VCQ Visitors & Screen Printing

The VCQ newsletter listing classes for the March 10 meeting in Annandale has been posted at http://www.vcq.org/newsletter/01-2012-newsletter.pdf. Elizabeth (http://blogaboutwithelizabeth.wordpress.com/) and I are teaching Class C, Screen Printing for Quilts, and both of us have samples posted on our blogs.  In addition to this post, additional pictures were posted Jan. 22, Jan. 8, and Jan.3.

I had a print of a pine branch I wanted to use. First I added some texture printing to the background in blue almost the same as the fabric.  Then I added more texture by using sequin waste as a stencil to give the effect of snow.

I printed the bird on purple, fused it to wonder under, and cut it out.

The final step was fusing the bird onto the pine branch. Next, borders? Then quilting and embellishment.

Screen Printed Mini Quilts

On January 3 I posted some photos of screen printed mini quilts for an upcoming VCQ class I'll be co-teaching with my friend Elizabeth - you can see some samples on her blog as well at Blog About with Elizabeth (http://blogaboutwithelizabeth.wordpress.com/).  I'm working on adding some hand embellishment to one of the pieces and thought I'd share an updated photo of work in progress.

Hopefully the differences are visible, in spite of the different lighting in the 2 pictures.  (Click on the pictures for a full size image.)  I'm using pearle cotton to add the "ricing" in the background of the screen print.  Its a variegated thread that I think helps pull in the colors of the border fabric.  I had to do a bit before deciding if I liked it or not, but I'm happy with the way it looks.  What do you think?

My Blue Heaven

Every 2 years my Virginia state quilt guild (VCQ) has a Celebration retreat with classes by national teachers.  Another fun aspect of the weekend is a 'block lotto' where particpants contribute blocks in hopes of winning a set.  I won these blocks in 2010, and finally pulled them out to try to have a finished quilt to take along this year for show and tell.  This weekend, I squared up the blocks, remade 2 that were a bit too small, and sewed the blocks and rows together.  I'm pleased with the layout, as there was quite a range of color in the blues.  I found a couple of great batiks for borders that should further pull all the colors together.  Stay tuned to see if I get this finished by late April!

Baby Booties!

Three pairs of baby booties finished for a baby shower tomorrow!  These are made from Bernat Baby Jacquard acrylic/nylon yarn, which is variegated and forms the various patterns as you knit.  The babies are all boys, one single, one set of twins!

New Thermofax Screens

Spent some time today making new thermofax screens, and of course I had to test them out!  Here's the handy-dandy machine, purchased last summer so I'm still learning what settings work best.  And the newly minted screens.

I had a number of different leaves that I collected last fall and took photos of.  There's a previous post on Oct. 16 that shows the leaves and the resulting black and white images after manipulating in photoshop.  This is my printing sample.  No specific intent for this - just wanted to see what they look like!

Screen Printed Mini Quilts

I'll be teaching a class in March for VCQ (along with my friend Elizabeth) on using thermofax screen printing for quilts.  We also have a VCQ challenge to make quilts for the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative, so wanted to incorporate the 2 ideas into one class.  These are 2 samples I made using prints left over from previous projects and practice pieces, and some hand-dyed lace and rickrack.  I plan to add more hand embellishment so more photos to come at a later date, and maybe some more samples too.

Dotty Challenge

My local quilt guild received some fabric samples (5 " squares) from Timeless Treasures and decided to issue a challenge.  The fabric is a collection called "Dotty" and consists of 18 colors with irregular dots.  The challenge was to use at least 6 colors in a small quilt between 18 & 36" square, and use curves in some way.  I've wanted to do a piece with fractured circles for a while, so thought this was a good opportunity.  I used all the colors - one is very pale and the dots are barly visible, so that only appears in one circle, but otherwise they're all there.  I started by layering 3 circles on top of each square, cutting out the bottom layer of the circle each time to reduce bulk.

Then I layed out all the squares on the design wall.

I liked this, and considered stopping at this point, but decided to follow through on the original plan and ended up with this.

I think it turned out well.  The black and white stripe border and blue outer border help give the eye a place to rest with all the dotty riot of color.

Final 2011 Projects

It's been a busy week!  Having the week off between Christmas and New Year, I decided it was time to get to work on some of the projects I hadn't had a chance to work on in the last month, so I spent lots of quality time with my sewing machine!

First, I had 10 charity pillowcases waiting to be finished - that was a quick and easy task to be crossed off the list.

I also discovered I had way more unwashed fabric than I realized, so I sorted it into light, medium and dark and washed it all!  10 inches worth of fabric!

Another thing I've worked on this week while traveling is baby booties - we have several people at work expecting.  One pair finished, 2 more to go for January!

More tomorrow!

Catching Up

It's hard to believe it's been over a month since my last post.  I guess I've got lots of catching up to do!  Let's start with the results of the stamping in my previous post.  I turned these into gift tags that I used on some Christmas gifts.  My original intent was a tree ornament, but I decided they worked better as a gift tag.  I added an eyelet in one corner and ribbon for hanging or tying.  Each is 2-sided (opposite colors), fused to peltex and satin stitched on the edges.

While I'm sharing holiday projects, here's another - these actually did become tree ornamnents - and gifts for friends.

This was a project from Quilting Arts Gifts 2011 - Rag Ball Ornaments by Hannah Overman Koch.