BLOG 439

Blog 439

 

Happy Mother’s Day! I have been invited to a family BBQ and I will certainly enjoy the company of those attending. I feel privileged to be a mother; it’s one of the best experiences in my life.    

I have made some progress with the colourful panel over the last few days. I removed it carefully from the release paper and placed it onto cotton low-loft wadding. As all the fabrics are backed with Bondaweb, I was able to stick the panel in place with an iron and this meant that I didn’t need any pins. The colourful patches were put together to create a background fabric so, before doing any applique over the top, I decided to add texture with stitch, using rayon threads. The texturing adds interest but it also helps to secure the individual pieces of fabric, a necessary step in this process (the alternative is to cover the lot with tulle but I don’t like that effect). I used different fee motion patterns over the surface.

            Panel on wadding

 

 

           Free motion quilting

 

 

             Rayon threads

 

 

        Detail 1

 

 

           Detail 2

 

 

             

         Completed background

 

The next decision was how to use the prepared background. In my book ‘Dual Image Applique’ I used silhouettes to create wall hangings (image below). I have always liked the strong contrast created when placing a dark fabric against a colourful background. Although I have long since got rid of many of my original patterns, I drafted a frame in which to work and drew up a similar image to fit the size of the panel. Here is the design process from framework to pencil image to creating ‘holes’ which will be cut out to the final pattern. The ‘holes’ are the areas that will be cut out to reveal the background fabric.

          

          Silhouetted panel

 

 

           Framework

 

 

           Floral design

 

 

            Creating ‘holes’

 

 

          ‘Holes’ detail

 

 

              Completed pattern 
 
Next week I will outline how I have continued with this project; I have an idea!!
 
 
    

 

BLOG 438

Blog 438

 

My starting point this week was the palette that I had created from squares last week. I decided that the lightest square was the best one to get me going and I put it in the middle of the release paper (from the Bondaweb). I started to overlap and stagger the squares but they quickly started to go awry so I drew vertical lines on the paper as a guideline to help with the positioning. The squares are 2” so I drew the lines 1 ½” apart to accommodate the over-lap.

 

 

            Colour palette

 

 

           Lightest square

 

 

I continued to blend and move the colours upwards, moving from yellow into dark reds, light to dark. I also noted that there was a collection of blues so I worked separately to develop these. (Sorry about the blurred images!)

                Light to dark yellow to red

 

 

 

 

              Blues

 

 

After working a bit on the blues and yellow/reds separately, I combined them with the general aim of avoiding any strong lines where one colour moved into another.

 

 

 

 

 

           Combined colours

 

 

 

And then I set about developing the colourwash, overlapping the edges of the squares as I progressed. You will notice that I have staggered the squares vertically. And hopefully you will see that the wavy edges of the squares help to blend the colours more easily.

 

 

                 

           Development

 

Here is the completed colourwash still on the release paper where it cooled down thoroughly before I attempted to remove it from the paper. 

 

 

 

               Completed picture

 

 

Bali’s and Batiks are my preferred fabrics because of their intense colour and because they are less likely to fray due to them being tightly woven. But I also have a collection of Heidi Stoll-Weber dyed fabrics and I tried to incorporate these in the design. They were rejected resoundingly because they were dull and allowed for little movement of colour.

 

 

 

BLOG 437

Blog 437

 

This past week I have continued to explore other ways of producing a background for applique, other than by patchwork. The starting point of this voyage of discovery was a panel I made a couple of weeks ago using an iron-on Vilene base. This method was accurate but it added more bulk to the seams and I didn’t like the chunkiness of it.

 

 

             Patchwork with Vilene

 

Last week I created a background using diagonally placed silk off-cuts to make a cushion. This is method produced a very colourful and rich background.

            Silk strips

 

I made a panel in a method I devised many years ago using bonded strips and squares. This lies very flat but always requires a lot of stitching over the surface to hold down the fabric strips.

           Bonded surface

 

 

This time I am going to cut larger squares of ready bonded fabric to see where this takes me. I chose a small collection of colourful fabrics from my stash and ironed them onto Bondaweb. I made sure that they over-lapped ever so slightly to protect the iron.

 

 

            Fabrics

 

 

 

          Ironing onto Bondaweb

 

 

 

          Overlapped fabrics

 

 

 

             Completed process

 

After extensive ironing, I removed the paper in one piece to give me a base to work on. On removal from the fusible, the fabrics were stuck to one another and all it required was a gentle tug to separate them. The edges that over-lapped were without fusible and these were trimmed off.

 

 

           Removing the paper backing

 

 

 

 

           Release paper and bonded fabric

 

 

            Overlapped edges

 

 

            Trimming

 

 

            Untidy edges

 

 

I realised after a few cuts that my pinked rotary blade wasn’t cutting cleanly so, in the absence of a new similar blade, I transferred to a fluted blade.

 

 

           Pinked and fluted blades

 

I decided on this occasion to cut 2” squares and to do this I used an old cutting mat which I keep specifically for these cutters and also for cutting wadding. I laid the fabric on the mat, lining it up with the marked lines. I used a ruler, not as an edge to cut along (these blades would chip the ruler), but as a guide line (these speciality cutters are wider than a straight cutter so they are easier to control when following a line). I cut lines first and then across the lines into squares. All the off-cuts were collected to be used on other projects.

 

         Cutting into squares

 

 

              Colour palette

 

 

              Off-cuts

 

Before starting to play, I sorted the squares in to similar colours and hues. Now I have to decide how to work with them!

 

          Sorted squares 
 
 
 

 

 

BLOG 436

Blog 436

For the reasons I mentioned last week, I didn’t like the effect of sewing my squares onto Vilene. I did trial a few ideas for flowers from sample off-cuts and the stitched/soldered sheers gave the best visual appeal. I think I need to go back to my bonded method of creating a colourful surface.

 

 

 

 

      Trial flowers

 There has been an anniversary this week: Tess and Rich celebrated their 12^th wedding anniversary. As usual I research what anniversary it is and the 12^th is silk or linen. I have silk off-cuts so I made a quick cushion to mark the occasion. I laid silk strips diagonally over a square of wadding and as I rather liked the effect of the frayed edges, I decided to make a feature of them. The first attempt to lay strips onto the wadding was unstable even when pinned so I ironed a sheet of Bondaweb onto the wadding (cotton) and stuck the strips in place. The surface was then covered with vertical lines of black machine decorative stitching before it was turned into a cushion cover.

 

        Cushion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Silk off-cuts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Strips on wadding

 

 

 

 

 

 

         Strips on bonded wadding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

          Machine stitching

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Detail 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        Detail 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           Border fabric

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           Completed cushion

 I used the technique of image transfer (learned from Suzette Smart) to make the latest luggage label for my collection…... And it reminds me that we need to put the camera in our bird box as spring is not so far away (not that you would know it today as snow is lying on the paddock as I write!)
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           Image transfer

 

 

 

 

 

       Label collection