Plein Air Painting Indoors with Fabric: a journal quilt

    If summer officially begins June 21 and ends September 22, it is time to prepare the portable paints for some plein air painting. I have made pochade boxes so I can walk out the front door to paint...but now with all the rain, I made a landscape in fabric. I sewed my landscape indoors.

    While studying Gustav Klimt's portraits and landscapes I thought I would create one in fabric. I have lots of birch fabrics and love Maine and NH. If you want to look at Klimt's landscapes, Google Klimt landscapes and click on Images. Scroll down to view his Birch Forest.

Click on photo to see supplies.

    I have plenty of birches in my novelty fabric stash! I cut a 12" x 12" square of sky or water and sprayed some 505 (a temporary spray glue) red and orange "leaves" to the bottom three fourths of the square. Next, I cut out strip after strip of birch trees. A little late in the game I cut skinny strips of fusible webbing (Wonder Under) and ironed the trees loosely down. I must look into Steam A Seam which is not permanent but holds until ironed. (see Susan's Comments below)

   Next, I got out my Jacquard fabric paints which leave the fabric soft, not stiff as you would get with straight acrylics. I thinned the blue paint with water and dragged a glaze over all the birch trees, leaving the paint thicker to darken the tree bases as one must do to ground them. I painted more orange and red leaves on the field.

   I got out Angelina fibers and a Teflon pressing sheet to hint at branches in the sky and darken the field at the bottom. I spread it thin. Then to the sewing machine to wildly quilt my block to 12" x 12" batting with invisible thread, up the sides of the trees. I found a blue painter's cloth print to back the piece and pull over the sides to bind the edges with blue since the sky was a bit shallow.
   
      This accidental journal quilt will remind me of my Klimt quest, the taking up of painting again to do the grandchildren's portraits, and some important lessons I learned this week.

4th Birthday Portrait Quilt

   Traditionally, I make a small quilt birthday card for my grandchildren to go with their gifts. Since David's birthday is near Christmas, I use materials I find on hand since time is crowded.

    I found a sketch I had made of David using a marker. It looks as if I may have traced over a photograph which I had enlarged. I made two copies on my copy machine and scanned them to fit a size 8 1/2' x 11" sheet of paper. Of course I used a printable fabric, not paper, of that size to print the line drawing.

     Next, I ironed Wonder Under to the back so I could laminate the fabric with the drawing onto a background. Mistake #1. I had wanted to embroider the lines with black thread but this is not easy to do once fabric has been laminated. I learned that other people use invisible ink for their embroidery lines. Mistake #2. I had used up the Cars fabric, our theme this year. In a hurry I settled for Batman and numbers. Later I found Cars fragments which I laminated, cut out and stitched around. Mistake #3. You can see through the white fabric, but it shows how colorful David is. Mistake #4. It was late. I forgot to change the thread for the binding. It looked messy so I further messed it up more with puff paints. I was distracted listening to Tom Wolfe's new book Back to Blood. But I think the card is lively and cute. I dried it on the radiator and added a cupcake.

      I love it when David says, "For me, LinLin?" I say, "Yes:" and he adds, "Oh thank you, LinLin! My quilt," and hugs it. Most of the time, to get done all I want to do, I can't worry about "perfect."

Fast Fabric Postcard: for Nancy

     Birthdays always sneak up on me. But I now have a method for the world's fastest fabric greeting card. I made this last night "watching" Henry Louis Gate's Finding Your Roots program on PBS. Maybe the birthday card will get to Nancy by May10th!

      Cut 3 pieces of fabric 4" x 6." One is the decorative top piece, the second in the sandwich is the batting for which I used felt. If you want to "quilt" the top piece to the batting, do it now. Then there is the back piece that must say "Postcard."

       For extra protection, sew these three pieces near the edge to secure them. I didn't. Cut and iron Wonder Under to two strips of fabric 1" x 6" and two strips 1" x  4". Fold these strips in half lengthwise and remove the backing of the WU.  Place these strips of fabric tight and flat along the edges of the fabric and iron them in place. Follow the instructions on the Wonder Under and cut the strips a little long to trim to fit. To secure the bonded fabric, I went around the edge of the card both to iron and add a decorative machine stitch. To quilt further, I stitched other stars from that same decorative stitch at different spots on the postcard. Click to enlarge photos.

        I then stamped Postcard to the backside and addressed the card with Fabrico pen which I heat set. (Here, addresses are covered with fabric scraps.) I pressed the stamp on carefully. It probably needs less postage since it is flat and the size of a postcard, but since I ask for hand-cancelling, I pay full letter price.
       
         P.S. Last week I Googled the National Geographic DNA Genographic project to get my kit and it arrived yesterday. Now to find time to gather my DNA to mail it in to find where in the world I came from thousands of years ago. Should be fun. On the 15th, Material Mavens reveal their "mystery" quilts and I will show the one I just finished at that time.

      

     

Fabric Postcards Revisited

    Recently my childhood friends "rounded up" ourselves to meet in Amarillo, TX. A grand time ensued. Sadly, we recently lost a special one of ours; and I asked that the Order of Service for the memorial service be sent to me. I wanted to respond with a thank you note to friends who followed up.

     I wanted to make a fabric postcard differently from how I have in the past. (Type in "fabric postcard" in the search area by the Blogger "B" to see other methods.) I ironed Wonder Under that I get at JoAnn's Fabric to the tears and to the batik for the binding. I cut out strips of binding in 1" widths and folded them to 1/2", finger pressing with the paper on. I cut out the sky fabric, the blue "roundup" rope fabric, and the sky backing to size 4" x 6" which is U.S. postcard size. I did not even pin them together but ironed on the binding, top and bottom, then sides. I press about ten seconds to each side. Then I stitched around.

    Next I stamped "Postcard" on the cloud side and ironed on the tears fabric to one side, hearts on the other. I should have sewed these on first. I double secured them with gold puff paint on their edges that will take 24 hours to dry well. I used a hair dryer to make them workable or manageable. Now all I have to add is the addresses using a gel marker, finger press on a postage stamp, and deliver for hand-canceling at the USPost Office.

      

School for learning: a journal quilt

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   The Journal Quilt Connection meets this week. I needed to make a quilt with a school theme, one quite appropriate for September. I just couldn't get started. I thought of my upcoming trip for a reunion with friends with whom I began elementary school  in Amarillo. The grandchildren were starting new schools in their new state. I wondered about new courses for everyone, my boys in NYC and Joe and myself.
   I was blocked. But to get started, I set out a sky background over batting and cut the two to 14" x 14." That would be the big sky of Amarillo, the Southwest and memories of school, first through 12th grade.
    Blank. I brought in Kaffe Fassett fabric pencils. Buying my school supplies (pencils and paper) was so exciting back in the 40's. I wasn't interested in clothes, just drawing. Where to put the pencils? I found black board fabric and sweet memories of lettering. But how to compose?
    The 9/11 tenth anniversary memorials were on tv and my piece came together. I ironed Wonder Under to the fabrics and cut them out, ironed them on, and quilted them to the batting. The backing was put on at the end and brought around the sides and stitched as I watched the memorials on television or listened on the radio.

Lettering Headers: fabric penmanship

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      The Material Mavens, my talented Texas 12" x 12" quilt group, was inspired by Jamie Fingal Designs' lettering at her blog. We wrote her for advice. The generous quilter she is, Jamie sent advice. Each in our group has been given a letter to fashion for our moniker at our MM blog. I drew the L.

      Listening to President Obama's wonderful Jobs Act talk to Congress, I cut and ironed away. I was assigned an L which I found on my computer software. I printed it, traced and cut it out a little bit bigger to fit onto a 4" x 5" piece of fabric. At first it looked too skinny. I traced the letter onto the back of freezer paper and cut out the letter.

      I didn't know what colors to choose among my fabrics but I thought a more solid pattern should be the letter. Something wider in design would be the background. It is good I made two choices since I now see one of mine resembles Andrea's lined fabric background.  On the piece of letter fabric I ironed Wonder Under to the back, ironed on the freezer paper L, and then cut out the letter to iron on the chosen background.

      I now see Jamie uses different colors for background and letter. I must learn to prepare more thoroughly, but I got the letters made and will send them off in the mail to Alice in Texas where she will assemble all our letters to spell out Material Mavens.  Be sure to visit Jamie's blog Twisted Sister!  

      

Vineyard Landscapes: a future journal quilt

   If Martha's Vineyard survived the hurricane, my beading friends and I will go to the island for our annual retreat. We each take a surprise craft to busy our hands at downtime. In the past, we have beaded glasses, flatware and tops of tins, decorated candles, cards and felt flowers, put our world in a bottle of sand. But this time, I could not think of a single craft I was interested in. I went to the fabric store for inspiration and bought too much work.

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     In art you find good things happen from mistakes. I have decided we will fuse and stitch individual landscape quilts. When you teach, you learn. I made white cardboard frames, 10"x 10" on the outside and 8" x 8" on the inside, so each beader can design within limits. I ironed Wonder Under to 10 pieces of color for each of the six of us; and all that is needed is to iron the shapes we cut out onto the background piece.

     I also cut larger "sand" backing (the bottom piece) that can fold over the sides to bind the mini-quilts when the quilting is finished. The second sand piece up in the photo is the background to which the beaders will fashion and fuse their cut-outs with an iron:  grass, foliage, trees, rocks, sand, sea, sky, people, umbrellas...wherever inspiration leads. The background with their toppings will be spray-basted or pinned to the batting which I cut for each artist; and decorative stitching can begin for accents and interest. 

     For a design, the beaders can go abstract, look at watercolors of a Vineyard scene they have painted from the window, follow a favorite Vineyard photo, or work from their imagination. I might hint at the hurricane. I can't wait to see what they will do. In the meantime, I need to gather fabric scissors, needles and thread, pins, embroidery thread and needles, sketch paper and permanent markers. The ladies should have beads on hand to further embellish.

Note:  August 27 and Sept 4,  2011 blogs for other get-away bead crafts. Click bead in Labels and scroll down.

Bambi, the Unexpected Gift: a journal quilt

   Bambi was a very influential movie in my life and I wanted the children to view it. Many said it was too scary; but my grandchildren loved the movie and wanted to see it repeatedly. Every night we kept them during the move to another state, they shouted eagerly: "BAMBI, BAMBI, BAMBI," when I asked what bedtime movie they wanted to watch.

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      Although the children did not appear anxious over the recent move and on the drive to their new home started asking 15 minutes out of town how long it would take to get there, the icing on the packed snacks was that when Joe drove into the new driveway four hours later, David, 2, spotted the statue of a deer on the neighbor's lawn and hollered out, "BAMBI!"
      As as the day went on, Joe looked out the window to see an antlered deer in the woods across the street; and by the time he rounded up the children to view it, a doe appeared. The animals remained there until eventually a car drove by to spook them. What a gift for the children on the arrival in their new home, one that made the grandmother quite thrilled, necessitating a journal quilt for this special occasion of gratitude.
      I found a fabric that looked like the deer in the movie. I made the white ribbon by fusing Wonder Under to the back of white fabric. On the Wonder Under, I drew the bow and ribbons freehand, cut them out and ironed them, fusing to the deer fabric. I quilted by using a blanket stitch on my sewing machine around the ribbon and a free motion funny grass stitch between the deer. I cut the quilted block to an exact 12 x 12 inches but then imperfected it when adding the iron-on hem binding and zig sag stitch to secure.

Strawberry Fields: a journal quilt

   The Journal Quilt Connection, a Massachusetts 12" x 12" quilt group, has members choose a theme for each month. I chose birthdays or beginnings for July and posted these earlier. Pam's theme for August is strawberries. For me, that was a tough one, since I prefer cherries.


   When I remembered John Lennon's Strawberry Fields, I began to warm to the theme. After about age 4 1/2, John Lennon (according to Wikipedia, and other sources on the Internet) lived with his aunt next door to a Salvation Army orphanage named Strawberry Fields. If I understand correctly, he loved to play in the wooded garden behind the home, especially when he heard the band starting up. I could also relate to Lennon's talk of trees as well as the elms in his memorial in NYC. 

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     People have studied the song's lyrics and made references to how different John felt from others. One source said he experienced visions that others didn't. There is in the second verse: "No one I think is in my tree." John said, "...therefore, I must be crazy or a genius."You can find all this and more if you Google Strawberry Fields Forever Wikipedia and check other URLs.

      To create my quilt, I first drew simple shapes of boys and trees. I decided to cut silhouettes out of black fabric and applique them to the abstract strawberry field. I used Wonder Under and and then a blanket stitch. I knew I needed to quilt the background so I just started sewing straight stitches from the center out. A tiny border was called for so I used a 50-year-old iron-on hem binding I found in the attic. I stitched over that. Maybe I should quilt the boy and the tree but I don't know what would work. Perhaps I should have tried the "scribbling" open zig-zag black stitch painting earlier recommended by Susan! Maybe invisible thread to break up the expanses?The backing is a larger more realistic pattern of strawberries and kiwi.

Heart and Flower Die Cuts with Grands

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     My flower and heart dies arrived for my new Accuquilt machine. I wanted to cut out some hearts and flowers for the children to make something.
     First, I WonderUnder-fused the backs of fabrics from my birthday quilt and rolled those through the die cutting machine. I cut the bigger hearts in half and took the flower stems, petals, flowers and circles in a plastic bag to the children's house when we went to Friday supper. Hannah and Erika placed the cut-outs on a 1/4 yard of quilted yellow fabric which I had halved, one section to each girl. The children made their placements, pinned them and I returned home to iron and stitch the hearts and flowers on.
     Erika just wanted to hug hers as it was, but I stitched a bias tape around the edges. Hannah wanted to turn hers into a purse for craft projects. I slipped some new scissors in since she was frustrated that hers were not sharp enough to cut the fleece she was using to make a quilt at home.  I bound Hannah's with grosgrain ribbon I had fused. My sewing is NOT professional, but sometimes you want to find results fast. I must slow down! (two blogs in 24 hours is not slowing down). Oh, I also bought a Fiskars scissor sharpener. Did not know about those.

Counting 72: a birthday Journal quilt

   On July 20th I will have my 72nd birthday. How can that be when I feel an enriched 22. To emphasize the years past to myself and my grandchildren, I cut out 72 birthday icons, either cakes or ice cream and put them to a 12" x 12" journal quilt. 

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    I alway make a soft card for the girls for their birthdays. Five-year-old Erika said if I gave this to a boy he would throw it away, but a girl would like it. Beth said it was her favorite because of the colors. I thought it a total failure, but I wanted to do it. Joe said it needs some black. I am going to sew red beads on the cherries tomorrow at beading and embellish some more. It needs black and white to absorb color.

    Four different fabrics are in the piece. I ironed Wonder Under to the back of the cake and ice cream fabric and cut them out as I listened to the news. I ironed them to the 9-patch block, squares of which I cut out with my new Accuquilt. The yellow fusible binding fabric fills the back of the quilt. I made fusible binding with that same yellow fabric which I both ironed/fused on and sewed after overlaying some maroon tulle. I am returning to do some more sewing atop the block in yellow. I tried to slow down, to be more careful. However, I wish I had used the yellow tulle that I had forgotten about rather than the maroon which I quickly grabbed.

Oh Sleep It is a Blessed Thing: a Journal Quilt

      After teaching English and history to 7th graders and becoming enamored of art history along the way, I decided to go to art school on my 50th birthday. My feet were like lead in cement, walking across the street from the museum to apply to the SMFA. I painted and painted, dawn to dusk, and the best time for dreaming up ideas for my canvas was in bed after everyone was sound asleep. So quiet...I could think.

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      Dreaming up new ideas became a habit but that is not good if everyone in the house awakens at 6 a.m. to go to work or be walked (dog). Nevertheless, I still love to think late at night, and then when there are lots of new adventures and beginnings as there are in our family now, I really need to sleep more to keep up with the crowd. 

       This is my second 12" x 12" journal quilt for my new group in Massachusetts, the Journal Quilt Connection. For July, birthdays or new beginnings is the topic. I was planning this as an extra quilt, but the Ohm and Om fit right in with the idea, if the website I found is correct, which explains the meaning of OM. I saw the fabrics with letters and pictured them and images coming out of my head as my head was on the pillow. I made the binding by pulling the backing over the sides to hem. I used a batik fabric for the face and machine stitched absolutely everything.

         First I sketched the idea, then gathered the fabric, scissors, glue stick and Wonder Under. I was off!

Where in the World: Wonderland's Tea Party

   Founded in 1977, the Quilters' Connection is a dynamic group of more than 400 quilters and quilt enthusiasts in the greater Boston area and as far away as Japan. Although barely a quilter, I put my name on the membership list and have found no other group so exciting to me with regard to programs and mind- stretching art work. Although I am too shy to enter a big quilt yet, I was attracted to the idea of the Quilt Challenge at the annual show.

    The 34th Annual Quilt Show will be held Friday-Sunday, June 3-5, 2011, at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown MA. Besides the completed quilts and quilted garments, each member may submit two "Where in the World" Challenge Quilts. These are not to be bigger than 20" either direction.

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     I made two Challenge Quilts. One is shown below at the April 5 posting. The other is this teacup. Where in the world is Wonderland, inspired by granddaughter Hannah. I first sketched a teacup at Linda Blumsack's house during beading. Then I enlarged it (via grids) on tissue. Next, I sketched the same onto posterboard and cut out the main pieces. I traced these pieces with freezer wrap, and ironed those freezer wrap templates onto fabric. I cut out the fabric, leaving 1/2 inch margin for seams. I also cut out batting and a backing fabric (the blue) the size of the teacup with seam allowance of 1/2 inch. Before cutting out the pictures of Alice and other characters, I fused them with Wonder Under to make fine cutting easier. I ironed them in place. I was ready to put the good sides together w batting, sew pillow case style and turn inside out. I stitched the opening closed. Then with invisible or colored thread I began to quilt the three layers.With embroidery needle, I further defined things.

     Both quilts are to have sleeves for hanging on the back as well as a label. I may further embellish the two.

Valentine finale: another soft birthday card

       On grandchildren's birthdays, I try to remember to make a soft, sewn birthday card. Erika was born on Valentine's Day. This morning I copied two photos onto printable fabric sheets; and I was thinking about the new goldfish she asked for and the present I sewed for Erika and her doll.  I cut the soft prints the same size and fused them with Wonder Under to different colors of fleece. Following some individual quilting around the edges and on appliques, I finally stitched the two fleece/photo pieces together, finishing with pinking scissors and then gold puff paint for the 5. These back-to-back images are on the soft fleece Erika loves.

         At my website among the journal quilts I have two other fabric cards: Erika's 4th and Hannah's 6th. I hope tonight at the family celebration of her birthday, Erika will be amused to be featured as a mermaid. I should add some more gold paint around, but I got spooked the card would not dry in time for dinner tonight. I smeared it once trying to take a photo, but it cleaned up with water. However, one can always use a hair dryer with acrylic paints.

   
     

Snowing, sewing, stuffing: back to Journal Quilts

   At beading the other day at my house, we remarked that the snow, which fell, and fell again, and then fell some more, was throwing people not "just a little bit off-kilter. We were making silly mistakes. Our alignment was skewed in performing.  Not important things, but we are a bit exhausted from it all, even if we aren't overwhelmed. I have gotten behind on journal quilts (apologies), but there is great pleasure in feeding those birds and sewing Valentines to distribute!

    This is a lazy journal quilt and it took fewer that the usual two hours to create. I took a photo of the early snow on our house and printed it on an EQ Printables fabric sheet, let it dry for 15 minutes and then rinsed it, as instructed, for 10 minutes to get rid of excess ink. I put it on the radiator to dry, layered it with batting and a 10'' square of muslin for the back. After trimming the print, I fused it with Wonder Under to 10" square of a snowy calming light green. Next, I "quilted." I may use the tales of my being discombobulated by the snow in other journal quilts which I try to make once a week and need to double up on.

      P.S. The fabric I printed on could be used for your grandchildren's faces on little stuffed dolls or other projects where you want a thread count so fine that texture is not apparent. You can make your own inkjet printable fabric as well. Just Google.

Snowy Day Play: a Hicks collaboration

    What a snow fall we have had. A good excuse to stay inside to craft. Look at the height of snow on our deck table!
     A few days ago, granddaughter asked me to make something for her like the bird journal quilt (see January "Feed the Birds" post). So I took the dog she finished embroidering and the dog I worked along with her (see Archive "Going to the Dogs" post) and put them on a "falling snow" fabric similar to the birds' with the thought of preserving the art on a single pillow. I cut out two squares of fabric to fit a pillow form. With pinking shears, following the fold crease left by the embroidery hoops, I cut out the dog circles. Then I fused (with Wonder Under) the dogs to the red for Hannah's piece and the dark navy for mine. I worked so fast I didn't realize my dog was sewn in maroon. Anyway, I put the two right sides together and added another piece to my side so the pillow could slip in and out, sewed all around, no need for a zipper. After turning back out, I further secured the dog rounds with white floss to match the snow, but am trying to think of a little addition in words or color to suggest the good time we had in snowy January 2011, a label, or a free-motion stitched sentence for this one pillow preserving our two pieces together. Please leave suggestions.

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(find the Valentine)