Vintage Challenge

Sue's monthly art bee issued a challenge last fall to use some vintage items in a 24" square wall quilt. One member, Barbara, had some vintage hexagon blocks that she offered to be used.  Sue shared embroidery transfers that she found in her mother's things that were likely from the late 1930s/early 1940s.  The challenge was to use these items in the quilt.

This is the hexagon block that Sue chose.  There were a variety of fabrics and each member chose the one that appealed to them. 

Here is an example of one of the embroidery transfers.  There is a stack of these folded up sheets that contained images for, as in this case, luncheon cloths; also napkins, dish towels, quilts, children's clothes, basically any household textile.  Sue chose to use the flower motif in the corner in her piece. The hexagon flower was the starting point, and after looking at the colors, she remembered an unfinished embroidered dresser scarf in her mother's things.  

This design was embroidered at both ends of the unfinished piece.  The colors seemed to blend perfectly with those of the hexagon, so Sue decided to cut off one end to use in a whole cloth quilt. 

The concept as you can see was to use the hexagon as a flower.  The stem was cut and fused to the fabric and then the hexagon was fused on as well.  Both were hand stitched with a blanket stitch around the edges.  The other element to be added was the transfer image, which Sue placed in the two top corners and hand embroidered.

Next, a border was needed. Again, a vintage textile was put to use.  Among the things Sue kept from her mother's belongings was a tablecloth; even though stained and with a few holes, it held memories of baking cookies, as it was used for cooling cookies after they came out of the oven.  The blue was a perfect match for the blue embroidered ribbon in the center.  The border here was cut from the border of the tablecloth.

The center portion was quilted with an all-over meander. The border quilting followed the pattern divisions of the flowers. In this photo you can see a close-up of the corner embroidery.

Above is the finished piece, which serves not only to meet the challenge, but also as a memory quilt honoring Sue's mother.  

Several other bee members met the challenge and gave permission to have their pieces included in this post. Holly Cole very cleverly used her hexagon block as a background by creating a digital image that was used to create a repeat pattern that she had printed on yardage.  On the right in this photo you can see the original block she chose.

Her central image of the 2 women and a dog is from a vintage photo, and is heavily embroidered.  The transfer image she chose is used as a frame for the portrait; in the close up below you can get a better look.

Anne Smyers used her hexagon amongst a cascade of floral motifs on her quilt.  The outside and center edges are satin stitched.  The grapevine embroidery (done by hand) is the transfer image she chose to use.

Below is a close up of the embroidery.

All elements are very effective against the pieced neutral background.  You can see more of Anne's work at annesmyers.com.

Terry Peckarsky had fun with her hexagon block, using it as the central motif of a 9-patch style quilt. For the remaining blocks, she made hexagon shaped crazy-patch blocks that complement her center block.  Vintage colors add to the theme.

The transfer pattern was used as the quilting design on the eight blocks surrounding the center.  You can see more of Terry's work on her Instagram page @tpeckarsky. 

Didn't everyone do a great job?  It's so interesting to see how each interpreted the challenge. These pieces would be lovely exhibited together.  Perhaps you'll see them in next year's QU show!

Memory Quilt(let)

Sue completed a memory quilt project this week - this is her story.

I haven't been doing many commissions, but this was a request by a former co-worker for a belated wedding gift for another former co-worker, so how could I refuse?  I agreed to make something using the wedding invitation, but really didn't have a plan until I had the invitation in hand.  My initial thoughts were to create a transfer, but in the end it was easiest to just use the actual invitation in a mixed media piece. 

I started with the background fabric and taped off the dimensions of the front, since it was to be mounted on an 11 x 14 art canvas. 

After playing with layout ideas, I determined a sequence for putting it together. The next photo is a general idea of what I was aiming for, using some vintage lace and a doily and other embellishements. 

It became apparent that I would need to quilt the background first, if it was going to be quilted at all.  So I cut a piece of fusible fleece to fit the 11 x 14 dimension and fused it to the wrong side.  Then I quilted it with an all-over loopy design.

Next was figuring out placement of the design elements.  The doily was first; it was fused together where the folded layers overlapped, and then fused into place on the background.   The invitation would overlap the doily at the bottom.  Fusible was applied to the back of the invitation, and then the lace trim was fused just under the edge on 3 sides.

After it was fused in place, the next step was placement of the vines and flowers. Rather than stitching down the vines, the flowers were used to anchor them in place.

The last element to be added was the felted heart, which is also fused in place.

The final step was mounting it on the canvas.  After carefully positioning, the extra fabric was wrapped to the back and stapled in place.  A piece of felt was used to cover the back, also stapled in place. 

The finished piece.  Hope the recipient likes it!

QC5 Day 4

July 3, 2014
Today started off similarly to the last two; a trip to the library to print some order receipts, followed by the post office for mailing orders.  The post office happens to be right next to Geez Louise, so of course we had to stop in and look around!  I found a set of 8 linen napkins that will be good for dyeing, and the real treasure, an old ledger dating to 1899!  Just look at the penmanship!

Yesterday I shared my sun printed fabric; today I added another layer with screen printing.  On the left is a sample Elizabeth printed on commercial fabric. On the right is my piece where I used the fern and pine cone screens that we made yesterday.  This is what it looks like now, although I don't think it is finished.  I think more layers are in order.

I also shared a picture of the t-shirt I started.  Well, I'm back to square 1 with that project.  It needed to be soaked in a soda ash solution before dyeing, so I did that this afternoon - forgetting that the warm water would wash out the color magnet!  So its been drying the rest of the day and I will have to redo the color magnet tomorrow.  (Soda ashed items cannot go in the dryer - they can catch on fire!)

Meanwhile, I put another piece of fabric in the dye I had prepared and couldn't use for the t-shirt.  I did some gelli plate printing and more screen printing, and prepared a silk screen for breakdown printing - that has to dry completely so at least 24 hours, maybe longer because of humidity.  So far I am really happy with the new screens we created yesterday.  More pictures of those prints tomorrow.

Ended the day with a late afternoon swim in the lake - it was like bath water, but still refreshing.  After dark the rain storms moved in - lots of thunder and lightening to go with the fire crackers being shot off all around the lake.  I'm sure there will be lots more of that tomorrow.