Picking up Pieces

In 2017, I had a great idea to make an 8 x 10" art quilt each week, an idea that numerous other artists have successfully embarked upon.  My take on the project never made it out of the idea stage.  I would still like to attempt it, though thanks to the multitude of other things I am attempting, I am not going to let it rule my life.  If I get one art quilt done in a week, great, if not, it is due to making other things.  If I get four done in a week, well that would be something.

Earlier this week, I cut up a piece of my Mardi Gras blend dyed fabric and started playing with bits of green, yellow and purple fabric. 

Since it is Thursday, and this is all I have so far, I doubt that even one of these will be done by Sunday, but at least I am moving along with one of my many ideas.  Now, go make something!  That's what I am off to do now.

Slow Progress

I have been making slow progress in keeping up my New Year's resolution to make more stuff.  One of my goals for some time has been to make various sizes of my fabric boxes.  A couple of years ago I made many 2 inch cube boxes and a few large ones in the range of 4X6X4" and 3X5X3."  Finally over the past week, I cut sides for 3 inch cubes and 2X3X2 boxes.  I have a lot of fun embellishing the box sides in a variety of surface design techniques.  When I start a run of new box sizes, I first make a bunch in a blend of neutrals - black, white, grays and tans.  Here are the sides for the new sizes, embellished and sorted, ready to start zigzagging together.

I've discussed in an early post about how my fascination with boxes came in part from John Steinbeck's dedication to his East of Eden.  Another source of inspiration for my boxes comes from abandoned buildings.  Yes, run down, crumbling old buildings.

My boxes are made up of fabric scraps from other projects, capturing the patched together look of some dilapidated houses.  As I stitch the sides of my smaller boxes together, the action of pinching the sides together causes the box to undergo some shifting and warping.  This is a good thing, it gives the box more character and adds to the visual interest of the piece.  Even the house that I live in, built in 1994, has parts that have swayed and shifted.  This is what I want to capture in my little boxes - the natural, slow process of physical aging of an inanimate structure.  Of course, all of us get bumps, sags and wrinkles as we age, so the inevitable wear that these boxes show over time simply reflects us as well.

Image and designs copyright RPS

My little fabric boxes are mostly decorative, but they could of course be used to hold, as Steinbeck put it, "whatever you have."

The Purple Collage, the Finale

Earlier this year, or maybe even last year, I periodically documented the creation of a fabric collage here.  It was finished for entry into the Mutton Hill Quilt Show, and here it is at the show:

Image and design copyright RPS

It was an experiment, not completely successful.  While I made it, I had in mind the paper collages of Kurt Schwitters (scroll down on the link for images of his work).  I think the influence of Schwitters is evident in my collage.  However, it is a bit of a wreck in the technique.  My most significant fault with my purple collage is the trial of sewing a slightly smaller quilt base, allowing the edges of the purple dyed damask napkin hang free.  I will not do that again!  It was hard to quilt near the edges, and I just don't like the floppy edges.  Additionally, the quilting made the whole thing lumpy!  The next collage that I make using a dyed napkin for a sub-base will have a slightly larger quilt base, not smaller.  I would like to try mounting future collages on canvas and stretcher bars, like a painting.  I have heard of other textile artists having good luck with that method, citing that would-be buyers relate to the treatment better. 

Another thing that I like about the collage is the seed stitching I did to create an unobtrusive border.  The stitching was necessary to try and secure the floppy edges, and it added more texture.  Not only is there paper sewn into this piece, but there really are pieces in there that would have been trash!  There are foil chocolate wrappers and plastic mesh produce bag pieces in the mix.  Look around as you go through your day with a vision to find unusual materials to stitch. 

Despite the problems, I really had fun making this and I still love it as a learning experience.  I will hang it somewhere in my house, as it is still a visual delight to me.  I hope to start my next collage this weekend.

Scrap Lace Fabric

I always draw a crowd when I demo my "scrap lace fabric" at quilt shows.  I had several request to re-post the instructions, so here they are.  These instructions are copyrighted, please do not re-post this elsewhere or distribute elsewhere.  

Here is something fun to make with strips of sheer fabric and funky yarns.  I came up with this after numerous utterances of “what do I do with this?” from shoppers in my quilt show/market booth.  I sell packages of assorted funky yarns, and many visitors to my booth love them, but get stumped on using them.  I also had to find a way to use a stash of beautiful vintage rayon scarves that were a surprise in a big box lot from a recent auction.  The technique is an expansion of thread lace from two sources: Fun with Sulky Blendables and Solid Color Cotton Threads, (Joyce Drexler/Sulky of America, 2011) and Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond (Ruth Chandler, Liz Kettle, Heather Thomas, Lauren Vleck, Landauer Publishing, 2009)

                                                                         

Supplies:                                          

2 pieces water soluble stabilizer (Sulky Solvy or Superior Threads Dissolve 4X), cut both pieces same size.

                HINT: Start small for the first try, about 10x10”

Assorted fancy yarns

Vintage scarf (rayon, polyester or silk)

Machine sewing thread to complement your color scheme

Here’s what you do:

1. Thread your sewing machine, set for free motion quilting

2. Cut narrow strips of scarf, roughly 1” wide, doesn’t have to be exact, vary the widths if desired

3. Place one piece of water soluble stabilizer on your work surface

Place strips of scarf on top of stabilizer, some horizontal, some vertical, some diagonal.  You don’t have to cover the entire surface, some gaps are OK.  You are creating a rough grid pattern.

4. Add random cuts of yarns on the strips; straight lines, curves lines, whatever looks good to you.

Add some more strips of scarf, but don’t completely cover the yarns you just used.

5. When you are happy with your arrangement of strips and yarns, place the second piece of stabilizer on top, matching it with the bottom piece. 

6. Carefully take the resulting “sandwich” to your sewing machine.  The fibers will shift as you sew, so watch for areas that are bunching and thin them out as you go.

7. Start quilting in a straight line pattern to “baste” the stabilizer sandwich, making your lines about 2”apart.

8. Once you get the basting lines done, you will now free motion quilt the entire sandwich.  Pick a quilting pattern that will allow you to easily double back over your design.  The first one of these that I made, I used the pebble design, and I simply stitched each pebble twice as I went.  The idea is to make sure the stitching is absolutely secure.  The quilting could take a while, since you are essentially quilting twice.  I also found that the stabilizer is difficult to maneuver at first, but it gets better as you go along.  I actually had to grab a fistful of one side of my sandwich to help it along.  Just be exceptionally careful that you don’t jerk it and break the needle.

9. When you are done quilting, you get to soak away the stabilizer.  Follow the instructions for the product you are using.  Let it dry, then you are ready to use it an embellishment, or attach to a piece of cotton and piece it into your next project.

COPYRIGHT 2017 RAGS PAPER STITCHES

Auction Finds

I had a good day at the local junk auction this week.  I came home with three sewing machines, though not anything greatly desirable.  These machines are robust but lower end models, not the machines that I look for as a collector who uses her collection.  This bunch will be serviced and donated to a group that works with abused and homeless girls.  The girls are taught sewing as a part of a therapy course, and each girl gets to keep the machine that she learns on.  I’m all for any program that gets any youngsters into making something.

I also bought this:

An unfinished hand sewn quilt top made with lots of different strips of 1930s printed feed sack cloth.  As much as I rant against looking at the backs of contemporary quilts, I must say, this one warrants study of the back.

The underside is a collection of more print scraps, and plain feed sacks.  This quilt top begs so many questions.  The obvious, who made it, and where?  Why was so much time spent on what is here, to leave it unfinished?  It also came with several loose stars, and two quarter stars.  Those little pieces will go into a collage.  I want to do something with the part top that preserves its integrity, but I have no desire to attempt to continue the pattern.

Scrapbooks, Part One

If you’ve been a frequent reader here, you’ve likely noticed my fascination with bits and pieces – scraps.  Not just scraps of fabric, but scraps gleaned from research projects, bits from the lives of others (my auction addiction) and so on.                        

               

I have a great appreciation for antique scrapbooks from the late 1800s and early 1900s, having had the opportunity to view some stellar examples in a couple of libraries where I used to work.  I have not really jumped into the contemporary scrapbooking trend, though I do have a couple of sketchbooks in which I keep clippings from assorted sources for creative inspiration.  Assembling a scrapbook of this nature is a great way to have a steady source of ideas in one place.  The creative-type scrapbook is also a way to condense piles of magazines.  Pull out the articles you want, (making sure to note the title and date), get rid of the rest.  Don’t be afraid to add anything else that inspires you: advertising graphics, literary or music quotes, names of artists to study, whatever strikes your fancy!

Earlier this year, I acquired a box lot of paper ephemera that was definitely the remains of a disassembled late 1800s scrapbook.  At that time, “chromolithography, die cutting and embossing unleashed a flood of cheap, brightly colored scrap [commercially printed paper],” made specifically for the scrapbooking hobby then.  (John Fleischman, “The Labyrinthine World of the Scrapbook King,” Smithsonian Magazine, Feb. 1992.)

Personally, I think that the 1800s printed scrap papers are much better in quality and innovation than the scrapbook papers churned out today.  That said, most of the 1800s scrapbooks that I have come across at the antiques shops and markets are just page after page of litho pictures, nothing else.  Rare is the one that has a clear theme and/or includes text of any sort. 

I picked up these small volumes at an outdoor market this year. 

They consist entirely of newspaper and magazine articles on a single subject.  The dealer had a large boxful of them.  I selected volumes titled Color, Wool, Textiles, Vegetables and Fruit.  Sadly, most of the articles lack a source and date, but from the few dates that I found in them, the books were assembled between 1920 and 1957.  They are a fascinating insight into the midcentury decades, and I love the idea of keeping personal groups of related articles.

These little scrapbooks raise many unanswerable questions though.  Did the individual who made them intend for them to say something about that person after they passed on, or were they solely intended for their maker’s lifetime?

Later on, I will profile two tremendous collectors of ephemera: Joseph Cornell and Theodore Langstroth.

Collage Continuation

Welcome back to the creation of my latest fabric collage.  I thought that I would sew more pieces down this afternoon, but I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do.  Some days are like that.  So far, all I have on the collage is flat fabric.  I want more texture in this.

I've had to rethink the attachment of the lacy trims and funky yarns that I love so much.  I don't want the ends unraveling, so I have to come up with a way of hiding the ends on a seamless base.  The obvious solution is to hide the ends under the fabric pieces that I will raw-edge applique to the base.

I don't want every trim end to start and end underneath fabric.  This is a design element, to vary what I do with a particular material, adding visual interest.  To avoid the unraveling of crocheted trim, I simply will fold under 1/4" of the ends that I don't hide under fabric.  

On this piece, I decided where I wanted the trim piece, and flipped it back to sew it as a short seam.  After trimming the first stitching line, I put the trim back in place and sewed the top edge.  The other end will be hidden under a fabric scrap:

Another consideration in design is to use a specific element in more than one place in a piece.  Keeping this in mind, I cut another piece of the light green trim to try sewing it by tucking under both ends and not hiding them under fabric.

Success!  It might be easier to sew the ends under by hand, or fuse with bits of Mistyfuse, then sew.  Sewing this piece by machine wasn't too bad.

 Onward with the trim!  I also will add some silk sari "ribbons" with this technique over the next few days.  On Tuesday, I plan on discussing machine couching.  For now, I have sewing to do...

Collage in Progress

A day late, here is one of many ways to create something original out of fabric.   

I do not usually start with a finished vision.  I pick out a fabric or two, or a large embellishing item, and build a collage from there.  While ironing the vintage fabric scraps that I purchased last weekend, two pieces caught my eye – an odd bird shaped piece and a little hexagon.  These two pieces are the foundation of this evolving piece.  I selected a purple dyed damask napkin for the base, and started playing with the layout of other fabric pieces. 

Image copyright RPS, please do not repost elsewhere

I next selected two long, light colored calico pieces for some contrast of value.  Creating a skewed L shape in an arrangement is a recurring design device that has gotten stuck in my brain from a workshop that I took a few years ago.  I keep using it, as it creates a sort of half frame that keeps the viewer’s eye moving around the whole piece – something that you want in a good composition.     

Image copyright RPS, please do not repost elsewhere

Adding more pieces, I deliberately have no focal point here.  I’m not trying to recreate a concrete image.  These collages are meditative studies of texture, color, pattern and shape.  I want my viewer to have something to gaze upon that is a delight to the eyes. 

When playing with collage arrangements, take a picture of each one.  Seeing a smaller image of a composition often helps you evaluate it better.  Make one arrangement, snap a photo, take all the pieces off, start over.  However, set a time limit, otherwise you could spend days on one piece.  You want to create a finished work, move along with it!  Give yourself an hour to play, then look at your photos and pick one to make.  Rebuild the one you like, and start stitching.

Image copyright RPS, please do not repost elsewhere

A different look, though I'm not liking it as much as the first one.  See how different a collage can become by rearranging the pieces and adding or leaving out things?

Image copyright RPS, please do not repost elsewhere

Ugh, too much going on!  After adding pieces, this one really is not working.  I still will add stitching, fancy yarns, paper and who-knows-what else.  The little details will be too much for this option.  Next time, I'll have a few more design possibilities on a smaller napkin background.

Coshocton Wrap-up

The Coshocton Canal Quilters show is in the books.  I sold a little, bought a little, met some new faces, and discovered a great local pizza place.  Should you find yourself in Coshocton, Ohio, whether it is to visit Roscoe Village, or for something else, I recommend Crowtown Pizza on Second Street.  If you are reading this blog for the first time after finding me at the Coshocton show, welcome to my world of ramblings!  If you bought something from me, thank you.  I’d love to see what you make from my fabric.

 

I often have people tell me, whether it is referring to art quilts in general or the unusual textiles that I sell, that they like what they see but don’t know where to start in making something unique.  There are many ways to address the “blank page” challenge.  One quick way to get started is to pick out three or four fabrics that you like, cut a few simple shapes from them, and start playing with different arrangements.  Decide on a finished size, keep it small, and when you get an arrangement you like, start sewing.   

As I mentioned in the opening of this post, I bought a few things over the weekend including some neat vintage quilt blocks and fabric scraps.  I have enough fabric to work with already, but these vintage treasures kept calling me.  I’m inspired to create something with them. 

 

In the next post (hopefully on Thursday), I will give an example of the playing with shapes method of starting a composition. 

More Fabric Flowers

I have been chipping away this week at various nearly-finished projects.  One of the projects has been a sample for a future class that I want to teach.  Part of the sample includes making dimensional flowers with Tyvek (the woven plastic house wrap stuff) and fabric.  The process of working with Tyvek is detailed in Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond (Ruth Chandler, Liz Kettle, Heather Thomas, Lauren Vleck, Landauer Publishing, 2009).  I'm not going to quote the entire process here, but here is one thing to do with the Tyvek - spring flowers!

It seems like every creative project has to go though on ugly stage, even this quick, simple flowers.  Here they are, cut out after free motion quilting:

Not very exciting at this point.  But, after heating the fabric and Tyvek "sandwiches," they turn into this:

Much more interesting, no?  I still have to add beads to the centers.  Some of my flowers looked horrible before the heat treatment, but the puckering hides a lot of problems.  There were a few flowers that I thought would be fine, but did not turn out well in the end, sometimes it is best not to try and predict the outcome, but keep on making and see what happens.


 

Fun project: "Lace" from funky yarn and fabric strips

Here is something fun to make with strips of sheer fabric and funky yarns.  I came up with this after numerous utterances of “what do I do with this?” from shoppers in my quilt show/market booth.  I sell packages of assorted funky yarns, and many visitors to my booth love them, but get stumped on using them.  I also had to find a way to use a stash of beautiful vintage rayon scarves that were a surprise in a big box lot from a recent auction.  The technique is an expansion of thread lace from two sources: Fun with Sulky Blendables and Solid Color Cotton Threads, (Joyce Drexler/Sulky of America, 2011) and Fabric Embellishing: The Basics and Beyond (Ruth Chandler, Liz Kettle, Heather Thomas, Lauren Vleck, Landauer Publishing, 2009)

 

 

Supplies:

2 pieces water soluble stabilizer (Sulky Solvy or Superior Threads Dissolve 4X), cut both pieces same size.

                HINT: Start small for the first try, about 10x10”

Assorted fancy yarns

Vintage scarf (rayon, polyester or silk)

Machine sewing thread to complement your color scheme

 

Here’s what you do:

1. Thread your sewing machine, set for free motion quilting

2. Cut narrow strips of scarf, roughly 1” wide, doesn’t have to be exact, vary the widths if desired

3. Place one piece of water soluble stabilizer on your work surface

Place strips of scarf on top of stabilizer, some horizontal, some vertical, some diagonal.  You don’t have to cover the entire surface, some gaps are OK.  You are creating a rough grid pattern.

4. Add random cuts of yarns on the strips; straight lines, curves lines, whatever looks good to you.

Add some more strips of scarf, but don’t completely cover the yarns you just used.

 

5. When you are happy with your arrangement of strips and yarns, place the second piece of stabilizer on top, matching it with the bottom piece. 

6. Carefully take the resulting “sandwich” to your sewing machine.  The fibers will shift as you sew, so watch for areas that are bunching and thin them out as you go.

7. Start quilting in a straight line pattern to “baste” the stabilizer sandwich, making your lines about 2”apart.

8. Once you get the basting lines done, you will now free motion quilt the entire sandwich.  Pick a quilting pattern that will allow you to easily double back over your design.  The first one of these that I made, I used the pebble design, and I simply stitched each pebble twice as I went.  The idea is to make sure the stitching is absolutely secure.  The quilting could take a while, since you are essentially quilting twice.  I also found that the stabilizer is difficult to maneuver at first, but it gets better as you go along.  I actually had to grab a fistful of one side of my sandwich to help it along.  Just be exceptionally careful that you don’t jerk it and break the needle.

9. When you are done quilting, you get to soak away the stabilizer.  Follow the instructions for the product you are using.  Let it dry, then you are ready to use it an embellishment, or attach to a piece of cotton and piece it into your next project.