Thread and Samples

This is my first attempt at thread sketching.  I took a photo and traced an outline onto a piece of hand-dye from the "needs more" pile.

This is the back side -- I used a piece of Decor-Bond for stabilizer.  There are lots of issues with thread tension here -- I can't remember if it was the needle, tension, or just inexperience.  I used 50 wt Aurifil thread.

This is a self-portrait I did for another group.  I took a bit of Golden Threads paper and traced the outline from a photo with a Sharpie, then went over that with my machine.  I ripped off the paper and filled it in with more 50 wt Aurifil in gray.

I make samples for bigger pieces -- it's good to get the thread, needle, and tension issues out of the way on a sample.  For this one, I fused a piece of cotton on top of more cotton with a wool batt. I did exactly the same thing for my sample -- same fabrics, batt, and fusible web.  I auditioned the threads -- I had trouble deciding which colors to use and this made it much easier.

This is a detail shot of the pelican that shows the finished threadwork.  I'm not sure whether this qualifies as painting or sketching.

And this is another example of sketching/painting -- I used 50 wt thread for the trees and leaves in the background and 40 wt variegated quilting thread for the fused tree -- the dark brown one on the right.

The fused tree was done first with batting only, then I layered the whole piece and finished the background.  This way, the fused tree stuck out from the rest of the piece.

The owl was done separately by hand, then attached after I finished the rest of the piece.

Threads and Needles and Stabilizers, Oh My

First, let's get the business out of the way.  I can tell you what I use, but I heartily encourage everyone to chime in with what works for them.

I like thin thread.  My favorite is Aurifil 50 weight.  I like it because it's thin, strong, and comes in any color I can dream.  My only problem with it is that it is in short supply in my small town and I have to acquire it at quilt shows or drive an hour or so to obtain it.  And I have done that drive.  More than once...  but I digress. I do use other manufacturers and weights but I like the thin thread because it's forgiving.  If I scribble-sew all over, mistakes aren't obvious.  With a thicker thread, it would be.  But thick thread has its place.  I like to cover things with thread because I think it gives an organic look.  My favorite subjects have hair or feathers.  But thick thread is really great for trees.  And for less organic things.

With my thin thread, I use small needles.  I like 75/11 or 80/12 sizes.  I usually use Schmetz jeans/denim or Microtex.  The shop where I purchased my machine suggested a new brand, Inspira.  I have been using their denim and Microtex and sometimes their titanium-coated needles and they seem to work pretty well- they're cheaper too.  I change my needles a lot.  When they make that popping noise, it's time for a change.  Sometimes I will notice nests or loops on the back -- time for a new or different needle.  I don't change my machine tension a lot after I make my sample.  Just the needle.  When using thicker thread, a larger needle is in order -- without a lot of blather about technical stuff, I suggest 90/14 Topstitch needles.

As for fabric, I use anything I can lay my hands on.  My favorite stuff to use is hand-dyed cotton, but I'm not proud.  I'll use anything that suits the project.

Which brings me to stabilizers.  I have been using Decor-Bond for a while now -- it's fairly lightweight and doesn't feel too crinkly inside of a quilted project.  A friend recommended Sulky Totally Stable recently, so I'm going to be experimenting with that this month.  I have a project that I abandoned because I didn't use any stabilizer before I started covering it with thread and it puckered.  I'm going to see if I can reclaim it with stabilizer.  Sometimes I use batting and sometimes I don't.  I like thin batts when I do use them.

And don't forget feet:  I use my freemotion foot with the feed dogs down.  Sometimes I forget and leave them up -- I usually don't notice until I remove the piece.  So I'm not sure it's all that important.

Next: thread-sketching and the value of making samples

May: Sketching and Painting with Thread

I was at a quilt show a couple of years ago and in the little sign accompanying a certain quilt, one of the techniques given was "thread-painting."  My friend and I looked all over that quilt and didn't see anything we thought would qualify as thread-painting.  It was a modern art quilt, composed of beautiful hand-dyed fabrics and artfully quilted, but we just didn't see any actual thread-painting.

I am not enough full of myself to think that I can provide the definitive definition of thread-painting, but I think that a lot of what I do qualifies as such.  So this month, my month, I want to explore the art of painting on fabric with thread.  Because it's really just another form of my favorite thing: putting color on fabric.

Here are a couple of examples to get the creative juices flowing:

Ellen Anne Eddy does some fabulous work with thread.  Here is a link to her website: http://www.ellenanneeddy.com/   and her blog: http://www.ellenanneeddy.com/weblog/

Terry Aske has a nice portrait of a thread-painted dog here:
http://www.terryaskeartquilts.com/Studio/2013/04/13/on-my-design-wall-dog-portrait-finished-2013-04-13/

Shannon Conley has a nice thread-painted dog here:
 http://imworkingonaproject.blogspot.com/2013/04/woof-woof-dogs-are-out.html

and for those who are not necessarily fans of dogs, Quilting Arts is offering a free ebook on thread painting and sketching here:
http://www.quiltingdaily.com/blogs/quilting-daily/archive/2013/04/25/thread-sketching-and-thread-painting-new-free-ebook.aspx


Next up: the basics.  Threads, needles, fabrics and stabilizers, oh my...

Optical Illusion - auditioning two options

Well, I haven't completed the project yet, but have arrived at a pivot point... I need to decide if I want to use the other two pieces of dyed fabric, or leave the design as is.  I made the passe-partout from black fabric, used some scraps of fabric to cover the inside of the frame, then stitched the pleated piece to the back of the canvas (actually, twill in my case... I used undyed twill and stretched it over some stretcher bars I had on hand).
Below is the pleated piece with the passe-partout draped over the stretcher bars.

In this picture, I laid the 2 other pieces over the bars and under the passe-partout... the fabrics have not been quilted yet.  My dilemma is that I feel like the 3D effect is lost when I put the two pieces on top.  So I am going to study these pictures a little before deciding how I will proceed.

I must confess that I am not happy with the passe-partout, and may need to do a little more work to get the opening to fit over the stretcher bars better... the opening appears to be too large, so I may need to make another one that has a smaller opening, or maybe use a contrasting fabric to make an inner border.  But I am fascinated with this project... it is very different than anything I have worked on before, and I think it has given me a lot to  think about, and I'm sure I will try this again!

Optical Illusion - a less successful try

It seems that April is an especially busy month for everybody. I have to apologize Nienke for not being able to try out her excellent tutorials - but I'll do it, definitely, later on. For the meantime I would like to show an another try towards optical illusions, though a much less successful one - but we also learn from our mistakes, don't we?

Some years ago I tried to create an optical illusion by piecing stripes together. As I didn't take photos during the process, i can only show the half-finished results, which I abandoned, when the constructional mistake became apparent. 

I pieced the yellow and yellow-and-light-green stripes between the dark green ones. I wanted those the stay orthogonally to the surface so reinforced them with a thin but stiff interface. The interface increased the thickness of the stripes which created a "tightened" effect between the dark green stripes there, where I haven't placed the yellow stripes in-between.

Conclusion: if we want to play with dimensionality, we need to use end-to-end stripes, like Nienke did. So as soon as i'll have time, i would like to try out her technique and  i'm really curious to see the results.

Optical Illusion - work in progress

I've been trying to find time this month to try Nienke's Optical Illusion technique, and finally got some fabric dyed yesterday.  I didn't take any pictures of the 4 squares, but I just finished fusing two of  the merged squares onto my background:

I didn't mean to use such similar colors to Nienke's example, but I had the dyes mixed for another project and decided to use them here as well.  So far, I'm really enjoying how this is coming out!  I hope to get the stitching done today, and then get a start on the next step tomorrow.  I may not be done before the end of the month, but I'll post again just to let you know how I'm doing.  I already know I want to do some more with this technique... very interesting!  Thanks for the tutorial, Nienke! 

Getting Started - Karen S

I was waiting for the weather to improve -- but I'm running out of month.  I did these in my kitchen yesterday.  I used lemon yellow, golden yellow, red, and deep purple.  

Now on to the cutting and pleating!