WIP on Wed Oct 19

Last night was my last of 4 batik classes.  It was a Parent / Child class through the local Community Education program and taught by local artist Cindy Peterson.  If you go to her online gallery, you can see that she uses batik as an art medium instead of just a fabric design element.

The first assignment was to paint the dye on and blend 2 complimentary colors.  The second week, the dragonfly was waxed off and dipped in yellow.  Week 3 was a teal dip to get the green.

This fabric is cherry red in real life and was the result of my playing with some of her stamping tools while I was waiting for my daughter to finish her project.

We have 2 collaborative pieces that Skater Girl and I did together - a lion in tan & red, and a toucan.  They both spent the night in the black dye and I have to go back to pick them up tonight.

My TV time for the past couple weeks has been spent trying to finish up this Crazy Quilt from the UFO bin.  The blue fabric is leftovers from the Hawaiian Quilt Samplers that I made for the girls in 2003.   It has probably been in the UFO basket that long.  I had decided to do all hand embroidery on every seam in a variety of stitches (click on photo to enlarge).  Like traditional Crazies, it will not include a batting.  There is fuseable interfacing on the back of the piecing for more stability.  I have to finish the outer frame stitching (pink & blue) on 7 more blocks.  Then it will be tacked at intervals to a blue Minkee back and bound in hot pink.

Last, but not least, ever distracted by bright shiny objects....  When I read Leah Day's Pea Gravel Path post, I immediately ran to the machine to try it. Yes, I read and immediately ignored the "Advanced" level warning.  And I did really try it on paper first.  Aside from my swirls looking "Seussian" rather than "Smoothly Swirly" I'm quite pleased.

Technique Snob

I've been pondering discussions I've been reading where quilters feel it necessary to defend using a specific style or technique in quilt making.  And I'll be the first to admit that while I can admire any quilt, I go weak in the knees when I see something made with needle-turn applique and hand quilting.  It is always my preferred style.  Not only do I like the finished look, but also how well it holds up over time.  I envision every quilt I make as a potential heirloom.  

After finishing some hand applique flowers for Leah Day, I decided to make a second set using a fusible and raw edge applique technique so I could compare them for myself (for real...not just what I thought they'd be like).  Here are my observations:

The flower on the left (1A) I made by drawing the petals on the back of the material freehand and using back-basting needleturn.  The yellow centers are yo-yos.  The one on the right (1B) is reversed b/c I made the pattern off the one on the left and forgot to flip the pattern for fusable (user error). 

Even though flowers A and B had all the petals made from one fabric, I think that A has a lot more dimention.  Both A & B were pressed with steam and a hot iron.  I took all the pictures outside in the same location at the same time.   You can see that I also had some puckering from the double line of stitching that I did on the raw-edge version (B) since it was on the bias and it never occured to me to use a stabilizer.

 I have to admit, that this is my first serious attempt at raw-edge applique.  On the up side, it only took a couple hours to make all 4 flowers, compared to a week of evenings watching TV for the needle-turn.   My practice with free-motion quilting made my stitching pretty even and I did do 2 rows of stitching, which I read somewhere gives a better finished product.  The thread-painting effect of petals also allowed me to cut out large pieces of fabric for flowers 3&4 saving the time and fuss of arranging each individually.

That being said, I really dislike the raw edges.  I was using scrap fabrics and the edges of the lower thread count fabrics look frayed already and it's never been washed.  The decision of if I would EVER do raw-edge applique again would come down to quilting.  These flowers were designed to show off Leah's dense free-motion quilting.  Not only will that improve the "flat" look of the "B" flowers, but will add another layer of thread to keep the raw edges contained. 

Well, my experiment is over and it's time for these poseys to head to the post office so they can enjoy their vacation in North Carolina.

Free Form Flowers

I was extended a challenge by Leah Day for a collaboration that would combine my love of applique with her amazing FMQ.

I thought that I was going to have 14 hours of car time to applique on this project over the weekend on our way to Wyoming to camp.  However, I ended up either driving or supervising Skater Girl who has a driving permit.

Once camp was set up, I doodled out this funky flower on the fabric and stitched down a couple petals while it rained.  I'm trying to decide if I'll add some small yellow yo-yo's for a center. 

When I got home, I drew this funky zinnia.  The center still needs to be stitched, but I just couldn't wait to post the picture.