Waiting for that creative light bulb .

I had a piece of silk that I painted and loved the look of it, soft pastels with the look of watercolor. I’ve been saving it,  not wanting to waste this beautiful silk on the wrong design. I’d look at it from time to time, waiting for inspiration to hit me.  Finally the light bulb went off over my head, I know just what I’m going to do!! And so it started , the new art quilt.

Part of the “wonderful” silk piece

I’m always excited at the start of a light bulb moment quilt.  In my mind’s eye can picture it. The picture often changes as I work on the reality of of making it, but it is an exciting beginning and the journey along the way to the finished work,  is satisfying. Here’s some photos following  the progression of work .

I wanted a large pink peoney, so I begin to applique` lots of petals .

And lots more petals

I have used a bit of silk paint to make a few turned edges on the peony petals

Lots of petals appliqued on, big mess

I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

Some help with shading on your thead painting & two quilts finished

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A photo my client sent of the quilt hanging in her lovely home

 

These are the final pictures of the 2 quilts which led to the many posts over the last two months. These first 2 pictures were sent to me by my client, showing her quilt installed and hanging in it’s new home. She’s happy with it, her interior decorator is happy and I’m happy. The kind of happy ending. I love, when it all comes together.

Another photo that my client sent of her finished art

The second quilt/ it measures 53" X 34".

The sun is representational only, of the sun's warmth and light on a summer day.You can see the color reflected on the faces of the sunflowers

A quick note, as I promised  in the last post about thread painting, I will  give a  few tips for shading your thread painting.

 

Here’s some quick things to keep in mind. Decide which direction the sunlight is coming from. Then the shadows will be on the backside and undersides  of everything. They will need to be darker by at least several shades on the color wheel. This will probably be dictated by the thread you have. You’ll start to look for shades in gradient colors next time you thread shop. You’ll want a light, medium and dark shade for many colors you use a lot.

 Maderia Rayon 30 wt. is my favorite by far, the colors are bright,  intense and stand out or show up beautifully. I can’t explain why they look so much better, but they do, other 30 weights don’t show as distinctly. They melt into a fabric more, and if you are quilting an heirloom quilt this is a plus, silk for example is wonderful for that. But on an art quilt, bold color is usually  what you want,

The  Maderia 30 wt is good for  thread painting, is strong, holds up, and doesn’t break all the time, like many others. You’ll need to use a 90 embroidery needle and get the tension right first, but with those things in mind you are ready. Maderia has zillions of colors too.

Frieda Anderson caries some of it on her web site,  she uses it on her quilts. Frieda was the reason I first tried it. Her quilts radiate wonderful brilliant color [I love them so] so the thread needs to hold it’s own with that kind of “competition” so to speak.[ Her interview is in my archives and website as well.]

The shading is achieved by using 2 or 3 threads. On a plant with the sun shining from the left direction, there would first be a light edge  on the side the sun is shining from, don’t just stitch up and down the stalk.

Notice the direction that the sun is shining from, use these observations in your work.

Notice also, the way the direction of the stitches, side to side with a slight roundness to give the illusion of a round stem. Kind of like a very flattened U. Then there is a medium shade in the center of the stem, again rounded. Finally your darkest shade on the right side, rounded too. See how the illusion of depth is created?

A few tips, start your thread painting with the medium shade so it will be covered a bit with the overlap of the 2 other colors. Then apply the light and dark shades. You want to made it appear blended.

Tip-2 you can use 2 colors instead of  3, if need be, it will create the same illusion.

tip 3-be more observant of what you see around you, take note of what you see. Notice the play of light on objects, how it looks and changes with the time of day. Notice how the shape of the shading on different objects effect the way they look. Notice these things more and try to apply them.

 

tip 4-rounded flattened U shapes create roundness on object. Also if thread painting an apple, the edges will be darker shaded, especially on the very edge and gradient change color getting lighter

as you get closer to the the center. The center area should be the lightest colored, maybe a little sized area like a ball or so. Or a few slightly rounded vertical lines, dark color recedes, light colors seems closer. So a rounded shape results, voila!  Now if one side is in more in the shade, make your dark side extent closer the the center, rounding it, remember? This is where you observations of how light looks as it plays on different objects, is going help you.

 

 

You may notice how light and shadow may create shapes of white, like rounded rectangles with one side slightly shorter, to imitate light play on a ball, the  edges will be darkest, gradually changing color lighter and lighter, until you reach the center, where the lightest color should be. Shapes may emerge from the play of light and shadow, perhaps the shade will look like jagged

edges towards the center, that have that sort of rounded U shape.

 

4- the underside will be darker, as on leaves and so on. They will often cast a shadow of their own. So makes the area under them a little darker too.I hope that you can see this on the above sunflower, it adds realism and life. The images are no longer just flat lifeless objects, but have depth.

5- Try these exercises with water color paints first, to get the feel of blending and shading light on objests.This is going to shock you, what a difference it makes and you did it!

 

 

 It will be easier and blend better, to create the  way things actually look. Do that a lot, it will improve your abilities a gigantic amount, please believe me, You’re thread painting aren’t you? So try the painting part first.

 

So that is the end of my little series of tutorials on threadpainting.

Raw edge applique tutorial demo on two art quilts part 2

 

Where we left off on this tutorial & the making of two art quilts was all the bits and pieces had been cut out and fused to the background fabric. But now we need to finish the edges to prevent fraying and make it more finished looking.

You can see the larger pieces are fused down ,

You notice that the pieces have been layered yet the top layer with daisies is as yet unattached. You have 2 basic choices to finish the raw edges. You can sew a single line outlining each piece. Often this is done in a clear poly or nylon thread. There are a few brands, all good. Or outline with the color of each piece, a lot of thread changes here.  On either of these two choices you are using a straight free motion stitch.

Free motion stitching  is not as hard as the reputation it has received. A little practice to get the hang of it until you feel confidence is all that you need. As Diane Gaudynski, one  of a small talented group of machine quilters, who quite literally are the best of the best in the field, “Keep quilting – your work gets better every day!”..If anyone’s knows, its Diane. Diane’s link is listed & I have an interview with her in the archives.

Here is a fast version. This post isn’t focusing on that subject, I”m taking for granted you have some knowledge on free motion quilting. So this is the speed version. Step 1- drop your feed dogs, the teeth that feed your fabric along under the needle as you sew. Without working feed dogs, how will the fabric move? You guessed it! You! You’ll move it with your own 2 little hands. The advantage is you can move the fabric in any direction, creating designs, outline curves, as we are doing and much more. For this process you will need a darning foot, or free motion foot as it is also called. There is a spring and an open front. You need to see where you are going..+They can be lowered by a switch on the side ot back on most machines. Or simply cover them up,

 

Here are those feed dogs that you are going to drop image via Wikipedia

step 2- adjustments to upper tension,  check your manual for the recommended setting and make adjustments as you continue, because there are many factors that influence the number. Play with your machine and find what works.

Step 3-You’re off….whoo whooo….Once you’ve gained a little confidence your goal is the sewing machine speed on the fast side, while you are ignoring that racing engine  sound,  are attempting to move the fabric  slowly and steadily. Do not keep pace with the machine’s speed. Slow and steady as she goers.

I left out tons of info, like pulling the bottom thread to the top, quilting machine gloves. threads, , on and on.Go get one of  Diane’s books, I recommend,  ” Guide to machine quilting”, it was the best one I read when I was learning.

Pressing on The second method of finishing the edges is to use a  zig zag stitch on free motion with a narrow width, I often go with a setting of 1. Starting off go a little wider to help stay on the edge of the fabric applique and connect with the fabric underneath. Go slow if you need to. If your applique pieces are fairly straight and no sharp curves or turns , you could zig zag the usual way  with your dogs up.It looks nice, but if you can’t follow along the edges, not so much.

Here’a some assorted pictures of the Lazy Daisies  at various stages

Do you see a obvious proble here? The stitches are spaced too far apart. It doesn't even cover the batting I used here for puffiness. Change your setting to make them closer together.

Notice the 1st setting obviously sets the width. 1.5 is OK. The 2nd one sets the denseness, or how close together the stitches are. This is better that the one used above. Regular Zig zag

Next layer started, placement and finishing the daisies.

Looks like everything's fused down and raw edges finished.

Next post; thread painting on Sunflowers.

A new name for AsianArtAndQuilts to BarbaraHarmsFiberArt

I have news of a big change for me. I have renamed my shop on ETSY! The items I was carrying were initionally more Asian in style, now I have gradually transitioned to other art styles. It was confusing for people to visit my shop looking for Asian art and there wasn’t any!

So for the sake of more clarity I am now BarbaraHarmsFiberArt. If you forget the new name,  Etsy will erdirect tot he new shop.

It’s the same shop with my work unchanged, just a more accurately descriptive name.

So bear with me as I make some changes in the appearance, I’m still open! Come over & see me!

FYI, the tutorial I started a few posts back on raw edge applique is  still coming!  The next installment will be posting soon.

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progress on new quilt and raw edge appliqué tutorial 2

This is the mess we have created thus far, the small rotary cutters are really useful tools

here's where we're at, a lot of little puzzle pieces have are fused to the background.

Here’s where we are  so far; the backing . batting and top background are sandwiched  together. I use a spray adhesive 505 Spray And Fix to sandwich everything together.  The parts of the puzzle pieces are in the process of being fused to the quilt sandwich. As you can see there is subtle color variations with the  individual parts of the flowers. You will need to finish fusing down your entire composition.

It is starting to come together.

keep adding more to the composition until you are happy with the result.

Your next step once you have fused down all the pieces is to zig zag around the edges of  each individual piece in the matching thread color.. You want the stitches set  shorter and tightly spaced together.  Go slowly, stop when you need to turn fabric and so on. Be sure to pull up your bobbin thread to the top  when you start out at the beginning of each thread color change.

ZigZag around the edges and add additional details with straight stitch as shown in leaf veining

close up of poppy with edges zig sagged.

I used some free motion thread painting to add details and highlights.

ready for quilting

I’ll finish it and show you the finished quilt next time. Happy Quilting!