more on my log cabin with posies

At the requests of a few nice folks, I am going to post a few more pictures and details of Ms. Posy.  

Someone asked if I would show some close ups of the flowers.  It just so happens that I have a couple of
in progress pictures from my design wall.

I began by making log cabin flowers.

These began with an approximately 1 1/4 inch hexagon center snipped with scissors and no pattern.  I sewed 1 to 1/ 1/2 inch strips of fabric around the hexagon.  These posies ended up as hexagons, heptagons, and octagons approximately 4 to 6 1/2 inches in size.

For these particular posies, I began by freely cutting ,with my scissors, a hexagon approximately 2 inches x 1 1/4 inches.  More or less.  Because with no rulers or patterns each hexagon will be slightly different in size and shape.   I then cut various sized wedges ranging in size from 4 inches to 1 inch.  Again, more or less.    Choosing 2 to 5 wedges, I sewed them together, to have "petals" to the approximate size of one of the sides of the hexagon center.   Then I was able to stitch them onto one side of the hexagon of corresponding size.
 I continued this process until I was happy with the design/shape of the posy.  

I had so much fun with these, I wanted to experiment with a few more types as well as leaves

  Here is a collage of several as they look in the completed quilt.  All stitched down with free motion zig zag style, raw edges, a bit ravely once washed.

Someone else asked about sizes of the log cabins in the border.
I took my cue from the background in it's original state

 Realizing that I have very loosely interpreted the traditional log cabin block, I can only say I made them in sizes ranging from  7" x  6 " to   9" x 12 ".
 These were then trimmed to fit the finished width of the border which is
6 inches wide .

Again, it was fantastic fun.  I can't say which parts of this quilt I had more fun playing with.  I can say, in readdressing this process, I am inspired to make another spontaneous, unstructured,
flying by the seat of my pants, no holds barred, sunshine day.

And it just so happens that I have a background all pieced up and waiting in the wings for splashes of color.

Have a weekend full of sun and fun, y'all.

A weak moment - Part II

So.  It is over.  And it wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it was going to be.  After all, those ladies love quilting and I do know most of them.  They did ask me to explain how I do what I do.
I was prepared as I was ever going to be.  I held on to that podium for dear life, adjusted my reading glasses and before I knew it, it was all over.  It still isn't easy speaking to a group of people about yourself and what you do.   Now it seems that I find myself thinking that I wouldn't mind doing this again.  Scratch that.

The sample has been completed and then I was inspired to do another ~ a set of leaf portraits, as it were.  The maple leaves were machine appliqued while I decided that the dogwood leaves would be pieced.  Once I learned the Ruth B. McDowell technique of drawing a piecing pattern, I have abandoned ye ole applique  technique.  Although the initial drawing and pattern making is much more involved, the sewing goes much more quickly.  I realized this as I worked on the applique sample for my presentation.  Although my Thistles quilt was done with mostly machine applique using the same process as the Maples,  and I enjoyed making each petal and piece , I find that the pattern making and piecing has a more appeal.

Let me pause to give a bit of credit where credit is due, the artists who have inspired me through their instruction books.  I have found that I learn more easily in my own space and in my own time by using the quilting and art quilting books that are available.  I have a rather large library of those.  The main artists that have inspired me to design and create several of my award winning quilts include:  Ruth B McDowell,  Barbara Olson,  Katie Pasquini Masopust,  Carol Taylor, and Vikki Pignatelli.  Of course there are so many other quilt and textile artists that I admire, but these ladies have provided excellent sources of inspiration in their books as well as their art.  I don't know that I would have ever figured it all out on my own, had I not bought their books and spent countless hours studying and drooling over every page.  They empowered me to give it a go and develop my own style and technique.  I suggest that you check out these websites as well as their books. There are much more instructive than I.

So enough rambling.   Now on to the completion of the maple leaf sample.  Once all the pattern pieces have been cut out, ironed onto the fabrics and pinned onto the cartoon, it is time to glue. 
I usually begin with the background pieces.  Looking to see which pieces will be mostly covered by the others, I select one and check to see which edges need to be turned under.  First I will clip any curves that need to be clipped,  then using a mini iron,

I press the seam allowance that over the edge of the freezer paper, and let cool a bit.  Then gently lifting  the freezer paper,  I use Elmer's Glue Stick and lightly touch the edges to be turned under. Next, turn under that seam allowance and press to dry the glue. 

Choose the adjoining piece, matching the registration marks  and slide it into place with the folded edge covering the raw edge. Add a touch of glue to secure the pieces into place, fold the freezer paper back onto both pieces and lightly iron down.   

I continue in this manner until I have several applique pieces glued together.  Lay them onto the Sulky Totally Stable cartoon and press in place, checking  to be certain that all the proper seam allowances are folded under and glued together. At this time I go ahead and machine applique some of the pieces in place.

Once all of the pieces are in place on the Sulky foundation, I will finish the machine applique.  Next I will gently tear the Sulky from the back of the piece.  I don't worry about removing every bit of the Sulky, because I don't want to stress the seams. 

TA-DA!  Ready to be quilted

Here is the dogwood leaves under construction, showing my piecing pattern. 

And the pair ~ still waiting to be quilted.

a weak moment

To say that I do not like to stand in front of a group of people and speak would be a huge understatement.  The thought of being a public speaker creates waves of panic in my mind.  No matter that it might be speaking to a group of people that I know very well, many who are close friends, my heart begins to pound fiercely in protest.  You would think this silly, I think it is ridiculous, never the less, there it is.  Along with that predicament, there is this idea that I have;  that for a person to speak publicly about what one does indicates to my mind that one actually knows what one is doing. Nowadays I rarely do the same thing twice. When I am in the midst of a project, I usually don't make conscious decisions about the process.  It has always been an intuitive thing, based on what I've seen or read, or what I might be feeling at that time and place.  (yeah, ok, call me moody)  Now comes the ringer.  I was asked to present a program to my quilt guild on how I do what I do when I make an art quilt.  I was so flattered that I agreed to do it.  What was I thinking?  Or better yet, why was I not thinking?  The words "no, thank you just the same", didn't come out of my mouth.  My mind was saying, "no way, are you crazy?" and my mouth was smiling and saying, "well yes, of course, I would be delighted."

Regardless, the time has almost arrived and I have spent the last 3 days trying to figure out how I do what I do and put it all on paper.  After typing for 2 hours, non stop, which resulted in 4 single spaced pages in size 10 font, I realized that I had only just begun.  Where do I go now? 

When I asked a friend to read over those four pages (I owe her big time), she said many kind words, but then she delicately suggested that it would be helpful if I had an actual sample to visually enhance the process . As usual she was correct.  No matter how I wrote and rewrote instructions on technique, it didn't make sense, even to me. The clock is ticking and I have procrastinated far to long.  Well, the best place to go would be to my drawing board, and my fabrics.  I need to physically reproduce my methods step by step, which will result in a sample design.  I don't have time to do a large piece and  I normally do not make small pieces.  But then, maybe this could be one of those small pieces that I could hang in a local gallery to sell, at a reasonable price?  

 So here goes.

I grabbed some maple leaves that are falling from the spectacular tree in our front yard.

Then I chose 3 leaves and arranged them on the bed of my copy machine, punched the enlarge button, hit copy and out comes the basis for my pattern.  Simple Simon, huh? 

The next step is to trace the these leaves with a pencil.  I use vellum for this step as I have found that it holds up to wear and tear, as well as being able to easily see through for tracing.

Now to add a few more design lines.  Once I am happy with the design I will go over each line with a black Sharpie Fine Tip Marker.

One of the most important things is to label every piece on the drawing, which, incidentally is known as a cartoon.  I use numbers, letters, or a combination of both, to suit whatever I've got going on.  Once this is completed, I'm good to go onto the next step.  
I am really getting excited now and I've forgotten all about having to do this presentation about it next week.
(footnote: if the size of the paper doesn't meet the requirements for the size of the finished piece, simply cut and use masking tape to afix additional pieces of paper to the drawing.)

For the actual pattern, I tear off a sheet of freezer paper and tape it, shiny side up onto the cartoon and trace all the lines with my Sharpie.

Once that is accomplished, I turn the freezer paper over to the dull side, retrace all the lines and label all the pieces exactly as the pieces are labeled on the cartoon. 

And the finally,  but one of the most important things, is to make registration marks.  See all those little red marks that are slashed across every single line.  This does try my patience, but having skimped on this step before, I learned that I won't be skimping again.  This way you are able to fit the pieces together nicely when you begin to sew all those pieces together.  

Another tip:  using another colored marker, draw around all four edges of the piece.  This helps you in cutting your fabric pieces for the edges on the straight grain of the fabric.  Which in turn helps with distortion of the edge of the fabric piece. 

One more tracing needs to be done onto Sulky Totally Stable,  This is iron on, tear away stabilizer which is used when I begin to place and sew the piece together.  Using a fine tip Sharpie marker, once again, trace the design on the shiny side of the Totally Stable.

Now comes more fun. Choosing the fabrics.  Oh, the possibilities.  But time's a wastin', so make a choice and get on with it.  Having all those fabrics from my summer of dyeing in the garage, (it was a scorching, hot summer and I was about to die on several afternoons)  I decided it was past time to put them to use.  This pile includes old shirts, sheets and scraps of gray, blue and natural fabrics that I was experimenting with.

Terrific background material.
I don't think I was wrong here. 
 I'm doing what I love best.  Selecting fabrics for each piece.

I like to begin with the focus of the piece.  Being the maple leaves in this case.  Using my small paper scissors, I cut a few of the pattern pieces from the freezer paper.  Select a fabric and iron the pattern piece onto the back of the fabric.

Cut out the pattern piece with a 1/4" seam allowance.

 Pin each piece onto the corresponding space of the cartoon.
 

Continue in this manner until all pattern pieces have been cut and pinned onto the cartoon.

Are you following all this?  

This is as far as I gotten today.  It's been a long day.  I think my brain is saying that it is time to shut this project down for a bit.  Not to worry, I'll be back with more in a few days with more details and techniques.   

Tick tock, tick tock.