Up a Tree

This month has been a blur...or is it just me? That said, there's been some progress...

The free-motion thread landscape is done, except for a hanging sleeve. Some birds in the sky (or a pteranodon) might be nice, though. A boat was considered but just didn't happen.

(The quilt is squared, but the bottom edge was curling up a bit. Better block it.)

Again, a shout-out to Muv at Free Motion Mavericks for the inspiration to try an all-thread landscape. It was a refreshing change from the painfully slow progress on my Overlook landscape.

After days of fighting with the water section a while back, the green forest background had me stymied, too. Finally realizing, first of all, that the tree pattern in the green batik was distracting the heck out of me in my attempt to plan the actual trees I wanted there, I marched to the Sharpie drawer.

So much for the tree pattern. One problem solved.

But that was the easy one. I still didn't know how I was going to make my trees. My dubious plan was to fill most of the background with some fussy-cut fabric pieces and some machine-embroidered trees--which I had never even tried making. The only landscape element I'd ever machine-embroidered was bare-limbed shrubbery, using Alison Holt's method.

For this project I wanted full trees. I would get some practice at a new process, hopefully get comfortable with it (and at least halfway decent at it), and in the meantime, maybe some other inspiration would strike.

This time I reached for Nancy Prince's book. Both she and Alison thread-paint (machine-embroider) amazing trees.

The hoop was prepared using Nancy's method, which is two layers of tulle sandwiched between two layers of water-soluble stabilizer. This is dark-green tulle, which should blend into the background on my quilt. (Note: Nancy does not leave tulle around the finished edges, but I didn't want heavy stitching on the outer edges of my tree foliage, and therefore needed something to keep my edge stitches intact.) The tree was drawn directly on the stabilizer with a black Sharpie and a water-soluble marking pen.

Since I wanted to use heavy threads for the trunk and some of the darker under-foliage, I wound those on bobbins and stitched in free motion from the back (below) with a lighter-weight thread in the needle.

About 3/4 of the way through, the work was taken out, flipped, and re-hooped, after which lighter-weight threads in mid-tones and highlights were stitched directly on the front. Too many, I think...it needs more dark areas, as you can tell below.

This is the finished tree already cut out, rinsed, blocked and dried. You can see how heavy the bobbin thread was for the trunk (size 30, variegated cotton). Update--it is size 20, not 30.

Confession: that was not the first tree, but the second. Below is the first one.

Yeah. Turns out there was more orange than I realized, in this variegated thread. And the more I look at it, the foliage appears to be draped over the branches in one big piece, like some sort of camouflage mosquito-netting. Poor tree! Maybe it's not so bad for a first attempt, though, and I can carefully try to tone down the orange with some paint markers. The trunk will need some shading, too--which you're supposed to do with yet another shade of thread in this method, but markers will work for that, too.

Off subject, here's one of three new garments for the Lucy drawer.

Except for the ribbing, this one was knitted (from the neck down) with a single, variegated yarn, Deborah Norville Everyday in the color Cold Mountain. Working from the neck down, the stripey patterns are automatically matched (except where a new ball of yarn is joined--although that worked out pretty well here), and there are no seams at the end! Why I waited 40 years to try this method is a mystery to me. A creature of habit, I suppose. And double-pointed needles (sleeves only) tend to slow me down considerably.

Linking up with Free Motion Mavericks. It's the last week for the giveaway over there, so hurry and check it out! Also hooking up with Whoop Whoop Fridays, where you'll see a vintage wedding dress makeover. Wow!

Might as well wish everyone a great August at this point. Seriously, where did July go???

Linda

Incidentals

More FMQ was done this week on the densely-stitched fat-quarter landscape (see last week's post), but probably not enough to warrant new photos.

The background for the forest has been cut and glued onto The Overlook quilt top. Most of this tree-print batik piece will be covered up with various, more realistic-looking trees; whether made of fabric applique or thread-painted applique (or both) remains to be seen. Any dark green that's left showing through will hopefully give the impression of deep forest beyond. That's this fabric's main job; the printed trees are incidental.

That's all on the quilting front, except for this:

Mokie seems to like Pokey, too.

Got these recently for 40 percent off and no shipping costs. Three seasons of Quilting Arts TV with host Pokey Bolton! I like the current host, Susan Brubaker Knapp, just fine, but I do miss Pokey.

Incidentally, a couple of sweaters for Lucy got finished during the last couple of weeks. They're sized for 18 to 24 months, but she might be able to wear them this winter, at the rate she's growing!

The yarn is Deborah Norville's Everyday acrylic worsted (one of the softest yarns on the market), by Premier Yarns, in a variegated called 'Lilac Ridge.' It just knits out like this--all one yarn. I did my best to get the two front halves to knit out with the same 'stripe' placement, also the sleeves, but the almost perfect lineup at the armholes (well, one of them) was just a happy accident.

The other sweater is actually a kimono shirt, also knitted in a variegated acrylic Premier Deborah Norville yarn, this one in the Serenity Chunky line. The color is 'Berry Burst.'

Deliciousness...

It's very little exaggeration to say that the whole time I was knitting this, I wanted to EAT the yarn. It is thick (hence the 'chunky'), very textural but soft, and in person looks like strawberries and cream. My mouth literally watered a couple of times. I liked it so much that when the Serenity Chunky line of yarn went on sale at Joann Fabric online in early June, with free shipment on orders over $60, I went a little nuts and ordered four skeins each of the variegated yarns in this next photo.

Sherbet with sprinkles, anyone?

It might be hard to tell from the photo, but these look good enough to eat, too.

Hooking up with Whoop Whoop Fridays and WIPs Be Gone. Check them out!

Everyone have a great weekend, and, if you're in the U.S., a fun and safe 4th of July holiday!

Linda

Wave Bye-Bye

Having the privilege of guest hosting the Free Motion Mavericks blog for a second week, I want to first thank everyone who commented and linked up last week. Again this week, the linkup will stay open from 12:00 A.M. EDT (not GMT) Friday to 12:00 A.M. EDT Monday. Please join the party! Muv at Free Motion Mavericks is looking forward to seeing lots of blog posts when she returns, and I'm looking forward to seeing them this weekend.

More progress on the densely FMQ'd fat quarter featured last week. It's gone from this...

...to this, so far:

Notice that the 'missing' mountain referred to last week (on the left) isn't missing anymore. I went back with a darker thread and stitched between (and sometimes over) the lighter thread.

At some point I realized it's a good idea to stitch wider apart at first, so that you can go back between the lines and add a different color or shade, if needed, for correcting or blending. If no change is needed, you just stitch between the lines with the color you used the first time through. This is a lot easier and looks much nicer than the places where I 'traveled' over a previous line of stitching.




Here's the original fat quarter again--with a few lines of marker ink sketched on it--for anyone who missed it last week (click to enlarge).










And again, at right, what's been quilted so far, for easy comparison with the fat quarter photo.

I've reminded myself several times that this is an experimental piece, something I'll keep instead of selling, so it doesn't have to be perfect or even near-perfect. This and the meandering horizontal stitching has made it more relaxing than most projects.




On to a different, not-so-relaxing, FMQ project. I promised an update on The Overlook landscape quit. Remember that wavy water fabric I was fighting with?

Well, I finally gave up on it. Don't get me wrong--it took two whole afternoons of re-positioning, test-fitting and staring (glaring) at it, for me to finally throw in the towel. I'm nothing if not bullheaded. But the waves didn't look right no matter how the piece was positioned, and after hours and hours of getting nowhere, it was time to move on. Bye-bye, waves.




Despite having decided that nothing else in my stash would suit, I took another look at a too-bright-blue batik. Beggars can't be choosers (old saying).

A layer of white tulle lightened the blue a bit. (A second layer was tested, but it was too much.) This should look more like water after waves are drawn and quilted on it.

Hooking up here with Whoop Whoop Fridays and WIPs Be Gone. Check out their blogs and their readers' blog linkups for plenty of weekend fun!

Okay, on to the linkup! Here are the easy instructions from Free Motion Mavericks:

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up.
Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny.

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:
1. Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.
2. Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar.
3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.
4. The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight EDT (not GMT as is usual) for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

Everyone, please join the party, and have a great week!

Linda

Quilts of a Different Stripe

This week and next, I'm honored to guest host for Free Motion Mavericks at Lizzie Lenard's Vintage Sewing blog, while Muv is on vacation. She hopes readers will link up below as usual to share their free-motion projects so she can see them when she returns.

Some progress was made on The Overlook quilt; more on that next week.

In the meantime, this stripey hand-dyed batik has been speaking to me for some time, and this week it demanded attention. Notice the faint turquoise lines. They weren't in the original fabric, but because the dye streaks seemed to form a vague landscape, I had already sketched a few lines on it with a Sharpie marker.

UPDATE: I think this fabric is by Robert Kaufman; not sure.

Odd but fortuitous timing on this project, since the free-motion stitching I planned to do was inspired by Muv's landscape, The Solent, featured on her Free Motion Mavericks blog.

So here's what's been done since yesterday. Scroll back and forth between this photo and the one above, to see how the fabric has changed so far.

Here's a closer look.

The trees are a mess. I plan to do more thread-painting on them, crossing my fingers the whole time that they'll turn out better instead of worse. (Ever try to sew with crossed fingers?) There's also a missing mountain on the left, meaning my thread was so light it blended right into the sky. I'll have to fix that, too, by traveling over my stitching with a darker thread.

This is not the first time a stripey hand-dyed fat quarter has suggested an entire landscape to me. The first one, pictured below, was handled very differently from the one above (click to enlarge).

Original fat quarter (by Robert Kaufman)

Marshland Paradise, 2012 (sold)

This one was pieced, like most of my landscape quilts, with raw-edged applique, and quilted in free motion.

Next week, I'll post an update on the current stripey piece, as well as progress made on The Overlook.

Now we come to the link-up instructions, copied and pasted from Free Motion Mavericks:

If you love free motion quilting, whether you are a beginner just taking the plunge, or you have reached the stage where you can do ostrich feathers with your eyes shut and still achieve perfect symmetry, then please link up. 

Remember, FMQ is FMQ, whether your machine was made last week, or it is older than your granny. 

Here are the very easy and slightly elastic rules:- 

1. Link up with any recent post, ideally from the last week but within the last month, which features a free motion quilting project, whether it is a work in progress or a finish.
2. Link back to this post in your own post and/or grab the linky button for your blog's sidebar [button is on Linda's sidebar at right].
3. Visit as many of the other participants as possible and say hello in the comments box.
4. The link up will remain open for four days, from midnight to midnight EDT (not GMT as is usual) for the long weekend, Friday to Monday.

And that's all there is to it. Crossing my fingers I do this right and the linky works.

Linking up here with the Whoop Whoop Friday blog. You've got to check out Sarah's beautiful fabric boxes.

Have a great week!
Linda