Orange Stripes Redux

After I last posted on this blog, I was unhappy with my piece and received lots of good advice.

I mostly decided to stop taking myself so seriously.

I had another piece of the monoprint/resist-stenciled fabric that was similar to the first piece I used for this technique. I laid one on top of the other and started cutting.

I had a computer blow-up during the weekend, but I found the photos I took of my cutting and stitching of the pieces (Mr S said they were there...I just had to find them).

After a bunch of slicing and dicing, I wound up with these two pieces.  I sewed them together into one piece. I wasn't real careful with my stitching, so it isn't real flat -- there are some tucks and small gathers. 

I still had the pile-o'-turquoise out because I thought it would be the best.  But a little strip of orange (yes-- orange again!) was sitting out left over from a stuffy I made for my daughter this past weekend. 

So I added it.  And I liked it.  So I cut some friends for it.   And added them.   This time I used skinny strips.  And what a difference!

This is where it stands.  It's about 19 by 14 inches.   I rather like it like this -- I'm inclined to leave it here.  Any suggestions?

Should I quilt it?  Add some paint?  Just enjoy it as art cloth?  Or add (gasp) some more strips?

A second bite at the apple

Everyone's skinny little lines have really inspired me!  Aren't there some fabulous works being created?  When I posted my first attempt, I told you that I wanted to try a second piece.  I started out with this fabric that I monoprinted last month.

I added a few navy blue skinny stripes and a red-violet commercial dyed second fabric and got this.  It is 31" by 26".

 

I am not completely satisfied with it.  It is much more difficult to successfully incorporate two fabrics than I thought.  Any suggestions?

More Work with Skinny Lines--Quilter Beth

I had a chance to continue work on the two pieces I did using this month's technique from Kathy Loomis. If you look at the original entry, you can see that my plan was to combine the two pieces in some way. I'm working on a series of pieces incorporating bias strip "cages" for my Advanced Independent Study work with Jane Dunnewold. This will be the fourth piece in that series.

I haven't actually cut into the blue piece yet. I made paper copies of the sewn piece. That way, I could cut up the paper copies and "play" with them instead of cutting up the sewn piece. Here are two pictures of my design wall. Right now, I'm playing the "what if" game. If you'd like to see more detail about the process, you can check it out on my blog here.

In this picture, I have pinned blue paper pieces to the orange sewn piece. I have pinned bias strips (in dark navy) over the paper pieces. I thought the piece at the bottom looks a bit heavy, sooo...

I made the change below.

I'm thinking of adding a blue piece to the upper right side (where it looks like there is an "empty" bias strip). What do YOU think?

My Turn at Skinny Lines--Quilter Beth

I finally had some time to work on Kathy's technique. I have a whole new respect for the work she does. I did find that I really enjoyed the piecing and will probably do more of it.

I had tried her technique a little while back. This is what that one looks like.

I hadn't, at that point, read (or had forgotten) her tip about using a lighter color for the strips to avoid show through. As you can see, I have some black showing through my white background. I need the black and white for this piece, though, and am going to have to use it. Any suggestions about what I can do to save this piece? It needs to have a white background and black lines; otherwise I'd have used a black background with white lines and wouldn't have a problem! I'm wondering if there is some sort of quilting or embellishment I could do to "hide" or disguise the show through.

After this, I worked on two more pieces--one I consider large and one small. For the large piece, I started with an orange piece of fabric approximately a yard by the width of the fabric. I had previously cut a little off of one side of the fabric--thus the ragged edge in the process pictures. This finished, squared up piece measures 24" X 39".

This is the finished "large" piece (after squaring it up). Under it, I have included some process pictures.

Here are some of the pictures I took as I was making this piece.

Here are a couple of close up shots.

Here is the smaller piece. I made it to "go with" the larger piece. I started with a piece of blue fabric 18 1/2" X 21". This finished (not squared up) piece measures approximately 16" X 18".

I was surprised how this one turned out. I didn't use a ruler at any time, and I didn't try to keep the lines straight. I didn't consciously cut the piece into uniform-sized segments. I did find that cutting at 90 degree angles was MUCH easier for me than cutting on the diagonal.

I haven't decided, yet, how I will "join" the two, but this is a drawing I made in Inspire Pro before I made either of these pieces. Keep in mind, this is just a rough drawing. I definitely would have an odd number of blue "cages," rather than the eight in this drawing, if I do decide to do something along this line. I also think I'd use a very dark navy blue fabric for the "cages" rather than the black I have used here.

I photographed the two pieces together to see if I liked the combination. I like the play of the diagonals against the more uniform "grid" of the blue piece. I like the contrast of the dense piecing of the blue piece against the less dense piecing of the orange piece.

I haven't decides whether I like the horizontal layout of the piece better than the vertical layout. In most of my pieces, I tend toward the horizontal--not sure why.

I owe Kathy a big thanks. She has been (and still is) an inspiration to me. She has provided me with encouragement all along my path to becoming an artist. Thank you Kathy; thank you!

Another fine line piece

My quiltfriend Marijke (no blog) was inspired by Kathy´s tutorial too and made this pretty piece. It measures 56 x 47 cm:

I love the way it turned out as well as the surprising colour-combination!

Fine line piecing from Japan

I am so pleased that you're tackling this technique and having good results!

I thought you might like to see some of the little compositions made with fine lines when I taught this technique in Japan two years ago.  Some of the students had brought hand-dyed fabric with prominent patterns, but not as assertive as the surface designs you folks are using.

My turn at skinny little lines

I have been waiting for months for Kathy's month to be our guest artist.  I have been a fan of her blog and work for a long time and really wanted to try her technique.  This weekend I was home and my husband was out with the boy scouts so the timing was perfect to make a small, tiny, skinny lines creation.

Here is the fabric that I started out with.  It is a two-sided batik.  I dyed cotton with thickened dye--one side with red and one side with blue.  Of course, the color bled through but one side is still more red and the other side is still a bit more blue. The beginning size was 21" by 17".

Here is the hand-dyed green cotton that I used for the lines.  I like complimentary color combinations and the shade of green is light enough that there is a nice value difference.




I read Kathy's directions.  I cut the green into 1/2 strips on the bias.  I stitched a single line along one side of the batik and two lines along another to help me put the fabric back together.  Of course I used the two different colors of thread so I could tell the front from the back.  Then I sliced, stitched the strip, and sewed the pieces back together.  Too bad I forgot to look for the stitching lines to make sure I had the front side and correct edge.  LOL  You know what they say, there are no mistakes, only design opportunities.

Here are some more process pictures.

Here is the finished piece before and after I squared it.  The finish size is 17 3/4 inch by 13 3/4".  What do you think?

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Lessons Learned:

1. This is a small piece and took forever.  Kathy, you must be a saint with lots and lots of patience to create your large quilts using this technique!
2. I used a straight edge to cut the green strips but cut the material without a straight edge---meaning the slices were not completely straight.  I like the results but I expect it would have been easier to sew back together if the lines had been perfectly straight.  Kathy, what do you do?
3. The finished piece had to be steamed to get it to lay straight.  It was a small piece so it did not represent too big of a problem but I could see where it could get out of hand quickly in a larger piece.  Is that a problem for you, Kathy?
4. Overall, it was tons of fun and I am going to try in again on this monoprint made last month. 

First Steps with Strips

I had this monoprint that I overdyed with a flour resist pushed through a stencil.  I like the colors, but it doesn't really stand on its own.  I took some of my vast stash of turquoise and cut thin and not-so-thin strips.

I know, Kathy's (very good) instructions said to use  skinny strips, but I had to try it both ways -- more on this decision below.

I also took some bits of the Caribbean-colored hand-dyes I did recently.  I found that ironing them open made them easier to stitch.

I started inserting the strips.  The orange/blue stripe was a mistake.  I decided to go with it, but it's my least favorite part of this whole thing.  

This is my "finished" piece (for today anyway) -- I think that the thinnest strips look the best.  They're not any more difficult to sew and they don't look clunky like the thicker strips.  And I still don't like the orange/blue stripe.  I'm thinking that this is one of those things that may never be finished -- as long as there is enough fabric to cut and sew back together.  

Piecing very fine lines

Thank you for inviting me to be your guest artist this month.  Please let me introduce myself -- I'm Kathy Loomis and mostly I make pieced quilts.


Just reading the subtitle of your blog made me wonder at first exactly what I’m doing here.  Although I have tried dyeing, overdyeing, painting, resisting, silkscreening, stamping, fusing, and heat tools at one time or another, none of them have earned a permanent place in my repertoire.  But then I found “slice” and “stitch” in your list, and felt more confident.  Those two techniques pretty much make up my current body of work.  I slice fabric apart, piece in a very thin line of contrast fabric, and stitch it back together again.

But will they work for you?  Maybe better than we think at first glance, and here’s why.

During my surface design years I found myself in possession of yards and yards of fabric that looked absolutely wonderful, but I had a hard time figuring out what to do with them.  Didn’t want to cut them up into little pieces because I would lose the lovely designs.  But simply quilting them whole-cloth, or suspending them to flutter in the breeze didn’t seem to be enough to transform them from yardage into works of art.  Perhaps you have the same ambivalent and confused feelings toward the lovely fabrics you are making.

In thinking about how I might provide you with inspiration, I realize that maybe my slice and stitch techniques would be a good solution to that beautiful-cloth problem.  Perhaps by insetting a network of lines you can add a new dimension to something you already have produced. 

The technique of piecing in very fine lines is embarrassingly simple.  I’ll give you a fast sewing tutorial, then some suggestions of how you might want to arrange the lines.

Any fabric works as the background for this technique, but you should be picky about what you choose for the skinny lines.  Don’t choose too beefy a fabric (like Kona cotton) or too firm a fabric (like pimatex).  You actually want something on the limp and flimsy side so it will lie flat in submission and not pile up too high where several layers of fabric accumulate around intersections.

I don’t know whether your main fabric is light or thin enough to see through, but just to be safe, make your skinny-line fabric lighter than the main fabric.  You don’t want your beautiful piecing marred by show-through.  (Ask me how I know this.)

Cut your skinny strips on the cross-grain, from selvage to selvage.  This makes them a little stretchier and more forgiving when it’s time to press everything flat. Cut them a half-inch wide to start, although you may want to go a bit narrower after you have become comfortable with the sewing method.

Before you start to slice your fabric, mark it so you get things back together the right way.  I like to mark two adjacent sides, one with one line (of stitching, pencil or pen) and the other with two lines.  And if I’m marking with a line of stitching, I’ll put a different color in the bobbin so I can tell the right side from the wrong side.

Now slice!  Start with straight lines (curves are possible but don’t try them at first).  Arrange the two pieces near your sewing machine right next to one another, right sides up, in the same orientation as before you sliced.  You will always proceed in this order:  sew the skinny strip to the right-hand piece of fabric, then sew the skinny strip to the left-hand piece of fabric.

For the first seam, stitch the skinny strip with a very narrow seam allowance, just a hair over an eighth-inch.  Don’t press yet.  Now open up the strip and get it in position to sew the slice back together again.  Check your markings to make sure you have the two halves aligned properly and the right sides are together.   

Usually in machine sewing we guide fabric through the machine by gauging a certain distance from the cut edge.  But for the second seam on the skinny strip I want you to gauge a certain distance from the previous seam, no matter how far it is from the edge of the fabric.  That way you can make your pieced-in line the same width, or vary it if you want, and see exactly what you’re going to get.

From the back of the work, gently press both seam allowances in the same direction.  Then flip your work and press again from the front side of the work, more enthusiastically this time.  Make sure there are no pleats in the work where the seam didn’t open all the way; if necessary, relax the seam with a spritz of water and press again till it’s perfectly flat and open all the way.

The fabric is now back in one piece and you can slice again and piece in a second skinny strip.

From now on you’ll find yourself having to sew over big piles of seam allowances when you cross a previously sewed line.  You’ll find that sometimes the seam allowances want to stand up and get in the way of the needle but just grab an implement (I like to use needle-nose tweezers) and hold them down as you sew by.

Sometimes your presser foot seems like it’s sliding off the piles to the right (actually the presser foot stays in place but the pile of fabric is squeezed out to the left).  The seam bulges off to the right and your line won’t be uniform.  

But not to worry.  Just go back and stitch that place again at the proper width, holding the fabric more firmly in place with your implement.  You don’t even have to rip out the bad stitches.

Whenever you go to press a completed strip, check which direction its neighbors are pointing in and press the new strip in the same direction.  As your work becomes more densely pieced it’s much easier to have all the seams pointing the same way so you can run your iron in one direction and not flip any seams.

You’ll notice as you make more and more lines that it’s difficult if not impossible to make the preexisting strips line up exactly across a new seam.  Embrace that!  In fact, what I love the most about this method of piecing is the little slippages and offsets that occur.  Sometimes I help it along, by placing the two halves of the slice a bit off to begin with.

Similarly, it’s difficult if not impossible to make the two ends of the seam line up exactly.  Partly that’s because once you’ve pieced in the skinny strip, one side of your slice may not be exactly the same length as the other.  But the fabric also stretches a bit as  you work with it.  Do not obsess over this, just accept it, and recognize that you will lose some of your fabric at the end when you trim off the jagged edges. 

Here's a quilt in progress.  You can see how if gets out of shape after many lines have been pieced in from different directions.  I'll lose quite a bit around the edges after I trim it to square.   (I suggest you stick with straight lines -- curved are way too difficult to learn at your first attempt.)

Here's my quilt Fault Lines 1 -- starting with 42-inch fabric, this piece ended up only 34 inches finished width

Now that I’ve taught you how to “draw lines” with piecing, it’s up to you where to draw them.  Here are some suggestions:

• All your lines don’t have to go all the way across the piece.  While you have a sliced line open, you can slice and restitch just half of the piece, then go  back and complete the original line.  Or you can make two parallel slices and sew intermediate lines in between the two cuts before you sew them back together. 

• You can combine different fabrics to make your original expanse of fabric.  You can join them with a plain seam, or piece in a skinny line at the join.

• While you have a slice open, before sewing the two halves back together you can insert a wider strip of contrast fabric.   It’s probably better to do this early in the process, so the join between the two colors can be offset by subsequent crossings.

• You’ll get a different character if your slices are all at right angles to the sides of the fabric, creating a gridlike pattern, or if they go on diagonals.

• Areas that are densely covered with lines have a different character than those sparsely lined.  For interesting contrast, have some areas of your composition densely sliced and others less dense.

Here's a piece on the design wall last year.  The screenprint was by ShelleyBrenner Baird.  I auditioned several hand-dyes to find one that complemented the strong character and color of the screenprint.  

Here's the finished quilt, Fault Lines 5. Most of the screenprinted images are left relatively intact so you can appreciate the design. 


















So find a piece of fabric that you did an exotic surface design on, and slice it up!  Maybe you'll want to start with one that you don't like much, and see whether it improves with a line pattern over the top.  And if it works, maybe you'll want to try it with a piece you love.  Let me know how it works for you!