Rags N Quilts

Archive for June, 2008

First, the birds. This photo I took early this morning. We had gotten up and we were fixing breakfast. The cats had gone out on the lanai. All of a sudden I here all this racket, I run out, and one of the baby herons took it’s first flight and crash landed on top of the lanai screen. It was OK, and got very curious about the cats staring up at him. Click on the picture to see him better.

Then this next picture is in my garage, on top of the cabinets…a mourning dove has made a nest and laid her eggs in this basket….Just great…now the garage door has to be left open about 6″ day and night so she and her mate can get in and out. I don’t know how long the babies take to fledge after hatching. Lots of heat coming in that opening…… Don and I have had the discussion about keeping the door down….he ignores me…now this is the result. Oh well….

if you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see the mother’s tail as she is sitting on that nest.

And now to quilt content. Several of you have asked what I will be using the last batch of fabric that I printed with the watercolor crayons for. Well, it will be a quilt for a textures class I’m teaching in the fall. Today, I got my drawings mostly done (still have to add the fish and shells).
But I also got those fabrics cut and pinned in place. Tomorrow during the T’storms I’ll sew them down and trim the background from behind.

And of course no work day would be complete without my “helpers”

Here you can see how much help Harry was……

And here Chloe did just about as much!

Have a great night!

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I just know you’ve been dying to see the results! Well here you go, all dried and heat set…ready to be used. This is the front of the background piece. And the back.

And here is the cheesecloth I dunked in the leftover pigment.

And the front of a sand piece.

And it’s back.

Another sand piece.

And it’s backside.

Yet another sand fabric.

and the other side.

And this is the piece I did with the molding mat. As you can see, I lost most of the detail of the shells. So this just lets me know you need a firmer object to use for rubbing.

But the back will work well. So even a failure will work!

A very enjoyable day with some great one of a kind fabric as a result. Next, to turn it all into a quilt. But that will be for another day!

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So, now that our rubbings are all done, the magic starts! Remember that these are watercolor crayons. So now we add the water. I just put a little in an old yogurt cup (clean, of course) and get a cheap paintbrush…the kind you get in walmart for a dollar.
Just dip your brush in the water and brush it on the fabric. The transformation will amaze you!

And here the background has been wet down.

But wait! In my water cup where I’ve been dipping my brush, I now have pure watercolor pigment in liquid form. Can’t waste that good stuff, soooo I grab a piece of cheesecloth and dunk it in.

How pretty is that!

And here are the sand pieces after being brushed with water.

Now, the hard part…waiting for it to dry!

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I’m working on a new sample for my next textures class. This time we will make a simple coral reef quilt about 26″ x 36″. This will be a 2 day class. The first day we will be printing and painting PFD fabric, painting batting, painting and melting tyvek, and making ‘reef critters’ using angelina fibers and film too.

My full size drawings for the quilt are done, so today I began making my fabrics. For the background, and also the pieces for the “sand” I am using watercolor crayons. This technique is so simple…takes you back to your kindergarten days doing rubbings with crayons. And that is precisely the first step in this process. I used caron d’ache neocolor II crayons. They are high quality, heavily pigmented watercolor crayons. They blend easily, and after dried and heat set are permanent and washable. to begin, simply place your PFD fabric over your rubbing plate and rub with the crayon. I find it helpful to use a non slip mat under the rubbing plate so you’re not chasing it all over your workspace.

Just keep moving the fabric and rubbing till you’ve covered the entire surface.
I went back over several times with different colors.

And this is what it looked like when I finished the rubbings.

Then I did some pieces for sand, using the same process.

A different rubbing plate…

And here, I rubbed over a mini molding mat. Looks great now, but as you’ll see, it doesn’t do as well in the end as the other rubbing plates.

Next post, the magic will begin!

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This is my finish today, a sampler. I don’t get too many of these as the work I get tends to be a little more contemporary. So I decided (with the clients input) to make it a quilting sampler too. Mainly with the background quilting, and keeping it very small. The idea is to draw the viewer in with the pieced blocks, and then give them surprises when they look closer.
The leaves in the sashing are the same throughout the quilt to unify it. The border is a simple beadboard. Each block has a different background fill. This is a 1/4″ grid. Some of you may get bored with all of this..it really is an exercise in tiny background fills.

This is a 1/2″ grid on point with teardrops suspended from the points.

This is an overall small leaf fill. Each leaf is ~ 1/4″ – 1/2″.

This is clam shells (~ 1/4″) and ribbon candy( two rows).

This is orange peel done on a 1/4″ grid.

This is basket weave done on an 1″ grid.

This is SID and tiny pebbles.

This is just a simple shell meander, albeit very small, and a plain ole micro stipple.

This is my feathered flower stipple.

And this is the back.

The client picked it up this evening and was thrilled…thankfully!!

The photos are all clickable if you want a closer look.

I hope you all are having a great week!

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It rained most of the day…some big thunderstorms, so I didn’t plug in the longarm today. Instead, I worked on my drawings for my next class sample..another textures class, but this time a coral reef. I finished the drawing and started painting batting, peltex and tyvek, heating textiva film and fusing sheets of Angelina. I also cut out and faced all the fish, and dyed the cheesecloth.

I’m using commercial fabrics for the backgrounds and fish, as there will not be time in the class to dye or paint those in addition to all the other painting we will do. But we will embellish the ready mades with paintstiks and foils. I’ll post photos when I get started putting it together…another words, after the paints dry.

It has been quite rainy this past week, and Harry has not had his normal lizard snacks/chases. So after the rain quit just before dark, he wanted out in the lanai. Amazingly, he didn’t fall in the spa…he usually does when the tile is wet…LOL!!
Here he sees one, but alas…it’s outside the screen.
And now I’m calling him to come in….he said NO, not yet!

And Chloe, being the sensible girl she is, came in right away!

The photos are kind of dark, but I hate using the flash on them, it messes up their beautiful eyes!

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I had an absolutely marvelous play day yesterday! First in a long time. I really should make room for at least one of these kinds of days each week. It really feeds my muse. I’ll share a small sampling of what I did with you.

First, was playing with foil. I’ve done this many times, but it is always fun and pretty.

And, next was my main reason for taking this workshop. I have been wanted to play with the Caron d ‘Ache watercolor crayons for some time. Well, I played with them, and they are indeed wonderful! I tried them as drawings, rubbings, and just laying down layers of color. I was just amazed! We used Pimatex PFD as the basecloth. But next time I will use my regular Dharma economy PFD..I’m sure it will work just as well. I can see a lot more of this in my future; for beautiful backgrounds, applique and even quilt backings!

And of course, no play day would be complete without working more with Shiva paintstiks. This before photo is of one of my less than perfect hand dyes.

And this is after the paintstik application over a rubbing plate and then I stenciled a butterfly.

And this is a plain yellow moda marble.

And after a freeform paintstik application using just a torn piece of freezer paper and a stencil brush.

And finally, had to play with some crystalina( crimped angelina). made sheets with 2 contrasting colors and then wove them and fused them to a black fabric.

A very happy and FUN day!

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It actually felt good to get back into my work routine. And I had a very productive day. Quilted this client quilt.
I stitched the stripes of the flag in the ditch along with the borders and the perimeter of the blue part of the flag. and used the circle lord “Starz” template to make all the stars. I did randomly placed stars in different sizes. So quick and easy with the circle lord. The lighting is too bright, so it’s hard to see on the front, but shows up well on the back photos.

I especially like the wreath of stars in the blue part of the flag.

The batting is Quilters Dream cotton and the thread Superior “So Fine”.

After getting this one off the frame, I even got the next one loaded…a sampler, and got a little of that one started.

A good day. Have a great night!

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I will be teaching a class on Fiber postcards at the LQS later this summer. So this weekend since things were a little more settled, I thought I’d work on some samples. This one the water and sun are Angelina. This one, I may have posted before…the background is one of my hand dyed fabrics, and the flower,stem and leaves are felted wool. The center is beaded.

This is simply scrap booking letters and brads on a plain background.

This background is hand dyed red dupioni silk. The grid is stitched with silver metallic thread, the white heart is fun foam stitched to the background with a small heart brad in the curl. And hot fix crystals on the grid intersections.

This background is also one of my hand dyed fabrics. The tree trunk is felted wool, the nest is thread trash, the eggs are 1/4″ pom poms that I painted with Dye -na- Flow. I couched some yarn for the 2 large flower stem, the large flowers are sequins with round brads thru the centers. Then i filled in with small flower brads in the “grass”.

This fish was fussy cut from fabric and appliqued on. Then I couched some eyelash yarns for sea ferns, and used a crystal for the fish eye.

Then I had an idea…peltex faced with fabric on both sides would make a good bookmark too! And why not make a pocket in a postcard and include a bookmark? So that’s what I did. This one I made for my granddaughter Samantha.

And this one for granddaughter Kara.

And this one for mother. Our family swap for June is “summertime” So swimming frogs should work for that.

And then Don though he needed a bookmark too, so this is his.

And that’s it for today! Tomorrow, it’s back to work in earnest on that mountain of waiting quilts.

Sleep well.

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But I’m still kicking…for the moment, anyway. Life has been busy these last couple weeks. Happy to say though that Don is much improved and moving around….long as he doesn’t have to bend over, we’re good to go! Other life issues aside, I am getting back to work as normal this coming week(I hope).
I got very little done since my last post. A small amount of work on Mary’s quilt, and this one for the LQS owner. her Mother pieced it…her first. She did a very nice job…nice and flat!

Now to update my postcard tally. The last 2 weeks, these are the cards I have received. This first one is from my cousin Heather for our family swap the June card. The theme is “summertime”. It’s really cute, and the beaded flower on the flip flop is just gorgeous! Thanks, Heather!

The rest are from my latest MQR swap…the theme is “recycle” This one is from Michele in Australia. She recycled a pair of jeans,yarns, bobbin thread, and a cardboard box. Thanks Michele!

This one is from Janet in Oregon, fabric scraps and thread. Love the colors…thanks, Janet!

And this one is from Becca in Alaska, she recycled a tape measure and beads…too cute, thanks Becca!

And this one is from the “birthstone swap from Karen in Canada. Very pretty purple fabric with beautiful feathers quilted. Thanks Karen!

And this one also from the birthstone swap, from Jennifer.She beautifully embroidered the fish and words. Thanks Jennifer!

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed asking if I was OK. It’s nice to have friends who care.

Have a great night!

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