Happy Village

I finished off the Happy Village today at retreat:



...And guess who showed up!

A Flash of Inspiration...

I was sewing on that Viking yesterday at my class..using a Mettler spool which is long and narrow...and was mounted on a horizontal spool pin..

This morning I  was looking at my Singer 9020 which has a horizontal spool pin, only the end cap has gotten looser and looser over the years (don't remember it ever working really well)..when I had a flash of inspiration on how to fix it..

See that center ring with a rubber band shoved into the grove?...it works!! And it was cheap...the rubber band came off of a Fat Quarter roll...

Almost done with quilting the Happy Village..except for the upper right corner where I am adding a cruise ship in the ocean..the cruise ship is just a prototype at this point..I will probably change the color to white and FMQ the portholes...and the black bands on the smokestacks...The rest of the quilting is done though..and I have to figure out how to finish it..I really like the buttery gold background color..may make a flange of that and mount the whole thing on a piece of black felt (the quilting on the back looks odd..its done in three different colors of bobbin and the FMQ on the bougainvilleas and the palm fronds looks odd on the back..) as suggested by the teacher..

 

May have to wait til the next day I am working from home to finish it though.. 

It does make me happy to look at it!

Road to CA - Day 3

Today was Happy Village day....oh my...the villages that were constructed...

We snipped our fabric into little squares and stepped pieces and stuck all the little pieces onto the batting and glued the shapes down with dots of Roxanne's GlueBasteIt and then had a blast adding doors and windows and roofs and steps and trees...After those were stuck on firmly, we auditioned pieces of tulle..I ended up liking a golden tulle best..though the white shimmer stuff looked pretty dang good as well..

I got most of my village buildings quilted..at least there are no pins left..but a couple of areas need to be outlined. Oh..and I need to outline all of the doors and windows and steps and add some thread painting to the trees..There were only a few that got as far as using the machines. DH says he thinks the sky needs a bird or the ocean needs a sailboat..have to think on that!

I liked the Viking machine that I used..it has needle down..and the presser foot lifts just slightly when you stop stitching, allowing you to pivot without actually lifting the foot..the auto thread cutter is pretty neat as well..they want 2K though for the classroom machines..or 3.5K for a new one in the box..eiii..

Here is today's haul:

A yard of DecorBond interfacing, a bag of SewBatik's light batik scraps, the cutest froggie fabric....
I got the pin from the Skizzix booth..almost talked myself into getting one of the small cutters..but decided to sleep on it...got the bird journal from a crafting group for signing up for their newsletter..
I also got a cd by Bron Journey, the harpist that plays during the show..and I bought Karen Eckmeier's Happy Village book, which she autographed.

Road to CA - Day 2

Day 2 of the applique class and I have pinned all of the elements except for the eye of the bird, the branches are stitched, one leaf is stitched and the belly of the bird and half of his tail are stitched:


We learned the whipped stem stitch including making it variable weights, a brick stitch and the turkey stitch..which I need to practice.

My purchases yesterday and today at the vendor mall:

I actually got a couple more fat quarters - you can see where I used them on the bird applique as they are the branches and the multicolored leaves. I got three spools of Kimono silk thread - its half again as thin as the YLI silk that I have been using..a threader for my serger (which I need to resurrect..its been sitting for a number of years...), some shimmery tulle for tomorrow's class (I have black and green and plain white to audition..but I think I am going to like the shimmery stuff...)..and a small bottle of the colorless textile extender that seals chalk or pencil to fabric which is also one of the techniques from this class..


This is the teacher's piece in the Instructor's Show..gorgeous pheasants and chalk enhanced machine stitching..( I think if you click on the picture, it will get bigger so you can see the details)


Its been really nice weather so far..but tomorrow is supposed to rain! It will be fun getting my roller cart of stuff into the convention center..I better bring a towel! I already have the huge golf umbrella out..

Road To CA - Day 1

Road to CA 2012 has officially started!

Attended the first day of my two day applique class by Sandra Leichner...she is also one of the judges for the show this year (this is the fourth judge that I have taken classes from!) Anyway..she's an interesting teacher and I really like needle-turn applique much better than the prep'ed edges like starch.She has oodles of tips and tricks..I really like her quilts. Her quilt 'Tea with Miss D' won one of the big awards at Houston..

We are doing her pattern 'Garden Bird' - here is my project after one day - we traced the pattern onto a vinyl overlay and learned how Sandra does inside corners and the points on leaves ..my branches are mostly done..and the leaves are just laid on the background fabric for now..hopefully will get to the bird tomorrow:

(Ekk..you can see I didn't pin them down yet as the placement is all off when you compare it to the next photo....)

And hopefully mine ends up looking at least SOMEWHAT like this when I am done!

Really funny. story...we were stitching away on our branches after getting some instruction on how to do the deep inside V's or tree crotches..one of the gals at my table is a speed demon with applique and got done before the rest of us. Sandra came by and was checking her stitching...Called everyone over to see her nicely done tree crotch, embarrassing the gal...everyone gave her a round of applause..to which she said "Oh great...Y'all stand around admiring my crotch and now y'all have given me the clap'...

Road to California - Days 3 and 4

The third class I took was 'Front to Back Pictoral Quilting' by Kathy McNeil..she was also one of the judges for the show. I love how detailed her quilts are..this is a link to her patterns. The default one for this class was 'Feathered Lady'..the swan..and a couple of people did do that pattern.. She covered so many topics in this class - my head is still spinning..we learned how to draft patterns, how to prepare the appliques, how to use a varieity of mediums to modify the fabric such as paint, ink, crayon and tulle..how to use the patterns on fabric as something other than what it was printed for and to look at both sides of the fabric for design opportunities...I have a different perspective on picking fabrics for landscapes now..
I chose to do my own design for this one - the Cape Blanco Light..and I wanted to do it at dusk, after the light is turned on...
For this class, I 'posterized' the picture that I used so it would print out over 4 sheets of paper..that comes out to about the size of a fat quarter (posterizing was WAY easier than tracing...)..I also made a black and white version of the picture so that I could tell where the shadows and highlights were..
This class we used a different method of applique prep than some of the others - we used Magic Sizing...you spray your piece and iron it dry to get the fabic quite crispy..then turn the edges with a steam iron..the steam makes the Magic Sizing hold the crease..in place where the turn under was a bit ornery, we used a light smear of glue stick.On some of the smaller pieces, I did do the full glue stick prep I learned in Martha Nordstrand's classes...

This is how far I got in the class in preparing my piece. the applique is designed to be done as a unit so that it can be moved around to find just the right spot after you create the background. I went to Joann's after class and picked up the fabric that is the glass (pearlized sheer fabric) and the light (gold lame' which I fused to a piece of muslin so it stops fraying)..there is also some shiny gold tulle to try to define the light pattern..

It needs the doors, the base of the building(which is the same red color but with some black netting over it to add a bit of shaddow, the foreground and some light rays - I bought some angelina fiber to experiment with and some gold Tsukeniko ink - maybe one of those will work..

In the evening of day 3, I went to Roundabout..which is 10 minute sessions by the teachers or vendors showing a technique or a product..there are a couple hundred rabid quilters, about 10 or so seats by each station and at the sound of the whistle, you run to another station to see what that person is demoing!

Kathy Kansier was showing some of her crazy quilt stuff - which I did not get to see in the class I took with her and one of the things she showed was a nifty beading tray -

So..I went home and made one for me! Its a piece of suede cloth spray basted to a piece of cardboard then inserted in a cheap picture frame - this one cost me $1 at the thrift store..the suede keeps the beads from rolling and the picture frame is small, rigid and easy to use on your lap..

Learned how to do freehand cutting with a tiny rotary cutter (Rob Appel), how to make a cabuchon around a mirror with beads, how to do free motion thread play (using tulle and Solvy) to make any embroidered object..will probably use this for shrubbery for the lighthouse foreground.. It was a fun 2 hours!

Road to California - Day 2

The second class I took at Road to California was 'Painting with Inks' by Patt Blair - she won one of the big money prizes for one of her quilts ($500!) - a portrait of an 18 year old Mexican folk dancer at the Padua Hills Theater..(the lady who's picture it is was in my third class!! She posed for the original picture 45 years ago!) And she won first place for a pictoral of a mountain lion..you can see those pictures on her blog

I chose to do one of Patt's designs for this class, though I could have chosen to do an original..I thought I would learn more of the techniques if I had her example to work from..and in the end, I think I chose wisely for this one. I used the pattern for the third quilt from the left - the magnolia blossom..Patt is a very interesting teacher and has load of great tips for using the Tsukeniko inks..I only had to buy a few more bottles of the inks to add to my collection.
Mine is alot pinker than hers...I like pink magnolias (they are 'Susan Magnolias'!)
You can see a bit of the design showing thru the PFD muslin where I didn't get finished with the last three leaves..I also need to add the background and probably will use a pale blue/lavendar instead of the yellow/oranges that Patt used..I am liking how this is turning out ALOT...

The day started out with a bit of excitement! I got to the parking lot and noticed there were LOTS of people standing around..turns out there was a fire alarm and they evacuated the whole building..If I had a quilt in the show, I would have been going nuts thinking about fire or water damage..fortunately it turned out to be a burned sandwich in a microwave back in the food service area..we were let in a little while later...

Road to California 2010 - Day 1

Annual Road to California Report

The first class I took was called 'Making a Grand Entrance' with Kathy Kansier - one of the judges of the 2010 show. In this class the objective was to enlarge a picture of our choice of a door, archway or gate using the Tracer Jr enlargers, transfer that enlarged design to a piece of foundation muslin and start audioning fabrics. I chose a picture of the Columbia River Gorge taken thru a stone archway on a bridge for my project.
This was how the classroom looked for the morning session...darkish! It did not quite get all the way dark because there were some spotlights that the convention center could not get to turn off. which made it harder to actually see the lines using the Tracer Jr enlargers - they really require a very dark room to see the edges.The first time we tried to turn off the lights , we ended up turning off the lights in two other classrooms! They were a bit distressed at that...finally one of the convention center guys came by and set it so we could at least turn off the overhead lights..

Here is my piece..it's pretty big for me...probably 30 x 40...I am going to make the edge of the quilt the curve and put fish tank tubing in a channel on the back to keep it arched..the pieces of fabric are just pinned to the muslin - some folks were using fusible, but I really don't care for fusible much..and it's the devil to handquilt thru...
I need to do a bit more to the bottom of the arch - it needs more definition to the ledge but I did not have much dark fabric to choose from..will have to be on the hunt for some..the greyish fabric came from another quilter (thanks!). I only had a fat quarter of the rock fabric..and ended up pasting a bunch of scraps together with OkToWashIt glue to make one of the reverse highlight pieces...I ended up with a tiny pile of very small scraps of that fabric..
I think I need something more as a focal point on the river scene..not quite sure WHAT though..and I need to do some shading on the green parts...

Autumn in Turtle Valley Finished

I quilted and quilted yesterday...and finished the quilting on 'Autumn in Turtle Valley'..today I put a hanging sleeve and a label on it..so it is truly DONE!

The design of the quilt was from a pattern by Kathie Alyce - I took a class from her called 'Down the River, Down the Road' at Road to California. I decided I liked the look of the inset trees she did on a different pattern, so I added the tree...I took the piece with me to retreat and Ellen encouraged me to actually be brave and CUT the top to put the tree in...Nyla gave me the border fabric (It's a Patrick Lose fabric)...and Sharon let me hunt thru her scrap bag for the fall colored batiks for the leaves...Thank you, my friends!

Here is a detail shot of the top of the tree:

Here is a detail shot of the river with the quilted outlines of the turtles:

Autumn in Turtle Valley

Here's the progress so far..if you click on the picture it will open up bigger. I still need to stem stitch all the green leaves, add a bit more embroidery and some beads (clear ones in the river for bubbles)..not sure what else..maybe a bird in the sky...one of my GF's thinks I should accentuate the turtles in the green batik, but I am not sure what would look right...then I need to figure out how to quilt this!

Beaded Kaleidescope

Back in 2007, I took a class at Road to California from Nancy Eha on making beaded Kaleidoscopes...I finished the beading of the kaleidoscope in late January, but did not get around to designing and working on the quilt until late last year...

The frame for the outer ring is made of Timtex..but that was not strong enough to support the extra beading that I did in the outer ring, so I cut a very sturdy cardboard ring and that is sandwiched inside - that made it sufficiently stiff! I was going to picot bead around all of the edges but after I saw the effect of the outer ring, decided that would be going overboard.

This is a picture before the wires were sewn down and the outer ring beading was done:

And...here it is - Done! I just need to figure out how to hang it...any suggestions on how to hang it, especially if I entered it into a show, would be welcome!

What to Do With Class Sample Pieces - Make a Tote!

The third day of Road classes was free motion quilting - and we made a cute little zipper pouch out of one of the pieces..but that left TWO more quilt sandwiches that were still just sample pieces...One of the ladies at work suggested I make them into a tote..so that's what I did!

(sorry about the picture being a bit washed out..but otherwise you would not see the quilting...)

I used some of my precious stash of Laurel Birch animal fabric..because the black background matched the black sampler pieces (matching black is more difficult than you would think!) AND it had red in the design - the hardest part was cutting into the Laurel Birch fabric and wondering if I would like the end result!...It's made so that it's completely reversible and I thought I was going to like the black on black side better, but when I turned it inside out to show DH that it was reversible, I was charmed by the red on black..especially with the white bobbin work!

I am going to try to find some Laurel Birch buttons for the strap area..I think that would look cute!

Sweet Magnolias Update

Here is the progress on my version of the Sweet Magnolias from the class at Road to California...all of the applique is done, the embroidery is done (the eye was made by making a teeny tiny black yo-yo and adding a wee white highlight - something I learned how to do from Sharon Shamber's applique lessons), the borders have been found and added , its pin basted and ready for quilting. So far, I have not decided on whether I should do the quilting by hand or by machine...but hopefully I will get to it soon. Just in case I want to do it by hand, I used muslin for the backing, though I do have enough of the outer border fabric to fit..but hand quilting thru batik is a little harder than thru muslin! I have just enough of the inner border fabric left to do the binding.

My friends and I went on a road trip last Saturday to find the border fabrics. First we went to Oceanside to a museum that was having a quilt show - that was interesting..there were some really well done pieces there. Then we headed to our favorite Mexican food place. Its been in San Diego for many years and has pretty much perfected 'fast' food! When we got there, the line was out the door, but we were up to the register in just a few minutes and had our food by about 10 minutes later..pretty darn quick for the number of patrons...and yummy! Then we headed to Rosie's Calico Cupboard...one of the largest quilt shops..and with the best prices! We spent a couple of hours in there - I was looking for just the right fabrics for the borders for Sweet Magnolias - I finally found the right ones after going thru bolt after bolt of batik fabric! It was even sweeter with the '10% off batik fabric' coupon I had in hand! We headed over to Amidon Quilt shop - I did not get too much there and then back home.

I was initially concerned that the pattern called for pink in the magnolia blossoms, but found there actually IS a pink magnolia! Curiously, called a 'Susan Magnolia'!! I have never seen one up close..the only magnolias that I have seen that I could identify as a magnolia are the white ones.

Road to California - Day 4

On the fourth day, I took a 'Fabric-scapes' class from Martha Nordstrand , from whom I had taken a class using her applique technique 3 years ago at Road..I still have that piece (several lovely California poppies) up on my design wall..waiting for the perfect place to put it...

Her technique is to cut templates from full sheets of label paper that get adhered to the right side of the fabric, then you turn the piece over, coat the edges with glue and use tiny screwdrivers to turn over the edge..she does absolutely lovely pieces and in fact, won the first place ribbon in the large applique quilt category at Road this year - here is her quilt...

Being currently fascinated with landscapes and landscape quilts, I wanted to see how she approached them. First we picked a picture to use - and reduced it to just the major elements...then auditioned fabrics and cut chunks of those fabrics, glued the edges and built up the picture against a piece of stiff clear plastic..for tricky details, we used the label paper, but mostly you just cut a piece that roughly matched the shape from the picture and worked from there...

I picked a Tuscan landscape to work with..I changed my mind about the back fabric and the sky a couple of times...until I got this - its just in the 'glue basted' stage..have not done any of the appliqueing yet...

After dinner (we opted for really fast for this last night and ate at In-N-Out - a local burger joint that makes delicious cheeseburgers), I took a class on Cathedral Stars by Shelley Swanland. I was seriously hoping to finish this quilt during the three hour class, but realize I was seriously deluded and out of my quiting mind! I got done with the top by the end of the class...but I was not happy with how the sashing came out..had to take it home and have several conversations with Jack (the Ripper) but finally, it came together ok - not perfect, but acceptable...I quilted it Sunday and thought about adding one of the piped bindings like I had seen in the Roundabout..rummaged around in my Granny's stash..found a package of unopened piping and started sewing it on...well..much to my dismay, the fabric had dry-rotted! There was black fabric dust EVERYWHERE..on the floor, on my clothes, under my fingernails, all over my machine....after that debacle I decided that the quilt was just going to get an ordinary binding!

I got the binding sewn on the front and took the quilt with me to the Dr's office to do the hand stitching on the bask while I waited..no sooner had I taken the needle out to do the very first stitch than the nurse called me back! That happened a couple more times - I had to have my mammies grammied and it happened in their waiting room too, and at the pharmacy!..I guess taking handwork is a way to ward off having to wait for long..and if you do really have to wait, you have something to do...

The flowers are formed during the quilting and then afterwards I added the beads and some embroidery thread stamens..overall, its pretty darned cute! And I love the colors of the kit I got!

Road To California - Day 3

The third day was spent learning more machine quilting with Lois Smith. We experimented with free form designs, spent lots of time learning to control the speed of quilting and generally just having fun quilting. At the end of the class, we created a small triangle zipper bag out of one of the samples.

After dinner at El Pollo Loco (I had my favorite - three chicken wings!), we went to whats called 'Roundabout'..this is a facinating event...a bunch of the teachers and vendors put on 10 minute demos and every 10 minutes a bell rings, and you run to another demo..this goes on for a couple of hours..you are given a packet of info at the start of the show and list of the demos so you can decide which ones to attend..We saw soooo much..and had lots of fun..One of the demos, I was very facinated with - Silk ribbon embroidery by machine...Susan Schrempf was demo-ing her beautiful method..and I just HAD to buy the book, and the tools!

We also saw demos for

- the StarBuilder that is a set of rubbing pads for the Shiva Paintstiks - makes gorgeous star designs.

-how to make dogtooth borders

-how to make some really interesting quilts with nickle pieces and fusible grid

-some beautiful ribbon postcards

-how to do 'applique on the edge' - an interesting applique technique using bobbin work to outline the pieces

-the Great Glue Stick Caper - applique using glue sticks and small screwdrivers (more about this technique in Day 4 as the teacher is the same as my full day class) - but my friend had never seen the demo...

-how to do a piped binding

-printed kaleidescope cards using a pretty cool piece of software that makes the kaliedescopes for you that you can then print out on photo fabric sheets

and

-using the multi-angle Wedge ruler...

Road to California - Day 2

The second day I spent learning machine quilting. The class was taught by Lois Smith - here is a bit about Lois on the Backroads to Road to California blog. We warmed up a bit with a small practice piece then started making a set of three panels on white sateen using the purple air erase markers to define where to sew..after we finished the three pieces, we put them together using a 'quilt as you go technique'...the class sample had a border, but I decided just to make mine have a facing and use it as a table runner.


Here is the class sample:



























And here are the three panels that I got finished...I have since put the facing on it so its not a UFO anymore!And the purple marker is almost gone...you can still see faint lines...


























After dinner at Olive Garden (I went wild and ordered a delicious steak..half of which I took home to DH!), one of my friends and I went to a needlefelting class and made this cute strawberry pincushion. This class was taught by 'Bird Brain Designs' - a bunch of delightfully funny ladies - and was one of the most fun classes I have attended! I really enjoyed needlefelting..so much so, that I now have the foam block, three single needles, a 4 needle tool, lots of wool roving and a cute tote bag from the Bird Brain ladies! I just need to make a cotton cover for the foam block to keep the roving from getting stuck in the foam..and I am all set to experiment with making balls, and critters and whatnot out of wool...I might have to buy me a sheep if I really get into this!

Road to California - Day 1

The first class I attended at Road to California this year was on Needleturn Applique...Teacher was Cathy Van Bruggen and the pattern she was teaching from is called 'Sweet Magnolias' - a design with a mockingbird and several magnolia blossoms. I think I finally 'get' needleturn! It was a good class..I got finished with constructing my birdie except for the embroidery for his eye, beak and maybe some feathers, and the branch he will sit on.


This is the class sample that the teacher did:


















Here is what I got done:

The bird is all from one fabric - we cut out template pieces from freezer paper, then I picked out the areas on the fabric that were the right value for each piece..my poor piece of fabric now looks like swiss cheese! But since its all one fabric, the color goes together marvelously..greys are usually hard to match. The bird is built on a piece of interfacing as a unit - this is a great technique - once you get all your units ready, you can line them up with the pattern (or adjust if you want or need to) and no problems with a piece being just a smidge too short to match up.

After the class, my friends and I went out to eat at Red Lobster..I had stuffed mushrooms and asparagus..yummy! (and only ONE cheese biscuit! I had never tasted one...it was very good!)

Then we attended the preview show for class participants. It was marvelous seeing the spectacular quilts - check out the winners! One pretty cool thing that they did this year was have a wonderful harpist playing during the show...

Road To California Report

I did not have as much time at the show this year due to having to work...the Progect Manager is kind of a Nervous Nelly and wants everyone to be there every day...so I only got to take a couple of evening classes...but the ones I did take were facinating.

First class was a minature landscape done with curved piecing..the technique is very easy...and the results very lovely. I did mine with batiks..have wanted to do a batik landscape for several years and have been collecting the fabrics...just needed that kick in the rear to actually accomplish it!

Here is the one I did - it needs its borders and I want to figure out how to add a birch tree on the left side before I finish it off..I am planning on adding some beading and embroidery to it:


and here is the one that my friend did - before trimming:


The other class was on exploring the techniques to using Shiva Paintstiks. A couple of things surprised me - first, the paint has a very definate odor..which I did not notice in the classroom...but only after getting the pieces home...and secondly, the brightness of the paints seem to fade quite a bit as they are drying..you have to leave them for 3 days then stick them in a hot dryer for 30 minutes to set the paint.

Here is a sample of stenciling:

Here is a sample of rubbing:


Here is a sample of torn edge: