What I'm Stitching

While I wish I had a picture of this piece before I started thread painting, I thought I'd share the work in progress now, and post another picture when it is completed. I'm still thinking about a name--Anderson Island Mermaid? Dawn over Oro Bay? Nisqually Reach?

I acquired this beautiful batik while visiting friends on Anderson Island in Washington state. They had a large box of fabrics from a man whose quilting wife had passed away and generously suggested I take what I liked. Who can refuse an offer like that! In the collection was this batik piece, about 30"x 35", of a mermaid silhouetted against the sunrise (or moon? or sunset?) Regardless, it was too lovely to leave in a box of unclaimed fabric!

I admired her for some time, thinking about how to enhance the batik. I started thread-painting her hair, ultimately adding eight colors of thread over the dark batik base. My threads ranged from a variegated golden brown to dark purple. It was so much fun to thread paint such a large area! I then added scales to her tail, using turquoise, green, purple and yellow thread. The shelf she sits on was a solid dark blue, the same color as her hair and tail. I used my bag of 'tree bits' to add a wash of colors, with variegated thread holding the tiny bits of fabric trapped beneath a layer of tulle. I layered the main elements over a scrap of polyester batting for loft, then sandwiched the whole with batting and backing. Next step is to quilt the background--the sun (or moon) sky and water, and decide how to finish the piece for hanging. I am still debating further embellishments in the form of glitter, sequins or beads.

Got a suggestion for a name or further embellishment? Let me know!  Here is a glimpse:

Mermaid in progress--Rana O'Connor 2016

A Mess of Thread

This is a pretty wonky post so if you aren't into the minutiae of quilting, you may want to just scroll through the pictures.

I thought it would be fun to describe how I came to quilt (and quilt) my latest quilt. Don't you find it confusing that quilt is both a noun and a verb? I started with a very simple pattern in one of my older books. The pattern is a traditional Boston Common with some four-patch blocks in alternate rows. I chose it because I had a stack of mostly sunflower fabrics to use and the required amounts meshed well with what I had. It's also a pattern I love, so I knew I would enjoy piecing it.

I chain pieced the blocks, finishing the top over a couple of weekends. Then came quilting decisions. One reason I put this simple top together was to practice quilting with my new toy, a free motion quilting foot set. It is pretty cool. Three different feet on a base that attaches to my machine. Open toe, closed toe and for lack of a better term, big toe.

I started off stitching in the ditch along several major seam lines to provide stability. I'm not convinced when everything has been spray basted that this is a necessary step, but it gave me a chance to move the quilt around under my machine, assessing what might work for free motion patterns. I knew I wanted some curvy quilting to offset the straight lines of the design, and I wanted some of that quilting to be feathers.

Quilted

Starting in the light center portion, I quilted feathers out from the center to the yellow corners. I liked the effect but had chosen a variegated yellow thread and it just didn't show up as much as I wanted it to. I let that thought percolate for a while as I quilted a leaf and vine pattern in the green squares, treating them as a border. Originally I had selected a green thread for this, but opted to keep my machine threaded with yellow, increasing visibility on the green background. Better, though still not a strong enough statement. A friend suggested I go around a second time, outlining the leaf and vine pattern. That second row of yellow quilting really helped.

For the outside border I chose piano keys for their straight lines, balancing the curved quilting everywhere else. The green thread worked well here. I used blue painter's tape along the block points to mark the keys and guide my stitching, which I carried into the green border, stopping each line where it touched the leaves. For these straight lines I switched back to a regular foot, not free motion. This provided greater control but also meant I had to stop and start over for each line. I think long-arm quilters use a ruler for this work. I hear a ruler foot is available for a domestic machine now--maybe that will be my next toy?

Red Thread!

Next came filler quilting. To make motifs pop you need to flatten the background. To accomplish this I first echo quilted my feathers twice using yellow thread, then switched to Bottom Line thread in off-white so it would not compete with my feathers and stippled the open areas. I loved how the feathers began to fill and stand away from the background but that yellow thread still blended into the background to the point of disappearing! In desperation I grabbed a spool of heavy, dark red thread and quilted over one of the feathers, figuring I could rip it out if I wasn't pleased. Not bad! I took a deep breath and over-quilted all the feathers with dark red, leaving the yellow beneath and as echo quilting. Much happier. Who would have thought?

Vines, feather, piano keys and fill

Remember the green thread? I decided to use it as filler thread around the vine, as the color blended with the background better than my Bottom Line off-white. Being thicker than Bottom Line, the green also provided a nice texture change. I filled all the spaces between the leaves on the side of the quilt next to the center, but on the side with the piano keys I opted to add filler only to a few larger spaces, between the keys. I love the effect!

All that's left is to bind and label. I'm seriously thinking of naming it A Mess of Thread--all that quilting and over quilting and issues with tension as I learned to work with my new feet! For the record, I really like them. Much better than my old clear plastic foot that wasn't so clear any more and was hard to see through and hard to see around. The metal feet are so much smaller they don't obscure my vision at all. If you've stuck with me this long, you are truly a quilting geek! Go quilt!

The back

Perseverance Pays Off

I just had to give a shout out to another student in the Stacked Coins class. Charlena has taken a few classes with Linda and me before, and is quite a good piecer. She has had some major frustration with free motion quilting in the past, though. Neither she nor I could get her machine to behave. Thread kept breaking, no matter what we tried in class. It would run fine on a sample piece, then we would move to the stacked coin quilt and stitch for a few seconds when Bam! the thread would break. Same thing last class she took. We tried changing needles, re-threading. No luck.

Well, she went home and here we are, a few weeks later--Voila! look at that lovely quilt, free motion quilted all over the background. Just in time for Valentine's Day, too, with her themed fabric choices. Charlena says she bought a new free motion foot and some Aurifil 100% cotton thread and it seemed to work. I say, whatever combination of things made the magic happen, yippee! Time to get out some of those other tops that have been waiting and get stitching.

Love it when perseverance finally wins out over frustration. Thanks for sharing the photo and your triumph, Chalena!

Thread Paint Sample

Next step for Honu is to layer with batting--I considered trapunto but I want to try out wool batting which I believe will give me enough dimension without adding trapunto. It's a gamble, I know! The local stores don't carry wool batting. I could order it online, but since I plan to attend a quilt show next weekend I am hoping to shop there. So, Honu is on hold for a bit. Meanwhile, I did a quick thread-paint example to test my plan for the workshop I will be teaching at our guild this fall. I found great fabric with decent-sized bugs and butterflies printed on it at the guild 'closet clean-out'. I thought the bugs would make great bases to learn thread painting. I usually thread paint after fusing an applique or image to the background. Here I added a tear-away stabilizer, then started stitching in the style of Christine Fries-Ureel, who taught an excellent workshop on the topic. Great way to use up lots of thread! Can you see the little bit of bling on his body?

More quilts at: Slideshow Album

Onward to Iowa

Mom and Auntie Jean Play Gin
in process Rana O'Connor 2010

Mom and Auntie Jean sure know how to get around! The quilt is currently in Grand Rapids, Michigan where it will be on display August 22 - 25. Shortly after sending the quilt off, I received notification that it was also accepted at the American Quilters's Society Show October 3-6 in Des Moines, Iowa! Back to back shows. Luckily they are both under the auspices of AQS so I was able to arrange for the quilt to travel from one show to the other without coming back to Maine in between. The quilt hangs on Mom's wall in between shows--I should bring something else to fill the space since Mom won't get it back until mid-October. Very happy to have the quilt out in the world, and at two national shows, no less.

Mom and Auntie Jean Play Gin
in process Rana O'Connor 2010

On a personal note, the agency where I have worked for over 20 years is closing at the end of the year. It's been so long since I have given any thought to job hunting or another line of work, I feel quite at sea about it. Of course friends say, "turn your quilting into a job!" but I have many reservations about whether it would be the right move for me. Those of you that have made the leap from hobbyist to professional--any thoughts, ideas, words of wisdom?

Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts

VOTE Online for Bali Bloom

I entered an online quilt contest! The theme this week is quilts with flowers. Of course I thought of Bali Bloom, with that one big pink hibiscus flower and sparkly beads. Take a minute between Friday morning and midnite Sunday to head over to the Quilting Gallery and vote for your favorite flower quilt. It is all in fun.

On another front, the Art Quilts Maine travelling quilt show, Inspiration Transformation opened at Devanny Doak and Garrett Booksellers this week with some great publicity. There were stories in the Sun Journal and the Daily Bulldog, and an article is in the works for Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf, an online newsletter about the children's book business. You may recall the 16 quilts in this travelling show were inspired by favorite children's books. It is awesome to be a part of this talented group of artists.   

Quilt gallery and quilts for sale at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts

Let the beading begin!

Bali Bloom could have been complete, but it didn't feel quite done, so it is on with the beading! I have spent several evenings beading the center, and all the yellow anthers--almost done with that segment. My plan is to create a path of pink/purple/green beads along the edge of each petal, where it overlaps the next petal, and scatter the beads out into the background, bringing a little light to the dark green/brown background fabrics. I got some help today from a young visitor, who ably popped beads on my needle as I needed them. I could use a helper like that all the time! The pink/purple pathways are pretty ambitious, but I think it will add the sparkle I am looking for.

Meanwhile, I need to find some Bubble Jet Set so I can get to work on the angel quilt--starting from a photograph of the McAuley Angel (an angel statue in front of the Sisters of Mercy residence). I plan to paint, then print on fabric, and see where I go from there. The Bubble Jet Set is to prepare the fabric so I can print my painted angel directly onto the fabric. I am thinking of creating a background using the 'scraptures' technique I used for the floral bouquet quilts, (see post 2/19/09 Invitation!) then appliqueing the angel on top. No idea if it will work, but it will be fun to find out!

See more of my quilt photos at: http://community.webshots.com/user/roconnorquilts