Painted Threads Projects

Felted Wool Eggs

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Well over the weekend I took the plunge and created a Pinterest account since so many of my friends are on there and see what I've been missing.

While I was poking around I saw quite a few pretty dyed eggs and although this seems a little early, I thought it might be fun to make some felted eggs.

After all they aren't going to spoil between now and Easter :-)

It might be fun to also add some decorative stitching with embroidery floss and adding some cut out wool felt shapes.

If you'd like to make some too, you can follow this tutorial, just roll your yarn balls into oval egg shapes.

This is a great way to use up leftover wool yarn. Rolling golf ball size yarn balls as a base for the ball. Wind yarn into oblong shapes to get a berry shaped ball. I usually use wool yarn for the center because I know it will felt better, but in a pinch I have used other yarns too. My favorite place to order roving is from Outback Fibers, the colors are gorgeous and the prices are very reasonable.Unwind a length of roving, while holding it in one hand, grasp the end portion with the other hand and gently pull off "tufts" roughly 5-6 inches in length. Spread the fibers into a thin flat layer with all the strands going in one direction. Pull off another tuft of roving and layer it on top of the first at a 90 degree angle. Repeat this process several more times, criss-crossing 4-6 thin layers.
When lifting the blanket of roving there should not be thin spots or holes. Changing the colors of yarn in the layers will create a heathered multicolored wool ball.

Wrap the roving blanket you have created around a yarn ball, making sure there is full coverage of fluffy roving with no bare or thin spots.

Close the roving covered yarn ball in your hand and bring it to the foot of a knee hi panty hose. (buy cheap ones at the dollar store, or use those ancient ones in the back of your hosiery drawer that you never wear anymore) Gently remove your hand from around the ball pulling the hose tightly around the roving ball then tie a small piece of yarn to secure the ball in place.

When all the balls have been wrapped in the hose, place them in the washing machine, set the water to lowest level and hottest setting. Add a small amount of detergent, about a tablespoon, the exact measurement is not crucial but soap is important in the felting process. I usually run it on a long cycle, the more agitation the better the felting. Good old fashion top loading washers have the most success with felting.

When you take the chain of balls out of the machine, you will see little fibers have come though the mesh of the hose. Snip the tied yarn between the balls, gently peel away the hose removing the ball and roll the ball in your hands to smooth the fibers.

Click here to watch a video tutorial to make felted pumpkins which start with a basic felted ball.

Chocolate Peppermint Cream Heart Cakes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 15:00:00 +0000

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups shredded zucchini

1 cup semisweet chocolate baking chips

1 cup salad oil

4 large eggs

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir in zucchini, and chocolate chips. In a small bowl, beat oil to mix with eggs; add to dry mixture and stir to moisten well.

Line two large jelly roll pans with parchment paper, crease corners to fit and spread half the batter in each pan. Bake in a 325° oven until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 15-20 minutes.

While cake is cooling make peppermint cream filling.

Peppermint Cream

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup whole milk

1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

red food coloring

Cream the butter with a mixer on medium speed until soft about 30 seconds. Add the sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy, 5 to 7 minutes.

In a small saucepan, combine 1/4 cup of the milk, the flour, and the vanilla extract, and whisk until there are no lumps. Over medium heat, slowly add the remaining 3/4 cup milk, whisking constantly, and cook until the mixture comes to a low boil. Then reduce the heat to low and keep whisking for a few more minutes, until the mixture starts to thicken.

Immediately remove the pan from the heat, but keep stirring and cool to room temperature. If necessary, place the pan over a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and allow the mixture to cool.

With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour the milk mixture into the butter-sugar mixture. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add peppermint to combine.

After cake has cooled use a heart shaped cookie cutter and cut out cake hearts and place on a clean piece of parchment. One pan had thicker hearts so I made those the bottoms and the thinner hearts the tops.

Place peppermint cream in a large ziplock bag, snip corner and squeeze out cream onto half the hearts and place a second heart on top.

Now you could stop here or you could keep going by cutting some heart stencils and and dusting the hearts with powdered sugar.

What can I say, Indigo and I were doing this together, lol

Indigo perfected the dusting process by finding if you brush the remaining powder sugar off the stencil before lifting it you get a cleaner design.

Here's some of the stencils we made

Enjoy!

Folk Art Inspired Ornament

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:00:00 +0000

What you're going to need

4" square Walnut Hollow aluminum and cardboard from package
embossing tool
ribbon for hanging
red paint
paint brush
decorative craft scissors
paper scissors
hole punch
E-6000 glue or similar adhesive
Adirondack alcohol inks and blending solution (optional)

Click on the heart image to open a full size jpg on another web page. Drag image onto your desktop and print heart design so that it fits on a 4" square (on point, measure on the diagonal). Trace outline onto the 4" cardboard square that came in the aluminum package. Cut it out and paint it red on both sides. Punch a small hole for the hanging ribbon in the top.

Center line drawing over the 4" metal square and trace the small heart, this will lightly emboss the heart on the metal.

Using decorative edge craft scissors cut just outside the embossed line.

Glue metal heart to cardboard with E-6000 or similar strong multipurpose adhesive, it may need 24 hours to dry completely. Then emboss decorative designs on the metal, I prefer using a nylon tipped tool for this.

Draw the design of your choice on the paper heart, place over the metal and trace the design so that it transfers to the metal.

Go over the lines with the embossing tool to add more depth to the design and add more decorative details.

You could stop here with a silver embossed design or add color with Adirondack Alcohol inks.

Use Alcohol blending solution instead of water to lighten colors, rehydrate the inks on your palette (because they dry very quickly) and clean your brush between colors.

Thread ribbon through the hole and tie it for hanging.

Creating The Look of Rusty, Old, Stained Fabric

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 14:07:00 +0000

A white piece of fabric can be so intimidating to work on, that's one of the reasons I like to start with fabric that has a little color and texture when I plan on collaging and painting it.

I like to create a variety of warm and cool browns.

I mix watery solutions of textile paint, this is a great way to use up the remainders of paint left in the jar. One of my favorite colors is made by combining Setacolor's buttercup yellow and purple, it makes a gorgeous warm ochre brown.

I crumple pieces of dry white pfd cotton fabric and dunk it in the paint solution.

Maybe you might want to use gloves, lol, for some reason I never think of doing things like that.

Then I squeeze out the fabric

and lay it on the table, partially crumpled, to dry. As it dries the pigment in the paint is drawn to the creases in the fabric.

After it has dried, I iron the fabric to reveal all the beautiful texture.

DIY Ombre Skirt

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I've had this jean skirt for a couple years and have hardly ever worn it, the first reason is the length was not flattering being right at the knee, as you can see here in this photo from quilt festival with my friend Jane LaFazio and one of my students, Nasreen. It makes my long legs look stumpy and it was just kind of boring.

So I cut off 3 inches and left a raw edge. I'm a 70's girl at heart, I always liked that raw edge on cut offs. Then I set to work bleaching the bottom edge.

Here it is after, much improved, I think.

This is how I did it:

I used bleach, unfortunately with denim there aren't really any other good options for removing the dye, and a bucket.

First I saturated the skirt in water so the bleach wouldn't make a sharp line when I first dipped it. I put about an inch of bleach in a bucket and dipped the skirt in.

Then I poured hot water down the skirt and into the bucket, so there would be more bleach in the bucket but it would be diluted. I slowly dipped the skirt in a little deeper so the diluted bleach went up higher on the skirt. I repeated dipping and pulling the skirt out of the bleach until I got the bottom edge very light and had a nice gradation.

I ran the skirt through a long wash wash cycle to get all the bleach out and put it in the drier on hot to get the bottom nice and frayed.

Now back to work prepping for all my classes at International Quilt Festival next week.

How can you resist such a simple technique

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:39:00 +0000

One fun little technique I found works great with acrylic inks (this would also work with Tsukineko inks) is to draw on fabric with a colored pencil or china marker and paint over it like a simple resist. Kind of like in grammar school when you colored with crayons and painted india ink over the top.

So why pencil versus china marker? Simply, pencil will give you a thinner defined line and the china marker a thicker heavier line.

In this case brand does matter. The first sample, if you can see it, was written with a Blick store brand white colored pencil and the second was a Berol Prismacolor white pencil. The Blick pencil was not as creamy and waxy and did not create a very good resist, the ink painted right over it.

If you are unfamiliar with china markers, they are a pencil that can write on a non-porous surface, like plastic, glass or metal and then can be wiped of with a firm rub with a dry cloth.

You don't sharpen them, instead you peel back the paper wrap covering by grasping that little string and pulling it back to the first perforated row

grab the paper, unwind it

then draw.

This is a sample I worked on in the acrylic inks class, layering up multiple different techniques.

The thick white lines are textile paint, the thinner flower vine pattern in the center of the paisley is china marker.

The little pale blue crosses in the background were also drawn with white china marker and then painted over with blue ink. I like how they show up really well and have a hint of blue.

I painted over the center of the paisley with red ink.

The pencil does not penetrate the fibers like a gutta resist, so if you have a lot of ink on your brush and the fabric gets really wet it will bleed beyond the pencil lines, but the white lines of the drawn imagery will show through, which to me is the effect I really like.

I painted inside the flowers and leaves with red-violet ink to make them stand out more. The benefit of the china marker was that I could quickly add color without being too fussy and neat because it kept the ink fairly contained.

Voila!

Making the 8 of Cups

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:01:00 +0000

8 of Cups Judy Coates Perez 24" x 60"

The 8 of Cups came about after going through a rough period emotionally last fall, it was a cathartic piece that I created for an upcoming exhibit called Rituals that will open at International Quilt Festival, Long Beach in July.

I began by drawing an anatomical heart from an old medical illustration engraving, extending the arteries into curving vines to represent new growth and life. I feel like when I create imagery that is painful but transformative, it helps me on a deeper level internalize the meaning behind it. Below the heart I drew veins from a heart, going upwards, which feel like barren trees, but also have the symbolism of roots to me. The fabric is 3' x 6', the finished piece needed to be 24"x 60".

Using acrylic inks and a 2 inch wide brush, I painted over the drawing with large brush strokes of color.

The only way to get a photo of the whole thing was to stand on the table, unfortunately there is a large shadow falling across it from the window.

Now the thing to keep in mind is, I really didn't have a definite plan here. I tried not to worry about whether it would come out "good" or not, because really that is not the goal. For me it was about processing feelings, thoughts, aspirations hopes... just what was going on personally.

Symbolism of the Imagery

Cicadas, I love the way they buzz in the trees, communicating with each other in circular pattens of sound and I think the growth cycles and transformations they go through in life are fascinating.

The Moon: deception, disappointment, dishonor

Strength: acceptance, courage, optimism, heroism

2 of Cups: resolution, harmony, partnership

2 of Coins: need to balance, energy, amusement

The World: new life, the end of a cycle, attainment of purpose

Cancer crab: represents someone

3 of Swords: betrayal, separation, clearing the way for something better

Grieving the death of relationships, closure and renewal

Hanged Man: suspension, meditation, transformative thinking

6 of Swords: letting go, moving beyond sorrow, the road to recovery

Wheel of Fortune: positive change, progress, beginnings

The cards represented are ones that have come up multiple times in recent readings, so I think their meaning is significant and so very apropos.

While trying to gain perspective on things, the card that turned up most often as an outcome in tarot readings was the 8 of cups. It expressed exactly how I felt and helped me realize I need to be more assertive in taking control of my life.

Being a tea drinker, using tea cups felt like the perfect imagery to pull all these disparate symbolic images together to represent this card. After painting deeper shades of the various colors around the cups, to separate them from the background, I painted white around a scrollwork design, which feel like flames and feathers, passion and lightness.

I felt like it needed a strong graphic element, so I added a large 8. Then I used a gold paint pen to add decorative details to the scrollwork design.

The cups still blended into the background, so I added a rough and bumpy (like the road in life) outline to the cups, mimicking the style of the 8 and bringing them forward visually.

Finished painting

Eight of Cups: Moving on and letting go. Time to change direction in life. Dissatisfied and disappointed, wanting something entirely different, but not knowing what. Finding courage, taking time to rest and heal.

Preparing the finished work for quilting
I wanted the quilting to have less loft and dimension and instead have more stitched illustrative details, so I used wool felt instead of batting. Luckily I had a big piece of yellow felt that a friend gave me during a recent purging that was just the right size.

I placed a layer of Mistyfuse between the felt and the painted top and did the same with the back. I wouldn't do this with batting because the fusible web penetrates the batting, glueing both the top and back together reducing the loft of the batting, but for this project it's not a problem.

For the back I used left over fabrics that had mistyfuse already adhered to them from the Agave quilt I made several years ago. I don't do fusible applique very often so the fabrics have just been sitting on the shelf not getting used.

Quilting
For the quilting on the cups, I am using back thread in an illustrative way adding strong black lines to echo the illustration style of the vintage anatomical heart with monofilament in the needle across the middle of the cups.

I decided to continue using monofilament for stitching the feathery flourishes since I do not want to obscure this part of the painted surface with lines of thread and because the monofilament is relatively clear, the more noticeable holes punched by the needle through the fabric gives another kind of visual patterning that I think is kind of interesting.

I chose to do my curvy meandering fill stitching that is reminiscent of leaves and flourish-y shapes in the white background areas to contrast all the linear stitching on the cups with Bottomline thread which is generally used in the bobbin. It's a lighter weight thread, because I wanted the stitched lines to be more subtle.

Finishing/binding

After the quilting was finished, I marked out the finished size: 24" x 60", sewed a tight straight stitch just inside the marked line, then trimmed it to size.

To finish the edge, I chose to do an untraditional binding with 3 different cords that picked up the colors in the quilt and used them to make a couched twisted cord binding.

DETAILS

What I learned...
Because I like experimenting and trying out things differently, I always learn something new with every project. Sometimes I discover a great new way of working and sometimes it turns out that my initial idea created unexpected challenges or wasn't as successful as I'd hoped.

I used wool rayon felt instead of batting, because I wanted a flat smooth finish for this piece. I used felt a friend had given me that she most likely had sitting around for about 15 years. I had two issues that popped up from using this.

The first one was the stiffness of the felt, compared to batting, made it more difficult for manipulating under the harp of the machine. I think 30 inches would be the widest I would recommend working with felt. Wider than that and I could see some definite limitations to quilting the surface smoothly. I had to roll and fold the piece to work the central areas which sometimes got a little cumbersome.

The second issue came about after I fused my top to the felt. I had a fair amount of rippling of the top due to it not fusing completely in all areas or staying fused for the duration of the quilting (it's possible there may have been a finish on the felt that kept it from adhering), as well as some possible shrinkage of the felt by the high temperature and steam used while fusing.

After the cups and flourishes had been quilted there was a significant amount of buckling in the white areas, I don't think the fusible web was even sticking anymore at that point, luckily the open areas were not very large, maybe 9" at the widest so it didn't present too much of a problem and it all smoothed out nicely with the quilting.

Conclusion: would I use felt again? Yes, but I would take size into consideration, if I was working on a particularly large piece I would probably use a lightweight batting instead. I would also pretest the wool to make sure I didn't have a problem with adhesion when fusing. I think a newer piece of wool felt wouldn't have had the adhesion problems that this one had, I suspect it had a finish on it.

Making a Faced Binding

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 16:00:00 +0000

Quite often I think bindings can visually distract from an art quilt. Of course there are times when the binding integrates visually to the overall design of a quilt and is a necessary design element. But for my quilts I find a frame of color around the outside edge of the quilt to be distracting. I don't really like big wooden frames on painted canvases either, so I guess that is just my personal preference.

So, when I make large art quilts, I like to make faced bindings, which creates a very clean finish to the front of a quilt (and you can never get a critical comment from a judge that your binding is not evenly filled either, lol).

The first thing you need to do is cut a four inch wide strip of fabric for each side of the quilt that is about 4" longer than each side.

Fold the fabric in half lengthwise and press.

After I have trimmed the quilt to size, I machine stitch the edge to secure any quilting lines that have been cut and to keep the 3 layers secured while sewing the binding on.

Pin the binding fabric to the front of the quilt with a couple extra inches of binding at either end.

With a pencil place a mark 1/4" from the top edge of the quilt, do the same at the bottom edge of the quilt. This is where you will begin and end stitching. Stitch binding down with 1/4" seam allowance.

Fold the binding back at a 45° angle, place the next binding down and repeat the previous step.

Finger press the second binding at a 45° angle.

This finger pressed line will be your stitching line.

Bring the two binding edges together, matching up the finger pressed lines and pin.

Pull the quilt out of the way and stitch along the finger pressed line.

Stop stitching at the pencil mark.

Trim seam to 1/4" and finger press open.

Trim bulk of seam allowance away at corner being careful not to cut the stitching line.

Trim the seam allowance at an angle toward the corner.

Turn the binding to the back, poking the corner out to a point with your finger or with a blunt pointed object. Press the binding along the edge of the quilt with a hot iron. Then slip stitch the binding to the back of the quilt.

A nice clean finish!

jojo said- where did you get that measuring tool?

Jojo, That tool, made by Dritz, came in my teacher bag at festival, it is awesome! I found one here on Amazon.

Laurie said- How do you hang the quilt-with a sleeve?

Gloria Hansen has a great tutorial on making a quilt sleeve. All you need is a wood rod or slat, then put a screw eye in each end. Then the quilt can be hung by two small nails that the screw eyes can slip over on the wall.

Making Black and Bloom all Over

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:18:00 +0000

I love getting really focused and tightly rendering a representational image while painting, but recently I have been trying to get looser and more gestural with my painting, kind of like the direction I take with some of my mixed media work, but pushing it even further. For my latest quilt, which represents my present emotional state of mind, I tried to work more spontaneously without pre-planned imagery.

After experimenting with Daler Rowney FW Acrylic Inks, I decided to use them for painting a 4' x 5' piece of cotton sheeting with large loose brush strokes of random color, to see how the inks would work covering large areas and what would happen as the different colors overlapped.

I really liked how the colors would get soft and mottled if the fabric was very wet with ink

and if the fabric was dry, there would be visible brush strokes

After painting the fabric, I used a permanent marker to write personal words and phrases that expressed some of my feelings. These messages are being written for my own catharsis and ultimately will not be very legible to the viewer. My intention is for the words to be embedded in the work like a talisman.

I also collaged a few bits of printed imagery; a toner printed tea bag and some painted abaca paper that I had leftover from making my One collages.

I also used some of my hand carved stamps with the ink and it worked great, not as thick and gloppy as stamping with regular acrylics.

My next step was to draw/paint some big floral imagery. To draw the flower motifs, I thought I would try this solid stick permanent marker I ordered from Dharma.

It was kind of a creamy consistency, much like an oil pastel. It had a little bit of odor but as it dried (after a couple hours) the smell went away. It was easy to draw on the fabric and quickly work out a design. I used the whole stick to draw the images on the quilt, it was easy and convenient but did not go very far.

I am not sure it was better than using a paint brush and paint, but it was probably faster. If you are more comfortable drawing than painting a design freehand then I would recommend it.

To define the flowers from the background it was a matter of painting different colors of ink over the separate areas. For example I painted yellow over the blue areas of the leaves and blue over yellows to get an overall green. I painted a deeper blue over the areas that would be background, making it overall blue yet with all kinds of variations in hue because the colors underneath effect it in different ways.

The large flower was painted over with white, since there was so much green in the under painting it would have been difficult to put a warm color over it without getting a muddy dark flower. As I painted the flowers and background I ended up using white textile paint to add more details and painting over some of the drawn lines to make them bolder.

The next part of the design process involved creating a layer of thorny black weeds to paint on top of the floral imagery.

I took a photo of the painted fabric (by putting it on the floor and standing on a table) and printed out a copy on 8 1/2" x 11" paper. I placed tracing paper over the top and drew multiple versions of weeds until I had it the way I wanted and made a final clean copy with black marker.

My next problem was to figure out how to transfer my design to the painted fabric. I decided the best way to do it would be to project the image on to the cloth. Not having an overhead projector, I decided to use my digital projector that I use for giving lectures.

I scanned the tracing paper and opened the jpg in photosshop, connected my laptop to the projector, taped my painted cloth to the wall and lined up the projected line drawing over the painting. I used a fine point sharpie to trace the line drawing onto my painting.

I painted the weeds with black textile paint, since I wanted it to have the most opacity and I knew it would be tough to cover the white lines.

So now you see where I am, one year after the Three of Swords quilt. There has been some difficult and ugly stuff (represented by thorny weeds) that I have had to deal with, but in the space between there has been a lot of growth, blossoming, renewal, light and life. Even the black bitterness has it's own beauty, it's just a little hard to see sometimes :-) So in other words, I am good! and life is certainly interesting, lol.

Basting
When I prepare a whole cloth painting for quilting my secret weapon is Mistyfuse. I am not fond of basting and when I discovered Mistyfuse could replace hours of tedious basting with fantastic results, I never looked back. I love this product and never make a quilt without it anymore.

I place my painted fabric face down on a surface I can iron on. For that I have a large plywood board wrapped with batting and muslin that I put on top of my work table. Then I cover the back of the fabric with a layer of Mistyfuse.

That roll is a bolt of mistyfuse.

Mistyfuse is as light as a spider web with delicate little strands of fusible adhesive, which will not change the hand of the fabric at all.

I lay a large silicon pressing sheet or parchment paper over the top and iron at the hottest setting.

After the whole back is covered with Mistyfuse, I put a bed sheet on the floor and spread the wool batting out on top. Next, I put the quilt top on with the Mistyfuse side down on the batting. Starting in the center of the fabric and working my way concentrically outward, I iron it on the hottest setting, fusing the top to the batting.

Then I turn the whole thing over, with the painted fabric face down on the sheet. I cut one to two inch squares of Mistyfuse and place them in a loose grid approximately 6 to 8 inches apart across the batting. I carefully lay the backing fabric over the top and iron the surface, which effectively spot fuses the back fabric to the batting.

Freemotion Quilting
I begin the process of freemotion machine quilting, by anchoring the quilt by outlining various parts of the quilt with stitching. This helps to stabilize the quilt. On this particular quilt I stitched around all the wed shapes with black thread and all the flowers with white thread. Then I worked on filling in those areas with different quilting designs.

When the quilting is finished, I block the quilt by pinning it to the carpet and steaming it. This smooths it out, puffs up the batting and makes the quilt lay flat.

Next it's important to make sure the quilt is square by using large straight edges and triangles to check all the corners.

I use a Bohin chalk pencil to mark the finished size of the quilt for cutting.

Then I trim the excess quilted fabric away, using a rotary cutter and butting up several large cutting mats, leaving an extra 1/4 inch seam allowance all the way around to sew the binding to.

I prefer a faced binding which is not visible from the front the quilt, giving it a nice clean finished edge.

Black and Bloom All Over Judy Coates Perez 36" x 48"

Making felted pumpkins tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:25:00 +0000

To make felted pumpkins you will need: wool roving, yarn, pantyhose, embroidery floss, embroidery needle, and scissors.

You can also make little day of the dead skulls too, by making white felted balls adding black felt eyes and stitch nose, mouth and decorative designs like flowers and x's with colorful embroidery floss.

By the way, one of my favorite sources for wool roving is Outback Fibers.

Jennifer from Canada left a comment on my felted pumpkin post asking about the stitching on the skulls so I thought I would post a few close ups to show how I stitched mine. I think one could really do any kind of colorful stitching and they would look great.

Making: Oh Deer, Look What's become of Me!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:30:00 +0000

I started a whole cloth painted quilt for the Robert Kaufman Solid Expressions exhibit and was panicked because I didn’t have a lot of time to make it, so I decided to post the progress daily on my Painted Threads blog.

This post is the culmination of the weeks spent making the quilt. I used Ivory Kona Solid fabric and I did not have extra fabric if I screwed up. Normally I never show my work in progress, I always feel kind of afraid I won't be able to pull it off or feel sort of superstitious about it, but I figured I would share my ~~anxiety~~ I mean progress live this time.

I have had this book on medieval hunting scenes for several years and have always wanted to do something inspired by it. I love the colors and flat 2 dimensional style of the paintings, very reminiscent of tapestries done in that period.

I also love the depiction of deer in those woodland scenes with flowers carpeting the flat green ground like wall paper and skies that have a patterned all over stylized design.

I really wanted to paint something similar, but I didn’t want to just recreate a pretty painting, I wanted the imagery to tell a different story, something quirky and unexpected.

Looking at these paintings got me thinking about so many different things; like the way this painting style uniquely captures a period in history and the stylized graphic quality of the painting is not quite realistic. Then I thought about the various ways deer have been depicted over time and how different styles become popular and then unfashionable.

What would happen when images from two different time periods were brought face to face in a vintage scene? The juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary styles seemed intriguing.

I began imagining a majestic deer in a medieval painted scene walking across a flowered hillside and coming upon a kitschy little deer figurine, like the ones that were so popular in the 1960’s, and imagined its shock, seeing such a distorted little figure with giant blue eyes cheerfully looking up at it.

Of course I am starting bigger than I really should given my time frame, it is 57" x 43" right now, but it will shrink down more with quilting, but I want it to have a decent impact and if it is too small, I don't think it will look as good.

I am painting a piece of Ivory Kona solid fabric, I think the ivory color will help give the painting a warm muted color palette reminiscent of the medieval paintings and I plan on leaving the ivory fabric exposed in areas of the sky with some scroll like filigree painted in beige or gold or maybe both.

I painted the ground and base of the treetops using a lot of textile medium mixed in with the paint so that it would have more of a transparent gradation of color. All the medium in the paint makes it more likely to show brushstrokes and unevenness in the color but hopefully a lot of that will be camouflaged by the plants and leaves painted on top. I cut freezer paper templates of the deer and tree trunks and ironed them in place to protect the fabric from the green paint.

Today I start painting the leaves on the trees and hopefully tackle one of the deer.

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I painted 4 hours in the afternoon and 3 hours in the evening and have still not finished the leaves.

The leaves are now being painted with opaque paints with a fair amount of white mixed in. I am using opaque paints because I need that opacity to paint on the dark green backgrounds.

After I painted the green background on the trees, I had to put my fabric and printed cartoon on a light table and retrace the lines for the leaves. I used a mechanical pencil that Bohin makes with white lead.

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I got in a couple hours of painting time today and finished up the trees. As the painting progresses there is always the possibility that they will need further tweaking, but they are done enough to move on to something else.

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Saturday night I managed to get the big deer painted. I used a transparent brown textile paint and used varying amounts of textile medium (Jacquard; colorless extender) to lighten the color. I plan on painting brush stroke hairs over the majority of the deer similar to the way the animals are painted in the hunting paintings, but I will probably tackle the little deer first and come back to details after.

jojo said...

What is your working surface? Floor or table? Are you painting cotton broadcloth?

judy coates perez said...

Jojo, I am working on a large table that is probably close to 5 feet square. I am painting on Kona solid fabric by Kaufmann, it is ivory.

------------------------

I painted the little deer using opaque paints with white because I wanted him to feel more like a solid object, since those figurines were always made of glass or plastic. I also wanted it to have a brighter cheerier look than the more serious painting referenced background so it is painted using a warmer more colorful brown.

zquilts said...

Wonderful as always Judy!
I have a difficult time finding a way to ensure equal time for paints, wools and quilts but you seem to carry it off with great aplomb !

judy coates perez said...

Marie, I don't necessarily juggle everything all that well, its just that usually when I finish making a big quilt like this, I really need to do something different and tap into another part of my brain. So I usually turn to knitting for a while, then when I want to start painting again I opt for some smaller scale mixed media until I am ready to take on the challenge of a big intense quilt project again.

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I painted hairs on the deer to look more like the deer in the hunting paintings, it also has the benefit of looking stylistically more different from the smooth painting style of the little deer. I also darkened up the shade side of the antlers to give them a little more definition.

When I work I usually leave my paper cartoon under my fabric and slide plastic underneath the fabric to create a barrier to the paper. Dry cleaning bags work great because they are thin soft plastic, easily smoothed out and less like likely to show creases.

The filigree scroll pattern was painted with an ocher brown transparent paint diluted with a lot of textile medium (colorless extender) that made a nice soft creamy yellow color.

It probably looks like I am getting close to being finished but I still have a lot of painting to do. I need to add gold to the scroll work to give it definition and I still have all the flowers and grasses to paint on the ground.

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I outlined the yellow scroll design with metallic gold paint, to give it that classic gilded touch.

Now I begin the plants, it will probably take me a few days to paint all the flowers and grasses. The plants will be in a variety of greens from the green I have painted first to strong yellow greens like in the leaves of the trees.

The plants I have started painting first are made with emerald green and white. It looks really blue against the bright yellow-green background, but that color is true to the hunting paintings.

Quilt Rat said...

Wow! the detail, the shading, so beautiful. I am curious to know.....do you draw those plants freehand onto the green base or are you somehow able to trace them from behind?
Love that unique sky.

judy coates perez said...

Thanks Quilt Rat,

Where the green is lighter I am able to see through the fabric enough to trace off my plant designs, but on the darker green it can be pretty hard to see through, so I use a light box to put under the fabric and trace the plants. Then there will be some plants that i will just freehand draw to fill in open spaces.

Vicky~ stichr ~ said...

Judy the difference in the 2 deer is fantastic! Will the white behind the scroll remain white? I picture your quilting changing that....will this be quilted?

judy coates perez said...

thanks Vicky,
The white fabric behind the scroll work will stay white. It is an ivory color. I will be quilting this when i am done.

Natalya said...

wow Judy! I haven't stopped by your blog in a while... how neat to see your new work in progress! it does not look like you have any anxiety about it at all! it looks wonderful!

judy coates perez said...

Thanks Natalya, the further along in the process I get, the more relaxed I become, but then the anxiety will start all over again when it is time to quilt it!

--------------------

The only green on my thumbs is from paint. I love plants, I am just not very good at keeping them alive. Except for cacti and succulents, I do really well with those, but unfortunately I don't live in California anymore.

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I have finished painting the greenery and am now painting the flowers. I am only using red, yellow, white and blue for the flowers since that is the limits of the flower colors in the hunting paintings. I have chosen to make the white flowers tinted a little pink just so they are not a stark white. So far I have worked through red and yellow, next I will start on blue.

After I finish the flowers I will start painting in the grass.

---------------------------

I only had a short amount of time to paint yesterday so I didn't get as far as I would have liked. Hopefully today I will get the rest of the flowers painted and begin the grass.

----------------

I think after eleven hours of painting yesterday it is done. There is always the possibility I will tweak things here and there. I had to force myself to stop last night at midnight, I was touching up lights and darks on the leaves on the tree on the right to give them a little more contrast. I probably could have spent another hour touching them up here and there.

---------------

I have spent the last few days catching up with life; cleaning the house, going to the bank, getting groceries, doing laundry...and trying to figure out how to tackle the quilting.

Usually I like my quilting to create a certain amount of depth and texture as well as interesting thread work. With this quilt I want to create a flatter, more like a painting or tapestry quilt. So I have been in a quandary about what to use for batting.

Personally, I prefer wool batting over other types because it is light weight, does not retain creases if the quilt has been folded, has a nice loft when the quilting is further apart and gets flat and thin when the quilting is heavy which creates really nice quilting texture.

Cotton batting is flat, but it is heavy, bulky when pushing the quilt under the sewing machine and holds creases and folds forever.

I have used wool blend felt for small mixed media pieces and really like the way it quilts and how it holds its shape. So I thought about using 100% wool felt which I happened to find at Joannes for $17.99 a yard. This seemed like a great option, it’s a little squishy and thicker than wool blend felt. I quilted a small sample and really liked it, so I fused my quilt top to the wool with Mistyfuse, which does not stiffen the fabric like some of the other fusible webs.

When finished, I really liked the flat sturdiness of the fused top, but when I picked up the quilt top it felt heavy and pretty stiff, this was worrisome. I put the whole thing on my sewing machine and brought the needle to the center of the quilt to slide it around following some of the shapes as though I were quilting it. Then I knew I had a problem, it was hard to manipulate the top smoothly, because of its bulk, I could just imagine how hard it would be to keep my stitching lines fluid and smooth. I was already envisioning the knots in my neck and shoulders forming while wrestling the top under the needle.

I put the top back on my pressing board and with Nina’s help ran the hot iron over the surface in sections to warm the fusible web and peeled the painted top off the felt.

I remember from previous experiments that if I put Mistyfuse on the top and back fabric and fused it to wool batting, the batting would loose some of its loft. Now I have refused the top to wool batting and fused the backing fabric as well to the batting. It is still a little puffy, but I know it will be much easier to maneuver under the arm of the machine. Next is the scary part, starting!

stay tuned...

luanne said...: i'm slightly confused about whether you ended up re-fusing the top to the wool felt or to a different wool batting material? either way, just the concept of fusing the large painted top sounds scary enough to me, much less unfusing and re-fusing it. but as this series of posts has shown, you're a confident risk-taker in pursuit of your artistic vision, and i so admire/envy that. your quilting will be equally fabulous -- good luck & can't wait to see the progress!

judy coates perez said...: Hi Luanne, yes I know it sounds crazy, I fused the top to wool felt, then unfused it from the felt and then fused it to wool batting, crossing my fingers all the while.

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I started the quilting by outlining the deer and tree trunks to stabilize the fabric and the batting. I always try to work around the quilt covering some broad areas very simply and then slowly work in more detailed quilting, working evenly across the quilt. The reason for that is to avoid having areas with really dense quilting that pulls the fabric in, shrinking its surface area, making big poofy open spots that are harder to quilt evenly without getting puckers or creases in the quilted fabric.

I started to outline quilt the scroll work in the sky with gold metallic thread. I put Bottom Line in the bobbin and metallic thread on top, and started quilting. I was very unhappy with the way the thread was bunching up on my starts and stops, then the thread started skipping stitches and breaking fairly often. I changed the needle to a titanium 90/14 which should handle the metallic thread even better than the standard 90/14, but the thread still shredded and broke. My Janome 6600 is very finicky when it comes to thread not matching in the bobbin and top, so that may have been the biggest problem. Since I did not want to put metallic thread in the bobbin, it was going to be a nightmare to quilt the way things were going.

I figured my best course of action at this point was going to be to switch machines. I pulled out my old Pfaff Creative 1475 (17 years young), which has always handled a variety of threads wonderfully, reacquainted myself with it, threaded it up with the gold thread and it quilted like a dream.

I have decided to stick with the Pfaff for now since it is doing so well and have moved on to regular thread again quilting the leaves on one of the trees.

Anita said...

Your quilting has transformed your work into an amazing 3-dimensional piece! Have you tried these?... tensions at or near zero,thread feeding vertically, not horizontally, don't thread the last loop before the needle. My Janome is happy when I follow these steps.

judy coates perez said...

Anita, I did all you recommend, to no avail. I think each sewing machine seems to have its own idiosyncrasies, all I know is my Pfaff has always done well with what ever thread I put on it and the janome needs to have matching thread in top and bobbin otherwise there are problems.

Sarah Ann Smith said...

Judy..... you shouldn't have those sorts of problems when quilting on the 6500/6600...... One thought: when the thread started breaking, had you been quilting a while? When the needle warms up (yes, even the titanium Topstitch warm up), it transmits heat to the metal in the metallic thread, and it starts acting up. You don't need to toss the needle... just swap it out for a cool needle!

Also, using the Bottom Line with metallic is perfect... if you used metallic in the bottom also, the bobbin thread would grab and snag at the needle thread. It is best to do just what you did... smooth/slick in the bobbin!

The best thing I've found is to use a topstitch needle...MUCH larger eye than a regular. Which kind of needle (not just size) were you using???

I'm glad the Pfaff is working for you, but I'd love to help troubleshoot the issues with the Janome... it SHOULD (ahem, we all know how that goes!) work...

judy coates perez said...

Hi Sarah, it wasn't a hot needle issue, it was just having problems and I just didn't want to mess with it any more, I have a short deadline on this one.

--------------

I have finished quilting the trees, I did not want to obscure the lines of painted images so I am opting to quilt slightly outside the painted image lines. I want it to retain its painting quality. I often have a tendency to quilt over my lines, so it becomes harder to tell if it is painted.

I am outlining all the plants in the grass with green thread, then I will add quilted details to the larger leaves.

Laura said...

Hi Judy,
What type of thread and needle are you using for this quilting top and bottom. I really like the look of it. Also it's hard to tell but about how many stitches per inch are you quilting? You have such great control and I love the rhythm of your quilting:)

judy coates perez said...

Hi Laura,
I am using primarily Madeira polyneon thread. I have a lot of colors in that so I end up using that the most, but I also have threads by several other companies that get used if the color is right, most of them are good quality polyester threads. I like Madeira's polyester threads because they have a nice sheen, don't make a lot of lint and they are strong. I usually put it in the bobbin too. But I also really like bottom line from Superior for the bobbin and I also use it if I want to use a thinner weight thread.

I use Organ titanium needles, size 90/14.

My quilting stitches vary because I am freemotion quilting everything. But to give you a sense of scale, in the first picture, the tree leaves are about an inch and a half in length.

----------------

To quilt the details on the plants I am drawing them on with my Bohin marking pencil. I have put in a pink lead to give a little more contrast than the white since some of the leaves are a bit light.

----------------

I quilted the hills with a simple contour quilting line. I chose to use that design for several reasons; one because I want the hills to be a simpler pattern than the foreground imagery, also if I quilt the grass area vertically I like the contrast of the horizontal line and lastly with time being an issue, I didn't want to do anything too complex.

For the sky I am quilting between the scroll work, filling in the white space with a contour design. I think it gives a sense of movement to the sky, I am about 1/3 of the way done with it.

----------------

I have to tell you, I was so scared to start quilting the big deer. I was having a hard time trying to decide what was the best way to tackle it, so I put it off as long as I could. The issue I struggled with was trying to figure out the best way to do make him look kind of furry and not obscure the painted hairs. In the paintings, the deer appear very shaggy, so I stitched around the painted hairs using the direction of the strokes as my guide for the quilting.

I used two different brown Superior Bottom Line threads, a light brown for the cheek, chest and belly and dark brown for the rest. Bottom line is very thin, I used this specifically because I wanted the quilted texture, but I did not want the thread itself to stand out too much. I used a basic stipple quilting stitch on his antlers to make them appear more like they have a short velvety texture.

judy coates perez said...

Thanks for the support everyone. There is always a bit of anxiety when creating a big piece of art. It's that little voice that nags at you, that with each step in the process you could screw it up. But the important thing to keep in mind while working is it usually works out just fine so you need to tell that insecure voice to be quiet.

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I am now quilting the grass, while delaying my decision about what to do about the little deer.

My initial thoughts on quilting the grass was to use three shades of green; light yellow green for the lower half, a leafy green for the mid section and darker green for the darkest part of the grass along the top edge and quilting between the painted blades, but then, I was not sure exactly how to do it.

I started with the leaf green and quilted around each paint stroke defining it like a blade of grass. I did not like the way it looked at all. It seemed messy and the green thread looked too dark. So I changed threads to the lighter green and started working in another area making my lines continuous from one plant to the next, carefully stitching along the previously quilted outlines of the plants to get to the next blade.

I am happy with how this looks, I have also decided to only use the two lighter greens and skip the dark one. Now I have lots of thread snipping to do from the first grass quilting attempt.

I am really torn about quilting the little deer. I am thinking about either stuffing it a little bit with trapunto and not quilting it, so it really contrasts with its surroundings or quilt it with some big flower power style floral motifs. I have been debating this point since I began the quilting and was hoping I would come to a decision by the time I have to do it. I guess I have 24 hours or less left.

I think I may need to go back and do a little more quilting in the scroll designs in the sky, I would like to leave them fairly simple, but I don't want them to look buckled or bumpy. So I need to quilt them just enough to lay smooth.

I know all the "rules" about having quilting that is consistent across the quilt surface so that it hangs right, etc., but I think it is also nice to see the contrast in textures with different types of quilting, especially when its use or lack of use works conceptually with the design. Hold your torches please, I am not a big fan of the trend toward excessive infinitesimal all over quilting.

diane said...

This may be a foolish question but I have never quilted on a painted surface for a quilt. If you make a mistake, can you rip it out or does it leave tiny holes where the needle punctured the surface?

I love the way you're doing this piece and it inspires me to try something myself. Your work is always just amazing to me.

judy coates perez said...

Diane, unfortunately the needle does make little holes. I try to burnish over the holes with my fingernail or something to make them less noticeable when I do not want any stitching in that area and then try to stitch directly over the holes again in places where I want quilting.

Lisa said...

I love that I can open the photos all the way up and get a nice close look at the stitches because I couldn't see the color difference in the smaller photos. I do like the lighter colored thread.

Your stitches are so even - are you using a walking foot or doing free motion stitching? I am still working on getting my free motion stitches so even. I suppose if I had a stitch regulator then it might be a bit easier too.

judy coates perez said...

Hi Lisa, it is all free motion. I think it takes practice and a lot of warm up time. When I started the quilt, I was feeling a little out of practice and I have noticed over time it has become easier to stay consistent with my stitches. But I still have stitches here and there that are too big or too small. I notice that happens most often when the quilt gets caught on something, like the bulk of the rolled up portion gets stuck against the presser foot lever or something. That is always annoying and I am always debating about stopping and doing it over or just going on. If it is very noticeable I stop and re do the stitching.

I don't know about other people, but I also tend to use my body to move the quilt when I am doing long lines (3-5 inches) free motion and not moving my wrists and hands.

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Last Thursday I called my photographer and made an appointment to get the quilt photographed Monday morning. In order to make that happen, I worked all through the weekend to get this quilt done. I still had grass to quilt, scroll work to quilt, the little deer to trapunto, block the quilt, trim the quilt, bind it in some manner and stitch a sleeve on it. The label could wait until Tuesday.

After quilting the grass, I stitched some decorative quilting lines to the scroll work.

I used two different marking tools to draw the lines on the scroll work before quilting it. I started with the Bohin marking pencil but got tired of erasing my lines after stitching, so I changed to an orange chalk pencil. When I was done quilting, I tried brushing away the chalk, it did not go away. I used a stiff brush, then a cloth, then a wet cloth and scrubbed at the chalk lines. The color finally seemed to go away, but I noticed that the yellow quilted thread seemed to be stained kind of orange. Not sure that I was okay with that, I decided the orange either needed to go away completely or I needed to work with it. Since I didn't know how to make the orange go away, I decided to use a yellow ocher colored pencil to accentuate the stitched center with some deeper color.

I was unsure if it would be a total mistake or if the added color be okay, but now I think the extra quilting lines and color gave just the right amount of subtle complexity to the sky to help balance the very detailed lower portion of the quilt without competing with it.

Deer pre-trapunto

trapunto stuffing from the back

After finishing the deer, I stretched the quilt out on the floor to block it and pinned around the deer as well, to try and smooth out the quilt and ease the slight buckling of the fabric under the deer.

I think I may have over stuffed him a bit. Maybe that reinforces his kitschy-ness, he definitely contrasts with the rest of the quilt, lol.

-------------------

I considered just doing a turned edge to finish the quilt, but I thought I needed to have something that was a little more flashy or "guild-ed"?, so I decided to do a corded edge, twisting several fibers together that would incorporate the colors used in the quilt. After blocking and trimming the quilt I laid out several yarns to audition them.

The first thing I needed to do was prevent any quilted threads from unraveling around the edge of the quilt. To do that I stitched a straight stitch, very close to the edge around the whole quilt. Then I used metallic gold thread in the top and brown thread in the bobbin and zig zag stitched around the edge of the quilt twice with a fairly tight stitch but not a satin stitch. Sometimes a dense satin stitch around the edge of a quilt can stretch it and make it ripple. I was not too concerned with making a solid gold edge around the quilt, just add some extra sparkle next to the cording.

Then I sewed a few stitches to secure the yarns to the back side edge of the quilt. Using an open toe foot and monofilament in the top I zig zagged over the twisted yarns stitching them to the edge of the quilt.

This is a slow process because the yarns tend to get very twisted and tangled if you are not careful. I usually put a couple of the yarns in separate little baggies to try and keep them from rolling away and really making a mess. I start twisting the yarn clockwise down one side of the quilt, working a few inches at a time, then I usually twist them counter clockwise on the next side and clockwise again on the next, it sort of helps manage all the twisted yarns better.

The last thing to do before sewing on the sleeve and label is to sign the quilt. Finished quilt photos to come.

---------------

It is officially done, yay!, except for the label which I am sewing on tomorrow. Then it gets sent off to Kaufman Fabrics to be in a traveling special exhibit using their Kona Solid Fabric line. When I find out the schedule of venues I will post it.

Justine said...

Beautiful, would love to see it in person. What were the final dimensions so I can get a sense of the scale? Justine

judy coates perez said...

Justine, It is 54" x 42"

judy coates perez said...

It's a little scary putting art in progress out there publicly, I am always afraid to show things until I am done or pretty far a long. I don't know if it is silly superstition that if I show everyone what I am doing I will surely screw it up or what, so it was an interesting experiment.

It was really nice to hear feedback from everyone along the way, it helped keep me motivated to get finished on time. I was pretty scared I wouldn't make it in the beginning.

Cher said...

Judy, your quilt is fantastic. I have looked forward to your updates to see the progress. Thanks for showing us along the way. I love how you quilted the grass, it's very effective. What batting did you use?

judy coates perez said...

Cher, I always use Hobbs Heirloom wool. It has a nice loft to accentuate the quilting, it is also very lightweight and does not pull on you while you are quilting and lastly it squishes up a lot so you can maneuver it under the arm much easier than bulky cotton.

Felted Wool Soap

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:04:00 +0000

Did you notice the recent Anthropologie catalog had felted soaps for $14 each? Felted soaps are like a bar of soap with a built in washcloth and are great for a bath or shower.

If you want to make some of your own for gifts, here is what you do:

You'll need a bar of soap, I like glycerin soap for these but other kinds of soap work well too, wool roving and pantyhose. I cut a pantyhose into 6-8" sections or use knee highs.

Start out by making a layered roving blanket just like you do for making felted balls. Unwind a length of roving, while holding it in one hand, grasp the end portion with the other hand and gently pull off "tufts" roughly 5-6 inches in length. Spread the fibers into a thin flat layer with all the strands going in one direction.

Pull off another tuft of roving and layer it on top of the first, at a 90 degree angle. Repeat this process several more times, criss-crossing 4-6 thin layers.

When lifting the blanket of roving there should not be thin spots or holes. Changing the colors of yarn in the layers will create a heathered multicolored wool.

Take the soap, wrap it with the roving blanket and slip it into a panty hose and loosely knot it.

Run the pantyhose and roving wrapped soap under some warm water, saturating it, turn off the water and begin rubbing the wrapped soap as though you are washing your hands.

It will begin to lather, continue rubbing it, working all the sides. What is happening is the wool fibers are beginning to knot and tangle with each other creating the felt. Keep rubbing the soap until you see little fibers coming through the outside of the pantyhose, this will take several minutes.

When this happens you carefully remove the felted soap from the panty hose and smooth it between your hands

and set it on a towel to dry.

The soap suds on the outside will dry and disappear leaving you with a lovely little felted soap.

If you are doing a lot of soaps you might consider wearing gloves, I got some pretty chapped hands one year when I made them for everyone in the family.

If you are making these for yourself or for gifts, let the person know not to bother putting them at the sink for a quick hand wash, which is so tempting because they are beautiful, because it takes a couple minutes to work up a nice lather. These are great in the shower or bath since they have a nice gentle scrub, like a built in washcloth.

Tsukineko Inks with Ink Potion No. 9 Tutorial

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 16:13:00 +0000

I just bought a relatively new product from Tsukineko Inks called Ink Potion no. 9 to find out how it works with the All Purpose Inks. One purpose of the solution is to help blend ink colors. From my estimation this could be a good alternative to working with aloe vera gel to lighten and blend colors.

I began this painting by lightly tracing the outline of a goldfish from a copyright free image onto white cotton fabric and gave the fabric a light spritz of Ink Potion.
Using the Lemon Yellow ink and the brush tip Fantastix pen tool, I painted in all the light and dark areas of the fish.
Next I used the Tangerine ink in the areas that are to be the darkest and used a very light touch to blend it with the Lemon Yellow in the lighter areas.
Using the yellow ink again, I painted over the image to blend the colors and to deepen the golden hue.
Next I used the color Autumn Leaf to deepen the darkest areas and help create more dimension by pushing up the contrast.

I used the Tangerine ink again to blend with the Autumn Leaf, making a smoother gradation and used a black fabric pen to add black to the eyes. At this point I heat set the fish with an iron set on cotton with a press cloth on top.
For the water I used Tropical Lagoon, sprayed some Ink potion onto a tray and dipped the fantastix pen tool into the ink and then into solution on the tray. I noticed that this had the effect of lightening the ink color the more solution was mixed in and also making the ink cover a larger area of fabric with less stroke marks.
I lightly spritzed the white fabric where I was applying the blue ink to help the color cover the area smoothly.
I was working quickly and not too carefully and it ended up a little streaky, but I don't mind because it does look a little like there is movement in the water.

Birds & Bees copper book

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:16:00 +0000

I decided to make a change to the books by backing the copper covers with painted grungeboard for extra stability.
I used a strong adhesive, putting it on the grungeboard and the back of the copper cover.I pinched the copper to the grungeboard all around the edges to make a good bond.
To finish the covers, I used a paper stump to wrap any extending metal edges around the grungeboard and also to help make a strong bond between the copper and the grungeboard.

Little Metal and Canvas Mixed Media Books

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:04:00 +0000

I am working on making a couple small canvas books with copper metal covers. I am using 4 inch square copper metal, it is a heavier weight metal than the aluminum I use for Fiesta Ornaments.

I have drawn several designs to use for front and back covers for two books, one titled Flora, the other Birds & Bees.
I begin by taping the metal to a foam mat and then taping the drawing in place over the metal. I transfer my image to the metal by tracing over my pencil lines with an embossing tool. I remove the paper and use the embossing tool to deepen the lines on the metal and add details by working on the front and the back side of the metal, creating dimension. On this piece of copper I made a small outline around my whole design and filled in the background with stippling by tapping the point of the tool repeatedly over the surface of the metal. This helps the main design stand out from the background.I found the best product to color metal is Adirondack Alcohol Inks. You can apply inks using a felt pad or paint brush. I wanted to paint color in specific areas so I used a brush to apply the ink. You don't need much when working with the inks, just drop a few drops of ink onto a paint tray and use a paint brush to apply the ink to the metal. The ink goes on very bright. If you decide that you want less color, dip your brush in a little bit of the Alcohol Ink Blending Solution and go back over the area previously painted and the color becomes lighter as it removes the ink. Or you can add the blending solution to the ink on the tray and lighten it before painting it on the metal.

The inks dry very quickly and can be reconstituted in the tray by adding a little blending solution. To rinse my brush between colors I dipped it in the alcohol blending solution and wiped it on a paper towel.On the copper design with the waterlilies I lightened the ink to make a soft pastel tint on the metal and I painted the ornate floral design brightly to look more like the metal ornaments you see in Mexico. Two very different looks easily achieved using the same inks.

This is the bee panel partially done. In this photo I have gone over all my lines on the front side of the metal with the pointed stylus and have begun adding some stippling with the tiny ball stylus to the background on the left side. This helps the image to pop up and be defined.In the next photo, the metal design is finished. The raised areas of the design are worked from the back side of the metal. On the bees wings and the leaves, I used a large ball shaped stylus to give extra dimension.
The tool kit from Walnut Hollow has a lot of different metal working tools to add texture and shaping to the metal. I have only used a few of the tools so far as I figure out how each one can be used. It is an awesome little kit with a ruler, scissors, two tool handles with multiple tips that screw into both ends and a couple plastic embossed border shape plates that metal can be burnished over with a paper stump. I like to make my own designs , so I haven't used those, but they are nice patterns. All in all it is everything you would need to do some serious metal work.

This is a design I made on a piece of copper metal using the Alcohol Inks, the felt pad tool and the blending solution. Here is a great little video with Tim Holtz demonstrating alcohol inks. This is the method I used to apply the ink here.

Making the canvas book

I began by tearing canvas into 4" x 8 " pieces and painting both sides with gesso. I think if I were to start again I would tear them into 4 " x 8 1/2" pieces to allow for the bulk of paint and collage. When the pages were folded in half the book got fairly fat and the pages were a little short in width.
I painted the pages with fluid acrylic washes.
These are the semi finished pages for two books, the blue on the left will be Birds & Bees the yellow on the right is Flora.
There are images that are drawn, painted and transfered onto tea bags, pieces of rice paper, printed tissue paper, wrapping paper, pieces of painted fabric, scraps from other projects, transfers on fabric, painted canvas and a sewing pattern. All adhered with gel medium and machine stitching.

I folded the canvas pages in half and clamped them to help set the fold.
I tore 4" x 2" strips of canvas to use on the binding. Since the canvas was not painted I did some zigzag stitching around the edge, then positioned it over the center of the stack of pages, taping it in place to secure it for stitching.
I stitched through the four layers on my Bernina sewing machine (my Janome would not sew through the bulk).
I clamped the stitched book again to help it hold the fold.
Walnut Hollow sells a very strong double sided tape to adhere the metal to other surfaces. I found that it will even stick to canvas. I attached the tape and burnished it well to the canvas and then peeled away the paper backing to stick it to the metal, burnishing it to make a good bond with the metal.

I finished the binding by adding some cloth book binding tape.

The Finished Book

I will give a brief description of the materials used on each page.

On the first page there are leaves cut and painted from a phone book page with a leaf cut from a leftover of my mixed media quilt Illustrated Document No. 1.
The sprout was painted with textile paint on cotton fabric and machine stitched to the canvas. On the next page black and white tissue paper collaged with gel medium and left overs from a mixed media vessel stitched on top.
Collaged, painted paper overlapped by painted flower on the canvas.
The center page is rust dyed silk organza from Jane LaFazio that I drew floral images on with a permanent marker.
Dark tea stained tea bag drawn on with permanent marker.
A few more leaves from the vessel stitched over black and white tissue paper. Opposite: flower and leaves cut from colored art papers and collaged with gel medium.
Tea bag drawn on with a red marker collaged over a paper image. I used the stitching from leaves on the other side of the page as an outline to paint leaves and I added a strange bug I created in Photoshop printed on paper with some washes of acrylic paint.
Old engravings printed on paper and painted with fluid acrylics, the leaves were cut from painted fabric leftovers.

I keep a bag with all my scraps from leftover paintings and mixed media work, to use on new mixed media work.
The end.

Mixing RIT dye

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:24:00 +0000

These are some of my favorite color combinations I came up with when mixing RIT dyes.
These dye recipes are all mixed with one cup of water

Apple Green
4 tsp golden yellow*
1/2 tsp dark green

Eggplant
3 tsp aubergine*
1/2 tsp black

Dark Olive
3 tsp sunshine orange*
1/2 tsp dark green
1/4 tsp black

Army Green
2 tsp golden yellow*
1 tsp Black
1/2 tsp dark green

Curry
3 tsp sunshine orange*
1/2 tsp purple

Pumpkin Spice
1 tsp tangerine
1 tsp sunshine orange*
1/2 tsp cocoa

Yellow Ochre
3 tsp golden yellow*
1/2 tsp purple

Terra Cotta
1 1/2 tsp tangerine
1/2 tsp cocoa

Blue-violet/Periwinkle
1 1/2 tsp royal blue
1/2 tsp purple

More Colors
Orange Ochre
3 tsp sunshine orange*
1 tsp purple

Lime Green
2 tsp Golden yellow*
1/2 tsp Kelly green

Leaf Green
3 tsp golden yellow*
1/2 tsp dark green

Mulberry
1 tsp purple
2 tsp fuchsia*

Violet
1 tsp purple
1 tsp royal blue

Olive Drab
2 tsp golden yellow*
1 tsp black

Wood Violet
1 1/2 tsp denim
1/2 tsp purple

Bronze
3 tsp sunshine orange*
1/2 tsp navy
1/4 tsp black

Light Olive
3 tsp golden yellow*
1/2 tsp black

Dark Terra Cotta
1 tsp tangerine
1 tsp cocoa

* powder dye
all other dyes are liquid dye
the liquid dyes are more concentrated colors than the powder

These dye recipes were used doing a low immersion dye method. See my article Quilting Arts magazine December 2008 issue.

Sewing Metal

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:02:00 +0000

I know some people might be afraid to sew metal on their sewing machine, so to dispel any fears I thought I would make a short video demonstrating how I sew metal on my Fiesta Ornaments.

I want the thread to show up well against the metal so I use a bright colored heavy weight cotton thread in the top and a matching color thread in the bobbin. Generally I use a top stitch needle, but often I just sew it with whatever needle I have in the machine with no problem.

Making Felted Balls

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 19:13:00 +0000

To make the ornaments shown in Quilting Arts Gifts, you need to make felted wool balls or you can buy pre-felted balls from the Artgirlz or Quilting Arts. I like to make felted balls myself because I can have fun playing with colors and shapes. How to make the felted balls is explained in the article, but it does not have photos with all the steps. So, for all you visual learners here's how I do it.

Warning: once you start making these it will be really hard to stop.

This is a great way to use up leftover yarn, by rolling golf ball size yarn balls as a base for the ball. Wind yarn into oblong shapes to get a berry shaped ball. I usually use wool yarn because I know it will felt better, but in a pinch I have used other yarns too. My favorite place to order roving is from Outback Fibers, the colors are gorgeous and the prices are very reasonable. Unwind a length of roving, while holding it in one hand, grasp the end portion with the other hand and gently pull off "tufts" roughly 5-6 inches in length. Spread the fibers into a thin flat layer with all the strands going in one direction. Pull off another tuft of roving and layer it on top of the first at a 90 degree angle. Repeat this process several more times, criss-crossing 4-6 thin layers.
When lifting the blanket of roving there should not be thin spots or holes. Changing the colors of yarn in the layers will create a heathered multicolored wool ball.

Wrap the roving blanket you have created around a yarn ball, making sure there is full coverage of fluffy roving with no bare or thin spots.

Close the roving covered yarn ball in your hand and bring it to the foot of a knee hi panty hose. (buy cheap ones at the dollar store, or use those ancient ones in the back of your hosiery drawer that you never wear anymore) Gently remove your hand from around the ball and tie and knot a small piece of yarn around the hose to secure the ball in place.

When all the balls have been wrapped in the hose, place them in the washing machine, set the water to lowest level and hottest setting. Add a small amount of detergent, about a tablespoon, the exact measurement is not crucial but soap is important in the felting process. I usually run it on a long cycle, the more agitation the better the felting. Good old fashion top loading washers have the most success with felting.

When you take the chain of balls out of the machine, you will see little fibers have come though the mesh of the hose. Snip the tied yarn between the balls, gently peel away the hose removing the ball and roll the ball in your hands to smooth the fibers.

Click here to watch a video tutorial for making felted balls.

These would make great cat toys but dogs will want to shred these to smithereens. My chihuahua thinks there is nothing more fun than stealing felted balls when I am not looking and peel all the fuzz off.

These are some of the ornaments I have made adding wool felt, embroidery floss and beads.

Design and Painting Process

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:49:00 +0000

I started this piece with the idea of making a Mexican tree of life quilt. I knew it should be bright, colorful and graphic in style.

For several weeks I carried my sketchbook with me as I went about our home schooling classes and activities and when I had some time I sat and drew as many different animals as I could think of.

Occasionally I would look in books or on the internet to find pictures of animals that I could not draw from memory, like an anteater.

I knew these would be stylized animals so I was not going to worry if things looked exactly like real animals, just close enough to get the idea. After I drew a leaf, pomegranate and tree that I was happy with, I scanned all these images into Photoshop. Using the rubberstamp tool I made several stamps of leafs and pomegranates at various angles that I could stamp into positions around the tree branches, all being exactly the same size. I placed the animals around the tree, sizing them up and down and tilting them into a pleasing composition.

Once this was complete I transferred the file to Adobe Illustrator and sized it up to 60 inches square. Then I printed it out on 8 1/2” x 11” paper and taped the sheets together with clear packing tape. Once it was full scale I made a few adjustments sizing up a couple animals and rotating another to a new position and then I realized I had forgotten to add a snake. How could I forget a snake? I have them in so many of my quilts. I grabbed the tracing paper, laid it over my drawing and drew a snake to fit in an open area in the bottom corner. I then copied this with a Sharpie onto the final drawing. I always use Sharpies on my drawings, because it is so easy to see it through the white fabric.

Next I taped the top edge of my fabric (regular bleached white PDF cotton) to my drawing and LIGHTLY traced the design onto the fabric with a thin lead mechanical pencil.

I use Jaquard and Pebeo Setacolor brand textile paints. I mostly used Jaquard opaque paints for this quilt. These paints do not spread on the fabric if you use them the consistency that they come out of the jar (thick creamy) on cotton fabric. Sometimes as the paint sits and starts to dry in the dish while painting I will add a little water, or moisten my brush but usually no extra water is needed.

I leave my large paper drawing underneath while painting to protect my table and if I want to make any changes or additions to the design it is easy to add it in as I go. I paint straight onto the fabric on the table. The paper sometimes sticks to the painted fabric so if you don't want to occasionally pick paper off the back of your fabric paint on a covered surface. I like to use dry cleaner bags because they are so thin they will not make bumps under the fabric. Painting over a textured surface will show up in the paint.

When it came to painting the black, I used a tiny brush and carefully painted around each animal about a quarter inch, then filled in the background.

My new Ipod played a key role in the making of this quilt. Because of the detail and precision this painting required I knew I needed something to keep my mind active and engaged while I painted endless hairs and dots.

I listened to 7 audio books while painting this quilt. Three of those books totaled 53 hours. Every hour of painting was wonderful.

Vicky aka stichr said...: Once again I was curious what paints you use, so went clicking on your side bar...ta da...the info I was curious about....now a question...What paint brushes do you use? And do you use other things, like pencil erasers, for dots and other details?
judy coates perez said...: Vicky,
I only use brushes when I paint, I find that I do not have enough control when using other things. I don't use top of the line or bottom of the line brushes, but I always buy them from an art supply. Cheap brushes loose hair, and there is nothing worse than picking hairs out of wet paint. They also can loose their points and shape pretty fast, so you loose the ability to make smooth lines. Generally I look for brushes suitable for acrylics, watercolor brushes are too soft. Oil brushes tend to be stiffer, sometimes that is a good thing but in general it is not what I am looking for. I have a lot of brushes, some I have had for 20 plus years.

The shapes and sizes I tend to use most are a flat size 3 and 2, a round size 1, and for details a 00000 and this other one says 10/0. I use those last ones for details like outlining eyes and drawing hairs on the animals in Arbol de Vida, you can see that specifically on the picture of the boar.
Micky said...: I have been a lurker and a fan for a long time now! Your art is amazing! You are so talented! I have a questions, when you quilt, do you use a regular sewing machine or a longarm?
judy coates perez said...: I use a regular sewing machine. I have two older models; a Bernina 1630 that I have been using 13 years and an older Pfaff creative 1475 that I bought used some years ago. Each one has features that I like.
Katie Middlebrook said...: I came across this quilt while looking through a flickr group. I am a painter who recently took up quilting (we're talking RECENTLY- in the middle of my first quilt). I am so fascinated by this process and would love to know where you get your paints. THANKS!
judy coates perez said...: Hi Katie,

I buy most of my paints from Dick Blick. The majority of my textile paints are from Jacquard but I also have Setacolors and some Stewart Gil paints as well. To get certain colors I have mixed the different brands together with no problems. You can sometimes find textile paints at big craft stores too.
veghead said...: Amazing--thanks for sharing your techniques. To get the black background, do you paint it in or work on black fabric?
judy coates perez said...: Thanks, the black is painted. It would be hard to get the bright colors for the animals if it was painted on black fabric.
Kath said...: Brilliant work, Judy! I just had the pleasure of seeing some of your other work at the Denver Quilt festival this weekend. Thanks for sharing your process! Your work is truly inspiring.

When you paint on silk, what type of silk do you use (and where do you purchase it)?

Also, I sometimes find it difficult to quilt through fabric after it's painted. Do you have any tips around technique, needle size, and thread?
judy coates perez said...: Thanks kath,

I bought 19mm silk charmuese from Dharma trading for Primordial Sea. If you ever decide to paint on silk with textile paints make sure you go to my post on the making of Primordial Sea to see some of the technical issues i dealt with to save yourself some possible frustration.

I have never had a problem sewing painted fabric. Are you using textile paints? having sharp new needles in your machine may help. I know some sewing machines can be temperamental though.

Usually I quilt with Organ brand titanium needles. Titanium stays cooler and is easier to use with specialty threads, but I like them because they do not snap off like other sewing needles if you hit the throat plate. They just bend up in a hook shape. I think they may stay sharp longer too.

The thread I use most often is Superior Rainbows. I love the colors and sheen, similar to rayon but stronger since it is polyester. I like Madeira polyneons too.

Painting Details

Arbol de Vida, (tree of life in spanish) was inspired by those beautiful wood carved painted animals that come from Oaxaca Mexico. This quilt is approximately five feet square.

Quilting Details

I outline quilted all the animals, tree, leaves and pomegranates. Then I quilted the black background. The black on black quilting is very easy to see on the quilt but unfortunately it does not photograph well. So I am posting a small picture of how the quilt looks in reality and then a big picture that shows the quilting.

I like to do a faced binding and I have been having fun making my labels reflect the design of the quilt.I sewed wide yellow ric-rac into the faced binding. I think it adds that little festive touch and helps it to show up against the black drapes in shows.

The making of Primordial Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:39:00 +0000

Primordial sea was technically the most challenging quilt I have ever made. I arranged all the elements of my design in Photoshop and printed it out to size on close to 100- 8 1/2"x 11" sheets of paper. I arrange the pages on the floor and tape them together with clear packing tape. It makes a large strong cartoon (artist preliminary sketch) with all the tape reinforcement. I start all my large quilts this way.
I wanted to use silk for this quilt, the luminous way light reflects from it would be ideal for water. I ordered the widest silk charmuese I could get from Dharma Trading and sewed two pieces together to make a 6 foot by 8 foot wide panel of silk. Then I hand dyed it twice in shades of turquoise, cerulean and navy.

I tried tracing my design on to the silk using a light box but found the blue to dark to see through. So I re-taped my fabric under my design and used white Saral transfer paper to transfer the image.

I began to paint and found out two things. One- silk stretches and two- translucent textile paint turns black when you paint on blue silk. To solve the first problem freezer paper became my best friend. Each time I painted an area I ironed a strip of freezer paper to the back of my fabric. Then I carefully painted up close to the edge of the paper, then repositioned the freezer paper adjacent and just underneath the area I was painting so I would not get a line from the paper showing up in the paint. Any little bump or grain of sand under the fabric will show up in the painting.

To solve the next problem I painted each object in shades of white to create a base for the paint colors, allowing the blue fabric to show through in the areas I wanted the darkest shades.
The next problem I ran into, was the chalk lines from the Saral paper started to rub off and disappear as I worked. I found myself having to rely on looking up at the original cartoon on the wall and re drawing things by hand because there would be no way to realign the drawing and quilt again and re transfer the images. So things changed shape sometimes and had different kinds of details. This is also when I started to add things that were not in the original cartoon, like several more types of seaweed, a sponge, a large pink anemone, a trilobite, a clam and a snail.

You can see the lines for the giant sea lilly have all but disappeared.

Finished Painting.

I was terrified to quilt this quilt. One; it was big, two; I was using slippery silk and slippery wool batting, and three; any mistakes in the quilting (puckers in the fabric, stitches that need to be removed) were really going to show. I thought of spray baste, but was afraid of its chemical effect on the silk and what if it stained it with splatters? Also where would I be able to lay a piece of silk this big outside safely to spray, and after vigorous manipulation while machine quilting, would it loose its adhesion? Hand basting seemed too daunting on this one. Then I thought of fusible web. Something I am ambivalent to use because I do not like the stiff flat quality. Wool batting has a lot of loft and you would lose all that texture by using something like wonder under. I remember Esterita Austin saying that she had a new fusible web product that was very light. So when she came to teach at our Glendale, CA Quilt show I bought a package of Misty Fuse.

I made a sample using the fusible web, sandwiched between a piece of silk and wool batting. I loved the results. The fusible is like a spider web it is so light. I fused the whole hand dyed and painted sheet of silk to the wool batting, very carefully in two steps.

First I fused the web to the silk in rows, using parchment paper as a backing sheet. The slight overlaps were invisible after fusing. Then on the backing fabric, I fused a one-inch square of web every 6 inches and fused it to one side of the batting. Next I spread the fused backing and batting on the largest carpeted floor in the house and carefully fused my silk top to the wool batting starting in the center and working outwards. This took hours, but it was well worth it. The Mistyfuse held up like a dream under heavy machine quilting, it never lost its adhesion.

When I start my quilting, I always try to think about how my stitching lines could enhance the image that I am quilting. What kind of detail can I add? How can the quilting make the object appear more dimensional or textured?

You would not think thread would make such a big difference to the work when you are doing the quilting. But look at the difference in the quilted fin of the squid and the unquilted one. The quilted side is so much richer.

While discussing the quilting of the water online with my art quilt group, Vickie Hallmark mentioned putting plankton into the quilting. What a great idea! There are lots of little plankton hidden in the quilting of the water all over the quilt.
Quilters always like to look at backs of quilts. For a long time I thought that was kind of strange. But I kind of get it now. It is fun to see the picture with out all the color, and see all that crazy quilting.

I hate doing labels, so I thought I would try and have more fun with this one. It is painted and quilted.

The making of There's a Place called Mars...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:30:00 +0000

I thought I would share a kind of a step by step process of creating my Martian quilt. My last few quilts I have worked up my initial designs on the computer. I start by scanning in line drawings then arranging and scaling them on Photoshop. Once I have things the way I want them I open my file in Adobe Illustrator, scale the image up to the size I want and print out the cartoon by selecting tiling in the print dialogue box. I join all the sheets together using clear packing tape, this makes it nice and strong. I lay my pfd fabric over the top and tape it securely to the top edge of the paper. I can see quite clearly through my white fabric and trace the design in pencil onto the fabric. I usually leave my design under the fabric while I do my painting.

On this quilt I wanted it to have a soft atmospheric quality, so I decided to try the D’uva chromacoal powders. I cut freezer paper templates of everything on the quilt. I ironed down a freezer paper template around the weird rock shape to protect the surrounding fabric. Using a stiff stencil brush I applied the chromacoal powders.

I put in the reverse freezer paper templates to color the background. This all has to be heat set when done. I put it in the oven for several minutes at the suggested temperature.

I inadvertently got a grease spot on it from the oven and then had to paint in another floaty alien thing.

This orb is painted with tsukineko inks and the jellyfish below is painted with Jaquard Lumiere, and Setacolor textile paints.

After the painting was completed. I layered the quilt with wool batting and a hand dyed back fabric. Next I hand basted the heck out of it. Wool does not have a scrim and things can shift very easy while machine quilting.

I outline quilted the painted type to help it stand out. Silver paint didn't seem like enough for the space ship so I foiled the window.
I did not want a traditional binding framing the quilt so I chose to sew the binding on and turned it to the back.
I had my husband take some slides for me. When the slides came back the colors were more vibrant on the reds than the actual quilt. And I liked it better! It really started to bug me and so I put the quilt back on the table and pulled out a red Shiva paint stick. I found a sample scrap of fabric that I had used to experiment with the chromacoal powders for the planet surface and tried out the paint stick. It seemed to give me the color I wanted so I bit the bullet and re-colored the surface of my finished quilt. SCARY.

I also used a purple Shiva paint stick to enhance the shadows on the Martian woman. I tried beads on the quilt in various places but decided the only place I wanted them was on the Martians helmet and one large one on the eye of the snake lying next to her.

Graven Images

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:18:00 +0000

click to get a large detailed image

I was inspired to make “Graven Images” while visiting cemeteries in New England, following up on some ancestral research. I found the symbols and images carved into the various stones fascinating in design, symbolism and historical context.

Wanting to recreate the look of stone in cloth, I hand dyed fabric in shades of gray using various techniques to emulate stone. I enlarged my photos of the stones and traced the designs using tracing paper. I put my fabric over the line drawings on a light box and traced the designs with pencil. The images were free motion quilted onto fabric and batting sandwiches creating dimensional images as though carving them into the fabric with needle and thread. Colored pencil was added to the recessed areas to create more depth. After the panels were quilted I trimmed and arranged them filling in any holes with small strips of quilted carved stone details and pieced them together.

The most haunting aspect of making this quilt was that after working on it, on and off for two years quilting the various panels, I spent 3 straight days finishing it and piecing it together, I began putting the binding on it the morning of September 11, 2001. I found this synchronicity to be so unsettling; I didn't feel comfortable showing the quilt for a year.

This was the first quilt I entered into the IQF show in Houston in 2002, it won Judges Choice and 3rd place Art Quilt Large.

Working with Photoshop.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:33:00 +0000

The program Photoshop is an amazing tool. (The full package is very expensive, it is geared for professional designers and photographers, but there is a more affordable Photoshop you can get with a few less bells and whistles.) If you enjoy photography and manipulating images, I highly recommend you spend some time learning and playing with this program. If you google photoshop tutorials you will find many free tutorials that will help you learn how to use this program. Helen Cowans, a very talented textile artist and photographer in the UK has a link to some wonderful Photoshop tutorials, well worth a visit.

I took this photo of a moth that unknowingly came inside on my shirt.

The photo on the right is the original, on the left is the photo that I manipulated the color and contrast. My daughter taught me how to create the framed vintage effect on the top photo layering several images and then combining them into one image.

On the left is my original uncropped thistle photo. Once again I played with layers. I had my original as the bottom layer and placed a duplicate image on top. I desaturated the top image (turned it black and white) and then colorized it green. Using the eraser tool I erased the thistle flower from the top layer exposing the purple flowers from the bottom layer. I added an image of a vintage photo lens that I tinted sepia to frame the image and multiplied the layers.

This apple tree photo was done in a similar way, de-saturating the top layer until there was just a hint of color, then using the eraser tool to remove areas from the top layer, exposing the colored layer below.

With the shovel photo, I mostly played with the contrast and color saturation.

I took these photos at a friends home in California a couple years ago, they have a lovely property filled with fruit trees and vegetable gardens.

Playing with tea bags and more... Birds and Bees

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:35:00 +0000

The paper on the top left with letters is a kimwipe, the one on the right is a large black tea bag for making iced tea. The white paper below is a tea bag from hibiscus tea, the bottom two dark tea bags I left the tea dry in the bag for several days before tearing it open, I love how stained it became and kind of brittle. It really looks aged. I used a fine sharpie to draw on them.
I painted a bird only using brown paint. After it was dry I glazed paint colors over the bird and leaves. I mixed a little brown in the colors to soften them, I wanted the painting to have a vintage look. After the bird and twig was painted I mixed a diluted brown wash and painted the fabric with it.
The papers are collaged to the fabric with Golden semi-gloss gel medium.
Several of the other images are from decorative wrapping papers, and a scan I made of a page from a children's school book from the 1800's. Then I cut green rice paper leaves and collaged them to the fabric.
I quilted it with wool batting. The areas not quilted are very puffy and look like trapunto. The dark tea bag with the bee really looks leathery and old.

Karen said...: Judy,your works blending paper and quilting are so wonderful! I really like how you have achieved a vintage look with this. Can you tell us how you did the border, it looks like couching.
judy coates perez said...: Hi Karen, it is couching. When I make small quilts I trim them to size and do a straight stitch along the very edge. Then I take multiple yarns and couch them to the edge of the quilt with monofilament in the top and regular thread in the bobbin, twisting the yarns as I go.

Illustrated Document No. 1

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 07:25:00 +0000

I thought I would play around with making a mixed media paper quilt. I painted a piece of fabric to use as a base. The drawings were done on tea bags. I drink a lot of tea, so I let a few bags dry out and carefully opened them up, pouring out the used tea. I drew on the bags with a fine tip permanent marker and used liquid matte medium to collage them on the fabric. I added a couple tags from the tea and those tags that come stapled to your dry cleaning. There is also some fabric that I had printed on with a xerox machine several years ago and a piece of a sewing pattern.
I added text and marks for background patterns with rubber stamps inked with Tsukineko Inks. Then I fused the fabric to a 12 inch square of wool felt. I folded the edges over and fused them to the back of the felt. This makes a nice flat and flexible piece for stitching.I was torn with how I should quilt this since the over all look began to feel like an aged document. I thought if I quilted around the elements like my first inclination would be, that it would be too predictable a thing to do, so I decided to take a risk and do quilting that was totally unrelated to the design of the piece but related to the aesthetic of the piece.

I found a gothic tile design that I modified into a pattern that could be stitched. After quilting the design I used a copper paint stick and shaded in some of the pattern. Then the bird and butterfly started to feel lost in the design so I pulled out some colored pencils and added a little color. Working with colored pencils is so fun. Once I started adding a little color here and there I found myself touching up little areas all over. Now I think it is done.

The total list of materials and techniques is:
white cotton fabric, teabags drawn on with permanent ink pen, tea labels, dry cleaning tags, sewing pattern, fabric with xeroxed imagery, textile paint, rubber stamps, Tsukineko inks, Shiva paint sticks, colored pencils, machine quilted on wool felt.

Anonymous said...: I love this piece of art....Wonderful imagery! I am amazed by your creative ideas and appreciate your willingness to share. Could you tell me how you transfered the tile design to the surface of the paper quilt? thank you so much....

Susan
judy coates perez said...: Susan,

I traced the design onto tracing paper. (seen in the small photo) I cut a few small holes in the paper away from stitching lines and used scotch tape to stick the paper to the quilt by placing tape over the holes. I stitched through the paper and the quilt and then tore it away when I was done.
Carol Sloan said...: Judy,
I was working on the paper quilt that I posted a pic of, and had drawn out my quilting design on regular tracing paper. I tried the design on a random quilt sandwich (to make sure it was a "do-able" design).I had a lot of problems with the stitches pulling up or out when I removed the tracing paper. I tried a small design with some paper specically made for sewing a quilting design and another with the kimwipes. The kimwipes did the best but I still had a small amount of pulling on the stitches. How did you do yours/did you have the same problem? I took pics so that I could post a "hey, look ...you really don't want to do this" posting...if you have a second to help, I'd sure appreciate it.
Thanks
judy coates perez said...: Carol,

I think my machine does a pretty tight stitch to begin with. The smaller the stitches, the more it is going to perforate the paper making it tear easier. There is a lighter weight tracing paper that comes on a roll, architects use it, and it will tear easier, also I am sure you realize now you to have to pull the paper away gently. Your thread tension may be a little loose as well, try tightening it and see if that helps.
Ricë said...: i love this--fabulous! how do the colored pencils work for you? i've tried everything to set them, to keep them from smearing on fabric. you've probably addressed this somewhere else already--
judy coates perez said...: I have never actually had a problem with them smearing, but you could try painting a light coat of fabric medium over them or give them a hit of artist spray fix.