Learning to Machine Quilt

I was a featured artist at the Piecemakers Quilt Guild show in May, and gave a short talk to a few groups of people that weekend. I was surprised and pleased to get an email today from Chris Crawford who came to here me speak. She says I gave her the inspiration to try some new things. Take a look at Chris’s blog to see some of her early attempts at free-motion quilting. It’s looking great Chris.

I did a lot of hand quilting, and some quilting with the feed dogs down for about 10 years before I got brave enough to try free-motion quilting. My problem was that I didn’t think I could ever make my quilting look as good as the expert examples in books and magazines, and I imagined that it would be very difficult. And then one day I saw a quilter demo a free-motion feather design. She made it look so easy, I decided I would try it on a small sample and see what I could do.

My first attempt at free-motion was on a small piece of fabric about eight years ago. I quilted a free hand feather design and then filled in the empty space with stipple quilting.

The first bits of stippling were very jerky, but the time I finished stippling the whole piece, I had the rhythm down and it was becoming easier.
I finished it as an 11 x 16 doll quilt for my then one year old daughter.

The progress I made on the first piece made me realize that I could do free-motion work, and that I could get better with practice. I decided it was good enough that I could tackle a larger piece, so I put together the blocks from the Piecemakers’ Block of the Month drawing that I had one into a 46 x 75 quilt, and free-motion quilted an allover pattern.
This is a well used quilt, as it is the perfect size to make just my side of the bed a few degrees warmer.

Completed Abstract Project

Clam Cove II (15" x 10½")
A few more minor changes to this piece this weekend, and then completed the quilting today. I have been reminded again how important contrast is to the success of a piece. I seem to be learning this lesson over and over again.

Progress on Abstracting a Photo

My initial attempt at this piece didn’t excite me. Too many small pieces, no defined focal point, and not enough contrast. Adding some abstracted trees and a dark line near the horizon helped with the contrast, but didn’t relate to the rest of the piece.

I’ve added some dark neutrals to the bottom to create a foreground. Now I think I have enough contrast, and it seems to relate to the top shapes. I may put it up on the wall to think about for a day or two.
Names often stump me. Any ideas?

Abstracted Garden Challenge

This month’s Fast Friday Challenge – create an abstract based on a photo of a garden. I’m getting started a bit late, as the guidelines for this month were announced last Friday, but I suppose now is as good a time to start as any.

I have wanted to create another piece based on this photo. Is it too much of a stretch to call this a water garden on a grander scale? Anyway, I've decided to use this photo again.

The original quilt I made from this photo is blogged about here: A Bag of Stuff, Sérusier, & a Thought for a New Quilt.

A year after I made the original Grab Bag Quilt, I made this whole cloth painted silk piece. I’ve never quite decided how I feel about this one. It ended up a bit more surreal or other-worldly than I had originally intended.

So now I will make a third attempt at abstraction with this photo. Now I need to go cut some fabric and see if I can make it look as good as the image in my mind.

Final Rusting Results

I am happy with how these turned out.

I may pull out the smaller piece again at some other time to add another layer of design and color, but for now I am done with rusting.

Now I need to find something to wrap the rusting stake in, so I can store it safely in my work area for the next time I get the urge to add rust to fabric.

More What I Expected

My second attempt at rusting was more successful. I peeked yesterday and saw definite rusting on the fabric, and then left it another day to be sure I was getting good results. Today I soaked the fabric in salt water and washed it. I like the textured look that resulted.

I wrapped it once more to fill in some of the empty spots. So now I am back to waiting until Thursday, and then I will peek again. These photos are the wet fabric. I expect the finished fabric will appear a bit lighter in color.

Where’s the Rust?

Yesterday I peeked under the plastic at the fabric I started rusting. The string tying the fabric to the stake had turned orange, so I guessed the rust had done it’s job. But when I undid everything, there were hardly any marks on the fabric. Not even worth a photo.

The stake originally had some kind of black paint or other coating on it. Perhaps it hadn’t weathered off enough. Or maybe I scrunched the fabric up too much so that not enough of it was in contact with the rust.

So today I scraped off some of the remaining coating from the stake and rewrapped the fabric around the stake with a bit less scrunching. I will give it a few days this time before I peek.