Use of Lights, Mediums, & Darks

This beautiful quilt below was exhibited in the Houston Intern'l Quilt Show - 2011.  It is called, "Merryed in Wynter", by Karen Price -Oklahoma.

Techniques:  Needle turn applique, couched surface embellishment, hand embroidery, hand quilting & beading.

This quilt design is original with the birds pattern adapted from Jane Townswick's book, "Applique Takes Wing".  

When I was a little girl, my grandmother would say to me that anytime you spotted a cardinal, you would have good luck come your way!  My grandmother had a wonderful knack for embellishing her stories.   It was her way of making my childhood magical.  She is no longer with us but, I do remember this memory anytime I see cardinals & this brings a great big smile to my face.

Closeup of the couched small vine.  Stunning!!!

Looking at this quilt is just what I needed to inspire me to continue some of my hand applique work.   So I'm going to unplug from my computer for a while.  I'll be able to get at least three shapes done before dinner.   Hand applique is doable in baby steps.......a little each day.......or so......

Until next time.....

Lights Mediums & Darks

We quilters first learn about value in simpler terms called lights, mediums & darks.   Artists who have to mix paints also learn about lights, mediums & darks but refer to this as value in color.  If you are a quilter who isn't interested in learning these terms it's probably more fun to simply look at fabric by thinking of lights, mediums, & darks.  It's what makes scrappy quilts look gorgeous.

This photo below is an example of lights, mediums & darks.  In fact, these are 4 1/2" star blocks that I just finished working on for my local guild's raffle quilt for next year.

After sewing the flying geese sections of these blocks I was going to be left with the little bitty triangles.  So before I cut off the triangles from the corners, I sewed them together.  Then I cut them off & pressed them.  I couldn't bear to throw them away these perfectly cute half square triangles.  So I sewed these together & here you have a four patch that appears to be a 1 7/8" by 1 3/4" square.  

So here are the rest of the half square triangles from the star block flying geese.  So what am I going to do with them, you ask?   I don't know.  This is the beauty of it.    When I quilt, sew, or draw, it is my own creation.   No one is around to tell me to do it this way or that way or who is this quilt for?   I do know one thing for sure......these itty bitty wonky four patches will not be in any quilt show.  

I'll have another post for tomorrow.  For now good night.....

Value In Color of Fabrics

Didn't think I would be able to post this week but, fortunately here is a look into the value in the color of fabrics for this week.   I needed to step away from the subject of pansies/flowers so, I decided to look at a completely different color & subject for this week. 

Below is a quilt that was exhibited at the Houston Intern'l Quilt Show-2011 by Carol Fletcher of Washington.  It is called, "It's Risky Being A Beer Drinking Mantis".   This is an original design inspired by Carol's friend's empty beer glass.  Techniques used to make this quilt was hand beading, soft edge applique, free motion quilting, & hand dyed fabrics.  Notice Carol's careful use of lights & darks to create the illusion of an empty glass with beer foam.  

Pretty cool quilt, don't you think?

I'll post again in another couple of weeks or so.    I'm finding that I need to take some time to unplug from the computer and get back to basics.  That is, basically spending some time in my sewing studio to sketch, sew, and/or quilt.  

Try to carve out some time for happy hour in your sewing room.......

No alcoholic beverages please.  Otherwise, you may wind up with some unintentional hand-dyed fabrics.

Until next time....

Purple Value Study

This week I've continued with studying values.  When studying the values in fabric, it helps to have a reference tool that is small.  Like the one below created by Joen Wolfrom called, "3-in-1 Color Tool".    The greatest invention right up there with the rotary cutter. 

This is a great color guide to take with you to your local fabric store, or to your fabric stash, when studying the values in the whatever project you're trying to work with.  This color guide fans open so you may easily select the colors that you see before you.  For example, from the Purple, Red-Violet, & Violet cards I pulled every value of purple obvious to me from my reference photo of the pansy below.

Below are the fabrics I used from my stash.  I didn't want to go buy more fabric.  I had to either work from my present fabric stash or use textile paints.  My challenge for myself was to only use fabrics & no paints.

I traced my shapes based on my pansy photo above on to fusible web using Pellon 805 Wonder Under.  I began to fuse my shapes into place beginning with the foundation petals of the flower.

Fast forwarding to almost finished.....

It's not yet quilted but, I wanted to post my progress.  At this point, I usually take a break from it just to make sure I'm happy with the values in place.  The colors are not exactly like the photo because I didn't have those exact colors in the right values.  So I used a different color/value so that I could work with the fabrics in my stash.   After this week, I may break down & go shopping for the values I need to make the purples look exactly like the purple in the photo. 

Using the 3-in1 Color Tool was very helpful.  Especially since I didn't have the exact purples like in the photo.  If you don't know how to use the color guide just simply follow the direction written on the back.  You can find this color tool at most local quilt shops. 

I hear the garage door opening so this means my husband is home.  Time for dinner.  I'll continue this color study next week. 

Happy Quilting.........





 

           

February-Garden To Quilt

Last week I posted this photo below where I decided to do a value study of the pansies with fabric & thread.  

This is week two of working on this value study & this quilt only lacks the binding & label to be completely done(I'll do this part later).  The border is simple with fused squares that have been satin stitched down with the same rayon thread used for thread painting & free motion quilting.   Scroll down to see a close up of the thread painting done on the periwinkle pansy (upper right pansy in quilt).



This photo shows some of the foundation thread work done before any actual shading is done.  I've started with dark purple which is a Sulky rayon thread & Superior Thread 60wt in the bobbin.  I'm using a top stitch 90/14 Schmetz needle. I've also had to lower my top thread tension so that the bobbin thread doesn't show on top.  Each machine is different so do a test sample before actually working on your quilt top.   No paints were used in this flower only fabrics.  I have to say that it was a great big challenge finding the values that I thought would work.

This next thread that I used is a light lavender color.  It was also a challenge to find a periwinkle thread color in the values that I needed for this pansy.  So I just worked with whatever I could find.



I have found that if you do not have all the values that you need to make your pansy look realistic then, use a hand dyed fabric so that your stitches will blend more nicely.  Notice the upper left petal has a hand dyed fabric where the color of the fabric lends itself to blending so much better with the thread being used.   Notice the bottom petal where the threads blend okay but, not the best.  I've done this flower as an example of what happens when you don't have the right values.  Your flower will look okay.  However using the appropriate values make all the difference in making your flower realistic. 

Final note:  Don't get discouraged if you don't find the right values in a particular color.  Try a different color where you can find all the values that you need. 

Stayed tuned for similar value study examples that I'll post next week.  Keep practicing!  Work in smaller sizes so that you can see results faster.  This is part of practicing process.

February-From Garden to Quilting....

A multi-pack variety of pansies.  These are the only flowers that seem to tolerate the change in temperatures we're currently having.   In any case, they are a great source of inspiration for quilting. 

The multi-pack has a nice mix of purples...

The reds likes the attention...

Magenta blooms in pairs.



Blue-ish purples....

The orange color is not always this soft.  It must have been my camera?  Pretty color no less.  Because we have artistic license,  we can always bump up the colors. 

Bright lemon yellow, the color of energy.

All these pansies inspired me to work on a study of all the different values in these flowers.   So a new quilt is born.

The six squares in the center are the 8-1/2" blocks that I decided to work on.  The three squares on each side are 8 x 10 photo printouts of  the pansies I decided to do the value study.    So I went to my stash & began pulling fabrics.  As you can see, I still have some work to do on some of the flowers.  I'll either have to go shopping for the right values or I'll have to resort to mixing fabric/textile paints to achieve the right value I'm looking for.    I'm aiming to have this quilt close to being finished next week.  I'm still trying to decide on whether to sew the six center blocks together or keep them separate.   Stayed tuned, I'll will post my progress by no later than next Thursday.    

Have a great quilting week everyone! 



Students Roses Bouquets

About six months ago, I taught my Roses Bouquet wallhanging class to members of my local guild.  The first class of students challenged every class there after to have their quilts finished for guild show & tell by Jan-2012.  That fired everyone up to meet this challenge.  However, life has a way of taking over & we can't always finished what we would like to finish.  So below are a few students who made progress with their beautiful floral bouquets.  

Susan's flowers are a work in progress & she was such a great sport about showing how much she has done so far.  That purple fabric in her flowers is going to look really beautiful when she arranges her vase.  Karen's quilt, although still in progress is taking shape.  Karen chose beautiful red fabric (my photo doesn't do justice to both their fabric selections).  Looking good ladies & just keep going, most importantly, enjoy the process of creating your floral arrrangement.

This is Karen's floral arrangement (I apologize for cutting off your head in the photo but, I was trying to hurry with taking the shot. Karen's full face shows up in the next photo below).  This quilt is vibrant with color & would look really good with my home decor.  Beautiful!

This next quilt is Pam's beautiful floral arrangement also done in vibrant colors.  I wish I could have gotten a picture showing Pam's face.  Again, this was show & tell night at our guild & there was an unusually long line of members ready to show their beautiful, inspiring quilts.

Great job ladies!  Thank you for taking my class.

Blooming Flowers In February?

I can't believe my pansies are still blooming.  This warm temperature is wonderful. 

I even got outdoors today for a nice long walk around the neighborhood.  I'm currently working on a quilt design of  pansies & came to an artistic road block.  The sun was out so I figured a change of scenery would be just what I needed to help me.  After getting back from the walk, I decided to write & post a picture or two.  I'll post  a picture of the quilt of pansies after I organize it a little better.  Instead I'll post pictures of floral quilts from last year's 2011 Houston quilt show. 

The beautiful quilt below is called Roses-Sun and Shadow & was made by B. Lynn Tubbe.  I believe her card stated that the applique is fused-raw edge & these cascading roses are from a garden in California.  In person, this quilt was stunning to look at.  B. Lynn has carefully captured the shadow cast by these roses.  So beautiful! 

This next gorgeous quilt is called Social Climber Roses by Melinda Bula.  Melinda skillfully captures all of the values in these roses so that they appear real.  You can almost reach out & smell their fragrance.  In fact, all of Melinda's beautiful art quilts have this look. 

If I'm not mistaken, Melinda is scheduled to lecture at the Mckinney Quilt Guild in May.  If you are interested in attending her lecture, got to the Mckinney Quilt Guild website for more information.  I can hardly wait to see her beautiful work, in person. 

Speaking of work...... I need to get back to work.  Have a great day!