Sidetracked (Europe 2 - Paris)

     Once a month I meet up with a fabulous group of creative women ... and each time I come away having learned something new, something old with new applications or even something extra that enhances a skill that needs more practice.


     So yesterday we learned something new: one of our talented ladies (Linda F) showed us how to create and bind a book.  It is 18 cm X 24 cm (approx 7" X 10 " )

     The pages are fairly thick ... strong enough for water colour painting. I have 30 pages in this book. I wouldn't mind trying again but with thinner pages, more suitable for writing.

     I also worked on a dress for Charlotte ... she wasn't so keen on it when she first tried it on, but I am hoping that now the warmer weather has arrived, it will be more suitable to wear. I picked up the fabric while in Holland the end of April.

     And finally, I am working on some ideas for my Europe quilt.
     The first picture, obviously is the Eiffel Tower. It is 38 cm X 22 cm. The background fabric has fusible interfacing which I thought would be enough for all the top-stitching but with the additional work as I proceeded down the tower, I think I should have used two layers of the interfacing to help stop the wrinkling. I can probably get it to lie flat once I quilt it. I haven't decided how many pictures I am going to include from my trip ... nor how big the quilt will eventually be. 

     There are several photos I have taken that I think I may create as single / separate pieces. Time will tell!

Woo Hoo Colour Challenge!

     Many months ago I started a colour challenge with our FAB group (Fibre Arts Bee) ... and for the most part, I have been plugging away at it, but whenever I wanted to work on new projects (like the Europe quilt), I knew I should work on the colour pieces and get that out of the way.

     For the original piece, my daughter Kate used a photo from St Johns, Newfoundland, enlarged & printed it in black & white (so I wouldn't know the original colours) and then separated it into 9 pieces. (I've taped the pieces here; you can almost make out where the cuts are)

     One piece was randomly chosen each month and the colour challenge was applied.  Since I did not know ahead of time (until near the end) which piece would fit where, there was an extra challenge in choosing colours that would help each section to stand out.

     Here is the final piece ... had a little difficulty in lining up the pieces while trying to pin them to the deck fence ... it was a wee bit windy out. When I put the mini-quilts together, I realized that there were some areas that needed a touch more work ... for example, one of the power lines stopped mid-picture. That is now fixed but I am thinking that a few more finishing details could probably be added, like the house numbers. 

     Hopefully as I do the individual close-ups, I will remember which Colour Challenge it represents.
1. Complementary ... opposite on the colour wheel.
Blues & Oranges

2. Analogous ... adjacent to each other
Green / Yellow-green / Yellow 
(probably my favourite section ... I had a little more energy at the beginning to add extra details, not sure what the extra dark spot is on the left window ... did a bug land while I was taking pictures?)

3. Triadic ... evenly spaced on colour wheel
Red - Blue - Yellow
 (interesting ... there is that dark spot again ... will have to take some new photos later)

4. Tetradic .... two sets of complementary
 Yellow / Violet & Red / Green
 (This is probably my 2nd favourite piece ... I prefer working on the extra detail to give some realism to the picture)

5. Split Complementary ... a dominant colour &  2 colours adjacent to complementary colour
Yellow Green with Red & Violet

6. Monochromatic
Oranges 
(This piece was actually chosen for triadic, but without any buildings to use for contrast, I jumped ahead and made it one colour.) When I did the overall quilting of the sky, I realized that the other pieces with bits of sky in them would also need similar quilting.

7. Achromatic .... no colour
Black, White, Grey

8. High / Low Contrast (Temperature contrast of warm / cool)
warm Yellow with cool Blue-Violet 
(wasn't too crazy about this piece ... I like the sections that give more detail, and for me, more interest; the original has a house number above the door, so I may add that.  The siding on the house is actually pleated)

9. Full Colour
Red / Orange / Yellow / Green / Blue / Violet 
(Again, house numbers would probably help. The picture does not show a front step for each of the houses, but I may add one; the red door looks like it is floating. It took a bit of finessing to make sure the lines for the power boxes matched with the section above.)

I am noticing a dark spot near the edge of several of the pictures ... perhaps it isn't a bug but rather time to clean the camera lens!!

Home again (Europe 1)

     I have returned from an AWESOME 21 day Rick Steves Tour of Europe .... with so many possible art quilting ideas that my head is overwhelmed.  I walked the gardens in Holland, the walls in Rothenberg taking pictures of rooftops, the canals in Venice, the ruins in Rome, the mountains in Switzerland .... and the list goes on.

     Of the approximate 475 photos, I have pulled out several that I think will look good in a mix of maps and pictures .... but choosing a final set-up is proving difficult.

     Several years ago I completed an art quilt based on a trip to Ireland but I would like to do a different design for this one ....

     While I think on the possibilities a little longer, I decided to clean out and reorganize the studio; I am making very few bed quilts so it is time to eliminate many of the bed quilt patterns that I know I will NEVER get around to. And then I got distracted with making some pants for Charlotte who seems to love to get into paints and mud at daycare; using a pair of pants from the store as a pattern, C will now have a set of easy-to-make, grubbing-around-in pants made from leftover t-shirt fabric.

       While traveling, I kept an eye out for quilt shops. One that was recommended in Amsterdam was not open the two times I dropped by. I did find another near the Dam as well as a couple more tiny shops in other countries, but the shops carried traditional patterns and fabric.  I bought a couple small fabric pieces to use in a sundress for C ... already cut out but not sewn together yet.

April projects

I finished off the crib quilt in time for my visiting niece to take with her when she travels to Ontario in time for the baby's arrival (it is for her brother & sister-in-law). Because the last few crib quilts I have made have ended up on walls instead of on babies, I added a sleeve to the back so it can be hung. I think I may need to go back to some traditional quilting styles in order for my quilts to be used to wrap up the intended recipients!!
     The original inspiration:

The final product:

I also completed a cushion cover depicting the canals of Amsterdam. I am traveling to Europe soon and this will be a gift for my sister-in-law; in the lower right quadrant there is a small canal off the Amstel River ... she lives on the corner of the Amstel and Achtergracht Canal.

     I found an old map, enlarged it and traced it onto the fabric. I backed the fabric with fusible interfacing before following / sewing the lines the first time; the 2nd time around, I added batting and a backing. Originally I was going to add the main streets as well, but when I had enlarged the original coloured map to a black and white copy, a lot of the colours were the same value and did not photocopy well .... with all the starts and stops following the canal routes with the sewing machine, I figured this was a good place to finish up!  I lightly penciled in the word "Amsterdam" and followed that with the sewing machine needle as well.

Another baby quilt

     Lots of little things are being worked on but not quite completed. The UFO pile seems to be growing. However, babies don't wait and if you have agreed to make a baby quilt for someone, you really have to get it done before the due date (which I think is about a month away).

     My nephew's wife has painted a wall mural behind the baby's crib (I have yet to find out if I will have another grand-niece or grand-nephew).

     The crib quilt has been made with 6 shades of orange to represent a sunset and several grey, grey-blue, and blue pieces of fabric for the mountains. The centre is a mid-blue for water which allows a "reflection" and repeat of the mountains and sunset.  The fabric was all cut free hand and pinned in place as I went along ... today I 'fastened' them in place with little bits of fusible webbing  (Unique hem fuser comes in a 19 mm wide roll and is great for tacking things down)

     I haven't decided if I will add the trees or not. And if I do, whether I will thread paint them on, make them of fabric and quilt them, or make separate thread trees and then applique them ... I like the last idea the best (using a technique from Laurie Swim's class last September) but I don't think I have enough time to do that for the number of trees I would probably need (going on a holiday soon). If I decide to thread-paint them I had better do that asap before I add the backing.
     So the quilt, batting and backing are sitting on the cutting table waiting for a decision ... tomorrow??

A Baby

     A baby is on the way, a little boy ... but not a grandchild for me (although I expect that I will step in as 'acting grandparent' a few times since both sets of grandparents do not live near by; one is on the far side of the country in BC!) My daughter has organized the shower (this Sunday) and I have made a baby quilt for the littlest Mitchell.

     The story behind the crib quilt: the baby's room is in greys and blues; Daddy is the local weatherman for CBC hence the weather theme of showers and sunshine ... (and puddles for little boys to jump in); the grey background is straight line quilting to symbolize rain and the rest on the blue stripes is quilted in swirls and curls since Mom is a hairdresser; I even used blue thread that goes from dark to light to match the ombre or balayage style of hair dyeing that she frequently does.

Zen Doodle Quilting

     I have watched a number of Graffiti quilting youtube videos by Karlee Porter ... love her work, but discovered that I am better at filling in contained spaces rather than starting from a small point and randomly creating swirls and circles and lines and arrows to fill in a larger space.  So after a couple attempts, I resorted to a Zentangle - Zendoodle type of machine quilting. My goal was to find patterns that could be continuous line drawing so that it wasn't necessary to stop and start frequently with the sewing machine.

     This is probably the easiest one to do which looks the most complicated. I think it is called Rick's Paradox ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wsVrw4DhpM ... there are lots of youtube videos out there, but this one is fairly simple to follow. On my pattern above, I started with 4 squares on the left and 2 larger triangles to the right.

     And of course, learning a new pattern is only worthwhile if you have somewhere to use it!!

     This was fun. The pattern on the left is kind of like onion skins ... ran out of bobbin thread so I didn't finish up the block and decided to try something new. The spider web worked great and then I worked on some triangles.  I've been using up bits and pieces of almost empty spools and bobbins.

     Used the onion skin pattern to fill in a teapot until the bobbin ran out again! Not sure what to do with the handle but since this is just for fun and practice, I may not do anything with it.

     I tried to use different patterns in the leaves, but they are a bit small so I just had some fun with lines and circles.

     I have a couple friends in my fibre arts group who like giraffes so I thought I would try a giraffe sample to show them.  This could make a pretty neat TALL quilt if one decided to do the whole body!!  A suggestion yesterday at FAB (fibre arts bee) was to make a variety of animals and use them as alternate blocks in a kid's quilt. Hmmmmm.....

     So where to go from here? I need to try out different colouring methods. Markers, pencil crayons, crayons, paints .....
     I created a new sample to use as a practice piece for colouring.

     This is roughly 19 inches square .. a borrowed picture from a colouring book I had which I enlarged and traced onto white cloth, added a fusible interfacing as well as batting and a backing. 
Well ... I decided I liked this and didn't want to mess it up experimenting with different colours on it, so, time to make another smaller sample.