More thread art

I am a huge fan of challenges because they force one to work with "challenging" fabrics. My Guild held a fabric challenge in 2009. The kit included three fat quarters from Northcott, a black ground with huge blue and mauve hydrangeas, a blue/mauve Stonehenge print and a black and white patchwork. The rules permitted the addition of six fabrics. The theme for the challenge was "Earth's Blessings" and were asked to provide the inspiration for our piece and an artist's statement.

On my own I would never have purchased any of these fabrics because I didn't like the prints and they weren't in my preferred colours. In addition I had difficulty with the them "blessings". All of this made for a true challenge. The piece I entered is titled "Renewal" and it measures 19" x 17".

Renewal, 2009   19" x 17"

My artist's statement read "Forest fires are destructive events that damage huge swaths of land but the genetic material that makes up our planet is indomitable and after a fire the forest immediately begins to renew itself. My piece "Renewal" depicts the event of a forest fire, the ensuing enrichment of the soil and the regrowth of plant life. As an atheist I had difficulty with the religious connotation of the theme "Earth's Blessings" and opted instead to interpret blessings to mean a fortunate state of affairs. In my opinion the Earth's ability to renew itself is indeed a fortunate state of affairs".

Each of the six fabrics I added were selected for a specific reason.

Swatches of six fabrics added to challenge fabrics

I started off with a large piece of slate coloured Northcott Stonehenge fabric as the base (the fabric on the left). I chopped up the hydrangeas and the blue/mauve Stonehenge challenge fabrics and layered them on my base. I also added bits of the black and white patchwork challenge fabric. They formed the sky. To this I added little patches of teal silk  (fourth from the left) and bits of two drapery sheers. One had a gold sheen to it (third from the left) and a second drapery sheer that had squares embroidered on it (second from the left).

Close-up of sky

 
The Northcott fabrics were cool colours and I needed warm colours for the fire. My last two additional fabrics were Elaine Quehl's hand-dyed fabrics, an orange/red/yellow cotton and a red/burgundy velveteen. They are the two swatches on the right in the picture of the swatches. I used them to make the fire. I added lots of red and orange threads, plus a little blue, to make the forest fire flames.

 

 

I used a long strip of the black and white patchwork challenge print across the centre of the quilt to separate the earth from the sky. I layered bits of this fabric with the drapery sheers to create the earth. The drapery sheer with the embroidered squares is terrific for filing in with different threads to create depth.

 

 

For a little interest I quilted a fossil fish in the earth!

 



 

From the hydrangea fabric I cut out the green leaves and placed them so that they appeared to be growing from the earth. I fussy cut some of the black and white patchwork fabrics and used them as flowers in the new growth.

 

 

 

I used my Sakura pens to shade different parts of the piece including the flower below. I started out with a piece of the black and white patchwork. I layered a piece of drapery sheer over it and quilted. Once the quilting was completed I shaded the flower with a Sakura Pigma pen to give it the rosy colour.

 



 

 Notice the quilted roots in the enriched soil.

 

I didn't like the challenge fabrics and wanted to change or disguise them as much as possible. I accomplished this with non-traditional fabrics, lots of different threads and Sakura Pigma pens. While it is not my favourite quilt, I learned a great deal about machine quilting, experimenting with threads adding non-traditional fabrics to good effect.

Until I post again, happy experimenting!

Fun with thread and scraps

When I was a beginner machine quilter I was very nervous. A quilt is a big project to tackle when you have little or no skills, aren't familiar with how your machine sounds and feels when doing free motion and you don't know what kinds of effects you will get with different threads. And sorting out tension is just one more issue to contend with! Creating a small piece of thread art is a great way to overcome these obstacles. I guarantee that they will help you get comfortable with your machine!

About five years ago the members of my Guild were asked to make small pieces of quilt art that could fit in a shadow box. The plan was to auction these pieces and the funds would go to charity. The shadow boxes were from IKEA and they measured 10" square. Once could make a piece that was that size and it would fill the frame. However there is also a matt in the shadow box and the opening measured 5" square so that was a second option. Time was getting short and I hadn't made anything. I decided I would try doing a little piece of thread art that would fit inside the matt. I was nervous and hadn't much in the way of free motion quilting so my first stitches were a little uneven and the circles looked like deflating balloons! They looked very much like the white stitches in the picture below.

I gained a little confidence and turned the deflating balloons into leaves and flowers. Still not beautiful but they were very small so the imperfections were of no great concern. You can see some of the vines and flowers winding across the top of the picture shown below. I then tried little vines with offshoots and circles at the ends of the offshoots. You can see some of them on the right side.

A square spiral filled a large open space and the offshoots with circles made it even more interesting. I tried any kind of thread I could get my hands on....quilting cotton, variegated polyester, metallic, silk and invisible threads.

So what does the finished piece look like? It measures roughly 6" square. Here it is!

Here is another example of my experimentation with threads and scraps.

When framed these little pieces look complex. People look at them and are amazed at the detail! And all the time I was playing around trying to get comfortable with threads, tension, shapes, moving my fabric and getting to know the sound and feel of my machine when free motion quilting.

If you are wondering how I made these pieces it is really quite simple. I cut a piece of scrap batting. If you want to give it a go just know that in all likelihood you will have to trim down the finished piece so start with a piece of batting that is a little larger. I place the batting on top of a piece of backing fabric that is slightly larger that the backing. Finally I layering scraps of fabric on the batting until I am happy with the arrangement. There are two options available at this point: use a little glue to tack the scraps in place OR lay a piece of fine tulle netting over the entire surface. When I use tulle I like to pin the outside edge with straight pins until everything is stabilized. Here are three examples of pieces in progress.

I start off by quilting over the raw edges of the pieces of fabric and then just start filling in the spaces. When there are no more spaces, I'm done! This pieces measures 3" and it has lots of areas left where I can have fun experiment with threads!

When I sit down to quilt I like to warm up on these little thread art pieces. I've used all sorts of fabrics including drapery sheers, silks, cottons and polyester lining. If I use tulle I've even tossed leftover thread down before the tulle goes over the piece. Creates a very interesting effect!

So if you are nervous about getting started machine quilting why not give little thread art pieces a try. There's no right or wrong way to do it and you can experiment in all sorts of ways with all sorts of materials. If the piece doesn't work out, no great loss. But if it does turn out, put it in a frame and give it a wacky name like "Amoeba Quiche" and amaze everyone with your talent and originality!

Until I post again, happy thread painting!