Andrea Zuill’s Blog

  After getting back from my Texas trip , I was in the mood to quilt.  I decided to create a small quilt.

  This quilt is 15″x19″.  I’m not sure I like this size for my quilting.  It just doesn’t seem graphic enough.  The embroidery seemed too small yet when I made a sample using my typical 6 strands of embroidery floss the stitches where overwelming.

  This is the entire quilt.  I added a bar of printed fabric to the left side, because I needed color. 

  Valentine Girl, another painting for my BE Mine… show at Galleri Urbane in Marfa, TX

Now, questions that need to be answered:

1. Referring to my Transfer Eze post:   Wow! I’ve been looking for something like this. My biggest challenge is finding ways to transfer embroidery designs. Can you recommend any other products or techniques? Thanks for sharing such valuable information!

Here are the most common ways to transfer embroidery designs onto fabric - 

Transfer Paper - You can get this item at any fabric store and Sublime Stitching.

Iron on Transfer Pencil  -these can be found at most fabric stores, like Joanns. 

Light Table  -  Well, actually, using a window as your light table.  If you are using the window method, you will find that taping the design to the back of the fabric or to the window helpful as the design will not slip easily while you trace it onto the fabric. To trace, use a light pencil, chalk, air or water-soluble pen, or even a fine tip permanent marker in the shade of thread you will be using. (This info is from Victorian Embroidery and Craft)

2. Just curious. When you are buying fabric, for not a particular project, how much do you buy? A yard? Fat quarter? 2 yards?

Since my quilts are smallish I tend to buy fabric half yards.  But, if I am head over heals in love with a fabric I will buy 1 to 2 yards.  Other reasons to buy more than half a yard of fabric is hard to find colors, hard to find patterns and great fabric to back a quilt with. 

I have trouble finding a good orange fabric, so if I find one I like I’ll buy a yard or two.  Same with brown.  I am always looking for a good chocolate brown.  The color is not the only thing that is important.  I am very picky about the type of pattern on the fabric .  Everyone has their own needs when it comes to size, design and rhythm of pattern on their fabrics.

When I find a nice feeling cotton fabric that would make a great backing for my quilts, and it’s cheap,  I’ll buy several yards. 

  Do you ever get a flash of an idea when you least expect it?  I do. It always happens to me while I’m in the bathtub. 

  While bathing a couple weeks ago the image of a appliqued rabbit popped into my head.  I suppose the idea came from all the vintage appliqued quilts I ‘ve been studying.  I love the old quilts with awkward appliqued animals.

  The idea of one rabbit became five.

  Why are they running?  Because they are being chased by a little girl.  I remember when my Daughter was just a tiny little thing and she liked to cuddle animals like a crocodile just wants to “taste” a baby zebra.  One of my friend’s more no nonsense cats took care of my daughters aggressive petting.    

Just so you know, my daughter is excellent with animals now.  It’s been years since I have seen a fist full of fur.

   I love Santa Cruz, CA.  There is so much about that town that I  like.  I love Logo’s used book store.  I love Harbor Cafe.  I love all the old houses and the extra funky people.  But, what I love most, and what I save up most of my craft money for, is Hart’s Fabrics.

 The first time I went to Hart’s, I told my husband, “Look, this is going to get ugly.  Money, and I mean lots of it, is going to be spent today.  I just wanted to prepare you.” Being that my Husband is very understanding, and he has his own issues with buying computer books, he said he’d just sit in the car, read a computer book and let me have at it. 

  I get totally overwhelmed by  Hart’s  huge selection.  Here are a couple tricks I use to decide which fabric to purchase for my stash.  I visually pass over all of the fabric about 3 times.  I try not to think too hard.  I just let it soak in.  By the 3 pass certain fabrics start calling to me.  That’s when I start pulling the fabic bolts and setting them aside.  

Another trick I do to supply my stash is to pick out a rainbow’s worth of fabric. By this I mean I make sure to pick out fabric in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, etc…  And, don’t forget black, grey, white, salmon, purple,,,,,  You get the idea.  If I didn’t aim for a rainbows worth I’d come home with nothing but pink fabric.

  These two fine ladies helped me out.  I had a big mound of fabric which took them quite a while to get through. They where very cheerful at their task.  And before long I was out the door with my huge bag, wondering if maybe I should have gotten more teal fabric.

Here is Hart’s info:

Hart’s Fabric, 1620 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz, CA,

831-423-5434

Website: http://www.hartsfabric.com/index.html

Blog: http://blogs.hartsfabric.com/

  These are not very good photographs.  It’s a bit gloomy out today and I try to photograph my quilts using natural light.  I hate using my flash when photographing, it flattens things out. 

  I love woodpeckers and I love the black and white fabric that I used to make the branches out of.  I want more color in this quilt so I will probably add some colored circle elements and maybe even some leafs. 

This is how I came up with the design for my woodpecker. 

  I knew that I didn’t want a literal image of a woodpecker.   I Googled Woodpecker Art to see how other artist had portaited this bird. 

  This is a detail of a James Audubon print of Pileated Woodpeckers.  It’s beautiful but to realistic for my needs.  One thing this print does show is Woodpeckers in a pose where they are not stuck to a side of a tree.  I wanted my Woodpecker to be like that.

I  Here is my Woodpecker print.  And, oh yes, he is stuck to the side of a tree.

I wanted my woodpecker to be a bit cuter.  I remembered a site called Birdorable.  All their birds are extra cute.  They have a woodpecker or two which helped me decide how I wanted to increase my woodpeckers cuteness.

http://www.birdorable.com/

You will notice that my woodpecker looks nothing my Birdorable’s or Audubon, but each image gave me enough info to create my own woodpecker image.

PS - YOu should really check out Birdorables site.  I think I might have to buy one of their t-shirts!

  I hope you’re not tired of seeing this quilt.

  It’s finished!  Like always, it’s all hand sewn, appliqued and embroidered.  The final size is aprox. 30″ x 30″.  The fabric is all cotton.

  Please click on each image to see the details.

Here is how I prepare a small quilt for quilting.  

  I tape the background fabric, right side down, on a flat work space.  Tape the four corners first, then the edges.

  Make sure the background fabric is flat and wrinkle free.  When taping make sure that background fabric is somewhat tight.  Next, lay down your batting, making sure it is smooth.  Lastly, lay down quilt top, right side up.

  Now you have a sandwich of your three quilt layers.  The next step is to safety pin all three layers together.  I create a  grid with each safety pin being about 3 inches from the other  pins.  Once the safely pins are in place you can remove the tape from the edges.  Your quilt is now free to move around without fear of you fabric moving out of place.  

The safety pins secure all 3 layers temporarily so you can baste your layers together.  You baste stitch your quilt in a grid in between the safety pins.  Once this is done you can remove the pins.

  Some might think, “When all 3 layers are laying flat, why not just baste the layers together without using the safety pins?”.  Well, it’s very hard to keep all the layers nice and smooth and fabric seems to like to move around. 

     Putting together a small quilt in this method allows me to quilt without the need for hoops or stretcher bars.  This also means I can take this quilt on trips.  I just roll it up and unroll it when I am at my location.  All I need is my quilt, scissors, thimble, needles and quilting thread.

  What a difference a day makes.  The last photographs I took of the quilt top all the pieces for the applique where just pinned into place.  Previous Valentine Quilt article: http://zuill.us/andreablog/2009/12/20/valentine-quilt-just-beginning/

   As you can see I embroidered the heck out of it.  This style of embroidery is more subtle than what I usually do.  Tried to add fancy stitches like the Blanket Stitch and Maiden Hair Stitch but it just looked to heavy.  I usually go for colors that “fight” with each other to make it pop but that is not what this quilt top needed.

  This design currently sits in the middle of a 30″x30″ piece of muslin.  I don’t know yet if I will leave it there in the middle like the other heart quilt or will I cut it down to make the design off center and maybe add other elements.

Book stuff-

The response for a possible quilt/embroidery book has been real positive.  Don’t get yourselves too excited yet because I’m still have issues regarding what the dang thing should be about.  Every time I make notes or write a passage it seems so dry and boring.  Plus, to be truthful, I have no idea what I am doing.

The Heart Quilt is finished.   It’s final size turned out to be 30″ x 30″.  It took 2 weeks to finish and that’s working on it mainly in the evening.  I think I had one Saturday that I worked on it all day.

I can see why so many quilters like to have a white or off- white background fabric on their quilts. It shows off the quilting stitches.

This photo isn’t as interesting as the ones above, but it does show the entire quilt.

For my next quilt, here is what I was thinking.  I really like the yellow applique on the Heart Quilt.  I am designing a pink applique quilt, on a white background, that uses the same design element as the yellow applique.  I also wanted to incorporate the look of cut paper art, aka Scherenschnitte.

   Here is what I have so far.

 How does one go about creating a art quilt?  I won’t get into the details about discovering your creative voice, love of fiber, personal symbolism  and bizzare fabric fetishes for now.   I just want to give you a idea of what goes through my mind.

  First I had the creative urge.  Then I fell in love with Jude Hills’s quilt, Hearts in the Wind. This quilt got me thinking about what I wanted my next quilt to be.  Hearts have meaning for me.  They don’t represent love for me, but emotions.  

There is something very primal yet delicate about Jude’s work.  Her work feels personal.  What might be considered flaws for some quilters (tears, holes, loose threads, illregular shapes) are what give Jude’s work soul.

So when I started to create my quilt there where certain elements I wanted to keep in mind.  I wanted to use the symbol of a heart.  I wanted my quilt to scream handmade.  And I wanted the stitches to provide texture and a kind of humanity.

  Then I saw The Silly Bodilly’s Work Quilt.  I just melted for the playful use of colors and shapes.  I personally have trouble dealing with such a large compositions, so I decided to stick with a simple composition.  Like the Hearts in the Wind quilt, this quilt has great texture provided by the quilting.  Bodilly’s quilting is a bit more formal yet she is able to keep the humanity in her stitches.

The color’s Bodilly used are strong and natural.  They convey a strengh that isn’t forced. 

From Bodilly’s quilt I learned that I wanted a quilt that was strong and solid.  I also wanted abstract shapes.  And, like with Jude’s quilt, quilting stitches that add a zesty texture.

   This is my Quilt.  Quite simple.  Not finished yet.  It has a heart.  It is hand quilted with texture in mind.  It has a couple abstract elements.  I believe the colors give a feeling of strength, even though the yellow applique has a softness about it.  It looks very handmade.  It’s small, about 30″ x 30″ since I find that I don’t enjoy doing large quilts.  The fabric is soft to the touch.  There is a small bit of embroidery (clck on quilt images to see the details better).

Sometime soon I will go into the actual steps of how my designs evolve into the finished design.  Just so you know, it took four false starts to get to this design.

Also, did you notice that I was able to use the word zesty in this blog?  I believe that I have never, ever used this word in any of my writing.

Jude Hill’s Blog:  http://www.spiritcloth.typepad.com/

The Silly Bodilly’s Blog:  http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com/