Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I set this year’s challenge for our annual quilting retreat. I had all sorts of possibilities running around in my head for this, but settled on these lines from the poem:

Of ragged mountain ranges…

I love her far horizons

I love her jewel-sea

For the quilting workshop I attended in Texas in March, I chose a photo that matched those lines and used it for my project. I finished the project when I returned to Australia, and I’ve also used it for this year’s challenge. Double-dipping at its best 😉

Here’s the original photo of the beach at Port Douglas, far north Queensland that was my inspiration for the art quilt I made (click on a photo to view it larger):

And here’s the finished art quilt, which uses elements from the photo without trying to be an exact reproduction of it:

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I used Gloria Loughman’s technique for creating a 1/4″ inner framing border and I think it worked well, as did the 1″ dark framing border (in a lovely Aboriginal-style fabric), thus making this look like a framed picture.

This one is not for sale — I’m giving it a US friend who LOVES Australia and has been on holiday with us to far north Queensland.

For the process I used to make this art quilt and the workshop I did in Texas, see these blog posts:

• Day 1: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/quilting-adventures-spring-seminar-day-1-4-march-2012/
• Day 2: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/quilting-adventures-spring-seminar-day-2-5-march-2012/
• Day 3: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/quilting-adventures-spring-seminar-day-3-6-march-2012/
• Day 4: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/quilting-adventures-spring-seminar-day-4-7-march-2012/
• Day 5: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/quilting-adventures-spring-seminar-day-5-8-march-2012/

By the way, I SO enjoyed the workshop week in Texas that I’m going to repeat it again in 2013 when I go to the US: http://www.quilting-adventures.com/spring-quilting-seminars/session2/ (I’m registered for the Velda Newman workshop)

I enjoyed October’s FMQ Challenge from Teri Lucas.

This is my first attempt — no practice pieces this time! To make the quilting stand out, I used a plain maroon/burgundy fabric and a contrasting variegated thread.

I may do more later, but the rest of this month is pretty busy for me, so I’m not sure when I’ll get to it. I’d like to try the nautilus shell motif that Teri shows in her tutorial — my first attempts at drawing it were abyssmal 😉

In addition to the usual monthly challenges, there are some bonus challenges throughout the year. Back in August, a bonus tutorial from Susan Brubaker Knapp was released: http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/2012-free-motion-quilting-challenge_27.html

I only got around to doing anything about it this weekend.

The challenge was to take a photo of something and convert it into a quilted piece. I decided to use a photo of a water lily I took in Bali a couple of weeks ago.

Here’s the original photo:

I converted the photo into a black and white image, then printed it out. I then stitched the outlines of the petals and leaves using an unthreaded machine onto a small quilt sandwich. I used an existing sandwich, which was a bad move, as it’s main colour was pink!

I used LOTS of different coloured threads, but I still wasn’t very happy with the final piece. Despite the thousands of stitches I did, there’s no way that pink background was covered, so the green leaves–in particular–look very insipid. I also didn’t check the placement of the centre of the flower before doing the stamens etc. so they’re out of whack too 😉

Here’s how my piece looked after about an hour of thread painting:

If I did this again, I’d use a black base, and applique on the big green leaves and the pink flower shape before I started stitching. I also WOULD NOT do the surface stitching/thread painting on to the quilt sandwich as it puckers up really badly with so much thread — I’d put it onto some tearaway/interfacing/stabiliser and do all my stitching on that before making the sandwich.

There’s a long way to go with my thread painting! Shadows and colour depth are two areas I really need to spend some more time on.

This month’s challenge tutorial was from Paula Reid. Like Don Linn’s piece earlier in the year, this one used a design that we had to mark on to the fabric. Paula suggested several options for transferring the design and I ended up using a sample piece of Transdoodle from MistyFuse (received in my pack of MistyFuse several months ago).

I was pretty impressed with Transdoodle — you just lay it between the pattern and the fabric, chalky side down, then using a ball point pen or similar and a hard surface to write on, you go over the pattern and the chalk transfers to the fabric nice and neatly. There’s a bit of chalky residue transferred from where you press down with your hand etc. too, but it brushes off very easily. You can use the sheet over and over again.

Here’s my design transferred onto the fabric, ready for stitching –I didn’t transfer all the lines for the feathers, thinking I could do them without the marks.

Here’s the first lot of stitching — I used a white thread so that it would stand out against the deep red/maroon of the fabric. I was wrong about not marking the centre feathers. I could do the outside ones easily enough (though I’m much happier making commas a la Diane Gaudynski’s method), but I got a bit caught up on the inner feathers. I may have better off just doing them without the markings. I added some tiny pebbles in the centre and at the edges (the whole design fits an 8″ block).

Here’s the back:

I thought it needed a lift, so I added some variegated green ‘veins’ to the feathers and the teardrop motifs. Then went around the outer bumps and edges in the same green, about 1/8″ from the original stitching.

I’m glad I tried this technique, and especially glad I tried the Transdoodle paper as I think it has a lot of potential for anyone marking quilt designs.

However, having now done a couple of marked designs, I realise that they are not for me — I much prefer to create my own designs and patterns freehand on the machine. That said, I’m glad I’ve tried various marking methods as I’m sure I’ll use some marked designs at some point. So thanks Paula for stretching my bounds.

Threads used:

• White: Madeira Rayon, 40 wt, Colour 1001
• Green: Superior King Tut Egyptian cotton, 40 wt, Colour 988 (Oasis)
• Bobbin (navy): Wonderfil Invisifil, 80 wt, Colour IF 608