Fast Friday Quilt #4

I'm finally back with some art to show... Fast Friday Quilt #4

Color Concept: Triad (Three on a Triangle) --

I chose Violet, Orange, and Green because I rarely use that color combination.

Composition Concept: Texture/ Pattern

What a serendipitous coincidence that at the same time, I'm taking a wonderful Joggles online class, "Studio Journals" taught by Sharon Boggon. One of the design exercises is texture rubbings and I did a collage of those rubbings in my journal so... I decided to translate that collage into fabric design and machine/hand stitchery for my Fast Friday Quilt.

This is my texture rubbings (plus a bit of used computer paper) collage. Had great fun with the rubbings which included items from the kitchen and the outside siding of my house! The collage is a bit busy (I was trying to include a variety of rubbings) ...

And here is my quilt...with some slight variations in the collage. I used lighter value fabrics to represent light value rubbings and darker fabrics and threads for darker rubbings. The "flower" rubbing is free motion machine stitching (also upper left light purple section and middle green). I couched braided thread on the circles and used fly stitch, running stitch, and stem stitch in other areas. A mesh overlay for the computer paper part. Please click on the picture for a more detailed view. Also this is the first time I've scanned my art rather than photographing it (learned something new --Hooray!). The colors are quite a bit brighter and more intense than the original but you can certainly see the texture.

Preponderance of Pears Sudoku Update

Well... It's been awhile (March 23) since my last Preponderance of Pears Sudoku Quilt progress report. I was waiting to post the finished project, but that appears to be too long of a wait. So here's what's been happening...

The pear fabric (on the right) wasn't quite the right color -- wanted to add some red -- so I played with raspberry tea to dye the fabric. What a happy surprise with the resulting richer orange color...

I messed up the order of my pictures. The last "preponderance of pears" picture was suppose to be next before the closeup... I free motion stitched and stuffed my focal point pears... Still not real accurate with my free motion stitching so I'm calling these pears "organic looking" with the squiggly lines. I like the pears and I worked a long time on them, but... they don't look right on the quilt. I tried adding some embellishment (red grid below) and that was too busy... I'm at a standstill... I have a Preponderance of Pears Sudoku Quilt with no PEARS! I learned a new stitch (pictured below) which I love -- Spiral Trellis Stitch -- which looks lovely in the rose color with my quilt. I could try to make pears out of this stitch but it would take me forever...

My embellishments (pictured below) are coming along slowly. I've finished the #9 and #3 squares. The lace, which I raspberry tea dyed to add a touch of pink to cut the stark contrast, is on the #9 squares. The red ball point pins are on the #3 squares (colored white pins with Sharpie pens). Put raspberry mesh over the yellow spotted squares to add color and texture and I'm going to add some kind of fiber to that to represent the #6.

Lots of "organic" pears that just don't work... I am so disappointed, but I'll save them for another project...

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Fast Friday Quilt #3

Finally finished my third Fast Friday Quilt.

This is Challenge #32 ...

Color Concept: 3 Side-by-sides with an Opposite Accent

Composition Concept: Grids and/or Frames...

I'm definitely attracted to grids. I could have posted one of my SUDOKU Art Quilts (81- square grid) and be done with it, but wanted to try something new: Irregular Checkerboard Blocks from Sandi Cummings' book, Thinking Outside the Block. My colors are: Green, Blue-green, and Blue with an Orange accent.

This is what my quilt looked like after the original piecing. Planning the irregular checkerboard was more complicated than I thought it would be -- trying to get one set of colors (blue-green left side and bottom) leading to a darker set (blue), then to the orange rectangle in the upper right. Also, I definitely need more piecing practice. I didn't mind that the checkerboard was a bit "wonky" but the orange stripes were so crooked -- it drove me nuts. Had to cover up those stripes...

This is my finished piece -- 9"x 16". I'm so much happier with the added rectangles. Also adds more interest and dimension. Added hand stitching (for texture) to the machine quilting. Pillow-case binding -- improved from my last quilt. Left the bottom open and got a wonky corner (reason for adding buttons), so next time I'll try a slit in the back to turn the quilt inside out.

Close-up for a better look at my blue French knots (also have French knots on the orange flowers) and blue stem stitch.

Online Stitch Class -- Week 6

Here is my final Week 6 sampler for the "Library of Personal Stitches" class. This week's class is: Texture Creating Crusty Surfaces...

I love those crusty surfaces.

A sampler of dimensional, built up stitches. Had lots of fun experimenting with the "Detached Buttonhole" stitch to build dimension around the wheels and on a variety of other stitches.

Didn't do as well with the "Cast On" stitches. The little purple blobs are suppose to be flat partial circles. Didn't quite get the "flower petals" stitch either (purple "flower" at bottom of sampler).

The "Casalguidi Stitch" (purple cord above) is very cool, but time consuming. I've shown all four stages of this stitch on my sampler:

1. Couch several strands of fibers (red yarn) in the desired shape

2. Satin Stitch the couched strands

3. Do a loose foundation stitch over the satin stitch

4. Do rows of Stem Stitch onto the foundation stitch until the cord is covered.

I'm sad to see this class come to an end but I still have plenty of stitching to practice and improve upon. Again I would highly recommend taking a class from Sharon Boggon at Joggles. In fact Joggles has the new Spring classes listed and I'm planning to take Sharon's "Studio Journals: A Designer's Workhorse" class in June.

Online Stitch Class -- Week 5

Here is my practice sampler from Week 5 of the "Personal Library of Stitches" class. This week's lesson covers direction and shape.

Only one more week left of this wonderful class. I've certainly learned a lot!

Fast Friday Quilt #2

What a happy surprise, after posting my first Fast Friday Quilt, a member of the Fast Friday Fiber Challenge group left some nice comments. I don't know how she found my blog -- I thought I was posting my quilts inconspicuously and relatively unseen. Just goes to show, you never know who might be dropping in...

Here is my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge Quilt -- Challenge #31
Color Concept: Highly saturated colors combined with muted colors (to create the illusion of luminosity)
Composition Concept: Use planes and masses (to create light and shadow)

My quilt concept: A saturated colored leaf falling down in front of a muted wall, casting a shadow on the wall. My thought process is good -- my execution leaves something to be desired. But again, the point of this is to practice and get better.

Still not happy with my art photography skills -- the color is not accurate. And yes, these really are two different photos. I like the background best in the photo above and the leaf best in the photo below.

Thought I'd try Colleen Wise's shadow technique from her book, Casting Shadows. To get an accurate leaf shadow, I hung a leaf template to a piece of paper, put directional light on the leaf, and traced the shadow. The leaf template flipped up causing an elongated shadow and I didn't recreate the flip in my fabric leaf, so the shadow looks a bit wonky and unnatural.

I like the way my wall turned out -- looks like a wall. I made lighter free motion lines in the upper left corner (source of light) and darker lines moving to the bottom right.

Tried a "pillowcase" style of binding/backing, with some success but not exactly straight.

Original leaf

Improved leaf (except the flash picture took away some of the dimension)
Made the veins more visible, changed the shape slightly, and added hand stitching (French knots and Bullion knots on stem). My free motion foot went bad, so I had to hand stitch (outline stitch) the leaf onto the quilt which took me forever.

Online Stitch Class -- Week 4

Here I am at Week 4 of my "Personal Library of Stitches" online class. This week's practice sampler covers Contrast of Texture, Scale and Density:

I concentrated mostly on the buttonhole stitch and its many variations. I liked overlapping, layering and stacking stitches to get scale and density contrast.

The wild pink fiber created a funky look in the buttonhole stitch. Had fun with the wheel buttonhole stitch once I figured out how to do it properly. The two top left round masses are attempts to cover up and layer over originally defective looking buttonhole wheels.