issue of the International Quilt Festival: Quilt Scene magazine. I was thrilled to be asked, and of course I agreed! I’ve been checking the magazine stands for the last few weeks, and then a couple of days ago, I received an issue in the mail. ‘Swoop’ can be seen on page 100 of the magazine. This quilt was accepted into the special exhibit Tactile Architecture 2014, which premiered at International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston and is scheduled to travel in 2015 to various International Quilt Festival and Market sponsored shows.
I meant to enter some of my quilts in the Fall Bloggers Quilt Festival at Amy’s Creative Side. I missed the deadline to enter, but do go and check out all the wonderful entries, and vote for your favorites!
And last – but not least – for the third year now, I’ve had calendars printed with some of my original art quilts. Wall and desk calendars are now available in my Etsy shop.
I have lots of progress to show on the dog portrait I’m working on, last blogged about here.
I fused the portrait to a light blue background fabric. Then I outline stitched the nose, tongue and eyes, and thread-sketched the fur. The threadwork doesn’t show up all that well in the photo below because the thread colors are quite close to the fabrics, so I’ve included a photo of the back, too.
Next I’ll add the borders. My client has requested blue-purple batik borders. In the photo below, I’ve pinned the border fabrics to the design wall to make sure they all work together. I was originally thinking to use the darkest fabric for the thin inner border, but it seemed too dark. Then I found a perfect medium-toned hand-dyed fabric in my stash. The outer borders will be joined with a curved seam as in the sketch below.
Then I’ll layer the quilt with batting and backing, quilt the borders and outline key areas of the dog’s head and body to add more dimension.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
This must be one my longest projects. I started this quilt at a workshop in February 2013. Then I finished piecing it at a retreat in May 2014. I started quilting it in July. Thanks to the VMQG’s UFO challenge (the deadline is tonight!), I finally finished it.
I had a hard time deciding how to quilt it, and I changed my mind several times, but I’m really happy with how it looks. I free-motion quilted the flower shapes, continuing some of them into the other fabrics. Then I flipped it over and quilted from the back. I straight-line quilted boxes around the flowers, then filled in the rest with parallel serpentine stitching. It’s hard to photograph because it’s black, but I think you’ll get the idea.
I’m thinking of calling it Flower Boxes, but I haven’t made the label yet, so it’s subject to change.
I’ve made lots of progress on the dog portrait in the last couple of days – I have all the pieces cut and positioned on a piece of parchment paper, ready to be fused.
Here are the steps I used to get to this stage:
Photo 1 below – all of the fabric pieces are backed with fusible web. Some have the backing paper removed, but most still have the paper attached – because that makes it easier to rearrange the pieces (once the backing paper is removed, the pieces start sticking to each other). So the pieces are all pinned in place on the original full size pattern, and now I need to remove pins, peel off backing paper and position each piece in place. That’s difficult to do because most of the pieces are overlapping other pieces.
Photo 2 below – I printed another full size pattern, pinned it to another small design board, pinned parchment paper over that (so I can fuse the pieces together when I’m ready, and then just peel it off the parchment paper). I also traced the major design lines onto another piece of parchment paper which I pinned to the top of the design board. Then I moved the pieces one by one from the first design board to the second one. As I moved each piece, I flipped up the tracing, positioned the piece, then flipped the tracing back in place to ensure the fabric piece was in the right place.
Photo 3 below – all pieces are positioned on the bottom layer of parchment paper with the tracing on top. At this point, the pieces are just finger-pressed in place.
Photo 4 below – all pieces positioned, tracing removed. Ready to fuse together.
Next, I’ll fuse the whole portrait together, then I’ll peel it off the parchment paper and audition it against some background fabrics. In the comments in my last post several of my readers asked how I stitch the pieces after fusing. Here’s my process. I’ll be posting photos as I continue with this portrait.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
The custom dog portrait I started last week is progressing very well. I pinned the full size pattern to my small portable design wall and covered the pattern with parchment paper. As I fuse and cut out each piece, I’m either ironing them to the parchment paper, or pinning them in place.
Here’s how it looked on the weekend. At this point, I send a photo to my customer by email. Her comment: “He’s beautiful, Terry! I love what you’ve done.”
On Monday, I completed the rest of his ear. (I took the 2 photos at different times of the day – I think the true colors are somewhere between the 2 photos.)
Now I just have to do his body. Then I’ll fuse all the pieces to the parchment paper, and audition various background options. I think the background will be similar to the light blue in the 1st photo above, but I generally audition a few background options after the subject is completed.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
I’m working on another custom dog portrait. On the weekend, I drew the pattern from the original photo and enlarged it to full size. (Don’t you just love that slurpy tongue licking his nose?)
Then I started selecting fabrics. Yesterday, I decided I didn’t like some of the first set of fabrics (on the right in the photo below), so I went back to my stash and found a lot more fabrics. I’ll probably use some from each column.
Now I’m ready to start fusing and cutting and creating. Check back later this week to see my progress.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks, but I have been busy with lots of quilting-related activities.
I attended the annual retreat of the Fibre Art Network (FAN) in Edmonton. It was an opportunity to re-connect with old friends, and to make new ones. We shared information, talked about our progress as artists, and made plans for new group exhibitions.
One of the highlights is the art exchange. We each made a small piece, which we displayed then exchanged. I came home with this beautiful Cityscape, made by Jenny Perry.
I’m working on a new art quilt for a Fibre Art Network exhibition called Canadiana, which will debut at the New Zealand Quilt Symposium in January 2015. This is a juried show and I’ve been advised not to show the piece until after the jurying, so I’m keeping it under wraps for now. The entry deadline is October 1st, so I’m focusing on it for the next few days.
And some delightful news – the CQA ‘It’s Time for Colour!’ traveling quilt show of 36 small quilts by CQA award winners will debut in Victoria BC at Satin Moon Quilt Shop from October 19 to November 2 – and I will be visiting Victoria at the end of October, so I’ll get to see them all! This is the quilt I contributed to the show – Rainy Day Girls.
And speaking of Rainy Day People quilts, earlier this year, I submitted some of my art quilts for a book which will be released at the end of the year. I hadn’t heard any news about whether any of my pieces would be included, but when I checked the publisher’s website, I discovered one of my Rainy Day People pieces on the cover! I’ve been informed that a few of my other quilts are in the book, but I don’t know yet which ones.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.
. This was so much fun! My lower mainland fibre art group meets once a month. In January our activity was making a fibre version of a ‘paper doll’. We were each given a 24 inch high doll shape made of interfacing. We were paired with another member and instructed to each make a ‘paper doll’ of the other person. I was paired with Jennie @jenniecole_artandquilts She made a doll representing me and I made one representing her.
There were almost 30 dolls displayed at our February meeting. I didn’t get photos of all of them but this is a good representation.
. Went for a walk today on the Pattullo Bridge. It has been closed to traffic as its replacement is now fully open. This weekend the old bridge is open to pedestrians and cyclists. After that it will be permanently closed, and will be demolished over the next 2 years.
I will be sad to see it go and I’m glad I got to say goodbye today....
