Quilt Show, Rotorua

Our group is having an exhibition of members' latest work on 20-21 June 2009. It is from 10am - 4 pm each day. The venue is the Bridge Club Rooms, Neil Hunt Park, Tarawera Road, Rotorua. (Take the Lakes turnoff at the roundabout on Te Ngae Rd. Look forward to seeing you there.

I have just completed my latest piece, Ties that Bind.

Vikki Pignatelli

Quilting by Improvisation was a class at Symposium with Vikki Pignatelli.
Here is the sampler I worked on in class to try out her techniques. I was trying to create a splash of water. I found Vikki’s technique of curves extremely useful. I am much more confident now of using curves, and want to finish a larger improvisation piece for our quilt show (June). Vikki’s technique of using strips, and pleating them, also created great textural appeal to fabric, and I will put this in my larger piece as well.

Having fun Dye-ing

After taking a class with Shirley Goodwin at Symposium, several of you have been asking to put some pictures up of what I did, so here they are:

Toilet Duck Leaves

I have been experimenting a little with the Toilet Duck discharge method of printing on fabric.

The Janola Duck is easy to control, and after squeezing a little of the cleaner into a plastic container, I painted the cleaner onto leaves, and stamped them onto dyed fabric. I don’t know the names of the leaves, but I love the look of the fabric once it is finished.

String and Sun
I painted the fabric with textile paint, and laid it outside (out of the wind), I randomly cut lengths of string and just let them fall / drop onto the painted fabric. I let the sun do it’s work, and came back later and removed the string. Voila. Fantastic technique.

Happy Accident
You know, sometimes things don’t go according to plan. I was attempting shibori, and working outside my comfort zone, by using black. I used rubber bands, and just randomly bound the white fabric. Added black dye and let it rest for a while. I removed the rubber bands, and left the fabric outside to dry. Another member of the class, hung their shibori above mine, and the wind flapped it, causing droplets of dye to land on my black fabric. I just love the natural looking “rocks”. The accident created an almost organic feel to the fabric. I would really like to duplicate this feeling and imagery in the future. It will take much more experimentation, but that is what I like, learning from my mistakes.

What have I been up too?

I have been working small, trying to achieve one small thing a day to help me get my creative rthymn back. I have started to draw insects for a snowball quilt for my little boy. I will post photos of them on my other blog, once I get myself organised.

http://ruthmcmonagle.blogspot.com/

Decided to make a small series of Trading Cards to swap with friends, so using the left overs from "Crop Circles" I cut small balls of the thread fabric, and using metallic thread meandered around them. My daughter wants them, so I told her she has to make some to swap with me! It's the only way for her to get her hands on them.

Calculator cover

It has been a while since I have written in this blog, but a side effect of the medication I am on, causes "emotional blunting" at the moment and this is affecting my creative side.

On a more positive note, I encouraged my daughter to design a calculator cover for Casio. Her entry is "G-man". Please view it and vote for it. She did a great job.

http://www.projectrecalc.co.nz/

She also made me do one, so here is mine. I pieced together some polyester scraps, and then did some free motion zigzag to create the circles. Fun, Fun, Fun.

Where to next?

Been away camping and the New Zealand bush always manages to help me re-focus and provide refreshment for my heart, and eases away the pain.


I managed about 40 A4 quilts in the past year. I have learned so much, but for 2009, have been thinking about another approach.

So, my theme for the next few months will be happiness, and will be making art around this theme. Perhaps more small quilts, maybe Trading Cards, undecided yet. Who knows? Just plenty of "What if..."

If you had a symbol for happiness, what would it be?

A feather representing your warm snuggly bed?

A musical instrument whose music soothes your soul?

Or just your cat's purr, knowing you and the cat are content?

Fabric scraps just waiting to be used in another new way?



At the moment, it is a feather for me, my feather bed, so soft, blissful, but as sleep seems so elusive, and I would just love to sleep for more than 4 hours, and just snuggle in the mornings, and not rise until after midday. Oh such simple pleasures.

Have fun, and don't forget to let me know what your happiness symbols are.

Pleated squares

Got the sewing machine back, finally repaired, so going to make some pleated squares. I have always wanted to try the technique, so here goes.

Drew lines 5cm apart horizontally and vertically. Ironed the vertical lines and then with purple thread sewed 0.5cm from the fold line. Wasn’t certain which way to push the pleats so on the first row horizontally I pulled the pleated towards me, and sewed in the same direction so all the pleats were turned the same way.

Vertically when I sewed I alternated the direction of the pleats, so sometime the “box” felt very small with the top and bottom pleat facing in, and then on the next row, these were facing out.
Decided to see “what if” so on every second seam a tight zigzag instead of a straight stitch.

Maybe I should have used metallic thread, but I like the contrast look the purple thread provides. A simple textural quilt. Would look nice in silk or shot taffeta, but would be slippery to sew.

Bush Walk

I hope that the Christmas break was just what you needed. I have spent time at the lake, just swimming and lazying about.

I want to try some “Sun Dye-ing. Dye the fabric, place object on the fabric, secure and leave in the sun. The dye wicks from under the objects so the dye appears around the objects.
Picked up lancewood leaves and leaf skeletons while walking up Mt Ngongotaha. Made up a green/blue textile ink solution and painted half the fabric. Then mixed in some more blue to make it darker green and a splash of red, which I didn’t fully mix, and I wanted to see “what would happen if”.

The leaves and skeletons were pinned in random manner to the painted fabric, and left it in the sun to dry. Amazing, the fine leaf skeletons work and look so delicate. The solid lancewood leaves had blurred edges, due to the wind, so need to pin more surely. Tried the technique on woven flax with ponga fern, but the ink absorbed straight into the flax – it didn’t work.
To add texture to the sun dyed fabric, I made a stencil with leaves with freezer paper, and rubbed gold, copper, silver and green paint sticks around the stencil, and brushed the paint inwards, to create a translucent effect.

I hand quilted leave shapes with gold metallic thread, and variegated green around the leaves.
Couched some “jazz” yarn in 3 meandering lines, creating a vertical composition.
I know you can buy some special Helio (sun dying) paints, but for my experiment the textile ink worked okay. Will consider using this technique again.

Pohutukawa

Christmas is upon us, so something Christmassy. The Pohutukawa symbolises NZ Christmas for me.
Textile inked some calico in different strengths of green.
Pohutukawa flowers. Drew 6cm and 4 cm circles on wash away stabiliser. Put the stabiliser in an embroidery hoop. Using red variegated crochet cotton in the bobbin, I sewed straight stitch from edge to edge, 1oclock to 7 o’clock, to 2 o’clock to 8 o’clock, etc, making sure I met and crossed in the centre.
Changed the tread to normal cotton and did none more large flower, then zigzagged 30 gauged beading wire to the flowers, about 8 times, making sure the thread is touching other thread.
I also just sewed 4 lengths of beading wire with zigzag stitch over the beading wire. Cur all the threads on the outside of the circle and washed it all away.
Leaves – painted Lutradur (sp) with textile ink, and then rubbed some Shiva paint sticks over when it was dry. I cut heaps of leaf shapes.
Onto the green fabric I zigzagged some red flowers, then stitched the leaves into place. I folded some over to give a 3D effect. Stitched some more red flowers and added more leaves.
Hand stitched the “wash away” flowers to the stitched one and manipulated the wire.
Unfortunately the picture doesn’t do this piece justice, but it is so 3D you expect bees and flies to land on the flowers.
Perhaps the quilt could benefit with brown stalks or yellow beads on the tip of the sewn down flowers.

Overflows

Want to try out “tufting” stitch, so need a quilt with “water” or motion to splash, so decided on a love waterfall, so I can tuft the bottom of the waterfall.
Found some white fabric with hears and OXO on it for the waterfall. Scraps of blues, greens and a purple one with holly – it is Christmas time.
Turned under the edges of the scraps and laid them onto some iron on interfacing – glue side up. Initially I was having a” square” look to the piece, but then turned the blue square onto point, and I liked the effect, as it breaks up the whole square look into a more random piece. Ironed the back so all the pieces have stuck and free motion zigzag finishing with the blue square.
Reverse bobbin with variegated red/pink crochet cotton in the bobbin, and pink thread in the needle. Lots of swirls and spirals creating movement, all travelling through the blue square. What now – heart beads sewn at the ends of the swirls? Appliqué hearts on the edges? I created this piece as a tufting exercise, so do I put the tufting around the edge of the blue square< or do I tuft the top edge of the hearts near the blue square?

I practised tufting on some scraps, but I am not happy with the results, so maybe some “jazz’ yarn for a fringe? Decided to cut some hearts from the white/red print and scatter them around the outside and appliqué them. Some 3D paint was drawn around the edges. When the paint had dried I covered it with baking paper and ironed it to set it. Perhaps the iron was too hot, or the paint not dry enough, but the pain lost the gloss. Monica suggested using a hair dryer to heat set the 3D paint, I wish I knew that before I ironed it.
So much for my tufting exercise, but I did learn something about 3D paint!

Dirty Laundry

Really wanted to try out the “bleach Pen” by Clorex, so on some different coloured scraps I followed the patterns on some ,and just drew spirals on the others. The pen is easy to use, but the purple fabric didn’t change colour at all. The batik green reacted super quickly, and the others at different rates. Them all in a bucket of water and rinsed them several times.
As the “Bleach Pen” is designed for stains on dirty clothes, I have decided to make a clothesline and have the bleached fabric hanging from the.
Grass – some hand dyed green fabric from Shari Cole was perfect. I cut it into three strips and fringed the edges.
Laid the strips irregularly onto fusible stabiliser, with the adhesive facing up. Found some scrap faded denim that was perfect for a hot sun drenched blue sky look.
Cut miniature clothes outlines from the bleached fabric, - pants, single, skirt, tablecloth, tea towel, and briefs from a lace scrap.
Originally I was using crochet cotton for the “line” but it was too thick, so I split it into 3, and used one of those strands.
Vlioflex the “Clothes” and arranged them on the washing line. I had too many for my A5 size, so discarded the ones that didn’t fit in.
Ironed everything down, but decided not to stitch around any of the clothes, except the briefs until quilting time. I think this is called raw edge appliqué, but not sure.
Quilted using some invisible thread, tried to create the impression of the sun beating down in the sky. Quilted around the clothes, and this made them stand free of the quilting.
Grass I quilted with green variegated thread, randomly, but then decided to quilt plant / leaf shapes. Much more fun,. Pink embroidery thread for the pegs. I like the briefs. Maybe I should have used brighter pink for the pegs?

Failure and Success

I wanted to do some more laser printing, so in Publisher I created a graphic about success. My success comes from learning from my failures. “In order to succeed, it’s okay to fail.”
Found a quote from Winston Churchill about complexities, and a quote from Albert Einstein about simplicities.
Printed the graphic onto yellow rose fabric and it looked awesome. Red textile paint and a very fine brush, I painted “OK” red and bold. It stands out and catches the attention. Yellow quilting in a square spiral around the words in a straight stitch.
Printed a practise graphic out onto calico and washed it by hand. The printing held.
Chucked it in to machine on a normal cycle, and the ink came out and was very faded. So, laser printing is only good for items for wall hangings, not anything that will get wear.

Spirit

I would like to try laser printing onto fabric. I have tried bubble jet, but the main printer is a laser and want to see what happens.
The focus is on the word “Spirit” so in Publisher, typed in as many words I knew that reflected the meaning of the word Spirit.
Energy, life, élan, spunk, enterprise, tonic, zest, oomph, drive, joie de vivre, dynamism, mettle, vitalise, flourish, electrify, energise, animate, enliven, soul, spirit, self, vigour, capture the spirit, verve, ephemeral, spirit of the moment, breath, heart, dash, intrepid. Symbol: dove, flame, wind. 5 Elements; wind, earth, fire, water, love.
Very nervous about using the laser printer, as it gets quite hot, but then paper doesn’t burn when it goes through, so cotton should be okay.
Ironed the calico, and then backed it with freezer paper. I trimmed it all to A4 size, and ensured there were no loose threads.
I then re-ironed the freezer paper just before printing to ensure it was joined everywhere. Set the printer to manual, HQ1200, thick paper. Very nervous threading the paper though the printer. It worked. A small amount of loose toner on the bottom of the freezer paper, but printed even the fine fonts onto the fabric okay.
Cut the fabric into strips for weaving and laid it out on some fusible stabiliser, with the adhesive facing up. Wove the strips with other fabric, ribbons, yarns and thread. Once happy, I ironed it to make sure it stuck to the stabiliser. I even found a spelling mistake in the words I printed out. Drew some dove and flame images onto freezer paper, and made stencils. Using purple and gold Shiva paint sticks I found the stencils appear most effective when using 2 colours with each stencil, eg wings-purple, body-gold.
I wonder if the stencils will lose their luminosity under the chiffon. Left everything to dry for 24 hours. Added feather to add another dimension, and some Angelina fibres. Laid some blue chiffon over the top of everything, and some plain calico on the back. Machine quilted with pink threads, and metallic threads, meandering around the stencils and the words for effect. I tired to be as unstructured as possible. To bind the quilt, I used gold metallic thread zigzagged in a medium with. Reminds me of the Russian Icons. Everything got trimmed back to the stitching. Now some beading to finish it off. I followed circled lines with beads, and small circles with beads. Then with variegated blue crochet thread fern / feather stitch “branches” in one third of the spirit, connecting the beaded curves and circles. This spirit was fun to make, and now going to make on 4 times as big. Time for play.

Flax “Harakeke”

Purchased a woven flax bag from the $2 shop, and after cutting it to A5 size, I stitched the edges to prevent it falling to pieces as it is loosely woven.

I laid masking tape out in a grid and cut to make line and some squares. Shiva Paint Stiks again, green, brown, and gold. A paper towel seemed to work best rubbing in the colour. When dire, and making tape remove, the paint colour changed the look of the woven mat. Perhaps it could have been rubbed all over, and not masked off, or painted first, then sections masked, and another colour rubbed over top?>
The flax pattern by Jenny Hunter, out of the NZ Quilter magazine was enlarged, rotated ,and printed onto freezer paper. Ironed the pattern onto a yellow/orange print fabric. Double sided Vilene was ironed to the back, and the flax pattern cut our, following the freezer paper lines.

After ironing the flax cut out to the woven flax background, I satin stitched the fabric outline, trying to reduce the width at the points. Initially I didn’t use stabiliser, but in the end I did put some on the back and this made stitching the woven mat much easier.

After making up the quilt sandwich, I used green thread and outlined around the flax, and then changed to gold metallic thread and continued echo quilting.

Loose Threads

I have been saving all my loose cut off threads in a tissue box for the last month. I laid them out onto some clear “wash away” stabiliser. I moved them around a bit, but wanted a random unplanned piece. I pinned the next layer of wash away on the top and started to sew with mustard coloured thread in a free motion straight stitch. I MUST remember to lower the tension on the foot, as the threads kept getting caught on the bottom.
Moved the wash away in a forward-backward motion. I then changed to purple thread, and created more lines in the same direction. Finally, I found some old green silk thread, so I stitched that as well in the same direction.
After washing away the stabiliser, my initial thoughts are that I have used too much green thread. Perhaps when it is dry?
Trimmed the thread “fabric” to a uniform rectangle, and off centre placement onto some left over red velvet strips from F’s cushions.

Invisible thread zigzagged it all down, then Blue silk thread meandering across the fabric, like steam rising. Still felt the piece need more, so “jazz” yarn from Spotlight got zigzagged won as a fringe I really like this effect.

Frottage and ferns

Shiva Paint sticks have been sitting in my drawer, and I need to play with them to understand their qualities a bit more.
I wonder if they can create the sense of sunlight filtering though the forest.

I tried rubbing them over a woven flax mat, (frottage) but the design that came through to the green fabric wasn’t strong, just random blobs of colour. So…I masked off sections on another green fabric and frottage bronze, gold and green Shiva sticks using the mat as a background. This was a better effect than trying to frottage the whole mat.

Found some brown chenille yarn from Spotlight, and it reminds me of the furry part of the ponga fern, so I am going to create a frond in front of the frottage paint stiks.
Using wash away stabiliser and a long zigzag, I secured the yarn to the wash away in a coiled stem / frond.

After washing the stabiliser away, I hand sewed the “koru” to the green fabric. The spirals were difficult to sew, but at this stage, I cannot think of another way to attach them.
I machine quilted in one direction, only following the line of the making tape “blank spaces. To me the result was similar to the dappled sunlight filtering into the forest.

Some Jazz yarn framed the piece, but maybe it would have been better as a spiral, instead of a diagonal? What do you think?

Water Ripple

I want to experiment a little more with Angelina, and want to recreate the reflective qualities of water.

Peacock colours fibres, pale blue, dark blue and silver Angelina fibres were laid between two sheets of Baking paper. A quick pass over with a coolish iron to bond and voila, reflective shimming “fabric” ready for cutting.
In the past I have had difficulty getting the Angelina to stay, so I gluestiked it down, instead of using fusible webbing. The less amount of heat to Angelina the better.

I draw a ripple design onto A5 paper and cut the Angelina “fabric” to fit the ripples. Smoke monofilament threat straight stitched the Angelina onto a mottled blue/gray fabric scrap.

Some silver “hologram” fabric became the splash and a scrap of brown fabric, the rock. Free Motion Embroidery using “Lana Wool” thread to give the rock definition, and then blue variegated thread around the edge of the splash and the Angelina highlights.

Not quite the big splash I was wanting. Perhaps a lone planet in a solar system of it’s own. What do you think?

Kowhai

Following the Springtime theme, I want to bead collage a Kowhai. Printed a sketch of kowhai flower and a separate leaf and traced onto tissue paper.
Green thread outlined the leaves. Yellow silk thread outlined the Kowhai.
Zigzagged the stamens. Perhaps yellow beads will finish the stamen ends.
Created the green/brown top of the kowhai with a scrap of fabric and with double sided Vilene, ironed to the flower top and branch. Buttonhole stitched the edges. I wonder if I will ever stop this habit and just let the edges be raw.

Visited local store “Bead me up” and got a collection of yellow beads in different sized to fill in the Kowhai. Randomly I threaded up to six beads at t time, and laid them inside the Kowhai outline. Couching held the line of beads in place.
Bead soup or collage is heavy and creates texture and colour. After all the large beads had been used, I filled in any holes with smaller yellow beads. This was fun and I enjoyed this much more than couching the larger beads.

Not sure if I would use “bead soup” again. Maybe as rocks in a stream. I am pleased how the fabric scrap on the top of the flower suggests curves and a rounded shape, like the Kowhai.

Flamingo Tree

Inspired by Japanese fabric artist Noriko Endo, and the use of small slivers of fabric, overlaid with soft net. Especially effective on the quilt “Nature in NZ”, mosses, branches and the sun shining through.
This week I am going to try this technique with pink fabric and create a flamingo tree, the pink leaves are all abundant at the moment, and this may be perfect for the spiky leaves, instead of trying to appliqué individually or maybe cut-out the one large “leaf shape”.
Selected a bright pink fabric with a little gold thread embossed on it. Using the rotary cutter, slivers and triangles of fabric were cut, but this was difficult so ended up using the scissors, and cut the pieces approx 10- 20 mm long by 3-7 mm wide.
On a blue background fabric, pencil outlined the shape of the leaves and vlioflexed the brown trunk on. Machine embroider to create a dark and light side of the tree and outline some of the pattern of the brown fabric, as it reminded me of the bark on the flamingo tree.
I just threw the pink slivers onto the fabric base, and then arranged them until the impression of the leaves were created. I overlaid a fine white tulle, and pined it on place. Using a needle, I “teased” and moved the slivers more, to create sky between the leaves. Having the tulle on top really helped this process.
Monofilament grey thread and zigzagged around the leaves, and then straight stitch in a leafy motion to hold them all down.
Burgundy thread to create more dark on the trunk, and then pale beige to create more light. I should have removed the tearaway stabiliser on the back, as the quilt is quite stiff now.
Hand embroidered more burgundy on the twigs to give them a bit more life.
Perhaps I should have put some glue stik onto the background before throwing on the leaf slivers, to hold them into place.

Cherry Blossom - Felt

Decided to make some felt in Spring colours. Pink for Camellias and yellow for Kowhai.
I had only read about making felt, so decided to give it ago.
Bubble wrap, tulle, broomstick handle, plastic rubbing tray, Lux soap flakes, warm water and Sunlight soap.
Wasn’t sure which way to put the bubble wrap, so put it bubble side down. Spread out the merino wool in two layers, then my favourite part, put in the embellishments, silk threads, organza ribbon, plus other threads on top. Sprinkle with soap flakes, and laid the tulle over the top.
Poured warm water and began to rub with the plastic tray. Used too much water to begin with and it was sloppy. I removed the tulle, and rolled up the bubble wrap around the broom handle. Securing it with rubber bands is essential.
Roll, and roll and roll, backwards and forwards for a long time, at least a hundred rolls. My arms were sore.
After removing the felt from the bubble wrap, I rubbed some Sunlight soap into it, and manipulated it more by handling it, dropping, scrunching it for several more minutes. I think this is what is called “shocking the felt”, as it shrinks quite significantly.
I rinsed it well and waited for it to dry.

Printed off a cherry blossom sketch, and traced this onto tissue paper. After trying several layers of tulle, decided 3 layers of white tulle were sufficient, and pinned this under the blossom pattern. Pinned the tissue to the felt and sewed it on, using brown variegated thread for branches and background buds. Changed to white thread for the blossom. Removing the tissue paper wasn’t as bad as Press n Seal, but still needed to use tweezers to get some tiny amounts of paper off.
Unfortunately I used my drawing pencil, so the white thread had rubbed and turned grey, so had to wash the blossom. Will know better next time.
Cutting away the leftover tulle needed small sharp scissors. I like the softened effect the tulle gave. Free motion zigzagged in white thread “the branches”. Maybe brown might have been more effective?
Green thread echo quilted the blossom. I like how it radiates out from the cherry blossom.
Yellow beads were sewn in the cherry blossom for the stamen.