2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge-April

Our challenge for April was from Don Linn and consisted of tracing a design onto tulle that was in a hoop and then transferring that design onto your fabric, which you could then do over and over again using the same tulle. So here is mine. I did have some difficulty doing it on the satin. The blue marker bled pretty bad so it was hard to follow the design and I got lost a few times!!!

I took a picture of a gravestone marker in the cemetery at Alsea, Oregon on Easter. I then printed it, traced the design onto a clear acetate and then realized that it wasn't perfectly symmetric. So then I traced just one side, copied it twice, doing one side in reverse. Then I joined the two in the middle!!

The final copy ready to be transferred onto the tulle.

Ready to apply design to the satin!!

Ready to quilt!! I added a little leaf design from a stencil I had. The cemetery is located in the middle of the coast range with lots of huge trees and shrubs surrounding it.

Almost done!! Now I need to add a filler background.I may go with Ann Fahl's meandering with the loops in a very tiny pattern!! We will see!! I need to think about it for a while first!!

Take care and Happy Quilting everyone!!! :^) Martha

Coop Entangled-A Zentangled inspired quilt

I am finally done with this quilt for my sons birthday, just a month and a few days late, but it is done!!! I started the quilt on March 2nd and was hoping to get it done in two weeks, of course, that did not happen!

So, on March second, while taking care of my 2 year old grandson Cooper, I decided that I should make a birthday gift for my son Drew using his son Coopers hands as the inspiration. My first thought was painting his hands and printing them on fabric, but this little guy loves throwing things. I did not need paint all over the house. So I made a copy of his hands on my copy machine and decided to do a ZIA-Q, Zentangle Inspired Art Quilt! And here is how I did it:

Cooper on the day we made his hand prints!

He had a lot of fun pushing the button on the copy machine and seeing his hands pop out!!!

I had seen a Zentangled Inspired quilt on another blog and read her tutorial about how she did it. Mine is a little different, but along the same line as hers. Thank-you Zany Quilter  for your help and your wonderful instructions, it helped me get this little quilt going!! http://zanyquilter.blogspot.com/p/zentangle-quilt-tutorial.html

First, I prepared a large piece of freezer paper, I had to piece it together so that it was large enough for the quilt I wanted to make.

I used a stencil for the center scalloped area around Coopers hands

I drew my design on the freezer paper, traced over it with a black sharpie and then numbered each pattern piece.

I lay my fabric over the pattern and traced all the markings with a blue washout marker.

After this process, it was time to get all my black and white fabrics out and begin cutting the pattern apart. I did a little bit at a time so that I did not get all the pieces scattered!!

As I chose the fabrics for each area, I would cut out the pattern from the freezer paper and press it to the right side of the fabric chosen, then cut the piece out for placement.

Progress!!

I made quite a mess while working, but it was so much fun!!!

All the pieces cut and in their place, ready to be temporarily adhered!!

I used the 505 adhesive spray, put the pieces in a box to contain any over-spray, and then adhered them to the fabric.

I decided to cover the edges with a fusible black bias strip and straight stitch the edges.This worked well!

Once the quilt was done, it was time to draw Coopers hands to the center and apply the different tangle patterns I was learning from a booklet I purchased and from the different Zentangle blogs I had been reading.

In progress

And done, along with the dotted background for my tangle quilt pattern I was planning.

Pinned and ready to quilt. I have not gotten the hang of using the adhesive spray for "pinning" my quilt layers together, so I still use the safety pin way. It works.

I love the three dimensional look you get from this pattern!!

And a close-up view of the final product!!

 This was a fun quilt and I am so glad my son and his wife love it!!! I printed Coopers picture of his hands and his photo onto fabric and added them to the back of the quilt so it will be recorded in time what he looked like the day we started his quilt!!!

Happy Quilting everyone, take care and keep those needles sharp!!! Martha

Preparing satin fabric for quilting

Satin and satin type fabrics are so beautiful when quilted, but they can be so very difficult to work with. This is a short lesson on how I prepare my satin fabrics for quilting.

Satin slips a lot in every direction. It also frays/shreds a lot!! To make this fabric work for me I prepare it with a fusible light weight interfacing.

This is Palmer/Pletsch PerfectFuse Sheer fusible interfacing that works really well with the satin and silk fabrics. I just follow the manufacturers instructions for fusing. When I press on the interfacing side I use parchment paper over the fabric to protect the fabric and my iron. I don't want any fusible to melt to my iron and I want to protect the fusible from the hot iron.

Parchment paper works so well for pressing delicate fabrics or for when you are fusing. It can be used over and over again and it is very inexpensive!! Love it!!

So another problem I have with working with the satin and silk is it doesn't feed like the cotton fabrics. For instance, when applying cotton borders on my satin, the satin feeds at a different rate than the cotton and the two do not match up in the end, even though they are the same size to begin with. I could use my walking foot, but I choose to pin the two together and then stitch. I probably put a pin every three to four inches and sew slowly. This works so much better!!

And in the end, I have two blank canvases ready for my 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge!!

Now I need to spend some time turning the photo below that I took at the Alsea Cemetery on Easter Sunday into my April challenge piece. Hopefully this weekend it will be drawn, traced and quilted!! However, sunny days are predicted for the weekend, so the garden may be calling me!!!

Happy Quilting everyone, take care, and keep those needles sharp!!! :^) Martha