EMBELLISHING THE PAISLEY MOTIFS

Between running to the computer and TV to check stats on the various NFL games that impact the Suicide Pool......I still found a little time to do some work on my Paisley quilt.

BTW...Yeah....Seattle won.....but not without giving me a bit of a scare. We are down to 10 participants after 1 person got bumped out with the Packer's loss. (Sad....I NEVER want to see the Packers get defeated......we had such high hopes this year!)

So....back to the Paisley design process. My original drawing included some curls and small feather shapes migrating from several of the Paisley motifs. Transferring those shapes to the front of the piece was as simple (and not terribly time consuming) as thread basting along the design lines from the wrong side.

Tracing from my original drawing on the right side is not possible, even using a light box since the wool is too dense to see through. Besides..... obtaining narrow marking lines on wool/felt is near impossible due to its texture.

This basting trick provides a tidy, narrow line to follow for hand embroidering.

Though I'm not quite finished yet......the impact is pleasing as it provides additional depth, color and texture. Next comes the beading.....

However....that will have to wait as I'm off before the crack o'dawn tomorrow to Misson, TX where I'll lead 3 full day workshops and a lecture for the Rio Grande Valley Quilt Guild. This is my last teaching trip for the year that requires air travel and since I'm facing 3 flights and about 9 hrs. in transit, I can honestly say....YEAH! I LOVE, LOVE teaching......but all the nonsense, hassle and stress of multiple flights on different airline, when it's vital to arrive with your luggage, leaves me weak in the knees. It's a good thing I have quilter's smiling faces to look forward to!!

Will touch base as I can......

FUN WITH PAISLEY

Well....I can't help myself.......my need to play with wool/felt & the new bamboo/felt is overpowering! With the busy holiday season approaching....I've focused on preparing two projects. With all my embellishments choices now organized and set aside as well, this will allow me to grab either project do some handwork as time permits.

It's amazing how quickly a piece can be completed just by pecking away at it.

For project # 1, I was inspired by a piece of National Nonwoven's wool felt that my friend Nancy Bruce (dyer extraordinaire) overdyed for me. Some time ago I created a wool/felt beaded paisley design that was donated to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative - Priority Quilts so I decided to explore this design element further.

The target size for the center of the piece will be 14" square....so I sketched some ideas to fit in those measurements. After some tweeking....I traced the shapes onto the paper side of Wonder-Under and applied them to several color choices of both wool/felt and bamboo/rayon felt.

These shapes were fused to the right side of the mottled wool/felt square which was stabilized with a Pellon light-weight non-fusibile interfacing. This view (from the stabilized backside) shows the first of the Paisley designs which has been machine blanket stitched in position.

Here's the front view. The small white basting stitches near the edges attach the stabilizer to the back and also provide a guide (14" sq.) for placing the Paisley shapes.....

Next I begin the fun part....the beading.....back at you soon with my progress.

Oh.....today is NFL Sunday.....we are cheering for Seattle......but we must wait...they don't play until 4:30 PM. The 11 of us remaining in the Suicide Pool have selected 5 different teams this week. No offense anyone.....but I'm hoping Atlanta, New England, New Orleans, and YIKES...this is hard to type......Green Bay all lose.....which would leave only 3 left in the pool!! Hope this confession doesn't jinx me.....

STICKS & STONES

Several days ago I began posting the process photos of my newest project working with the new and improved Xotic-Felt - Bamboo/Rayon. It's now complete......here's the rest of the story....

Originally I thought I'd need put this into a frame due to the weight of the embellishments. However by using a combination of a non-fusible stabilizer and somewhat dense machine quilting on the center section, along with additional rectangle and sq. (purple) motifs, again machine stitched, I felt it just may hold up to displaying with a traditional fabric sleeve added to the backing (reddish fabric).

The next dilemma was how to finish the edges. The traditional narrow folded binding method is too thick to achieve a tidy edge. Instead, I backed the center embellished rectangle with a larger piece of the Xotic-Felt.....it extended about 2" beyond the center's outer edges.

Next I cut strips of the same reddish felt....about 1 1/4" wide and backed it with a non-fusible stabilizer. I marked two long gentle curved lines about 1" apart and filled that area with machine stitching to resemble tree bark. Notice the strip on the far right....the left side has been trimmed up to the outside stitching line, the right side has not yet been trimmed.

I experimented with various colors of rayon thread to gauge their visual impact and stabilizing properties. In the end, I settled on a medium brown and Sulky's Stitch and Tear Stabilizer.

Sticks & Stones 10" x 13"

Price - $225 (includes insured shipping)

email me using link at upper right

**NOTE - click the photo for a larger image

The strips were positioned to cover the raw edge of the brown center, extending onto the larger backing fabric and machine stitched in place. The outside edges of each strip and excess backing was then trimmed away.

This approach not only visually framed the piece, it also provided plenty of support to allow the wall piece to hang nice and flat on the wall.

Detail - Sticks & Stones

YARNBOMB

Thanks to the sharp eyes of Meg Manderson.......learn about a new knitting rage....

Yarnbomb - which means to fasten knitted and crocheted works to public surfaces as impermanent graffiti.

Read the article and see an example here.

FAA - SHOW AND TELL

The diversity of show and tell the talented members of the Fiber Arts Alliance bring to our monthly meetings is astounding.

Cathie Barker made these charming baskets.

Willow Glenne Austin shared numerous styles of her work, many screen printed by her husband (lucky gal)!

Here my friend Judy Simmons shares her newest masterpiece which features the image transferred fabric she creates, along with beautiful machine thread work. This quilt is titled Mornings Glory......check out her blog for an informative tutorial on the process of making this piece.

FIBER ART ALLIANCE

The Fiber Arts Alliance meets in Asheville the first Tuesday of the month. With over 100 talented members, each meeting brings new methods and techniques for us to get acquainted with. Members generously present demonstrations that highlight their speciality. This runs the gambut from dying fabric, painting fibers, tatting, computer manipulated and printed images, framing work, creative methods to display work, and on and on and on.

Today Jan Sapp - jamsapp007@aol.com shared her vast knowledge and expertise about bookbinding. She's studied this art from the very best this country has to offer so we were all thrilled to see her samples and hear her tips. She'll be teaching workshops at AB Tech. in Asheville shortly......contact her for further information if you'd like to register.

This may look like a cover for a typical notebook....NOT so.....

Upon opening, you are greeted with elaborately folded pages that can be laid flat to examine the text....this was so cool.

The cover of this journal may provide a hint about the content......yet we were all still stunned by the creativity inside!

The pagesfeatured specific travel images.....viewed through a series of cut out heart shapes. The intersections of the pages featured thin bamboo sticks stitched to the paper.

Detail

Side view.....isn't this amazing??

This leather wood notebook/journal was yet another example of Jan's talents.

It was fitted with a large number of pages featuring a variety of paper styles....many appeared hand made. Jan led the group through a simple example of folding paper, adding a cover and stitching a binding.

This is just another reason to skip sleeping all together....heck......there's so much to learn - projects to create....how can we possibly waste time sleeping??

NFL WEEK #8

Yup....it's time again to ignore this blog or read on.......week #8 NFL football suicide pool.

There are 11 of us left out of 40 something. Though this had nothing to do with the pool, I was cheering for a Packer win yesterday (hey, once a Cheesehead, always a Cheesehead).....and was disappointed. I was also selfishly hoping for a loss by the Bears, San Diego, and Dallas since 10 out of the 11 remaining participants selected those teams to win. I was disappointed.

I narrowed down my choices for either Arizona to win or New Orleans.....I almost picked Arizona just because I didn't want to have to wait till Monday night for the Saints game. I'm glad I didn't because I would have been disappointed!

So...you guessed it....I've got the Saints tonight....they are undefeated so far....which makes me nervous......a loss of course has to be in their future.....I don't want to be disappointed.....so

GO SAINTS!!!!!

QUILT AUCTIONS

This week begins two very important quilt auctions for two very good causes.

World Quilt Federation Smackdown Auction - Nov. 1-10, 2009 - 4 renowned quilters made one quilt each to raise awarness and money to fight Alzheimer's disease. Minimum bids are $500. As of this writing, "Fadding" by H0llis Chatelain has a bid of $1,000 and Mini Passion Flowers by Becky Goldsmith a $500 bid.

The Alliance for American Quilts begins their Crazy for Quilts auction at 9 PM on Monday, Nov. 2nd through ebay. Click on the link I've provide to get complete how-to details for the opportunity to own a 16" square quilt by a major art quilter or an up and coming quiltmaker. Bidding begins at $50. This is the Alliance's (a non-profit organization) major fund raiser for the year....join the fun.

Don't forget, Christmas is just around the corner......maybe Santa can visit you or someone special in your life!

BEAR HUNTING

In the three years since we've moved to the mountains of NC, we've only seen evidence of the black bears that roam the area....but we've never actually seen a bear.

This region has a long history of hunting bear.....which of course was probably a necessary food source for families in years past. It's difficult for an outsider to see the 'sport' of hunting when today packs of dogs, outfitted with radio collars, are let loose to seek out bears......and run then up trees. Then a dozen or more hunters swarm the area and shoot it down. Hunters do very little work.....the dogs do it.

As you can tell, based on my limited viewpoint, I find this sickening. This morning we witnessed it first hand. The amount of noise coming from what was probably 2 dozen dogs that had cornered a black bear up a tree was deafening. There were certainly more than a dozen hunters standing below and a bunch more spread out nearby waiting for a shot. Fortunately, the owner of the property called the sheriff since the hunters were on private property which ended the stand off.

This is a copyright free photo I grabbed from the internet....but certainly could have been the view I saw today.

Unfortunately, and we are told, surprisingly....the bear came down from the tree and fled. We left while the hunters were still milling around staring at the bear....there was no way I wanted to witness one being shot. About 20 mins. later we got a call from a neighbor telling us the dogs/hunters had crossed into our subdivision and shortly afterwards we heard one really loud shot coming from the mountainside directly above our house.

Next two truck loads of hunters entered our private subdivision and proceeded up the roadway. About 20 mins. later we saw them come down with a bear on the truck's top platform. It is illegal to hunt bear on private property....

We are disturbed by what is surely a natural event for many locals and trying hard to understand their culture.

STILL PLUGGING AWAY

Indecision is something we quilters get used to......our mental vision isn't always as clear or doable as we originally thought.

So, I reworked this motif, removing some of what I had and added more.....

And then I did it again.....I may cut back on some of the bead 'strings' in the center......decisions, decisions. Here's a little beading trick I use for times like this..... Begin and end with thread knots often (here I did that every string or two). This will allow you to remove just those units that may not meet your design goals, without having to remove everything.