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Archive for the ‘art quilting’ Category

Coastal Quilters Chapter Banner #5

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

And now for more of our chapter banner blocks……

Our other co-president extraordinaire is Jan P., an emerging art quilter, mom of 3 very bright boys (Zach’s Destination Imagination team is headed to the NATIONAL competition! for which she is the coach…along with soccer team coach, baseball, etc……she’s busier than I am!). Jan lives in Lincolnville, so she volunteered to do two landmarks for her township: the Lobster Pound on Lincolnville Beach and the Islesboro Ferry.

The ferry isn’t fused to the center of the quilt yet…I just popped it here, near the dock at the south end of L-ville Beach, for the photo. Jan did ALL the work on the restaurant…great job!

As an aside, Jan’s husband is a fantastic photographer, and in October, she, he and I are going to have a joint art show at Zoot, the cool new coffee house in Camden (on Elm Street, across from the village green a few doors up from the Town Offices). Zoot has the best foam and espresso on the mid-coast, a wide selection of teas, and icnreasingly wonderful menu of foods, and has poetry readings and music on weekend evenings and all sorts of cool stuff. Stop and enjoy a latte, especially in October 2007 when we have our show!

Back to quilting…..Susan Coe’s second block is this totally awesome lobster trap. I gave her a simple line drawing pattern and she gave me this gem! I’m sorry I got the edges of the block turned under… it is so cool. It is 3-D with a real “frame” to the trap (plastic piping inside camo flannel) complete with seaweed and the usual gunk that comes up with the traps when they are hauled up. Note the lobster batik in the background for the water! Susan is a beginning quilter, but clearly a creative artist.

What to do with those scraps, the little ones!

Saturday, February 17th, 2007

On one of my e-lists, someone asked (hi Janice in WNY!) how to deal with small scraps. Well, I’ve got a good one that works well for me. Do you do fusible applique? If so, this is what I do–this of this as a mini-tutorial. If not, omit the adding fusible part. First, I fuse up the scraps.

FUSING:
Set out a “chunk” or length of fusible web on your ironing surface. I prefer Misty Fuse or Wonder Under, with the “business” (fusible) side facing UP. (If using Misty Fuse you’ll need to lay down parchment paper or a non-stick applique press sheet first, then put the Misty Fuse on top.)

Lay your scraps out wrong side down on the fusible, fitting the odd shapes together like a jigsaw puzzle.

Lay a non-stick applique press sheet or parchment paper (Reynolds brand seems to work best—the “organic” / “green” varieties don’t seem to have as much release coating on them and can stick) on top.

Iron.

Carefully pull the scraps apart.

Or, if I want to create “yardage” I’ll cut a few lengths off fabric in the stash cupboard and fuse them up

NOW…SORT AND STACK

Get a stack of small boxes. I use Clementines boxes (mandarin oranges of a sort), but shoe boxes, boot boxes, Amazon boxes or even nice Rubbermaid would work. Sort the scraps by color family. Here’s some of the contents of the “warms” box:

I keep my stack of Clementine boxes in Eli’s walker-wagon from when he was a toddler (please tip head sideways…photo shows vertical in iPhoto, but loads sideways…sorry!). Since the Clementine boxes have these little “pokey up” posts on the corners, I can stack them criss cross in a neat (well…sorta) tower by my work table.

Currently I have:

Earth-black-white (this includes everything from snow to sand to rock to dirt to black)
Greens
Blues and purples
Yellows, oranges and reds
“Fancy stuff” (this includes sheers, silks, sparkly nonsense, tulle, etc)

When I want to put together a postcard, or am working on a project with fusible, then I have a stash with a wide array of colors. Sometimes I even cut a chunk of fabric (instead of using just scraps) maybe 9×12 or 7×14, and fuse that up and add it to the boxes. Here’s a small project in its early stages. I’ve set out the boxes in an arc around my groady cut-n-press (it was SO decrepit I fused some ironing board cloth to the top!):

Cheers, Sarah