Improv Quilting - Portrait of a Polka Dot Lady

For those who may not know: 

Until this month I was a member of  "The Endeavourers" (see button in RH side bar for link). The aim of the group is to make an art quilt to fit the chosen subject for the quarter over those three months and then to show the quilt on "The Endeavourers" blog at a given date. I am now leaving the group as I  find I don't have as much free time as I thought I would have in order to be able to complete a quilt within that timescale.

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IMPROV

I was so excited when I read that the November reveal for The Endeavourers was to be “Improv”!

I didn't really know much about Improv then but, of course, I've searched the internet widely to read more.

I found out more about Improv HERE, and somewhere I read that Improv is basically made without a pattern and I was especially encouraged when I read that "if you think what you are doing is Improv, it is!"

So, one day I was reading a blog where the lady showed how to stitch Improv circles ..... I had to go out for some reason, and when I returned I hadn't bookmarked the lady's blog, so now I cannot find her to share the details with you here (sorry for being an idiot!).

Anyway, this gave me the idea to make a quilt with a picture of my "Polka Dot Lady" in it! However, as you might guess, this was waaaay harder than I ever imagined!

This is how she looks so far!

I started with a rough sketch of how I imagined she might look, and other ideas of what I could add to the quilt:

I soon realised this was all too much and decided to concentrate on "my lady", and then debated where to start!!!

So ..... I started with her hair buns:

I actually sketched the buns on the pink polka dot fabric, just eyeballing the sketch to see if I could envisage the completed size. Then placed the first "bun" on a strip of background fabric. It was very complicated ..... I was afraid of cutting the wrong size ..... so there was lots of sketching ..... using my rotary cutter for all cutting .....

And then the difficulty of how to stitch them in place .....

Pulling the raw edges together and stitching very slowly .....

Not too bad for a first attempt!

It even looked quite good on the right side too!

After stitching the second "bun" and guessing their positioning .....

Lots of sketching to work out how big to cut her hair .....

I stitched her hair in place in much the same way that her hair had been stitched on my "Polka Dot Lady" pincushion ..... with a raw edge, and machine stitched in place, as decoratively as I could.

I didn't take photos of making her shoulders, but basically I cut out a cardboard template ..... starting with an oblong about the size I wanted, worked out the curve of her shoulders and cut out the shape I thought her neck should be, then cut the fabric from that shape.

I machine stitched the neckline to her dress in the same manner as the "buns" .....

Maybe this is too many photos, sorry!

Then I realised the neck would be too tricky to machine stitch, so this little part will be hand stitched.

Anyhow, I placed the shape over the background and, using my trusty Flexion pen (no affiliation I just find this is what works for me), which irons off with heat, drew the shape to cut out. 

To be more precise, starting with the outer line - 

1. actual shape of the Polka Dot Lady piece,
2. stitching line,
3. cutting line.

I started with the body ...... machining it in place ..... next from the top of the head, stitching round to the neck, and then started again on the second side in the same way.

And here she is with the lines all ironed out.  The right side of her neck is fully stitched but the left is a little trickier to stitch. I might undo the left side of the body as it doesn't really sit right in the background.

So, hopefully you can see why I've been a bit slow with this one ..... it was soooo much trickier than I ever imagined!

There will be borders, maybe a star or two, oh, and there's my lady's face to embroider, but the finished piece will only be 15 inches square when finished, and hopefully it can be considered a little bit "Arty"?! But I can't say how soon it will be finished.

As I said at the beginning ..... I was a member of "The Endeavourers" but I am parting with them now, however I will be popping back to visit as there is so much wonderful inspiration among the lovely ladies there. I wish I could continue, but I just don't work that fast!!

So do pop over to visit them if you have a moment.

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I will be back here soon with more of my tiny stitching projects!
(Oh, and let me know if you have any questions on the method used for my mini quilt.)

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Wishing my "Endeavourer" friends all the best, for future quilts,

Hugs,

Barbara xxx

P.S. I think my commenting problems are all solved, thanks to Catherine ..... and hopefully next time I can tell you more, in case the same happens to you!

What goes around, comes around - Spiral

Hello my friends! (Apologies in advance, this will be a longish post!)

I'm back! At least I'm hoping this isn't just momentary! And WE FIXED IT OURSELVES!!

Some of you will already know that the other day I found my computer wouldn't even turn on.

Well, after a whiz of a neighbour came to our aid, investigating our laptop when we were really stuck, although unfortunately without much success, today DH had a go!

We knew our neighbour had pressed "Start" and F2, which starts you up in "safe" mode, and then he had run Auto Repair which failed, so today DH tried Auto Repair again which failed again. He then clicked on "Advanced Options" and chose "go back to previous restore point".

Because we've been very naughty and not backed up for ages our restore point was 31st October 2017.
The computer told us we would lose data and it would restore back to that point, so DH connected our external hard drive, clicked on "Restore Now" and waited ...... After a short wait the computer burst into life!

We had both been resigned to the fact that we were going to lose all that data, but we were so lucky that for some reason we haven't lost any!

But the moral of the story is: "Back Up" and "OFTEN"!

And now for the post I wanted to share on 1st August!!

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This year I joined a group of art quilters called "The Endeavourers". This is the third quarter of the year, and our third project is "Spiral".

And now, to celebrate my being able to upload my photos again:

Tah dah! Here is my Spiral quilt:

"What goes around, comes around"

But that wasn't how I originally envisaged it, and if I'm really honest I struggled trying to think what to do and how to make an art quilt as such.

Back when our topic was announced I had and idea of making a lap quilt. I saw a photograph on Pinterest of a fern and a snail and it gave me the following idea. I've even stitched the squares together and cut and ironed bias strips ready.

I planned the backing fabric too:

But as time was slipping by I realised I was trying to do too much again!

Soooo! Plan B! I'd seen ticker tape quilts and thought I could do something along those lines:

And then, as panic was setting in I discovered, probably like most quilters, just how many triangle offcuts I had! So, one day I took them along to my handicraft group and was showing my idea to some of the ladies (and I'm sorry but we are only ladies, we did have one man join us for a short while, but I don't think it suited him). 

Toying with positioning

But I decided, after much playing about with the pieces that they looked better with large pieces becoming smaller toward the centre. Oh, then I wondered how to keep the pieces in place without pins and remembered a while back winning a book "Crafted Applique" by Lara Buccella of BuzzinBumble. Now I can't tell you how she does it, you'd need to read the book to find out, but suffice to say I found her method worked well for me ...... Thank you Lara!

Then to give it a "sketched" look I machine stitched around all the pieces, about 1/16th" from the edge, initially in pink cotton. Then, as it didn't show up sufficiently I tried purple (my fav colour). Still it didn't look right, then I popped over to one of my favourite blogs - the blog of Josie - "Sew for Soul" to read how she does this, and found she advocates using black thread. Having admired her method for years I've finally tested it out!

I was really nervous how to make my spiral in the centre, but used a Frixion pen to freehand draw  in some lines. After stitching I was able to use a warm iron to remove the pen lines.

I had originally intended to add a curved border but in the end I was running out of time and was determined to finish this time, so I finished my backing using the "bagging out" method.

I even remembered to add corners to hang my quilt from ..... and with a branch (hurridly trimmed by DH)  from a hazelnut tree I fashioned a loop to finish the hanging.

Please excuse me if I haven't visited you lately, this wonky computer has taken up so very much time this week! 

I have really enjoyed making this quilt and I can see lots of other things I can do with this method of quilting.

Oh, btw, I am not being recompensed for mentioning any products in this post, and have only done so because I like them and found they work for me.

Do pop over to visit The Endeavourers blog where you can see all my fellow Endeavourers' wonderful Spiral quilts, oh, and to read how I named my quilt!

Hugs,

Barbara xx

A Fragile Nature

Hello Dear Reader,

If you are new here, or haven’t read my previous posts you might not know that I’ve joined a group of quilters called The Endeavourers and that we were all working on quilts of the same subject - 'Nature'. 

For all the gen about my new friends at The Endeavourers visit HERE, and their blogs are listed at the end of this page, so you can see the wonderful quilts they have made!




Firstly I must apologise to Catherine, Janine and the other “Endeavourers” for being so late. I really underestimated the time my quilt would take, and unfortunately a recurring back problem has stopped me working as quickly as I would have liked.

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"A Fragile Nature"

In my last post I spoke about my inspiration for this piece and how I got started ... HERE. 

Well .... there has been this box of fabric paints lurking, unused, in one of our cupboards ever since I took part in a workshop for block printing. I had the idea that one day I would add to my block prints ..... but that hasn’t happened yet! Happily this meant I had fabric paints on hand to use on this project.

Progress on my quilt has been soooo slow, what with my dodgy back and then the light not being good enough. But also, when I decided to paint my design I didn't realise how long it would take me to find the right colours, and then as I progressed I found I could only see properly to paint in daylight. I was also scared to add to the painting in case I ruined my project.

Main piece on the left, Tester 1 on the right.

My first attempt became one of my test pieces early on(Tester 2). I'd made the mistake of painting on wet fabric! Of course it ran! So, when I wasn't sure how to paint the blue there was plenty of fabric to experiment on.

Tester 2

Tester 3

In all there were quite a few test pieces, which looked quite pretty, but when I started on my main project I couldn’t remember which colours I'd mixed together. 

I realise ..... now (thanks to Google) ..... the way to do it is to make a chart!

Anyway, thanks to all the practice, I now have some pretty little pieces which I am thinking of using to make a pencil case one day.

This is the flimsy after adding the final colours to the dormouse.

The next step will be to outline the branches, berries, and dormouse with machine stitch.

Here you can see the binding I've painted too!

To read a little more about my quiltlet I hope you would like to pop over to The Endeavourers.

But it is already time to think about the next project: due 1st May 2018, and the subject is:

Change/Transformation.

Oh help ..... any ideas anyone????

Hugs

Barbara xxx

The Endeavourers:

Catherine - http://www.knottedcotton.com   @knottedcotton
Janine – https://rainbowhare.com/
Nancy – http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com/
Carol – http://beadsandbirds.blogspot.com/
Barbara – https://theflashingscissors.blogspot.co.uk/
Ruth – http://benandcharlyscorner.blogspot.co.uk/
Gwen – https://textileranger.com/
Martha – www.weekenddoings.com
Julie – www.pinkdoxies.com
Tonia – http://allthingzsewn.blogspot.com
Kay – http://thecraftyyak.wordpress.com
Soma – http://www.whimsandfancies.com/
Fiona - http://celticthistlestitches.blogspot.co.uk/