Quilting Arts Blog

Fabric Journal & More Blog Challenge Results

Congratulations to the following five for winning a free one-year subscription:

Terri Stegmiller
Sandra Spagnuolo
Carol Wiebe
Sue Bleiweiss
Joanna van Ritbergen

In thanks to everyone who emailed me their thoughts on inspiring artists and works, I thought to share a small journal cover I made this past Sunday night using transfer-dyed velvet. A journal cover is a great little gift to give a dear friend or relative this holiday season, and only takes a few hours to make.

First, you need to transfer-dye some velvet—lots of fun and easy to do. Transfer dyes (otherwise known as disperse dyes) yield beautiful, transparent effects on fabrics, and you can layer color on top of color to create luscious combinations.
Materials:
-8"-square piece of cheap, stretchy, synthetic velvet (panne velvet) in a light color. (We’re talkin’ the tacky, synthetic velvet you find in the $5 bin at your fabric store. Don’t use your prized silk velvet because transfer dyes only work with synthetic or predominantly synthetic fabrics.)   
- Transfer-dyes (also referred to as disperse dyes) or Crayola fabric crayons
-Rubberstamp(s), stencils, or print blocks in bold designs
- Foam brush
- Sheets of copy/print paper
- Iron and ironing board

1. Paint the copy/print sheets of paper with the transfer dyes. If you are using a crayon, scribble bold, geometric designs such as diamonds, circles, squares, or triangles. Using paints, apply colors to rubberstamps then stamp onto the paper. You could also apply with stencils and a foam brush, or paint designs directly onto the paper.

2. Let the copy paper dry completely.
3. Once the paper is dry, set your iron to the cotton setting and place a piece of velvet onto your ironing board. Place the copy paper with the design facing down on top of the velvet.
4. Iron the back of the copy paper for several seconds, making sure to keep the iron moving over the paper (otherwise you’ll find that the iron’s steam vents will leave a design on your velvet).
5. Gently pull up a corner of the paper to see if the design is transferring. For a bolder, darker effect iron for several seconds longer.

6. For a more complex, variegated look, paint several papers, allow them to dry, and transfer-dye them individually to the same piece of velvet.

For more in-depth information on transfer dyes and velvet check out Jean Littlejohn's VOLUPTUOUS VELVET (Book #2) and Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn's TRANSFER TO TRANSFORM (Book #4).

Creating the Embroidery
After devouring the latest two Jan Beaney/Jean Littlejohn books, GRIDS TO STITCH (Book #17) and SEDUCTIVE SURFACES (Book #18), I was inspired to make a journal cover with diamond-shaped bits of transfer-dyed velvet.

Materials:
- Transferred-dyed velvet (approximately 8" square)
-2 hand-dyed chiffon scarves
-Hand-dyed cotton (approximately 8" square)
- 8" square piece of Misty Fuse fusible webbing
- Parchment paper
-Shiva® Paintstiks® in gold and copper
-Hand threads in coordinating colors
- Tapestry needle
- Gold metallic thread
- Sewing pins
- Sewing machine
- Fabric scissors
- Heat gun
- Iron
- Painted cheesecloth

1.    With your parchment paper, iron the Misty Fuse fusible webbing to the back of the transfer-dyed velvet.
2.    Cut the transfer-dyed velvet into equally sized diamonds.
3.    Iron the velvet diamonds in rows onto your hand-dyed piece of fabric.

4.    Pin one of the chiffon scarves on top and machine stitch around the velvet diamonds. (It’s easiest to machine-stitch in long diagonal rows.)
5.    Take your heat gun and burn away most of the chiffon scarf. (Make sure to do this either outside or in a well-ventilated area.)
6.    Add running stitches around the diamonds with various hand threads.

7.    Cut the cheesecloth into 3 diamonds and place randomly on your piece.
8.    Repeat steps 4 and 5 with your second chiffon scarf.
9.    Accent bits of your design with gold by dabbing some Shiva Paintstik in gold and/or copper with your finger around the raised areas.

Assembling the Fabric Journal
Materials
-2 pieces of 8" x 16" pieces of hand-dyed fabrics that coordinate with your embroidery
- 8" x 16" piece of batting
- Sewing pins
- Sewing machine and machine threads
- 4 eyelets
- Eyelet setting tools and craft mat
- Yarn
- Marking pen
- Ruler
- Sets of signatures for the pages in your book
- Hole punch

1. Pin both pieces of hand-dyed fabrics to the batting to make a quilt sandwich.
2. Zigzag stitch the edges close and take out the pins.
3. With your ruler, marking pen, eyelet tools, and eyelets, place your eyelets on the cover down the center crease. You want to place two near the top and two on the bottom, both sets about 1" apart from each other on either side of the folding crease.
4. Take your embroidery, cut to the size for the cover, pin to the cover, and satin- stitch with your machine.
5. Make signatures of papers for your book, measuring and punching holes in your pages that will align with the eyelets.
6. With your decorative yarn, weave through the signatures and eyelets and tie off on the outside.

In other news, we have a new canine mascot here at QA headquarters. Meet Sophie, a two-year-old Golden mix that Bernie Berlin rescued from her local pound in September.

Sophie was scheduled to be put down in September (along with her unborn pups). What a loss that would have been...

Due to transports, Bernie has been delayed in getting her eBay auction to raise funds for her nonprofit, A Place to Bark, but I spoke with her yesterday and it's set to launch this Friday at 6:00 PM. Happy bidding!

Below are some more results from the blog challenge. I'm amazed at how a handful of scraps can be transformed into such beautiful creations.

Donna Anderson

Carol Wiebe

Diana Ching

Eleni Litt

Leanne Hurren

Natalya Aikens

Sue DeHann

Teri Stegmiller

Question for the day: Are you making holiday gifts this year? If so, what? If you have pictures on your blogs, I hope you'll share your link with us.

Fabric Collage Postcards and ATCs

I just got the sweetest letter yesterday from a seven-year-old boy named Will. I met him this past spring in Chicago at Make It U! and I remember finding him staring up at the wall of fabric ATCs we had displayed. Eyes wide, mouth agape, and neck craned at an impossible angle, he was obviously taking in all the joyful creations…and wishing he could be a part of it. I gave him my business card and told him I’d be honored to trade with him. 

Yesterday afternoon I got this in the mail:

Since reading this letter my heart has done about 100 somersaults. (And I'm framing this letter!)

The following fabric collage project is for all the folks (young and seasoned) who may be new to our fiber world and want to make fabric scrap postcards or ATCs.

Note: The directions below are to create a 12" square that you can later cut up into individual ATCs or fabric postcards.

Materials
• 12" x 12" piece of interfacing (that stiff, nonwoven white stuff used to make hats) such as Peltex, Timtex, or the like (Note: I prefer Peltex 72 because it comes with adhesive on both sides of the interfacing.)
• Misty Fuse (Fusible webbing you’ll need to iron to your interfacing if your interfacing doesn’t already have adhesive on both sides.)
• Fabric scraps (cottons, laces, and sheers) in various shades of one color, (In one of these examples I used fabric scraps from Mary Fisher's textile packages.)
• One larger 12" x 12" piece of backing fabric to cover the back side of your interfacing
• Black-and-white fabric scraps
• Variegated and metallic threads
• Sewing machine with fancy embroidery stitches
• Rotary cutter, quilting ruler and mat
• Iron
• Ironing board
• Embellishments (beads, buttons, trims)
• Fabric scissors

Making your Interfacing Fusible

1. If you aren’t using Peltex 72, which comes with fusible webbing already on both sides, fuse Misty Fuse to both sides of your interfacing using your iron at the cotton setting and following the manufacturer's instructions.
2. Set your iron to the cotton setting and fuse a backing fabric to the back side of the interfacing.

Fusing Fabrics to the Front of Your Postcard or ATC

3. Fuse the cotton fabric scraps randomly to the front of the 12" x 12" piece of interfacing. (Save the sheers and laces for later.) Juxtapose light and darks making sure to cover the entire interfacing. Don’t worry if your fabrics overlap––they’ll be heavily stitched later.
4. Carefully take this to your ironing board and fuse the fabrics with your iron.

Heavy Machine-stitching (The fun part!)
5. Now it’s time to go a little crazy with embroidery stitches on your sewing machine. Load your machine with variegated threads in the same colors as your fabrics and stitch with fancy embroidery stitches. Stitch everywhere.  Stop mid-stitch and choose another embroidery stitch. Juxtapose big, swirling stitches with boxy, square ones. Don’t just stitch the seams, stitch straight down the middle of the fabrics. (Are you getting the picture? Go nuts…)

Adding Sheers and Laces
6. Place small squares of sheers and laces on top and either straight- or zigzag-stitch them. If you have ribbons or trims with fun designs and in the same shade as your background, stitch them too.
7. Cut your 12" x12" piece into either postcards (4" x 6") or ATCs (2.5" x 3.5").

Finishing
8. Choose a motif to place on top of each card—you could cut hearts, geometric shapes, or find motifs in commercial fabrics such as these wine bottles in the fabric post card below.
9. Cut black-and-white fabric into squares, slightly larger than your motif, and then place your motif on top of the black-and-white fabric (this is to add a little contrast). Place both on top of your card and machine stitch to your background using metallic or variegated threads.
10. Embellish with beads and buttons if desired.

What to do with these beauties?  A couple of ideas––come to Houston November 2-5 for the International Quilt Festival where we’ll be hosting Make It University!

•In the Fall 2006 issue of QUILTING ARTS we’re announcing our next ATC trade, this time at The International Quilt Festival this fall in Houston where we’ll be co-hosting Make It University. We’re planning for an exciting and fun event so please join us (and tell your friends)! Details can be found here.
• Virginia Spiegel is once again heading up an amazing, charitable event for the American Cancer Society and you can be a part of it. Make as many fabric postcards as you can for Virginia’s Fiber Art for a Cause (FFAC). Hundreds of fiber artists are creating fiber postcards to sell at the Fall Festival. I saw (and bought) several fiber postcards at the International Quilt Festival this past spring and they are precious little beauties I’ll cherish forever.

And Will, if you're reading this, I love love love my beautiful ATC you made for me (see below for Will's ATC)––thank you! Mine is on its way...

   

Scribbling away

Time and time again I hear stories from friends and readers about creating art as a way of restoring inner calm, and it certainly holds true for me. I came back from my Phoenix trip only to learn that there was a grave family emergency on my hands and I needed to immediately depart for Virginia.

When I returned to Boston and a voluminous amount of paperwork and emails that had accumulated while away, I yearned to simply hold a crayon and scribble like mad. When I’m stressed, upset, or trying to work through a difficult problem, I don’t usually run for the nearest box of chocolates, nor do something as cerebral as write my thoughts down in a journal. Rather, I color. I don’t usually sketch anything discernible; I love to take three to four crayons in analogous colors and use simple, broad, child-like strokes across the page, then move the colors around with a damp cosmetic wedge to watch them blend and brighten. Instant gratification!

My first night back from Virginia, I grabbed an old hardcopy of a book I use for altered book pages, and started gluing sets of pages together to make them strong enough for coloring. I took crayons in warm, vibrant hues––burnt sienna, sunset red, rust, and purple––and scribbled away. As I was smearing the colors with a wet cosmetic wedge, the resulting mixtures were too bright for my taste, so I took a damp paper towel and tried to blot some of the color. In doing so, I accidentally ripped the top page, revealing the glued page below. I then got the idea to color the bottom page before adhering it to the second (top) page so that I could purposely rip the top page to reveal the colored page underneath. The resulting backgrounds are complex, colorful, and the illegible text reminds me of ancient, cryptic scrolls that have been buried for centuries in the sand.

Materials:
Pages from a hardcover book
Golden Gel Medium (regular matte)
Coloring agents of choice (I use Lyra Aquacolor crayons and Portfolio® watercolor soluble oil pastels.)
Cosmetic wedges
Sandpaper

Optional:
Clorox® Bleach Pen
Pearl-Ex Powders
Shiva Paintstiks
Adirondack Color Wash ® in Butterscotch from Ranger
Walnut Ink
Stencils

1. Color the base page. (I suggest a fairly bright color such as butterscotch yellow.)
2. Take another page and glue on top of the base page using gel medium.
3. Scribble with crayons or oil pastels on the top page.
4. With a damp cosmetic wedge, smear and mix the colors together. Allow the page to dry.
5. Rub sandpaper in spots, pulling bits of the top page off. Take your fingers and gently rip the top page in parts, revealing the page below.

Further options:

•You can further blend the colors of the top pages and bottom pages together by spraying both with walnut ink or color washes such as Adirondacks by Ranger. (I particularly like Butterscotch.)
• Take a Clorox® bleach pen and create squiggles in areas. Allow to set for five minutes, then swipe these bleach spots with a paper towel.
• Take a damp paintbrush and dab some Pearl-Ex powders in metallic colors for a glittery effect.

Note: I have some alterations and expansions to this technique that I’ll be sharing at Make It University in Houston this fall. (More on M.I.U. later!)

So I ask you—what art activity do you do when you’re stressed? I invite you to respond to the blog, but if you’d also like your answer to be considered for print in Cloth Paper Scissors, feel free to fill out the questionnaire on this web page.

Happy coloring!