"My Secret Garden" project...finished!

This quilt is for the Personal Apps exhibit at the upcoming Road 2 California quilt conference in Ontario, CA next month.

The exhibit is here described:

Personal Apps
An App is defined as an application, typically a small, specialized program downloaded onto mobile devices. Artists invited to participate in this exhibit have created small quilts that represents them as an individual. The quilts show an aspect of their life or their identity. Curated by Matt Reese and Stevii Graves. 

Each quilt is to be 36" X 36".

Gardening makes me so happy.....so I guess that is a major aspect of my life and identity.

Last summer's garden really gave me so much joy.

What follows is a pictorial chronology of my quilt's construction over the last month...

It started with my review of Sue Reno's DVD on surface design.  You can read about it in this post.
I knew I wanted some lacy clouds, so with Sue's guidance, I printed some, using acrylic paint mixed with fabric extender.

I printed up a bunch.

I also painted some flowers, both pre-made fabric flowers and fussy cut printed flowers from quilters' cottons.  

 I'm so glad Sue's DVD encouraged me to get out those paints!

Then I began my initial lay-out....

The finished quilt actually bears quite a resemblance to this!

The foreground and sky sections were appliqued over a muslin foundation first--then I started adding layers of clouds.  That vintage delicate doily was meant to be the sun...

After this sky area was settled, the garden was laid out the same way, with a few large swaths of green.

Then the layers of flowers went on.

This photo shows a few of the techniques I used for the garden.

I did most of the embellishment work by machine, though.  Those large three dimensional daisies are vintage appliques.

After some initial quilting in the sky, I decided the clouds needed more texture, so I got out my acrylic Titanium white and highlighted some of the subtle lines from the printing.

A layer of lace over that and the clouds were just right!

Then it was time to add some stars to the sky.  This was a 3 day hand-beading extravaganza.
But then...how to quilt that???

I would never have attempted this on anything but my Sweet 16 from Handi Quilter.  The large bed made moving the quilt around easy during the free-motion sewing.

And the open toed foot made it easy to see "where I was going".  Somehow it just worked.  I didn't break a single bead or needle.  I love that Sweet 16!

This velvet bird was a cherished gift from Maureen Greason.  I didn't want to poke holes in it sewing it down, so I glued a piece of wool felt to the back of it, and sewed that instead.

When the top was all done and quilted, it was time to attach the trim borders.  The ones on the right won, after much auditioning.

You just cannot over-measure at this step.  I really took my time with this.

Wearing this machine quilting glove on my left hand really helped me move the quilt along as I sewed on the trim.

After this step I trimmed the batting and backing and just folded it in so it met the edge of the trim.  Then I whipstitched the whole thing closed. 

Let's see, at 8 stitches per inch, 36 inches per side times four sides...that is 1152 stitches plus corners.  But it is better than having to do conventional binding! I used lots and lots of pins, chatting with my sister as this step is kind of boring.

So here it is done.....

 This detail shows my blue bird of happiness, and the silver bird coming down from the stars...

 Here are the flowers growing, straight out of my heart....

And the entire Secret Garden, revealed......

"Tammy" ...and How to Mount a 14" Block

Tammy is my neighbor and one of the best people I know.
We were moms together; we each have two boys the same age, one quiet, one loud...she understands and loves my kids more than almost anyone.
Now that all our boys are grown and flown, Tammy and I are still very close. 

I took some pictures of her during the annual 4th of July BBQ she and her husband Frank have every year...knowing I wanted to use her as the subject of a new "Frame it With Flowers" portrait.  I didn't tell her though!

It's a very portable project and I've taken it with me on my summer travels, as you will see.  I decided to mount it when it was finished, to keep it flat and easily hangable on the wall.

So meet Tammy....

I have learned from long experience that a printed photo has to be thoroughly stabilized before appliqueing it onto a background.  So this photo has three layers:  first it is interfaced with fusible interfacing, then it has a layer of batting slightly smaller than the photo, then another layer of fusible interfacing overall, which holds the batting into place.  This works perfectly.

Tammy showed me this vintage print she found and loves, intending to hang it in the living room that she and Frank are turning into their library, now that the boys are gone.  They own thousands of books.
I took this as my color scheme for the flowers I was going to make.

So I got started.  The outer fabric is vintage linen in a color that matches the frame of Tammy's print.  I am so sneaky!

As I said, this is a great project for traveling.

First it went to Atascadero, CA where I was teaching the class, "Frame it With Flowers".

You can see it on the table in the foreground right.
I love this class so much because the photos everyone brings to frame all have such meaningful stories...

Next I took Tammy to Vermont, where the Quilt Alliance was holding its annual board meeting.

This year's meeting was in the studio of Frances Holliday Alford. We not only brought our own projects to work on during the meeting, but Frances had covered the whole table with canvas and set out markers and paints for us to cover it with during our time there.  Yay Frances!  I circled my place at the table so you can see my project.

Next up was the first Salon of Mark Lipinski's Slow Stitch Movement in New Hope, PA.  He wrote an excellent blog post about it here.  You definitely should check out his website to see what this is all about.

Tammy and I were in exalted company.  From left to right next to me is Chawne Kimber, Liza Lucy, Mark, and Meg Cox around the table.  If you don't know Chawne's work, drop everything right now and go see her quilts here.  And her astonishing redwork here.  (Not for the faint of heart!)  The fact that Chawne is a full professor of mathematics awed me for sure, but her work does even more.

Liza is business partners with Kaffe Fassette and she had a whole room in her home with his fabrics for her mail order business.

Treasure indeed....

Then I came back home and finished up my project.  Here is how I mounted it:

1. I cut a piece of batting to fit 1/2" larger all around than the finished size of my block, which is 14" X 14".  I adhered the batting with a shot of Sulky fabric adhesive spray.

2. I couldn't find any foam core in Washougal where I live, so I went with some clean heavy cardboard from a box.  This was cut at 14" X 14".

3. Using wide painters' tape, I gently stretched my project over the batting and cardboard and taped it to the back.  I found that first ironing the folds along marked lines was very helpful.

4. The back of the cardboard needed some padding too, so I cut a piece of scrap fleece exactly 14" X 14" and sprayed it to the back of the cardboard.

5. I cut the backing (also vintage linen) and finished it to size.  But before sewing it on, I prepared the means to hang the block with cording.  I inserted each end to the back of the backing fabric, and zig zagged the ends in place.

6. It was easy to pin the prepared backing to the back of the cardboard--I just inserted the pins straight in to secure the layers. Then I took it outside and finished up, removing the pins as I whipstitched the backing to the folded over edge of the block.

And there is my Tammy.
One of my favorite parts of this project was looking down at her smiling face the whole time I worked.

Here's a detail:

I liked making that kind of wispy outer frame out of the big embroidery stitches.  ;-)

Tammy had no idea this was happening so when she came over to tour the garden (she and my husband are great gardening pals)....

....I led her into my sewing room so she could see her portrait on the design wall.
Well, she started to cry which made me so happy.  Bulls eye!

Is there anyone you want to frame with flowers?  Try it, you will love it!

The DMC Crazy Quilt Commission: Part 4, Finished!

All done it is, and ready to be mailed to DMC USA in New Jersey....
What a lovely project it has been!

Where we last left off, I was going to add the outer vine and flowers to the wall-hanging...

I've repeated the Memory Thread couched vine element, but this time using three strands instead of just one in the first vine, two strands in a second one.  I pinned them into place and then couched them down using clear monofilament thread.
The flowers and velvet leaves pretty much arranged themselves, along with some vintage glass flower beads.

Here they are twining around Jean-Luc and Michael...

...and my beloved Notre Dame....(thanks again to Jerry Everard for this wonderful photo).....

...they surround my sister Mary....

....and me.

To finish the quilt I made and executive decision: No batting!
Wanting it to hang very, very straight, I gave the quilt the body it needed by interfacing the back of the embroidered and embellished top not once, but twice.

This is how the back looked before the first layer of overall interfacing.  You might notice that the center section was already interfaced once, for the crazy quilt stitching work.

Here is the backing after the first layer of overall interfacing was fused on; I gave it a second layer, too.
The results were very successful, in my opinion!  Because this quilt is small, about 30" X 30", and because the top is so incredibly stable, I also decided that the assembly of front to back could be accomplished solely by stitching the layers together around the perimeter, and then adding the binding.

The binding is actually the same vintage red velvet ribon used to frame some of the photographs.  Everyone knows, I love ribbon binding.

That outer border trim is so quintessentially French.  And it is from the 1920's!

Finally, the quilt back...

I attached the sleeve to the backing before sewing the back to the front, and this saved me a lot of time.  The binding covered the top edge of it.  That glittery trim along the bottom edge of the sleeve is from shopping in Montmartre.....

Always, every quilt must have a label.  This one has the graphic DMC used to promote the contest that led to my glorious adventure with my sister in France...

And now 2014 is soon upon us.  What awaits us in the new year?  Happy Stitching for all, I hope!

Max and Esther....Finished!

My wall-hanging of them, that is.  Those two are just getting started on a lifetime together....!

After I finished framing the photo with embellishments and lettering, it was time to quilt the image on my Handi Qiuilter Sweet 16.  I prepared it for quilting by spray basting two layers of drapery lining cotton into place behind it on the back of the top.

That was simple enough!  No pinning needed....

I used a yellow thread for quilting and then added some colored pencil to the background.

 

I just wanted the figures to stand out from the background a little bit more. And they were definitely glowing that day....

For the binding, I did what I often do: iron trim along its length and take advantage of its finished edges and pretty weave. It was easy to zigzag it in place with clear thread in both the top and the bobbin (so it wouldn't show on the back.)

Finally, I couched some cording along the inside edge of the binding.

 

I did have fun with those felt flowers from Custom Fabric Flowers. I teach the velvet/silk ribbon flower in my Craftsy class!

Here is the whole piece...

It's actually squarer than it looks...you know how the camera bends the edges...  ;-)

It measures 14.5" X 17.5".

It was a joy to make this...now it is on to the Ringbearer's Pillow!