Origin Quilt for Mavericks Quilt Guild Challenge

The quilt guild I belong to, The Mavericks, finished up their challenge this month. The theme is "States of Mine", with two quilts - one depicting the Nature of Arizona (where we all currently reside) and the other depicting our Origins or something about the state (city, country, etc) where we grew up. I posted my Arizona quilt last month (see post dated Nov 20).

I was late with my origins quilt, as my Arizona quilt took me much longer than I expected. The show they are currently hung in was delayed, so I had the opportunity to finish it and get it in the show.

I'm originally from Ohio. I had a difficult time deciding what to do for this quilt. I originally wanted to do something with my grandparents farm, as I spent so much time there as a child. I took a photo a of the fall colors of my grandparents shed, where my grandfather always sat outside - no matter the weather. This is the image that always comes to mind, as I always saw Grandpa in that green metal chair in the opening of the shed whenever we pulled in the driveway. However, the challenge stated the quilt had to be 18" wide by 48" high. No matter how I played with the photo, it just didn't work in that format.

The second image I thought about using to make a quilt was one of the pond towards the back of the woods on my grandparent's farm. We played there year round - swimming and fishing in the summer, fishing in the spring and fall, and ice skating in the winter with bonfires and cookouts year-round. The pond and woods were my favorite playground as a child. However, the photo looked much better in a horizontal format, instead of a vertical format. No matter how I cropped it, I just wasn't happy with the composition.

I love looking at the moon, stars and constellations, which are much more difficult to see well in the city. My Dad gave me a love of astronomy by getting us (my siblings and I) up many nights at 2 or 3 am to look at the moon or stars in a telescope built by a great-Uncle. I remember watching Neil Armstrong orbit the moon through the telescope before they made history by landing on the moon. Neil Armstrong was from a town 20 miles from where I grew up. I had it - I'd paint the Milky Way for my Origin's Quilt.

I started with a piece of black batik cotton fabric to paint. I roughly sketched the Milky Way with an iron-out white fabric marker. Using Jacquard's white textile acrylic paint, I started painting in the background for the Milky Way.

Milky Way, 18"x48". I started painting the
background with Jacquard White Textile paint.

I tried several acrylic and watercolor paints on the black batik, but most of them did not show up. I finally had to use Shiva Oil Paintsticks to achieve the desired color I wanted for the starry background of the Milky Way. I no longer use the Shiva paintsticks as much, because of the strong odor. But they do look lovely on black fabric!

I used Shiva Oil Paintsticks to add color for the
background of the Milk Way to the black fabric.

 I continued with the white textile paint and the Shiva paintsticks to paint in the rest of the Milky Way and the background space for the stars.

Painting the Milky Way with Jacquard white
textile paint and Shiva Oil Paintsticks.

I started dotting in stars using the point of a paintbrush.  I used a toothbrush to splatter white paint to create hundreds of stars. Unfortunately, these weren't large enough. My husband found me a wire brush for removing rust on metal and this made lovely size stars when splattering paint on the fabric. With several sizes for stars between the toothbrush and the wire brush, the quilt had lovely depth to the Milky Way Galaxy.

Stars added to the Milky Way galaxy by splattering with a toothbrush and a wire brush.

 I left a black silhouette of a couple of small trees and a person (myself) standing with arms raised looking up at the Milky Way Galaxy. After waiting a couple days, for the oil paint to dry, it was ready to quilt. I found some patterns that created a "windy" effect on Pinterest. I combined a couple to free-motion quilt wind and clouds in my Milky Way quilt.

"Astronomy Lessons with Dad" - 18" x 48". My
Origin Quilt for the Maverick's 2014 quilt challenge. 

Close up to show some of the quilting details. 

I finished the edges using facing and added a sleeve and label on the back. People that saw my quilt asked me where I found such a wonderful panel -  that was high praise!! Others that saw only my photos asked me how I took pictures of the Milky Way. They were surprised to find out it was a quilt that I hand-painted. I'm very pleased!

It feels good to get both quilts completed and have them in the show in Scottsdale, AZ! Now I need to go see it. It hangs until the beginning of March, so I have time. Then it will go to the Arizona Quilt Guild's Annual Spring Show the end of March and to a show in Georgia sometime later in the year.


Keep creating!
Lynnita

Week 46 of 365 Days of Art Challenge

This has been such a busy week. I've been burning the midnight oil almost every night until 1-3 am working on a quilt for the Mavericks' quilt guild annual challenge. Therefore, I did not get a sketch done for Blue Twig Studio's weekly sketch challenge for her 365 Days of Art Challenge. I'm using my finished quilt in place of my sketch this week!

The Maverick's quilt guild challenge is called "States of Mine" and is composed of two quilts - one about Arizona (AZ) Naturally (which can be anything to do with AZ) and the second is about the person's state of origin. The only restriction is the quilt has to be 18" wide by 48" high. This vertical composition made it difficult for me to decide what to do.  I had many photos that would make great quilts, but cropping them to fit the 18"x48" vertical restriction made me throw out several of them. I did finish my AZ quilt, but my Origins quilt will be late.

For my AZ quilt, I decided on a night-blooming cactus flower. I'm not an early bird, but I got up at 5 am to see all the beautiful white blooms on our cacti in the front yard. I photographed several, as the sun was just coming over the horizon and highlighted the flowers beautifully!

This is the flower that I cropped for the quilt challenge. 

Cereus or Queen of the Night cacti bloom. From our front yard.

I hand-painted the quilt with Pebeo setacolor paints, Tsukineko inks, and Silk acrylic glaze on white Pimatex cotton fabric. I used two pieces of fabric to make the quilt 3-dimensional. I painted all the front flower petals on one piece of fabric, and the back petals that look blue due to the shadows created by the sun on a second piece of fabric. I did a lot of thread play of the flower on wool batting using a variety of trilobal polyester and silk threads. Then I added two layers of byAnnie's Soft and Stable foam stabilizer to the top layer of petals to give them lift. When stitching the layers altogether - the padded top petals and the blue bottom petals onto a thin cotton batting and backing fabric - I added an extra layer of polyester stuffing to puff up the center petals even more. Then I finished quilting all the layers together. Finally, I embellished the flower with 3 mm, lime green, flat, twisted aluminum for the stamens of the flower.  Following are the various steps of my process in creating this quilt.

Step 1. Fabric is placed over pattern on a foam board.
Painted yellows and oranges with Pebeo setacolor paints.

Step 2. Added deeper oranges and reds with Tsukineko inks in
red delicious, tangerine, autumn leaf and vintage wine.

Step 3. Continued to deepen the values and added the background in the top of the quilt
with Tsukineko inks in apple green, vintage wine, cool gray, ultramarine blue and midnight.

Step 4. Deepened the values of bottom petals and added background with
Tsukineko apple green, vintage wine, cool gray, ultramarine blue, and midnight inks.
Also lightened some of the yellow areas with Tsukineko white and lemon yellow inks. 

Step 5. Removed the first piece of fabric, and covered the pattern with the second 

piece of fabric to start the back petals. Used Silk acrylic glaze in blue for the main color. 

Added Tsukineko inks in ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, red delicious, apple green, 

tangerine, and lemon yellow. Deepened the value of the background with Tsukineko 

midnight, cool gray, and ultramarine inks. Added the pistil in apple green and thistle inks.

Step 6. Added thread play and quilting with Superior Rainbow trilobal polyester, 

Bottom Line polyester, and Kimono Silk threads. Also used YLI Silk threads for the 

thread play. I used parallel, softly curved lines that followed the shape of the petals for

 my thread play and quilting motifs. Added Soft and Stable foam stabilizer and polyester 

stuffing under the front yellow and orange petals to give a 3D effect. 

Cereus, Queen of the Night quilt, 18" x 48". This is my final
quilt embellished with the 3mm flat, lime green, twisted
aluminum for the stamens. Finished with a facing, label, and sleeve.  

Close up to show the 3D effect.

Close up to show the thread play, quilting and aluminum stamens.

This quilt took me much longer than I expected, but I'm thrilled with the result. Now to finish my second quilt for the challenge - my Origins quilt. I will post that quilt when I am finished with it.

Keep creating!!
Lynnita

October ATC Challenge - Wild, Wild West

I've been participating in Blue Twig Studio's ATC challenge the past few months.  October's theme was the Wild Wild West.  I searched online for photographs of the West and chose the following photos online as my starting place for my ATCs.

A lone horseman view the vast open land with its buttes and mesas.

The lonely buildings of a ghost town.

Main street of a typical Western frontier town bustling with activity.

Abandoned buildings and wagons from a ghost town in the foothills of the mountains.

I altered the photos to make them look like very old photographs using Pixlr Express, a photo-editing app. Then, I printed the photos onto fabric.

I added sepia tones and a white torn paper frame to age the photo. The actual photo I printed 

onto the fabric has a blue sky - I'm not sure why it appears green in this photograph. 

I darkened this photo and added a black torn paper frame. 

I yellowed the print, then added a bubble overlay, and a black rusted frame to this lively Old West town.

I also yellowed this photo and added a white scratched and torn overlay.

I felt this added to abandoned feeling of this town.

I, then, quilted the photos and embellished them with turquoise, coral, and jasper beads. Turquoise and coral were valuable for trading, and jasper can be found throughout the west.

 Lastly, I added an Old West Proverb to the back of the cards and signed them.

• "When in doubt, let your horse do the thinkin'." - Old West Proverb
• "Ride the horse in the direction it's goin'." - Old West Proverb
• "If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there." - Old West Proverb
• "Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from any directions." - Old West Proverb.

Back of one of the above ATC cards.

ATCs are a fun way to experiment on something small and try new ideas or to use up small scraps (we all know we have these, as we can't throw out something that we can use later in our artwork! lol!), etc.  Join in the fun!

November's ATC theme is Give Thanks. The ATC challenge is open to anyone. You only need to make one card and send to Blue Twig Studio to join! (see the link above for more information).  For each ATC you send in by the end of the month, you have a chance to win all of the ATCs from everyone that participated.


Keep creating!!

Quilt for Naomi for her 100th Birthday!

This past week has been crazy!! I was asked to make a quilt for a dear friend's 100th birthday. It all started by saying that I knew how to put photos on fabric!! That got me saying "Yes" I can make the quilt, too!!!

For Naomi, "No" just isn't in my vocabulary! She has been a dear friend (like a grandmother) to me for almost 15 years now. How could I possibly say No? The quilt would be from the Mesa Q-Bee's, the quilting group at our church, the Mesa Church of Christ of which I've been a member since it was started. Naomi has been a member for many years. With a backing fabric to start, I went through our church stash for fabric for the top - I had decided to do a scrappy Log Cabin quilt with the photos as the center of each block.

Top completed. Auditioning fabrics for borders and binding.

I got the photos about 10 days ago. After going to a friend's to scan the photos, I  worked on editing them, cleaning them up, and getting them ready for printing. Running to JoAnn's on Thursday (Aug 28) for more printer fabric (since I didn't have enough) I finished printing the photos on Saturday. I spent the weekend designing the quilt in EQ7 (Electric Quilt version 7) - a program for designing quilts.  This helped me decided on the photo placement, the block size, and the colors for the quilt top. Sunday I ironed and cut fabric (at least most of the fabric). Monday and Tuesday, I sewed most of the 12" Log Cabin blocks. I occasionally cut more fabric as I didn't have the color I needed or enough variety to keep the quilt very scrappy.  I finished the blocks on Wednesday, sewed them together, and added a flange and a border. Thursday (Sept 4 now - 2 more days to go!), TR helped me spray-baste the quilt and I started quilting it at church during our quilting group. Naomi didn't even notice what I was working on! LOL! Everyone else thought the quilt was beautiful! I finished quilting it that evening. I stitched a square feather wreath in each block around the photo. I also quilted a feather motif in the border. Friday, I sewed the binding completely by machine and created a label on the computer and attached it to the quilt! Whew!! It was finished with hours to spare!! I finished it on Naomi's 100th birthday! I couldn't have planned that!! I even was able to go to bed at 10:30 pm (most nights this past week, I didn't go to bed to 1 am or so!).

The Mesa Q-Bee's celebrating Naomi's 100th Birthday. Log Cabin quilt  42" x 54".

The back of the quilt showing a feather wreath around each block.
The border also has a feather motif.

Close up of label containing a photo of Naomi counting the number of quilts we were donating that day to New Leaf, a local charity that passes the quilts to the people in their battered women shelters, boy's home, and homeless shelters. The label says "The Mesa Q-Bee's in celebration of the 100th birthday of Naomi, September 5, 1914 -2014.  The past and present members of the Mesa Q-Bee's at Mesa Church of Christ with a list of 37 names. Designed, pieced, and quilted by Lynnita Knoch, Chandler AZ, September 5, 2014."   

Giving the quilt to Naomi at her 100th birthday party celebration! The current members of the Mesa Q-Bee's are standing around Naomi. She is very surprised and shocked. She got tears in her eyes when she realized that the center of the blocks were photos from various Q-Bee events.

Naomi is examining the label of the quilt. She laughed at it being a picture of her counting quilts. 

Naomi taking a closer look at the photos, recalling the various events. 

It was a special day for a very special lady!! I'm glad to have had the privilege to make this quilt for her. She deserves it! I wish I had known how to quilt while my grandmother was alive. I would've loved to make quilts with her, like I have with Naomi and I would've loved to have made a special quilt for my own grandmother, like I have for Naomi.

Enjoy the quilt, Naomi!! It was created with much love!!

Baby Quilt for Debbie

I was commissioned to make a baby quilt a month ago. After being ill for a couple of weeks, I finally was able to get it done. I was sent fabric for the quilt along with a photo of another quilt saying that was the required design - no measurements or anything - just a photo. Thankfully, it was a simple design that is not copyrighted, as it is just plain blocks with sashing and a border. They sent a list of what fabrics were to be used where.

Unfortunately, with no measurements given, I had to figure out what was the largest block I could create with the amount of fabric I was given. No matter what I did (unless I made a doll quilt - there just wasn't enough backing fabric without piecing it). Not to mention - several of the fabrics were one-way prints. . . really - I had to deal with one-way fabric, too!!! Argh!!! (If they didn't know what they were doing - let the quilter tell them how much fabric to buy!!)

I was frustrated with this quilt before I even started!!!  Eventually, I got everything figured out after having to make a couple changes, cutting a couple pieces the WRONG direction (due to them being ONE-WAY)!!  The quilt has 5 1/2" blocks, 1 1/2" sashing, a 2" border, a pieced back, and binding of a different fabric than they requested (I personally like the chevron fabric I used, rather than repeating the yellow striped fabric again.) It was the only way to make it work and be happy putting my name on it!

Besides the challenges of designing the quilt, I don't believe the fabric was 100% cotton. It sewed like it was sheet material! It was tough to get a needle through it - I had a hard time thread-basting. I also had to rip out the original quilting, as the quilt shifted terribly by the time I got to the fourth row. (I'm not sure why it shifted when I used my normal thread-basting and a walking foot). I did use a machine I don't normally use, as I wasn't at home when I started the quilting. I ripped out all the quilting, re-basted the quilt and then used my machine that I normally quilt on. It quilted just fine this time. I quilted it simply with diagonal lines across the quilt, creating an "x" in each block. I had about 3" of binding left-over when I finished the binding! Whoo-hoo! I was thrilled I had enough!!! (Wasn't sure what I was going to do if there hadn't been enough! Cry!! . . .cry some more. . . go to Plan B. Thankfully, I didn't have to figure out a Plan B!)

How do you put a price on a quilt when it ended up taking much longer than anticipated when I agreed to do the quilt, due to insufficient information and fabric? This was a real struggle for me. I wanted to be fair to the person who commissioned the quilt (she's not the one who bought the fabric), but yet I wanted enough for the difficulties of working with one-way fabric, insufficient fabric, and the type of fabric. What a dilemma!

Here is the finished quilt!

52" x 52" Yellow and Grey baby quilt. 

Back of quilt with section of blocks added to make it large enough.

Label designed on the computer. I drew an elephant similar to the ones on the back
of the quilt and chose greys for the background to go with the backing fabric. 

I hope the parents appreciate this quilt. I know Debbie does, as she has come to the quilting group at church and knows what goes into making a quilt. I would've liked to do things a bit differently, but I'm happy with how the quilt turned out and did put my name on the label.

Thank you for putting up with my rant!!

Indigo and Shibori Dyeing

A few friends, Rita, Mary and Roberta and myself, got together at Roberta's house for a day of playing. We made up a batch of indigo dye from a kit ordered from Dharma Trading. We dyed mostly cotton fabrics to use in quilting, but also dyed some silk and velvet ribbons, some lace and some eyelet fabric. Indigo will dye both animal and plant-based fibers, therefore, most natural fabrics can be indigo-dyed.

Indigo is easy to do, as it doesn't need to be boiled during the dyeing or heat-set to be permanent. The fabric is left in the vat only for a short time. If it dries too light, it is put back in the dye to darken. You do have to be careful not to introduce oxygen into the vat, so the indigo isn't oxidized. Once it is oxidized, the dye is exhausted and will no longer bind to the fibers.

We manipulated the fabric with different methods - knotting, folding, clamping, shibori using a plastic tube, marbles and rubber bands, and whatever other ways we could think of to manipulate the fabric. Many books are available with instructions for shibori dyeing and/or tie-dyeing. There are also many resources online.

Tools, like rubber bands, thread, needles, clamps, clothespins to manipulate the fabric, soy wax and tools (potato masher, wood chops, tjangs, paint brushes) for stamping the soy wax on the fabric, a book on Shibori methods, as well as, anything else we thought we might need or use today. 

Skimming off the bloom from the vat of indigo dye.
Ready for dyeing fabric.

Lynnita is stitching a circular pattern
to ready the fabric for dyeing.

Fabric is initially a neon green when first
pulled from the indigo dye.

As the fabric is exposed to air, the dye oxidizes
and turns the beautiful blue indigo.

                                              

                                            Rinsing the fabric under water. This fabric was dyed using a shibori
                                  technique (wrapping the fabric on the pole, then scrunching it together
                                 as much as possible. Fabric is held in place with rubber bands. 

Excess dye is rinsed away in cold water.

Fabric is wrapped around marbles and held in place
with rubber bands. This will create circular donuts
of the original color of the fabric. In this piece, the
marbles are placed randomly.

Roberta is pulling fabric from the dye vat and squeezing out excess dye. Mary
and Lynnita are unknotting, unclamping, unwrapping fabric to see the final results.

Fabric is set up on drying stand  until we are ready to wash with Synthrapol and dry.

Mary showing the her piece of shibori-dyed fabric.

Lynnita showing her piece of shibori-dyed
fabric. All 3 pieces were wrapped on the same
 tube and dyed together. Although similar, there
are definite differences in how they turned out. 

Mary showing off her knotted piece.
Beautiful circles resulted.

Lynnita's knotted piece. More beautiful circles. 

Marbles were placed in 2 rows, alternating with each other in this tone-
on-tone white fabric. The underlying pattern can be still be seen after dyeing.
The rubber bands  left a white donut where the marbles were placed.  

Rita took all the photos for our play date of indigo dyeing. We had a tremendous fun and created several pieces of indigo-dyed fabrics with various patterns. Many other pieces created are not shown. We also dyed silk ribbons in 4 mm and 7 mm widths, as well as 1/2" wide velvet ribbon, doilies, pearl cotton, and yards of lace, and eyelet fabric.  We had to quit, as we exhausted the indigo dye in our vat. When the dye is no longer a green color (is indigo-colored), there is no longer any dye available to bind with the fabric.

Next time, we plan to do more stitching to create patterns, as well as using soy wax to create patterns to resist the dye. We also want to dye wool and over-dye fabrics.

Thank you for joining us today. I hope this encourages you to try some indigo dyeing.