Rhonda Bracey: At Random

‘The Elements’ art quilt

With this art quilt, I documented and photographed many of the steps I took to make it, and the time taken.

Total time: 15.5 hours, plus 2 hours to write this blog post

Total free motion quilting stitches: 34,069 (NOT including stitches done on sewing machine)

Step 1: Transfer the pattern to tearaway and freezer paper

1. Tape the pattern piece to the glass door.
   
2. Tape a large piece of tearaway over the pattern piece.
3. Mark the main background sections and borders on to the tearaway and number each piece. Make sure you use an indicator to show which parts of each piece go under other pieces — I use arrows to indicate the bits that will be covered by other pieces, and ‘Top’ to indicate the top of the piece; some people use dashed lines for areas that will be covered by other fabric — use what works best for you.
   
4. Tape freezer paper (shiny side down) over the combined pattern piece and tearaway and mark and number the main background sections on the freezer paper. Again, use indicators for the edges that will go under another piece of fabric.
5. Tape another large piece of tearaway over all the other pieces and mark and number the main background sections on to it.
   
6. Remove all taped pieces of tearaway and freezer paper, leaving just the pattern piece taped to the glass door.
7. Tape a smaller piece of freezer paper over the water section (the bit with the ‘waves’) and trace separate pieces for each wave, numbering them as you go. Don’t overlap any of the pieces, even if they are overlapped in the pattern. Again, use indicators for the edges that will go under another piece of fabric.
8. Remove the pattern piece from the glass door and flip it over. (I forgot to do this! So my tree, water reflection, and rock pieces ended up being the reverse t0 the original pattern — this wasn’t a problem as it wasn’t critical, but it did mean my piece looks a little different to the original design and I had to improvise a little to get the pieces to fit in the available spaces).
9. Tape fusible web over the pattern piece and trace out the smaller elements (the trees, the seaweed, the rocks). Mark each tree and rock with a number. Don’t overlap any of the pieces, even if they are overlapped in the pattern.
10. Remove the fusible web and the pattern from the door, and put the pattern away.

You should now have:

• two large tearaway sheets, both marked with an outline of the background shapes and borders
• a large sheet of freezer paper, also marked with an outline of the background shapes and borders
• a smaller piece of freezer paper, marked with the shapes of the waves
• one or more pieces of fusible web, marked with the trees, rocks, water reflection pieces, and seaweed. These are your applique pieces.

Time taken for these steps: 0.5 hours.

Step 2: Cut out the pattern pieces

1. Tearaway: Take ONE piece of the tearaway marked with the background shapes and cut out each shape; you can cut on the lines. Leave the other piece whole.
2. Large freezer paper: Cut out the background shapes from the large piece of freezer paper; cut on the lines.
3. Small freezer paper: Cut out the wave shapes from the smaller piece of freezer paper; cut on the lines.
4. Fusible web: With the shapes on the fusible web, cut them larger than the elements marked by at least half an inch (~3 cm).  Where possible, leave those to be cut from the same fabric together — it’s much much easier to fuse large pieces with one or more shapes to the fabric and then cut them out, than to cut them out then fuse them.

Time taken for these steps: 0.75 hours.

Step 3: Choose the fabrics and prepare them

Now comes the fun part — choosing which fabrics you’ll use for all the pieces!

1. Audition fabrics for each background section and the applique pieces — they need to complement each other in colour, and be a combination of light, medium, and dark fabrics. While you’re auditioning the main fabric pieces, consider the fabrics you’ll use for the small and large borders, and for the backing and binding.You don’t have to choose these right away, but it helps.
   
2. Press all the fabrics you’ve chosen.
3. Take one of the background fabric pieces of fabric and iron the matching freezer paper piece shiny side down to the FRONT side of the fabric.
4. Cut around the fabric piece, leaving about half an inch of extra fabric all the way around. DO NOT cut to the lines of the freezer paper.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for all the other background pieces of fabric and for the fabric you’ve chosen for the waves.
6. Take the fabric(s) you’ll use for the trees and turn it over. Press the fusible web for the tree pieces to the WRONG side of the fabric. Set it aside to cool.
7. Repeat step 6 for the fabric(s) for the rocks and the seaweed, making sure you press the fusible web to the WRONG side of the fabric. Set it aside to cool.
   

Time taken for this step: 1 hour

Step 4: Create the background pieces and applique them

1. Take each background piece (except the very top one) and each of the wave pieces. Turn under and press the top edge of each piece so that it’s aligned with the top edge of the cut freezer paper. You may need to clip into the curved bits if they won’t turn smoothly. Leave the freezer paper in place.
2. Place each background piece on its matching piece of tearaway (the cut tearaway pieces, NOT the big piece of tearaway), lining up the top edge of the fabric with the top edge of the tearaway.
3. Lift the top edge of the freezer paper a little and stitch down the turned edge on to the tearaway, stitching about 1/8″ in from the turned edge. Stitch the sides too, about 1/4″ out from the freezer paper, to stabilise the fabric. Remove the freezer paper and discard it.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all background pieces and the wave piece. With the wave piece, start from the top piece, then overlap the second piece and stitch it down, then the third and so on until you’ve stitched all wave pieces onto the single piece of background tearaway for the waves.
   
5. Cut out all the applique pieces on the various bits of fusible web. Cut on the marked lines; you’ll need sharp scissors to get into the little nooks and crannies. You’ll end up with several flimsy trees and water reflection pieces, a large piece of seaweed attached to the sea floor, and several rock pieces.
6. Lay out one of the background pieces that is to have applique pieces fused to it. Place the applique pieces on the background piece in a way that pleases the eye, remove the backing paper, then fuse them into place with a hot iron. Put the fabric aside to cool.
7. Repeat step 3 for the other background pieces that are to have fused applique pieces.
8. When the fabrics have cooled, stitch down the applique pieces using a stitch of your choice. I used a plain running stitch just inside the edge of the fabric (about 1/8″ or less from the edge of the fused applique pieces), in the same colour as the applique piece.
   
9. Remove the tearaway from the back of each piece, as far as you can. Don’t underestimate the time for this step — it’s a great job to do in front of TV!
10. Press each background piece.
    

Time taken for this step: 6 hours

Step 5: Put it all together and add surface stitching

1. Take the whole piece of marked tearaway, and pin the top and side edges of the background pieces on it, matching up the top edges of each background piece with the marked edges on the tearaway as far as possible. Work from the top down. Remember, you won’t be able to see the top edges further down as they will be covered by the excess fabric, so take your best guess for placement.
2. Stitch the top edges in place; stitch the sides for stability too, if you want. You should now have a single piece.
   
3. Add surface stitching to the piece, as required. I used my HandiQuilter Sweet Sixteen machine and free motion stitched some 15,813 stitches to the piece during this step! I added flames to the base of the trees and earth, bark to the trees, striations to the earth above the rocks, spirals to the rocks, water effects to the water reflections and waves, more seaweed to the sea floor, etc.
   
   
4. Press the whole piece, then square off and cut to size.

Time taken for this step: 1.5 hours

Step 6: Add borders

1. Rotary cut the narrow and wide border fabrics.
2. Pin the narrow framing border, then stitch (sides then top). Press away from the piece. Make sure the whole piece is still square.
3. Pin the wide borders, then stitch (sides then top). Press away from the piece.

Time taken for this step: 0.5 hours

Step 7: Add batting and backing and quilt

1. Lay out the backing fabric on a flat surface, right side DOWN. It should be a good one or more inches wider than the top. I tape down the backing fabric to make sure it stays taut.
2. If you’re using normal batting, place it over the top of the backing and tape it down too. In this art quilt, I used fusible batting (Pellon) and fused a piece larger than the quilt top to the back of the piece. I then lay that down over the backing fabric, with the top of the quilt facing up.
3. Baste the quilt sandwich together — I use quilt basting pins. Consider also basting the sandwich together using the basting stitch on your machine, or by hand.
   
4. Quilt the quilt. I started with my sewing machine, stitching in the ditch around the narrow border and along the top edges of each background piece. I then took the quilt to my Sweet Sixteen and free motion quilted the piece. I didn’t do too many to the main piece (I just outlined the applique pieces), but I quilted the wide border extensively. All up, I added a further 18,256 stitches to the quilt, for a total of 34,069 stitches done just on the Sweet Sixteen.

Total time taken for this step: 4 hours

Step 8: Add binding

I didn’t want the binding to detract from the quilt or to draw the eye, so I used the same gorgeous Aboriginal fabric as for the wide border. Then I added my label and gave it a final press and it was done!

Time taken for this step: 1.25 hours

Write up this blog post: 2 hours!

The finished art quilt: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2011/08/14/the-elements-art-quilt/

I’ve called this art quilt ‘The elements’ as there are panels incorporating air, fire, earth, and water.

The original Gloria Loughman pattern is called ‘Coastal Strata’, but I wanted the name of this art quilt to reflect the burnt trees and the orange sky after a bushfire, as well as the layers of earth and rocks, the water surface and under the water. So ‘The elements’ it is!

This is the finished art quilt; if you’re interested in how I created it, see this blog post: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/how-i-made-the-elements-art-quilt/. It’s 19.5 x 27 inches [50 x 69 cm].)

Update May 2014: I’ve had this quilt valued, and the certificate of valuation is below. However, valuations only take into account the materials and techniques used and the quality of both — they take no account of the time to learn the techniques nor the time taken to make the piece, which can be hundreds of hours.

Update July 2020: This quilt now lives in Seattle—a friend chose it as their housewarming gift from me.

‘The Elements’ art quilt

Quilting detail

Showing some of the back

Part of the back

Leah Day, in the US, has been creating 365 free motion quilting (FMQ) designs and sharing them freely with the world via her Free Motion Quilting website. Some time back I decided that I needed to improve my FMQ techniques, so I set myself the challenge of making samples of ALL her FMQ designs. I also sent her a donation as her videos have really helped me improve my FMQ and given me confidence to try techniques I’d never considered before.

I set up my laptop computer next to my sewing machine (now next to my quilting machine), then watch one of her videos, and stitch the design immediately after. I label each sample with the name she used so that I can view the video again if I need to, and then I file the finished samples into one of several large lever arch files. I haven’t finished yet, but already I have more than 250 samples in my ‘Leah Day library’ (she’s up to design #303 at the moment). It’s a handy reference for when I need to decide on a filler or feature design for a quilting space — basic stippling just doesn’t cut it with me any more!

Here are some samples from my Leah Day library:

See also:

• Sewing morning: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/sewing-morning/ (showing set up of sewing machine and laptop when I started this project — before I got the quilting machine)
• My very own Bee: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/my-very-own-bee/ (my quilting machine and the first large piece I did in one of Leah day’s patterns)
• Challenge 2011 quilt: https://sandgroper14.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/challenge-quilt-2011-the-finished-quilt/ (many of the designs in the different blocks were inspired by Leah’s designs)

At the Gloria Loughman retreat I attended in June, I went against the flow and decided to create a single tree for my art quilt. This blog post shows the original photo that was my inspiration and my progress up to the end of the retreat weekend.

Since then, I’ve finished it.

I added a lot more stitching, then a thin border (orange) and a wider dark border, followed by batting to puff out the main tree trunks, then the main batting and backing. Then I quilted it. Even more stitches… I estimate that there are over 100,000 free motion and quilting stitches in this quilt, but I didn’t keep track of the number (my quilting machine can be reset to zero but I forgot to do so!)

I quilted the border with some freehand eucalyptus leaves then used a dark thread to fill in the spaces between the leaves.

Once it was quilted, I added a hanging sleeve (ready for display on a wall), binding, and a label. I’ll put it up for sale on Etsy soon. It’s now available for sale on Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/77935502/estuarine-eucalypt-art-quilt.

Deciding on a price is an interesting exercise. I have to factor in part of the cost of the retreat (where I learned the fabric painting and other techniques), the cost of the fabric and threads (I guess I used 20+ different coloured threads in this piece), the cost of the electricity used to run my machines (and perhaps even a little towards the cost of the machines), and then there’s the time… I estimate that this art quilt took a total of 40 or more hours to make — if I charged by the hourly rate I earn at my day job, it would cost much more than I’ll charge for it.

In deciding a price, I checked out the Quilts category on Etsy, and then sorted the 36,000+ quilts found by price from the most expensive. I am amazed at the prices some people are charging for some of their work. In many cases, I can see the value as I know how much work goes into a piece. But for some of the $5000+ pieces, I have to wonder, especially when it is obvious that the quilt that’s for sale doesn’t even hang straight. Update May 2014: I’ve had this quilt valued, and the certificate of valuation is below. However the valuation only takes account the materials and techniques used and the quality of both — it takes no account of the time to learn the techniques nor the time taken to make the piece, which can be hundreds of hours.

Here are pictures of the finished quilt — click on a small picture to see it even larger, then click on it again to see it full size: