Daily Fiber

Painting the Quilt Backing

Posted on September 9, 2022 by Laura Kate

On Wednesday I got started with the backing fabric for the Badlands art quilt. It turned out even better than I had expected.

I started with a black-on-white cotton print, which imitates Carrera marble.

I was drawn to this fabric because it represents a stone product. The veining suggested to me the many cracks throughout the Badlands formations.

The first step was to achieve a consistent ground color by dipping the fabric into diluted blue-green paint. Squeezing out the excess, I smoothed the piece out onto a large piece of butcher paper. Then using the other paint I had mixed for the quilt front, I applied horizontals bands of color – orange first, then blue-purple. I let the piece sit and slightly dry before sprinkling on rock salt, also in horizontal bands.

**AFTER APPLICATION OF PAINT, BEFORE DRYING.**

I allowed the paint to dry almost completely before brushing off the salt.

The next morning, I hung it outside to get this photo:

It looks so dramatic, I’m wondering if it will be a waste to use it as a backing.

Earlier today I learned that the batiks I ordered for this project will arrive this afternoon. I can’t wait to see them.

knitting, painting, quilting

A Couple of WIPs

Posted on September 7, 2022 by Laura Kate

Yesterday I officially lost at yarn chicken.

I have about 16 rounds plus the toe left to knit. Grr. So I wandered through my stash to see if I could find a good substitute and come up with a gameplan.

This morning, entering my studio, I suddenly spied The Swatch. Then I remembered that I had knit two swatches for this project! Both of them included the cream yarn.

In other news, I have been painting fabric for the Badlands quilt. Here is a group of color samples in my chosen palette.

I also spent a lot of time simplifying my sketch and making a pattern on freezer paper. This pattern will become the cutting guide for the quilt’s segments. I don’t call them blocks, because they are all different shapes, following the major lines of the subject.

I actually got underway with cutting and sewing some of these segments, starting from the background.

I’m pretty happy with the work so far. But now I am waiting on fabric to be delivered. In acknowledgement of my rather crude fabric painting skills, I broke down and bought some batik fabrics with colors for the middle ground of the design.

In the meantime, I plan to paint the backing fabric and make the quilt sandwich this week. Then I will be ready to move forward as soon as the package arrives.

knitting

WIP Wednesday: Sock Challenge Progress

Posted on August 31, 2022 by Laura Kate

I’m slogging away at my sock challenge.

Cast-on Monday: Search and Swatch

It’s going quite well. I have finished the first Novita sock and worked my way well down the leg of the second one.

This is the first time I have worked socks on two cable needles, and I have to say that I am enjoying the process. I find that I drop stitches less frequently than when working with sock needles, which are by design quite short. Also, the knitting seems to go faster because I pause to shift the work twice per round instead of three or four times per round. The biggest disadvantage is the need to own two cable needles of the same size.

Not really much of a financial hurdle in my mind. A good cable needle can last one’s entire knitting career.

Right now I am sweating the yarn situation.

This is all that’s left of the cream ball. I’ll be truly annoyed if I end up buying another skein just to get an additional 30 or so yards.

drawing

Sunday Sketching: Value Study

Posted on August 28, 2022 by Laura Kate

For over a year, I have been ruminating over an idea I have for an art quilt. It is inspired by our trip last year to Teddy Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota.

For those not familiar with the park, it is known for what’s called the Badlands. These are sedimentary rock formations that have been eroded away, displaying the different layers almost like a layer cake.

Here is an example of what I’m talking about.

The timing and circumstances of the trip were counter-productive to getting any good photographs. It was high noon in mid-July. I had no idea how hot it could be in North Dakota during the summer. To compound things, the whole western edge of the United States was on fire last year. We were about a thousand miles away from the smoke and yet haze covered the entire sky and dampened the light. Nearly all the color was washed out of the scenery. No shadows. No highlights.

Here is my best photograph in the park that day.

To get a suitable reference photo of the overlook, I resorted to the Internet. This photo was taken by Mike Hanson. It is 2017 and it must be a sunset view.

Bill added the segmenting lines so that I could scale it up to size I wanted. Using the grid method, I transferred the major shapes to paper and sketched a value study.

Very well pleased with the result, I moved on to the fun stuff: selecting a color scheme and swatching it out in watercolor. I chose a split complementary scheme focused on orange, with blue-violet and blue-green as the complements.

Now my creative juices are flowing. I’m excited to pick out some fabrics and start painting them!

sewing

Finished Object Friday: Binding

Posted on August 26, 2022August 25, 2022 by Laura Kate

This elaborately embroidered art quilt is not mine. It was made by my mother Jackie – one of the last pieces she worked on before being abruptly retired from sewing by a stroke last January. Her right side and her speech functions were seriously impacted. Recovery has been slow in coming.

This quilt is so dense with embroidery that it is stiff and heavy from the massive about of thread added. She completed it all but the binding. Now our mother cannot tell me or my sisters anything about the pattern, materials, or work involved. We know only that it was embroidered on the Baby Lock Destiny II.

So that it can be used by one of my sisters, I volunteered to add the binding.

I thought that it would be a simple matter to match the green, but it was not. Eventually I chose a Moda fabric in color Emerald.

It reminded me of a prom dress I made for myself. The skirt was sewn from satin in a shade just about this color. Working on this binding gave me a flash-back to my then-boyfriend and the moment we posed for a photograph at the dance – I think it was sometime around 1969. I seem to have lost the photo.

Actually, sewing this binding on took all my concentration. With all that weight and stiffness, the quilt resisted my efforts to manipulate it through the machine. It felt like I was arm-wrestling a tent.

Finally finished.