Tag: recycled materials

Posted in sewing

Follow up on Patio Decor Posts

Posted on by Laura Kate

Last week I was finally able to get my Patio Geranium painting mounted into the salvaged wood frame I found and hung on a brick wall of my patio.

Patio Decor – Stage Two

The painting is quite striking, and easily viewed from inside the house as well. To celebrate this event, I thought I would make new cushions for the patio’s chairs. I had been thinking about doing this for years now, ever since one cushion was destroyed by a squirrel, which must have thought it would make good nesting material. The current crop of squirrels seems uninterested in chewing up cushions, so the time was right to undertake this project.

Here’s the outdoor fabric I purchased at Hobby Lobby.

It seems very nice indeed.

To begin work, I disassembled the remaining cushion to use the fabric pieces as patterns and to re-use the padding and cording in the replacement cushion.

Several frustrating hours later, I did manage to sew up one cushion. The fabric was terrible to work with- shredding and fraying at the slightest provocation.

So – while I did make an acceptable cushion, I can state unequivocally that the process was NOT FUN!!! At least it seems to be functional.

……..and the color is nice.

It could be a while before I attempt the other cushion, since I will need to cut some foam rubber to shape into a matching cushion pad.

I’m pretty sure that this task will also be NOT FUN.

If any kind reader has sewn anything using outdoor fabric, I would be grateful for any advice you would be willing to share.

Posted in quilting

Finally Finished Friday

Posted on by Laura Kate

Starting back in January with some musings over passed-along weaving samples, today I celebrate the finish of a fiber object unlike anything I have done before.

Margaret Howard wove her samples on a small loom that she kept at the family’s summer house in northwestern Wisconsin. When I first saw them, I felt that these pieces could be compiled into a cohesive fiber object. As I began working with them, my mind traveled to the little cottage on the edge of the lake with the big stone fireplace. What might it have been like for Margaret, to do this work, at that place?

Before long, my own experience while visiting that same cottage began to overlay the story of Margaret in my imagination.

The resulting quilt is a consolidation of her history, my experience and skills, fabric from assorted cast-off shirts, fabric from my mother’s stash, and prompts from the 2022 Stay-at-home round robin quilt challenge.

The little cottage is represented by the center block.

It holds the heart of the Shell Lake story.

Each corner block on the quilt represents some aspect of the experience a trip to the lake house may bring. Let’s go there now.

To reach the cottage, one travels through a piney wood along paths lined with ferns.

Crossing an ancient and overgrown tennis court, the visitor encounters the path to the lake. Turn right and follow the dazzling rays of sunshine to get there.

As the day turns to dusk, all camp visitors are again drawn to the lakeshore, where the sun is saluted before it disappears over the horizon. Sunsets at the lake are relaxed, and sometimes, if you are lucky, meditative.

When the air becomes chilly, a fire will warm the body. While fires on the beach are jolly, often the stone fireplace is brought to life, usually in the cool morning hours.

Here is a final look, showing the fabric chosen as the backing.

This little flower print has no special association with the Shell Lake story. I simply thought that the colors just looked nice.

I truly enjoyed making this quilt, and am a little sorry that the work is done.

And so ends the tale of a weaver, a fiber artist, and the quilt that grew from their intersection. Where will this object end up? I am not sure, but at some point soon, it will be released into the world. Fifty years from now, perhaps another artist will have something to add to its story,

Posted in quilting

WIP Wednesday: Shell Lake Quilt

Posted on by Laura Kate

For the past two weeks I have been laboring slowly but surely over this quilt. The first week was spent sewing blocks together and sandwiching the quilt. Because I plan to do the quilting in sections, I assembled the quilt in three pieces.

I dithered about for what seemed like forever to come up with a quilting plan. Many hours were spent viewing various classes on Craftsy. Christa Watson’ class “The Quilters Path” is one that gave me some guidance.

https://www.craftsy.com/product/the-quilters-path-plan-it-stitch-it-quilt-it-dvd-streaming/

By Monday, I had come up with a plan.

I started with the Around the world block. First I worked stitch-in-the-ditch every three inches to stabilize the section. Next came the free motion pattern. All of those straight lines needed to be softened and quilted down.

I worked gentle curves across the straight lines.

What remained to be quilted in this block were two large sections of background fabric, including the part with the whirligig. Christa’s all-over motif of loops with random flowers and leaves came to the rescue.

Here is a photograph of the completed sections of an adjoining block.

This is very pleasing to my eye. Having now completely quilted one of the three pieces, I feel that I will likely finish the other two by week end. Then I can move on to final assembly, binding and the Big Reveal!

Posted in colorwork, painting

Decorating the Patio – WIP

Posted on by Laura Kate

While rooting through the garage this week, I found this frame.

I decided that I could make a decor item for my patio, which also could hold various gardening implements on a row of hooks. But what I really wanted was to fill the opening with an abstract painting of geraniums. Something like this:

I picked up a remnant of solid white cotton twill. It seemed to be sturdy enough to stand up to outside conditions. After I washed and dried the fabric, I cut a piece approximately 3 inches wider and longer than the frame opening. Now the fun starts.

My fabric paint choices included green, emerald, red, and yellow. I mixed some violet into the yellow to make a gold color. After about twenty minutes of messing around I had a nice background painted.

To give a little variety to the patches of color, I scrunched up the fabric.

And here is my panel, fully dry and ready for further paint layers.

I’m excited by this result, and keen to work on this fiber object some more.

Posted in colorwork, painting

Glazed and Diffused

Posted on by Laura Kate

While tidying up my studio the other day, I came across several of my watercolor test swatches. I have three samples, each no bigger than 4 x 6 inches, that were made as I prepared to paint the geometric abstract of the Belize lagoon.

Finished Object Friday – Belize Memory

Looking at them with fresh eyes I got the idea of framing the paintings as a group. But first, I would want to work on them some more.

In the language of watercolor, a wash that is painted over existing washes is called a glaze. The term emphasizes the sheer characteristic of this medium. Today I got busy adding some glazes. When the paint had dried, I added a little line work.

Here is what I have so far.

I like the fresh and bright colors and the variety of shapes. But I am wondering if these tiny paintings are finished now. I’m toying with the idea of sewing on them with embroidery thread.

Rather than ending up Dazed and Confused, I believe that I will put this project aside and see how I feel about it tomorrow.