Shadows and Outlines

In my last post I talked about getting ready for thread painting. I'm going to give a couple more bits of information about this in this post.

First - did you notice the dark blue shadows under the rooster? How about the dark blue outlining around parts of the rooster?

The outlining is a technique that Pam used on her Wolf and she wanted us to use it on our images. I think it was absolutely necessary here in the areas where the rooster colors were close in value to the background fabrics. It made those areas stand out where they otherwise would have disappeared. The blue fabric had fusible on the back of it and it was cut in thin sections in the shape of the rooster outline. It was slipped behind the cotton inked fabric before the rooster was fused to the background.

The shadow pieces were added by me to "ground" the rooster. I didn't want it just floating in space. After the shadows and outlines were added, the top, batting, and backing fabric were sandwiched and pin basted.

I think the outlining technique is a good one and well worth remembering for other fiber art pieces.

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Rooster Background

Completed Rooster

The background for the Rooster was made using Cherry Wood fabrics. If you aren't familiar with them, they are made of cotton but have a suede like appearance. They aren't sold locally. I have to buy them at Road to California, or order them on-line.  I took the lead from on the background design from Pam's Wolf piece.

After the background was pieced it was time to get ready to thread paint. The first step is to take a piece of white cotton fabric, trace your design on it and then paint it with Tsukeniko inks. The white background fabric is spritzed with water so that the inks spread out in a watercolor fashion. The idea is just to put the colors you want to thread paint in the places on the design. The colors act as a guide for stitching, and help to fill in an area that isn't completely covered with thread.

After the ink dries you put fusible on the back of the painted fabric, cut out the image and fuse it to your background fabric. You can see this step below:

painted image

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Rooster - Thread Painting

Thread Painted Rooster

Before heading to Asilomar I prepared my drawing and color plan for the Rooster I was hoping I would be able to make in class. Pam sent out an email indicating that we could make something other than the wolf a few weeks before the class, so I had time to prepare for this.

I had some photos of roosters that I had taken at a Farmer's Market in Arroyo Grande. These are some of the photos:

The middle photo is the one I used for the drawing of the Rooster I wanted to make. I added a bit to the tail and comb, but its mostly from that rooster. Here is my rooster drawing:

drawing

The next step is selecting colors. Pam suggested we use Cherry Wood fabrics. I purchased a packet of those at Road to California, so that was my basis for the colors of the Rooster and background. Below is a photo of my color plan for the rooster that I brought to class:

color plan

So that was my start. I'll show more of the making of this in my next posts. Thanks for visiting my blog!

Thread Painting

This year I had the opportunity to take a class at Asilomar, and I chose a thread painting class with Pam Holland. This is the Wolf that Pam Holland was suggesting that students make in the class:

Pam Holland's Wolf

We had the option to do something of our own, and it seemed that most people in the class opted for another subject to make. I have wanted to make a rooster for a long time, and I thought the thread painting stitches would lend themselves to feathers, so that is what I chose. Here is my finished Rooster that I started in that class and finished later on my own:

Free Range Rooster by Eileen Wintemute

I loved the class, partly for the techniques that I learned, and partly because I found Pam Holland so enjoyable to spend time with. I can see why she has the number of followers that she has! In fact, I am going to the Houston Quilt Festival in a few weeks and have signed up for another class with her while there.

I'm going to show you how I made this in the next few posts. I hope you enjoy learning about Pam's process.

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Featured Quilter At Flying Geese Quilters Guild 2015 Quilt Show

What a great experience it was to be one of the Featured Quilters at the 2015 Flying Geese Quilters Guild Quilt Show! I had a chance to speak to a lot of people and it was extremely flattering to have my work on display. I received many nice comments and had a chance to show some family and friends my fiber art work. Fiber Art is a major part of my life, but I have other interests and friends and some have not seen my work. I think some of them think I make traditional quilts and don't quite understand what I mean when I describe it. So having a chance to show them what I make was important to me. This last weekend will be one of the highlights of my life, I think.

 Here are some photos of my area at the show:

Pelican on Pier

Some of my fiber art pieces on display

Some of my fiber art pieces on display

Some of my fiber art pieces on display

My Poster Board

Some of my fiber art pieces on display

My Brother John and Me

My Cottage Friends Group

Some of my fiber art pieces on displayon

Some of my fiber art pieces on display

Come See Me at the Flying Geese Quilt Show

I'm honored to have been asked to be one of two featured quilters at the Flying Geese Quilters Guild Quilt Show on September 26 and 27. The Show will be at Soka University. The other featured quilter is Denise Nelms. I will have about 25 of my art quilts on display. Denise creates beautiful traditional quilts and many of hers will also be on display. 

The show is going to have 30 vendors, an auction, a boutique and a lot of beautiful quilts to look at. I hope you can make it to the show. I'd love to see you there!

Tips for Using Exotic Fabrics

As I said in my last post, using "non-cotton" fabric can add a lot of interest to an art quilt. I have learned a few tricks for using these fabrics and I'm going to pass on a few here:

• Organza fraying - the best way to stop the fraying is to "melt" the edge of the organza just a tiny bit. I light a votive candle and hold the fabric about 1/4" from it for just a moment. The edge is sealed by that heat, but is not burned. You need to practice this to figure out how close to hold it and for how long.
  
  
• Flimsy fabric that is not sheer - I back this fabric with either a fusible or fusible interfacing. If I use interfacing I make it light weight. It adds just enough body without making it stiff.
  
  
• Fraying on fabric other than a sheer - You can finish the edge in some way to address this. If that is not what you want to do, then I recommend a combination of fusing the back and using Fray Block. I also don't stitch too close to the edge of the fabric if it is not tightly woven.
  
  
  Those three techniques go a long way with more exotic fabrics. I hope you give them a try.
  
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