MY MACHINE QUILTING on my 'Sunset"

Please click on pictures to get a close up.

















I am very impressed with Leah's blog on 365 different machine quilting samples. I have been doing a variety of different stitches on my borders and in my wall hangings for some time but with this piece I incorporated 3 or 4 of her samples in the piece. I thought you might find it interesting to see how I incorporated many different directions and stitche in the piece - especially in the sky and the border. It really sets off the scene and I am planning on using her different stitches in my work from now on.

The color of the sky is a bit 'off'' the sky photo - it is much more orange. I hope this helps you
make your borders more interesting - especially wall hangings.

Sunset

I have been working on a new wall hanging that I think will be donated to Well spring for the quilt auction. I have done some tryouts of different
quilting patterns some which I knew and some which I took from the 365 days of quilting designs. I have shown a couple of close ups of the quilting as well as the finished wall hanging below. I still have to
put a backing and sleeve and label on it. It is nice to be slowly getting back to doing some of my work.

With all the things going on with the family, I haven't had much desire to do much until this last week or so.

Things are in a holding pattern with my son -- he is doing much better than expected time wise which
has been such a blessing. I am feeling much more relaxed as the first couple of months were
horrendous, but he is getting Cancer treatment, and pain meds which make his life so much better.

I hope you like my sunset. It won't be the final name -- I hope to donate it to Well spring for sale at their open house or the quilt auction in November. I hope to do a scene of one of the most popular mountains in this part of the Canadian Rockies - and I have other wall hangings I have made over the past year. We sold all the wall hangings I put up for sale last year. If you are interested in seeing
pictures of the ones for sale in November, let me know - If any of you are interested in a wall hanging
75% of the sale price will go to Carma House for Cancer Support.

They will also be selling the l07 postcards donated by my wonderful friends to be given to Carma House. I will be at the auction with a table showing the cards and wall hangings. I would love it if you comment on this piece. Such fun to do. Shirley

NEW CLASS ON LEARNINGFA GROUP

I have decided to teach a class on Learningfa (my yahoo group) (click on the name) called Horse
Country -- This is a really good way to learn how to make sure you have the proper perspective as far as distance, as well as how to put buildings and animals in your piece. There is a lot of thread painting as well. If you are interested - I believe that there are a few spots open for new learningfa members.

We have some great classes coming up. I will be teaching a new series on thread painting this winter as well- it is a series of lessons to show how to thread paint different subjects and working into scenes.

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We have had a month of lovely late summer weather. It is supposed to rain today and I do believe it will be welcome by the gardners and farmers although I hope it doesn't last too long as the harvesting is about to begin.

I do hope you will join learning fa if you don't belong, so that you can take some of my classes. We will also be doing quite a few traditional classes as well.

365 ways of machine quilting

I just read one of my yahoo group digests and one of the girls suggested we look at this link.

It is really worthwhile visiting, as each day there will be a new quilting pattern. For me, it is great as even though I don't quilt large quilts, I am always looking for patterns to do my borders for my art quilts.


EVERYONE who quilts should check out this site and follow it each day. Enjoy- Shirley

Bubble jet set for printing

I have used this quite often before I found the packaged individual sheets. It works very well, but is time consuming and a bit messy. Once I have printed on the fabric with BJS I use the rinse which I bought at the same time.

I pre used the BJS -- I usually did about a yard square (or meter) and then I cut it into page size pieces (8.5 x ll") and pressed the fabric onto a piece of Butcher paper. Make sure you press it onto the
butcher paper so that it sticks, especially at the corners. The print your picture on the sheet - and once you have removed the completed picture (after waiting at least 30 minutes, carefully rinse the printed fabric with the BJS rinse.

Once I found the sheets I started using them and only use the Bubble jet set if I don't have any sheets
of photo fabric. It is so much less work, and if you make sure you use up the whole sheets at a time with different images (see the post above) it isn't really that much more expensive.

I do a lot of sets of different subjects. Including buildings, old houses, (pictures taken on our trips around Calgary - animals, - whatever I need. The peony filled a whole page and I plan on doing a group of smaller ones on a page. I have already printed some of my 'anniversary roses' I received for my birthday from my family - and will include them in the floral wall hanging (at least that is what I plan on doing now -)grin.

Printed fabric information

Tricia -- regarding your comment here is the way I do it.
There is not a lot to it. I take a picture and enlarge it, or decrease it to the size you want with your photo program (I use photo shop) - I use one of two different kinds of
photo fabric for inkjet printers (I believe there are different types for other types of printers)

#1 Printed treasures - which has a fairly stiff paper backing. I try to do a group of pictures that I will likely want to use -- I usually do 6 anmials to a sheet , but in the case of the flowers my large peony took up nearly a whole page. I also did some 4" roses and managed to get 4 to a page as the printed fabric sheets are a bit expensive. I keep a file with my printed fabric photos and use them when I need them.

$2 Photo Fabric sheets "Crafter's images" The fabric is quite soft once the paper has been removed. I rinse the fabric once it is completely dried from the printing and when I remove the paper. Some images are on fabric sheets for some time as I leave them on the paper until I am ready to use them. Always rinse the printed fabric in cold water. The only time I don't rinse it is if I am going to thread paint the majority of the subject.

You can then use your printed fabric images 'as is' or do what I do and that is thread paint the image - placing the printed fabric on a heavy web (timtex or peltex) and thread paint the colors shown on the image. The timtex doesn't allow the picture to pucker.

You can see in the one picture ("Poppies and Wildflowers) how I incorporated the poppy into a wall hanging. The eagles were done for my son - I have done one set fully thread painted and the
example was drawn by hand using press n seal, and then painted and thread painted. I hope you find this interesting. Shirley

Pink peony

I received some wonderful pictures taken by Al Procyshyn (the husband of my friend Verona), of the
peonies in his yard. They said to me (the peonies) - please thread paint me - so I am doing just that.

Al takes wonderful pictures and Verona has shared them with me so that I can use them as subjects for some of my wall hangings. Here is a work in progress , one of the beautiful peonies from their garden. I hope to incorporate it into a floral wall hanging which is new territory for me. I hope you like it , I have a couple of roses that I will do too and then work on a way to incorporate them into a wall hanging.

Postcards delivered for Wellspring's Carma House

I visited Carma house yesterday and delivered another 55 cards which make it l05 cards which I
have received, for Wellspring to sell. My friends there thought they were wonderful, and they are
now considering exactly how they will market them. I believe 85% will be sold at the Quilt Auction for cancer in November. There will also be some for sale at Carma house.

They are thinking about $7.00 to l0.oo per card -- with the l0.00 cards being the fancier ones. This would mean they will receive $700. for Carma House at the minimum if all sell, (which we all felt they would). The girls there had never seen the cards before and were very intrigued.

Thanks again to all of you! Shirley