FLYING SWALLOWS BARN QUILT

I designed and made this small quilt to give as a door prize at the Woodford County Barn Quilt Road Rally. Folks have come in from all over to drive our back roads and take photos of our barn quilts. 

 

 

The piece is an interpretation of our Barn Quilt which is based on the "Flying Swallows" quilt pattern. Our barn quilt is 8' square and is quite a presence on the landscape. Over the last few years, I have talked to several people who stopped to take photos of it. One day, I went out to say hello to someone and it turned out to be a quilter that I had met many years ago at a Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society Getaway. We remembered each other immediately.

The pattern is a difficult one to draft and even more difficult to hand piece ( I wouldn't even think of trying to machine piece a twelve inch square), so, I drafted it on freezer paper, ironed the freezer paper with the drafted design onto a piece of white cotton, made a quilt sandwich ( or should that be a quiltwich?) and quilted in the basic lines of the pattern.

I then proceeded to color in the different shapes using Derwent Watercolor pencils.

  

This photo shows the shapes all colored in and the colors sealed with Golden Fabric Medium.  I am adding in more detail quilting.  

Here is the piece with the rest of the quilting. At this point, I am also ading in another layer of color using more of the water color pencils and fabric paints by Stewart Gill.

 

 

To finish up, I beaded in small clear crystals where several of the points come together. I finished the edges with a black ribbon and satin stitch edge.  I then mounted the piece onto a 12" square artist canvas on which I already painted the edges black.  

Hopefully, whoever gets to take home this little "Barn Quilt" will really enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed making it. Now that I think of it, it would be fun to make someone elses Barn Quilt for them. 

CREATING WITH JOY and PASSION,

Karen

IRONS

IRONS for the STUDIO

 

 The other day I started to iron a piece of silk. I plugged in my iron, a Retro Black & Decker that I've had for at least 15 years, let it heat up and then started to iron the damp fabric. The iron was barely lukewarm. 

 

Well, I thought, I have put it to good use over the years, with the setting mostly on cotton and linen, so I figured it must be time to invest in a new one. 

 

 I remember that I paid $25.00 for this one,  at a local appliance store that is no longer in business.  I also remember thinking that I had gotten a really good deal. 

 

Here was an iron that was not going to keep turning itself off while I was trying to use it.  I also knew it was going to get hot enough to seriously press cotton fabrics, plus, I was tired of spending big bucks on irons that didn't last over a couple of years.

 

I didn't even know if the iron was still being made, so, I decided to check for it on Amazon. Yep! There it was and for only $21.95.  Since it takes me 45 minutes to drive into town from our farm, I went ahead and ordered the iron. 

 

While I waited for the new iron to arrive, I decided to check the extension cord that I had been using on the old iron, which was still in the studio.  That's when I discovered that the extension cord had somehow gotten pulled partway out of the wall socket. 

 

Once I had it plugged in all the way, the iron heated up and worked like a charm. 

 

The new iron arrived the next day and I'm keeping it. It has a lovely, shiny clean sole plate on it. The old iron has seen some rough use with embellishments that had created dark spots, on the sole plate,  that just will not come off. 

 

So, now I have an iron to use with melty, sticky stuff and one for clean fabric. 

 

Does it get any better than that for a fabric artist? Actually, yes, but that's another topic.

 

Create Always,

Karen

QAK QUILTOGRAPHY CHALLENGE 2015/2016

INTERPRETING a PHOTO of a LEOPARD

The Quilt Artists of Kentucky have started a new Quiltography Challenge using photos taken by members of the Creative Camera Club of Lexington, KY. We will be exhibiting our interpretations of the photos, along with the photos, in November of 2016.

Here is the first posted photo:

  I wanted to try a new fabric manipulating technique, that was posted in the blog "and Then We Set It On Fire", that creates permanent bubbles, creases, folds, etc. according to how the fabric is stitched.  I chose a synthetic gold organza and used stitching around rocks to create a variety of bubble sizes and shapes.  This technique only works with synthetic fabrics that are sensitive to heat.

 Once the fabric was stitched, it was put into a pot of water and brought to a boil.  I boiled it for about 20 minutes. I turned off the heat and let it cool in the pot. Once it was dry, I very carefully removed the very tight stitching around each of the rocks. When I try this technique again, I'll be sure to use looser stitching.

Here is the fabric after I have removed the rocks.

Look at all of those cute little bubbles. I thought they would really capture the spots of the Leopard's arm, especially after I added beads to them.

I draped the "arm" over a collaged piece of tree trunk. I started adding black/copper oblong beads in the centers of each bubble.  Something started happening with the way the fabric was reacting. It was starting to look like flowers.

I also added in smaller black and gold crystals to the background of the bubbles. This really made the "flowers" standout.

By the time I had finished the beading, the piece looked more like cascading flowers to me.  Oh well, at least it was inspired by the Leopard arm.

Here is a photo of the finished piece:

I added painted highlights to the "flowers" using Stewart Gill and Jaquard Metallic paints. I also ended up adding in beaded highlights to the log. I used size 11 seed beads and 6mm bugle beads.

The green background is a piece of hand-dyed raw silk that was left over from a jacket that I made this fall. I first quilted the background and then added in the painted highlights, using Stewart Gill Paints.

I will be mounting this 12"x12" piece on artist canvas.

Create Always,
Karen

Here's the second photo that was posted the beginning of September.

Watch here for the results of this photo!