Is it September?

Then it is thread tension month!

Every month is thread tension month in the life of a fiber artist.  Raise your hand if have you been happily sewing along only to catch sight of the back and the gappy, loopy stitching?    Raise your other hand if you have sewn a straight line and you look at it and it looks like it has slightly gathered.  Raise your leg if you have seen lots of the bobbin thread on the top of your quilt.  OK now touch your hands to your toes and squeeze your stomach muscles.

Welcome to quiltercize!

Rosemary gave a presentation on thread tension last meeting.  How you know it is right and how to fix it if it is not.  In the hot pink writing is a short video on how machines make a stitch.  It should help you understand how a stitch is made by the machine.  Knowing how the stitch is made should help you figure out what the problem is when you encounter tension problems.

Meeting Minutes (Thank you Cindy Oxley) can be found here Meeting Minutes

During August's meeting Carroll Lee brought in a few pieces to demo trapunto. "Pele's River" which appeared on page 32 of Quilting Arts Mag in their June/July 20191 issue.  How do I know you ask?  I stumbled onto it while on vacation. "Hey I know her!!"

One more thing before we show and tell.  I forgot to mention last month that Rosemary has issued a pillow challenge. Due date undetermined.  I am setting mine for the first of the year because if I don't, it will be done... never.  You can do whatever you want to the pillow and you can make it whatever size suits your fancy.  


OK Show and Tell!  I know the layout for the photos seems odd, but Blogger is fighting me and I will not win.😡 

 Annette Williamson's Needlepoint

                 Janey Argyle Embroidery on a quilt

Sue Swinyard did some fabric painting and used some of it to make a gorgeous pillow

  

Cindy Oxley did some rust dying and according to Rosemary... "some sort of hooking!"  Haha.  Laughed so hard when I read that.

Chris Baker did some embroidery

                and an octopus button art

Nickie Heying did some more ice dying.

And finally Carroll Lee Stolz brought in a nicely quilted framed red work piece.

She will text me later to tell me what these next two are.  Until then, there will be a guessing/remembering game.  If you know or have a guess as to what she did here, leave it in the comments.  There may be a prize for you at October's meeting if you guess correctishly!

OK that's it!  Not sure what we have planned for October's meeting, but you know it will be fun and interesting!  See you then!

August Meeting - All Things Trapunto

Sue Gilgen's Aspen Red

In this month's meeting we discussed the use and various methods of trapunto.

What is trapunto and why employ this technique in our art quilts?  Trapunto is essentially the clever use of batting either on top or below the top layer of your fiber art project to create dimension and/or design to your piece. Sue, Nickie and Carroll Lee were our presenters of this technique and they brought in their own work as examples.  Above is one of Sue's using regular trapunto (where you stitch extra batting behind the quilt top to enhance items on the front of the piece.  Here she did the trees and cut away all the batting not behind the trees.  Makes it really pop off her piece.  Here is another example of that method:

Geta Grama

Nickie brought in several pieces showing shadow trapunto.  None of us took a picture.  That is how it goes sometimes.  So I snagged some of the net.   This is where you sandwich batting between organza, sew, cut away the batting leaving the organza top, add background and quilt (shadow trapunto).  I think Nickie may have done it slightly differently.  If she did, she can add a comment and I will correct it.  Nickie also dyed the batting in some pieces and used it to great effect in reverse applique.

Geta Grama - click to go to her site

 You can also do trapunto with raw edge applique.  Here is an example.

Getasquiltingstudio.com

There are tutorials for all three methods at the bottom of the post. 


More examples from our artists plus a bit of show and tell:

Sue

close up

Nickie - Trapunto plus dying

Nickie - resident rogue rust artist

Nickie experiments in rust.

Side note: if you see fabric on a manhole cover around town you know who has been there.  Drive around it.😄

Our ladies also made creative use of their dyed fabrics.  Here is a fine example by Melanie Wilson:

Darling blouse from dyed fabric class

 Hope Jan brings her quilt top in after she has quilted it.  Gorgeous.

Jan Kalian

Next month Rosemary is going to be discussing thread tension.  Looking forward to seeing you there.  Bring what you have been working on.  Meanwhile, happy creating!

Trapunto tutorials:
Applique and Trapunto - Geta Grama
Trapunto and Shadow Trapunto - Geta Grama

Let's Catch Up!

We have had a fun few months before we took our break in July. Now that we are back from our break it is time to get into the swing of things!

But first, here are few photos and brief description of what happened April - June!

APRIL 2018

In April we had a group pow-wow. We discussed many class ideas for the future and held nominations for the Chairperson, Co-Chairperson, Secretary and Blogger.

APRIL SHOW AND TELL!

Melanie Wilson – Quilt called “Starry, Starry Night” – She also recommends a book entitled “Dream

Landscapes” by Rose Hughes, as it gave her the inspiration for the quilt.

Ila Craig – Beaded necklace.



Doris Claude – Quilt with Dogs on Boogie Boards wearing Hawaiian Shirts.

Images below: Judi Weiss shared books on Zentangle, Japanese Art Books and a book on Machine Quilting. She also brought two more of her fabulous boots.

 

MAY 2018

Barbara Nilsson gave a lecture and also shared projects she made using Solvy. She shared information regarding different types of Solvy, i.e. Regular (soft), Super (a little stiffer) and Ultra Solvy (twice as thick as regular). Item is a Sulky product and can be found at Joann’s as well as online.

Barbara shared tips such as not rinsing the product in the sink, as it may clog drain. Save remaining solution when you finish rinsing, as you may want to use it later. She said you can make your own fabric by placing yarn, thread, bits of fabric, Angelina, etc., between sheets of Solvy, and then sewing a grid or meandering on top of the product prior to washing the Solvy away. Fabric can be shaped by placing over a bowl, if desired. Allow to air dry. You can also use cheesecloth or gauze for a completely different look.

Other who shared tips and products they made by using Solvy were Shannon Shaw, Cindy Oxley, and Ann Nancarrow.

MAY SHOW AND TELL!

JUNE 2018

Caroll Lee Stoltz gave an interesting lesson on discharging and different forms of bleach to use on the fabric to do the discharging. Each type of bleach produced different results. It was quite fascinating to see what each form of bleach or type of fabric would make. It is great fun to experiment with—make sure you are in a well ventilated room!—and see what you can create.

JUNE SHOW AND TELL! 

Jan – Solvy Sample

Charlotte: fabric picture

Nickie -sheep picture

Barbara – greeting cards

Barbara – greeting cards

Linda Wells – Solvy – tornado picture

Shannon – thread painting