Transfer Paint in Oak Ridge, Tennessee

 

Several good quilting friends got together in Oak Ridge, TN to play with the transfer paint technique. First day: lots of papers were painted in brilliant colors and textures after we had mixed our paint.

Second day: we spent most of the time transferring our painted papers onto poly/cotton fabrics and creating many brilliant and distinctive designs. The main resist for creating shapes is dried and pressed leaves.

Other shapes also create beautiful colors and textures. Everyone will get variations of the colors so all prints will be unique and ready to be stitched and turned into small or large works of art.

Happy quilters spending 2 fun and creative days together. Cannot wait to see what more they will do!

Easy Arch at JCCFS, May 2021

After months of our lives being shut down and everyone working alone, it was time to get together and have a class at John C Campbell Folkschool. The staff at the school had spent a lot of time to get classes starting up in a safe and secure manner, with new cleaning and distancing rules. As well as reduced         class sizes.                                                                                                                                                     

And with all that in place we were all more than ready to spend a week at this beautiful campus, and learn new techniques and create new quilts, one more interesting that the other. Cutting free form      curves and sewing without pins was not a problem for more than five minutes. Honest.                      

A small snapshot of my design and sample wall.

Eight very creative women from all over the US flew or drove to Brasstown, NC packed with fabric and enthusiasm.                                                                                                                                                   

Cindy from North Carolina, a long time quilter, with lots of experience in quilt making, and an incredible stash of fabric, brought a large amount to play with. She has a very special sense of how to use bright colors, and was not afraid of trying something new. This one has a lot of movement and the curved border add to the 4 block arrangement.

Her big leaf tree did not get completely finished. The brightly colored leaves are appliqued to the background, and it is just so whimsical and fun. The little bird in the nest keeps an eye on it all. These two designs just fit Cindy's personality.                                     

Chris from Ohio has been to the Folkschool a few times, so she came  with a plan, and did she ever execute it. Her very cute collection of fabrics truly was a great choice. The first quilt was made with a collection of "bubble" fabrics in bright colors. It comes to life when you move closer to it, and all the bubbles show up. The piano key curved border creates the        perfect frame. This one is quite large. (love the bubble fabrics)                                                                                                      

Chris's second project is for her sister-in-law's coming grandson. Little trucks, and cars and trains with all kinds of traffic signs are perfect for a little boy. The colors are soft but she was able to really create some movement with her placement. This will be a great "I spy" quilt for years to come. I truly enjoy having Chris in my class, as she has been in a few of mine before.                                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                           

Marilyn from Florida, started with a softer color pallet, but by the time she had two sets of blocks together it was bright and vibrant. It is a very good choice to use the softer arches in the center and the diamond shapes in the corners.

 In her second quilt, she has chosen the diamond in the center and the arches in the corners.  It can really change the look.  It is not very often that the first layout of blocks is perfect, requiring no moving around of block, but this one was it!  I think Marilyn moved two blocks, and everything fell into place.  Just love this one!  She might add an outer border when she gets home. I am sure glad she is picking up quilting again!           

Patricia from North Carolina came with one plan in mind. She had promised her sister to make her a quilt with curves in it. She came to the right place! She brought several beautiful sets of fabric to work with and arranged them very well. Her first project was the purple and brown / yellow. Choosing to stack the blocks in rows she achieved a wavy look, and know    her sister will love it.                                                                                                                                                   

Her second piece is red, black and white. After making a few sets of blocks and trying a few different arrangements. Patricia decided on this very graphic and stunning design. For me it shouts "star" very loud and clear, but for others in the group it gave a different impression. Either way, this is one of the best black and white "Arch" quilts I have seen. Patricia also has been quilting for a while and are         getting back into using her skills.                                                                                                                          

Her third project was making many sample blocks from some of the many variation you can do with this block. Very precise piecing and experimenting with inserts and random curves, she will soon have another quilts ready.                                                                                                                                     

Peg from North Carolina, has been quilting for quite a while. Something very interesting to know about her, is that her family arranged a quilt show to celebrate her 80th. birthday just a few years ago. It was a very inspiring show of creativity and variety which told the story of her long time interest in quilting. And she is still being so creative and interested in learning new techniques, like in this class. I absolutely love her color sensibility, and her block makes me smile every time I look at them. Her two projects can easily stand alone or be combined together. The scale of the large and small blocks compliment each other very well. 

It's a little hard to see, but Peg's hat has a log cabin block on the top, so very cute and practical.

All the way from Oregon, Holly came with packed suitcases and loads of enthusiasm. She has also been to school a few times, and does not mind coming from across the country to attend classes. I have been very fortunate to have had her in one of my classes before, and was very happy to see her again.            

Holly is very creative in her own right, as well as very productive this week. Her first project in yellow and blues is quite fun, with lots of movement. She may or may not add a border to this, it could easily be a great quilt without anything more added.                                      

Her second project too off as soon as we worked with some of the "variations" of the block. Holly got so into making the leaf blocks and the blocks with inset bias strips, I lost count of how many she made and how many went into this quilt. Her fabrics and colors are beautiful and very much gives you a Native American, and an oriental sense with the asymmetrical design all in one. I do not know if that is the intention but somehow it all works. She might even make it bigger if she keeps making more of the blocks. There might also be some applique and embroidery involved. Hope to see this one finished.

There was no time to finish this beautiful rose, which Holly had made before she came to this class, but the new addition of the leaves will tie it all together. She has some great ideas of what to do to finish it.                                 

Carol from North Carolina, came with, in her words, less experience in quilting to the class, that's what she claims anyway. She had no problem mastering this and very much knew her way around the sewing machine. Truly fun and very open to play with unusual color combinations. These blocks are so bright and vibrant, I just love it! Before the week was over, she has borders, basted it and was ready to quilt. Camping at the Schools campground she planned to hand quilt it while her and her husband are on the road.                                                                                                                                                            

Carols second piece started with larger blocks, but as she was not happy with them, she cut them       smaller and smaller, until they were all about 3 "square. Knowing Carol she will make something fun out of these, maybe a grid in between the small blocks would make them pop. Carol has very fond      memories of her husbands grandmother making scrap quilts, and it is obvious that she is carrying on that tradition.                                                                                                                                           

In between her "serious" work, Carol got scraps from Cindy's blocks and covered her plain fabric pouch. How cute is that? Totally Carol's personality. A pleasure to have in class, and I think we might have made a quilter out of her (haha)                                                             

Susan from Georgia didn't have one dull fabric in her stash.  She brought the brightest and happiest        fabric of the group. Her initial blocks went through a few transitions during the week, and her final quilt had joint blocks with sashing and border. Love the way she cut the border fabric to have different parts of the fabric create a different looking border. It really compliments the setting. She also made several    bright leaves, but unfortunately I couldn't fine a photo of those. I know she will continue using those      bright batiks in many quilts.                                                                                                                        

So here we are, in the aftermath of Covid, following all the guidelines and wearing masks inside. For a very brief moment we took them off, to show our happy faces.  It was a great week, good to be back!

Painted Fabrics

A lot of extra time on my hands this summer and fall, and much of that time as used to explore surface design techniques which I have been intrigued by for years. Not having had the time to really get the paints and dyes out and just see what happens when it is all mixed together. Here are pictures of cotton fabrics that are painted with fabric paints, mostly Jaquards paints. Boxes of many different paints have been sitting idle for years, and I tried to use up a few.                                                                              

 Dyne-a-flow is a very liquid paint that spreads  very easily on the fabric.  Any fabric paint can be used, you just have to water it down so that it is quite thin, and easier to apply with a foam brush or regular brush.                                                                                                                                                         

Some places the paints will mix on the fabric, especially if the fabric is damp or wet before the paints are applied.

Some of the grid pattern that shows up are a result of the fabric drying on my back porch table, creating small puddles in the design on the table. Not intentional, but I am happy with the little extra effect.

Very often I need something special for a background on a appliques quilt, and this technique can make a very special addition to a scenery quilt, and you don't need to spend a lot of time on it

But most of all I had fun doing this, and for a few days I painted several yards of white Kona cotton fabric with paints from my stash. I was hoping that my stash would get smaller after this, but of course ended up buying more paints. Now the stash is bigger than it ever was. 

Many other "fabrics" are nice for this paint as well, certain interfacings works great and take the paint just like fabric. So a few found things in my studio got the paint treatment this summer, and are a nice addition to my stash of dyed and painted fabric waiting for a project.
 

Easy Arch

 This has been an unusual year to say the least. All of us has had changes in scheduling and activities. Dealing with the ongoing pandemic has been a challenge in many ways, and we all hope it will come to an end soon. Staying healthy is our main focus right now, and with suddenly having all that extra time available has been a little hard to handle at times. Usually I will complain about not having time to explore some directions with my quiltmaking, and then I find myself with all this time,  weeks of time in my studio. What to do with that has been more challenging than finding fabric and get to work. Knowing that I do better with some structure, I set goals for every week, working an something I want to explore, finding information about a technique I had been interested in, and working through the ins and outs of it, till I feel I know everything I can. I will share some of this in a few post in the next weeks and months. Lots of different fabric/surface treatment have been tested, leaving me with stacks of dyed , painted and otherwise manipulated fabrics, which I hopefully will use in new projects in the near future.

Early  spring I worked for several weeks on one of my favorite piecing technique, the Easy Arch block.  This has always been my to-go-to block when I feel very uninspired. Just choosing some bright and colorful fabrics will improve the mood! Making the stylized leaves is my favorite variation of this block, and adding some curved piecing, it was a small fun piece. I like it so much I think I will use the rest of the blocks to make a bigger piece or a table runner. Because it is so fast I sewed six blocks in each colorway, so many extras to play with. Black background could be nice too.

It has been years since I took the time and made a bed quilt for our bed.  Again the Easy Arch block is perfect for larger quilts. When you put four together, you can have a "diamond" shaped or a 'circular" shaped center. Adding sashings and cornerstones breaks up the blocks and gives them somewhat of a traditional look. It also adds a little to the size. The brown variation I made for my sister, and the purple variation I made for me. I am not a very "purple" person, but this will change the look in the bedroom, and I am in the mood for a change right now.                                                                                            

I will buy all kinds of 5" charm packs when I go to shows. Especially batiks, so after collecting many different one, I finally made a full size bed quilt for a grandson. I was left with several black/white and neutral colored batiks. this is the basic block using those colors, and with a red and black setting. Fun and easy to make.

Next on my list was doing something for the youngest grandsons, twins. Of course they will have to get full size quilts too for their 3rd. birthday too. First time ever that I am ahead of schedule with two finished tops, similar but different. Different sizes of the basic Easy Arch block, set together with filler strips. These will be machine quilted as I am sure they will be washed many times.

Just another picture of my own new bed quilt. I am very happy to have this one done.

I plan to share a few more projects coming up, just trying to stay busy!

Please stay safe!

Picture quilts from J C Campbell Folkschool

A small but very nice group of ladies came to J C Campbells Folkschool in Brasstown, NC for a week long stay. The class was "Free Form machine applique",  for five days we worked with pictures and drawing, and created some wonderful pieces of textile art.

Debbie from Georgia, brought a beautiful photo of a butterfly in the garden that she wanted to work with . She worked long hours every day and recreated this wonderful scene on a pieced background (love the bright greens!). The free form stitching around the shapes gave the butterfly life and definition. Metallic threads added lots of sparkle and details.

Mary from New Jersey, had a very nice photo of tulips that her grandson had given her. She wanted to create  a small wall piece with the bouquet and blue vase as the focus. Many shades of reds and yellows gave great contrast to the flowers and the bright green fabric gives a wonderful frame to it.

Kathy from Georgia worked with one of my favorite themes, an old boat. This one was in a day scene, but as the  week progressed it became a night scene. I think the dark blue fabric added a lot of mood to this landscape. She plans to add wavy quilting lines across to give the feel of water. Love the boat of course!

Friday night is "Show and tell", we all get to see what has been done that week. So in between  woodwork, metalwork, leatherwork, paperwork etc. we get to show our projects. Nice with spotlights to show off beautiful textile art!