A Butterfly's progress

Work continues on my butterfly quilt. Seems there is always something that is a bit more urgent than sewing. I work a little at a time, sometimes 20 minutes, sometimes an hour or two. Right now I am finishing up the edges.

Just getting started with satin stitch edge finishing.

The applique process that I use leaves the edges raw. The edges could unravel or pull away from the stitching if they are not secured. I use zigzag and satin stitch in this step to finish the edges.

For this edge finishing I have found the fastest way is to work free-motion. Most quilters understand free-motion sewing with a straight stitch, because for many of us it is how we do most of our quilting. But quilters are sometimes surprised to learn that free-motion sewing can also be done with a zigzag stitch.

I cover or encase most of the edges with free-motion zigzag stitching. This prevents raveling.

This process changes the look of the quilt. Before the edges are secured with satin stitching, the edges are softer. The whole quilt does have a more painterly quality, but is extremely fragile. After the stitching, there are visible lines that delineate each piece. The soft painterly edges become stronger lines.

Most of the stitching is done, just the butterfly left to go.

As I was working through my finishing stitches, I found some areas that needed changing. The values needed adjusting on some of the petals. Although the contrast in the original photo is rather high where the light is striking the petals, the light yellow I used to try to create this effect in my quilt was too intense and the transitions were too abrupt. I softened the contrast, and worked on creating softer transitions. I am much happier.

Butterfly and Tiger Lilies

More than a few years ago I took a picture of some Turk's Cap Lilies while a butterfly was sitting on it. I always thought it might make a good quilt. In the photo below, you can see the original photo, a line drawing of the photo and the beginning of the quilt.

The techniques I am using to make this quilt are essentially the same ones I use to make most of my realistic pictorial quilts, whether they are floral, landscapes or architectural. I start with a photo. I make a detailed line drawing of the photo and use that line drawing to create my pattern. My construction method of choice is a particular applique technique that I call "Upside-Down Applique".

The process involves careful fabric selection to capture the values from the original photo. Often translating the image from photo to fabric results in a more dynamic finished image as I increase the value contrast and color saturation. In the picture above I have begun the applique, using a variety of mostly batik fabrics.

Value helps to define objects.Value contributes to the illusion of dimensionality.

I use mostly prints and batiks in my quilts. Prints and batiks have the benefit of visual texture. They contain value changes within the fabric that add life to the composition. In contrast, solid fabrics tend to look quite flat and lifeless.

Prints or batiks also help to visually blend edges. When working with applique, it can be very difficult to achieve what artists call a soft edge. It is the nature of fabric art to have hard edges where one fabric stops and another begins. In order to disguise the hard edges and make smoother transitions, use prints.

When adjacent fabrics share some hues and values, they create a smoother transition from one to the next. The seam or join is camouflaged by the common elements the two fabrics share.

I am just getting started with this quilt, but it is going well so far.

Cleaning Up, Cutting Machine and Another New Hobby

I have spent the last few weeks cleaning up and rearranging my sewing studio. There are several reasons for the big clean-up. The whole room was a disaster area. Fabric, patterns and supplies were everywhere. It was not conductive for thinking, working, sewing or finding things, and I wanted to do some quilting.

One reason for the big clean up was because I added an Accuquilt Go-Big cutting machine to my studio. I needed to make a space for it. Although it is a significant investment, there are a few reasons for buying the cutting machine. Last winter I decided I wanted to make a simple quilt from largish squares that would put the focus on the fabrics instead of on a complex pattern. Night after night I cut squares until I felt like I had enough to start piecing. By that time my wrists and hands were feeling quite sore. It took some of the fun out of the project, and of course I needed more pieces.

A small part of the quilt

Not too much later, I was looking through a magazine, and came across some information about the cutting machine and the idea took hold.

I should mention that although I am known more for my pictorial quilts than for geometric ones, I have always enjoyed playing with color and fabric and working with scraps. It is what I like to do when I don't want to think too hard and just want to enjoy sewing with colorful fabric.

Electric Cutting Machine and some Dies

The cutting machine has allowed me to take control of my scraps and turn them into useable patchwork pieces. It has also gotten me working on a North Wind quilt. North Wind is a light/dark geometric pattern that kind of sparkles with color once the blocks are put together. It's not a particularly difficult pattern but as much as I have always liked the look, the idea of cutting so many half square triangles for each block had always stopped me in the past.

Some of my North Wind blocks

And finally, during the big clean up, I have made a space for oil painting. My husband has been doing water colors for years. Although I have never been a painter, I have studied art most of my life. We recently started taking some oil painting classes at a nearby arts center and decided to try some at home. I fully expect my first attempts to be rather horrible, but iti s kind of fun to have actual easels in the studio.