"Nan", My Latest "Frame it With Flowers" Project

 

"Nan" 

I'll be teaching the embellishment class, "Frame it With Flowers" twice in the next 8 months. (See the My Teaching Schedule tab, above.)  This has given me wonderful motivation to create a new piece, to be used as my current class sample.

Nan...that was the name my mother's closest friends and relatives gave her. The picture above was taken a few years before she died in 1976, and is my very favorite of her.  Framing this image has been such a joy--I've gotten to look into those eyes  all the while I stitched!

All the techniques here will be covered in class. 

Below are some more Framed loved ones created in past years...

"May"

 It all started with our cat May in 2010.

"Allers, 1961" 

A similar piece commemorates my husband's family.  It cracks me up how "engulfed" his dad looks!

"Abe and Faye"

My sister-in-law asked me to make this commemorating her parents' long marriage.  This was taken right after Abe got home from Europe in WWII.  Pure happiness!

"Elle, Dave, and the Girls"

This picture was taken a few months before my niece and nephew-in-law's twins were born.

 "Pete and Katie"
To celebrate my nephew's engagement. ;-)

"Tammy"

      My wonderful neighbor who loves her garden.

"Max and Esther"

This was taken in the courthouse moments after they were officially pronounced man and wife by the absolutely sweetest judge.  I love everything about this picture, especially their wedding clothes!

I've used this format for two of the three dedication pages of my books, too.

 This is from Allie Aller's Crazy Quilting, C & T Publishing, 2011.  Again, it is my mom--she would have been so proud of me to publish a book!  This was her senior college portrait; you can't see the jeans and saddle shoes she was also wearing.  ;-)

"Man of My Dreams"

This is the Dedication page of Stained Glass Quilts Reimagined, C & T Publishers, 2017.

It just struck me as funny and so us, that I would choose this picture of my husband, Robert, to frame and honor in my book.

Every Frame it With Flowers project is different, and each student's take is such a joy for me to see.

       I hope you will try this sometime....

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My mom taught me gardening, and to frame my life with flowers.....

"Memories that Linger"...Part 5: Outlining the Cabins and Auditioning Fabrics

After the cabins were "built", it was time to add the leading...this will be a stained glass style quilt, after all.

Adding the leading to Cabin #1

To learn how I do this technique, pick up a copy of my book, Allie Aller's Stained Glass Quilts Reimagined, from C & T Publishers, April 2017.

As you can see from this detail image below from one of my quilts in the book, you can get very articulate with this leading technique! 

Detail from "The Parish Farm", pg 43 of my book. This section is 16" X 25".

To prepare the "tree fabric" for my large hanging, I felted some strips of cotton base fabric with hand-dyed wool and silk roving.

Roving fibers laid out on a cotton base for felting.

Once the cabins were leaded and the tree fabrics were ready, I pinned everything up on the design wall, directly onto my paper pattern, with some of the other background fabrics too, just to see how they might work.

Trees, leaded cabins, and woods/foreground fabrics pinned into place.

There is much work to be done, of course, but this was my first glimpse at how my piece might come together.

It's very encouraging!

But it will have to wait a few weeks, while I am off on an adventure.....

Stained Glass Flower Portraits: A Tutorial

These "headshots" of individual flowers from my garden--below--are just supposed to be quick portraits of each one, little personality captures.  So they are not really portraits, but more like mug shots. ;-)

I've made four of them so far.  The first one doesn't count because it was a warm up, but by the fourth one I'd streamlined my step by step process, from photograph to finished laid out collage (none of them have been sewn down yet.)  I took some photos along the way so you can see the stages I go through.

A snapdragon.  I planted a lot of them this year.

I made a pencil sketch from my photo.

From this drawing I went to my favorite enlargement website, Rapid Resizer, and made a pdf file of the drawing at the size I wanted, printed it up, taped it together, and used it as my finished design.  I took my individual pattern pieces from that.

Here you can see the taped pattern on my light box.  I have already placed my blue background fabric over it and traced it, to help me place my collage fabrics accurately.  I use a Flexion pen for this tracing step, because I get a fine sharp line that is instantly erasable with the tip of a hot iron.

Once that tracing is done, I start tracing individual shapes for my collage onto freezer paper.

 These shapes are ironed onto the front of the fabric I intend to use.

Since the fabric for this piece is raveley silk, I interface the back of it first, before cutting out my freezer paper shapes.  This is fusible knit interfacing, which I buy by the bolt.

This picture shows some shapes that are ready to be laid into place.  You can see the traced pattern on the background that will help me with alignment. The great thing about using the Flexion pens is that you don't have to slavishly follow the traced pattern, as the line isn't permanent.  What a help that is!

I use a little smear of a glue stick on the back of each of the fabric pieces, just to hold them into place. I really don't like to use fusible web in this situation, because A) I can't reposition fused fabric, especially delicate fabrics like silk and B) I like my collaged fabrics to be not quite so flat against the surface of the background fabric.
Here is my snapdragon, ready to have its stained glass leading put on.

The last step is the outlining, or adding the leading.  I've covered that process in my book, Allie Aller's Stained Glass Quilts Reimagined. Click the link to find it on Amazon, or ask for it at your local quilt shop.  It is from C & T Publishing.

There are two more...a lily and a rose.
Each is about 8" X 8".

I look forward to making more of these this summer, and hope this gives you some ideas for you to try too.