Into the Light

Coming out of hibernation with a new landscape quilt, I just realized it has no title. And no sleeve. Oh well, maybe next week. :)

The stitching is as usual free motion, organically following the lines of each element on the quilt. This project was inspired by a yard of a Hoffman batik--which absolutely begged to be both sea and sky:

The lighthouse and cliff came from a panel from the "Wind and Waves" collection by Wilmington Fabrics. I was less than enamored of/with the original sky and water, so away it went into the scrap drawer.



The trees behind the house were pretty sparse and undefined in the panel, and after cutting away the sky, there really needed to be more of them. A search through my fat quarters turned up only one fabric that depicted evergreens in the proper scale for that part of the scene. They were fussy cut after hand-pressing onto Steam-a-Seam Lite 2, then fused to the quilt top.

Funny thing, a few months back I had almost relegated these trees to the Christmas fabric stash, after deciding they looked a bit too 'cartoony' for a landscape quilt. Glad I didn't, or I'd never have found them! They worked perfectly, even picking up the gold cast in the sky. You just never know.



The ship is a favorite element of mine, one I've used before in a quilt called The Tower. It came from a $2.00 pair of curtains picked up at a local Goodwill Store. Lots more ships to go!









The ocean waves were cut from this wonderful Robert Kaufman fabric, which is yardage I try to keep on hand and have used in a previous quilt, titled The View from Merlin's Cave (see the cover photo on the Linda's Landscapes page on Facebook).






The moon was cut from this gorgeous Stonehenge fabric by Northcott Mills, and overshadowed by blue-green tulle.














The moonlit path on the ocean was stitched with Sulky's Holoshimmer, my favorite thread for highlighting water. Silver was used on the background water, dark pewter on the foreground.

The seafoam at the water's edge is a scrap of polyester batting, stitched down with a wide-spaced stipple and a size 11 topstitch needle to prevent obvious holes (all other quilting was done with a size 14 topstitch needle). Note: in my test sample, the free-motion disc foot smashed the batting flat. Figuring the little circular metal free-motion foot wouldn't skim over the fluffy batting, I opted for no foot at all. Needless to say, I was concerned about keeping my fingers away from the needle. That's when the bicycle clip idea came in handy again. (See the blog post titled Everything Plus the Girl.)

The three different rock fabrics were quilted as they were, with no embellishment except for the black tulle used to shade the foreground. (That's rare for me; on rocks, I usually go crazy with paint markers.)

Probably the first lighthouse ever to have emergency surgery.

There was only one serious issue. Because the sky was quilted horizontally, the lighthouse (being tall and vertical) developed some horizontal saggy areas. Ever seen a puckered lighthouse? Not a pretty sight.

Since I hadn't planned on quilting it--nor would that have solved the problem, as it was backed with fusible web, keeping it pretty stiff--I had to stuff it. You can kind of tell in this photo. I had never tried trapunto from the back, which I understand is the original method. The backing fabric, batting and background fabric were carefully slit with a sharp seam ripper, allowing me to poke polyester fill under the lighthouse fabric as far as it could go at both ends. Then the slit was 'Fray-Checked' and stitched closed.

When blocking the quilt, I was careful to avoid that area.

Hooking up here with Leah Day's FMQ Project linkup -- the last one, by the way, as she's doing the linkups differently from now on. Also linking in to Sarah Craig's Whoop Whoop Friday blog. Do yourself a favor and check out these two blogs, along with their reader hookups. Lots of inspiration to take you into your weekend!

And on that note, have a great one~~

Linda

Odds & Ends (& beginnings)

In the three weeks since finishing The Visit, the Kentucky Derby has come and gone, my sister came to visit, and the studio got cleaned. Everything but this in-progress lighthouse project was tidied up and put away, a process that also helps clean out the cobwebs in my brain and get the creativity flowing better.







While my sister was here, we stopped in at the antique/consignment/thrift shop just around the corner from my neighborhood, and found this pretty wooden wine rack with a drawer. Obviously, I had another use for it (although it's been pointed out to me that there are still a couple of spaces available for wine ;). All of the things stored here get used at various times during designing landscape quilts, and were originally stored upright in a tacky corrugated box with dividers (that kept collapsing). This drawer is the perfect size to hold marking pens and chalk, as well as gluesticks and masking tape.

Speaking of great finds, after finding those 5 beautiful yards of cotton/poly blend (mostly cotton) in the basement a few weeks back, I used it for joining-strips and binding on the quilt-as-you-go blocks. The color could not have been more perfect, and running across this fabric after having stashed and forgotten it years ago was surely no coincidence.

The backs of the blocks aren't arranged exactly the way I'd like, but after two hours of switching them around, the front of the quilt started getting out of balance--too much orange in one area, or all the purples in one corner, etc. So I went with this. It's just for us, anyway. I wouldn't give this to anyone else, with all the wonkiness in it (which I like). Plus, two seams already popped during washing and had to be appliqued over. Apparently I didn't always pay close enough attention to the underneath seam allowances when I was laying down the strips. Yikes! I'll be watching for more. Lesson learned.


Another project, just begun, involves these two fabrics...

1980s abstract upholstery fabric, by Dupont Teflon (!!)

Lewis & Clark journals print cotton

...and this image, first enlarged on 1-inch graph paper and then traced on tear-away stabilizer.

The original plan for the upholstery fabric was to make it a stormy sky in a landscape (turned sideways, it looks like rain is coming down). But when I turned it the way it's shown in the photo, something entirely different popped out at me. Eh, we'll see how it goes....

Hope all you moms are having a wonderful Mother's Day! I received these two stunning gifts. I don't normally blog about my gifts, but these are original works of art and deserve a shout-out.

This hand-blown wine glass from my son Alex and his wife Shannon, made in Hebron from recycled glass, came from Just Creations, a shop here in town that is a "not-for-profit international crafts marketplace." They "provide marketing assistance to low-income craftspeople in more than 30 developing nations."  How cool is that? The glass is opaque in the shadows, translucent in the light. If you put it in a window, you can see the sunlight glowing through it. Just gorgeous!

And this incredibly beautiful piece on the right, a resin pyramid encasing recycled metals, rose petals and crystals, among other things, was made by my younger son, Aaron. The base is about 5 inches square. He has just begun working with resin (can you believe it?), and has several other ideas on the burner for more pieces. This one changes appearance depending upon the light it's in and what it's sitting on. Every time you examine it, you see something different. I'm fascinated by it, and can't wait to see the other pieces he crafts.



That's it for now, except to say, for those of you who asked me, I've decided to enter The Visit in the next AQS show, which happens to be in Chattanooga (the deadline was extended to this Wednesday, May 14.) I won't know until late June or early July whether it's accepted. Please cross your fingers for the girl (no longer) in the drawer.  :)  A lot depends on the quality of the photos I submit, which is a little nerve-wracking. Oddly enough, the photo that started this whole project was taken in Chattanooga, at Point Park on Lookout Mountain. Think any of the locals would recognize it in the quilt? I wonder...

Linking up with Leah Day's FMQ Project blog. She's binding her 365 quilt, AND she and husband Josh are heading to Pittsburg PA for Spring Quilt Market next week.

Have a great week!

Linda

Everything Plus the Girl

Drum roll, please...oh heck, forget the drum roll and bring out the trumpets! This week, after 6 months of designing, piecing, gluing, fusing, embellishing and quilting, the freshly blocked garrison quilt was squared, trimmed, bound, sleeved (is that a word?), titled and labeled.

Then, for the last time, the girl came out of her drawer. By Tuesday afternoon, she was gliding up the cobblestone path to the castle garrison. (Did you ever try to glide on cobblestones? :)

Hanging from a makeshift rod that sagged in the middle. I have no real way or place to hang this quilt, which is roughly 43 x 54. Notice the 24-inch ruler hanging from the pegboard.

First, though, she was hand-basted through countless layers of fabric and fusible to keep her firmly in place for free-motion machine applique. Otherwise, her skirt could easily have ended up out of alignment with its shadow, and (horrors!) her entire body could have leaned to one side.

The main challenge was the thickness of the fabric. Counting the girl's 3 to 4 layers, there was a total of up to 10 layers of fabric under the needle. Not even the darning foot in its highest position was high enough. Time to go footless.

If you've ever done that, you know the fabric bounces with each up-and-down motion of the needle. This causes skipped stitches--especially with mono-poly thread, which I was using on top. (Note: my Janome dealer advised me to use mono-poly only when truly necessary. This is the first time I've used it on this machine. Sulky brand is very fine and flexible, unlike the old 'fishing line' mono-poly.) To counteract the bouncing and protect my fingers, I tried using my smallest embroidery hoop (not shown), but it wasn't close enough to the needle to stop the bouncing.

Then I remembered these little guys:

Honestly, I've never liked them very much for their intended purpose, which is clamping around a rolled quilt at the machine--they're too little! However, after knotting 4 rubber bands around one of them, it became a nice, grippy 3-inch 'hoop,' holding the fabric down reasonably well around the needle AND giving me a hand-hold, which helped keep my fingers away from the needle. Pushing gently down on the little hoop also helped me slide the fabric on the machine bed during the free-motion applique.


And now she's ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille:

Stock photo from MarjoleinART on deviantart.com

She actually looks much more padded than that, as she has her own batting under the dress and hair. The next photo, while a bit blurry, captures the resulting texture a little better:

Below is the back (obviously) of the quilt...

Yardstick at bottom. Sagging rod at top.

...and the label:

The title popped into my head as I woke up the other morning.

The photo that inspired the quilt, taken by VVHH (very versatile handy husband), was shown in a previous post; here it is again:

As you can see in the label photo, the railing and yours truly were digitally removed. Later, the cropped figure of Marjolein (shown next to the close-up of the girl, above) was dropped into the scene. By the way, in case you're wondering, her face is absolutely lovely!

You may have noticed by now that the embroidered shrubs shown in this photo were not included after all. There were several reasons for that, but they'll be used in later quilts. As quilters know, nothing's ever wasted! That goes for landscape quilting, too.



A couple of goodies from the Universe this week:

Five yards of a gorgeous cotton-poly blend found in storage downstairs. Probably been there about 4 years, and totally forgotten until now. It's the perfect fabric for the joining strips I'll be needing for the quilt-as-you-go blocks.










A purple plastic-netting bag my friend Kathy brought me the other day. It came with onions in it (or maybe shallots)--and a portion of it fits beautifully over this 5000m spool of thread.










Okay, I've just got to do this cropped version of The Visit before I sign off.  :)  (By the way, for those of you who haven't visited here before, the title of this post, Everything Plus the Girl, is a sequel to a post months ago, titled Everything BUT the Girl.)

Linking up here with Sarah Craig's Whoop Whoop Friday, where she has had two big finishes this week. Also hooking up with Leah Day's FMQ Project Linkup, where her lovely Quilt Me fabric from Spoonflower has arrived. She has some other good news, too.

Signing off for now. Everyone have a great weekend. We're having our Dogwood Festival here this weekend, but they're everywhere, along with so many other gorgeous blossoming trees. Enjoy!

Linda

On a Roll

This week the garrison quilt's wide outer border was quilted in what Leah Day calls 'Gentle Flames' stitch. It did not begin well.

As mentioned previously, this quilt is far too large and stiff to bunch up under the machine. It had to be rolled like a log--and it seemed as heavy as a log. Five minutes into stitching the left-hand border, it was clear that continued 'free' motion would be impossible for anybody but Hercules.


Even a programmed decorative machine stitch requires a back-and-forth motion to stitch correctly, so that idea was out. I could just imagine what a puckered, distorted mess that would make--and I'd have to go around the entire quilt several times to fill the border.

What to do? Despair crept into my mind. Would this have to go to a professional longarm quilter for finishing? Surely not! What I needed was a way for this 'log' to roll back and forth while I stitched, instead of having to be dragged over the table and the vinyl-covered ironing board.

And then for some reason my eyes lit on some wooden dowels standing in the corner. If, during ancient times, boulders and large stones were moved great distances by rolling them on logs, why wouldn't the same method work for a measly little quilt?

In front of the machine

Behind the machine

Of course I had to stop every few minutes to rearrange the dowels (and paper-towel cores), but still; what a difference! After nine hours (over the next three days), the border was finished. 'Gentle Flames' gradually morphed into a sort of tree-bark effect, but that's fine for a woodland quilt.

In the photo above, you can see why my next step was blocking. There was considerable warping on that far side, and a bit of it in the interior, as well. Below, on the photo at right, I've circled the problem areas. All of those needed to be shrunk out as much as possible, so the quilt will hang smooth and flat.

Pinned and ready to block

First smoothing with a mailing tube 

That was yesterday, and I left it overnight to dry. This morning it's still not quite dry, but wow, what a difference already! The interior warping (which is mostly on tree trunks, so no big deal) is almost gone...

...and that really wavy section of border (circled below) is practically flat!

Instructions for blocking a quilt can be found in most landscape quilting books, and probably on the internet. The tools are: carpet or a thick rug, a flannel-backed vinyl tablecloth (turned flannel side up), an old sheet atop the tablecloth, quilt wrong side up, lots of T-pins, a damp towel (I used to use a handkerchief, but there's just not enough moisture in it), a spray bottle of water, and a hot, dry iron.

If your quilt is small and your design wall is moisture- and heat-resistant, you can do this vertically, and save a lot of knee and back strain. But as sore as I am today, there are no regrets, and you can see why by the 'after' photos above.

On the old Singer 403, more quilt-as-you-go blocks got made this week. As the scrap fabric pile grows smaller along with my choices, my combinations get crazier. There are 9 blocks to go, so I may have to invade my batik scrap drawer, although I'd rather save those for landscape quilts.

(These are cropped photos, not squared blocks.) They're fun to make, but because there's no place to put the 403 in the studio (yet), it's set up in the dining room. This is shared space, and for obvious reasons I usually wait for these popular sun patches to disappear before pulling a chair up to the table to sew. That cuts out most of the morning. Oh well. The things we do for our furry children.  :)

Mokie, Morticia and Zoe

Time to hook up with two of my favorite blogs and check in on their reader linkups as well: Leah Day's FMQ Project Linkup and Sarah Craig's Whoop Whoop Fridays.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy all the signs of spring--which is apparently coming after all!

Linda