Inch by Inch: Updated Tools and Canterbury Knight

Posted on January 18, 2015January 23, 2015 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Embroidery, Fabrics, Food for Thought, High-Tech Studio, My Studio, Quilt Journal, Tools

Inch by inch I am getting closer to my goals for “Betty Jo’s Fabric Arts”, which is my new name for my coming micro-business. Up until now, it has been a hobby, but I need to make enough money to keep on, and I want to be able to share things I have learned and my journey with my friends. It will just be a micro business. I am not going to take in quilting, for instance. I may do more workshops and lectures, but I’m not going to get into the big circuit that requires a lot of travel. I want to work here in my studio for the most part with an occasional visit elsewhere. I plan on selling the how-to books I’m currently writing, a few quilts, some downloadable videos, in-the-hoop embroidery (software), and some print-on-your-own fabric digitally painted appliques…just enough to keep on buying supplies and equipment with maybe a little on the side for fun.

I updated my Bernina embroidery software to v7 this week. It’s pretty fancy, and it does seem to have a lot of new tools. It also has a completely different interface and it will take a while to find all the old tools and figure out how to use the new ones, but I think it is going to be a big improvement overall. I’m going to take advantage of my dealer’s class on the software on the 31st.

Digitizing has become an important part of my quilting artwork. Nearly every quilt now has at least one thing on it that I drew myself and then digitized myself and embroidered in my Bernina Embroidery module. I have also been developing a flower quilt using my daughter in law’s wonderful photographs for in-the-hoop applique. I felt I needed to update from v6. V6 is a powerful program, but there are some things I believe v7 has that will help me a lot.

For a long time I have recorded my quilting progress with a little Nikon Coolpix pocket camera that I bought about ten years ago. Most of the photos I share here were taken with that. Last week, the motor that drives the lens died. I bought a Nikon Coolpix s9700 to replace it. It’s very like the old dead camera except that it’s a little bigger (but still fits in a pocket), the zoom is much more extensive in both directions, the macro can be much closer so I can really show stitches, the controls are much more extensive, so I can use manual aperture and other manual or auto settings. It has several scene settings, like my old one did, so I can get a quick picture, but they are more extensive. And it has the cutest little pop up flash. My old camera could do a little video, but this one can do a really nice video…up to 29 minutes long. I tried it out successfully, setting it up on a tripod and demonstrating how to cut out a fabric square just for practice. I will be doing a lot more practice over the next few weeks. Once I get handy at this, and figure out how, I will share some videos with you, and eventually, will make some downloadable videos for sale from my website.

Between all the nice technology, machines, cameras, and computer software I have assembled over the past three years since I retired, and the additional video and audio equipment my son Ken gave me, I should be able to realize my plan of writing books and making videos to share my techniques and some patterns, embroidery software, and downloadable printable fabric designs from my website by the middle of the year. Inch by inch I’m getting there.

Canterbury Knight Rides Forward: I have just completed getting the big central block properly set into the seamless border. Let me tell you, this was a HUGE struggle. The fabric of the central block is 100% silk charmeuse…hand dyed…and the appliques are silk/cotton Radiance. It is slippery, drapey, soft, and decidedly hard to control. The challenge was to get the central block into the seamless black piece of black radiance in a perfect rectangle and perfectly aligned with the straight of grain of the black radiance. It has taken me a full week, but I just accomplished this. It probably would not have been so long if I had done two things…not gotten it in upside down in the first place, 🙂 and used more stabilizer from the beginning. I ended up stabilizing BOTH the border AND the block. I used Madeira Cotton Soft tearaway, which I love. Contrary to its name, it is stiff. It tears away easily, but stays together until you are ready for it to come away. I have also found that the little bits that get left in soften when washed. Perhaps that’s why they call it “Soft”.

I also used my fairly new laser square, designed for builders and carpenters, to make the rectangle as perfect as soft drapy, slippery silk can be. I marked my central block cutting line with it with a thin chalk line and then cut it out with my rotary cutter. I then marked the stabilizer along both the cutting and the seam lines for the border. Here’s a picture of that (ignore the stuff in the background.). See the red laser line and the level on the laser? When it is level, it makes a perfect 90 degree angle and marks it for as far out as the table goes.

Using my laser square

Sew happy everyone! Learn how to do a new technique or practice one you know! Inch by inch we can learn the techniques and gather the tools to realize our dreams. It does not have to be done all at once.

Canterbury Knight: How to Make a Horse’s Tail

Posted on January 13, 2015January 13, 2015 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in A Little How-To, Applique, Art Quilt Techniques, Embroidery, Quilt Journal, Techniques, Threads, Tools / 4 Comments

Stitching the appliques

After stitching down the appliques, I did some free motion embroidery to make the tail, but it looked like a ghost tail, both because it did not have enough contrast from the background fabric and because it did not have enough stitching. If I did any more it would have pulled the fabric too much.

The ghost tail

So I decided to layer a new tail over the existing one by stitching one on black bridal veiling. I layered two layers of washaway clear stabilizer, on which I had drawn the outline of the tail I needed to make, and covered it with the veiling. Then I put this in my springform embroidery hoop, set up my machine for free motion stitching,

the setup

and stitched a new tail using two different Superior Rainbow threads.

two rainbows

And then I trimmed the veiling applique, soaked off the stabilizer and appliqued the new tail over the old one, using a few more free motion lines similar to those on the tail. I had to remove only a few stitches from the original ghost tail that did not add to the shape and were outside the appliqued veil tail. Voila! A new tail any appliqued horse could be proud of! 😀

Horse with newly groomed tail

In the process, my little faithful Nikon Coolpix 600 pocket camera that I have used for at least a decade now died. The motor that runs the lens focus appears to be the culprit. It would cost me almost as much to repair it as to replace it, if it even could be repaired. I have carried that little light pocket camera almost everywhere I went since I retired. I use it to keep records of my work, and to make the photographs for this blog. The picture above of the rainbow threads is the last picture it ever took. (Insert “Farewell to my little camera” aria here–those of you who are opera buffs will understand this reference). So I have to use my lovely big Nikon D200 camera that is kind fo heavy, and definitely not a pocket camera, until I replace it. Thank the Lord I have a camera though.

Additionally, I have joined the fun with Ricky Tim’s 52 week photography class. It is decidedly going to be a challenge for me, and my goal is to come out at the end with some fun photographs, but mostly to really learn to use my camera for artistic purposes.

Sew happy everyone! Teach someone to sew or quilt or take a picture. God bless you all!

Canterbury Knight: Fixing mistakes and a marker test

Posted on January 7, 2015April 2, 2015 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in A Little How-To, Applique, Art Quilt Techniques, Quilt Journal, Techniques, Tools

At the end of the day yesterday I was feeling fairly depressed because I thought I had ruined my center block and would have to start all over. But I decided to try today to fix it. What happened is that I had added the mote stream behind the knight, and had failed to mostly cut out the fabric under the horse. I forget how sensitive silk is to things, sometimes. It is thinner and drapier, and so it showed the edges of the stream right through the horse. I had steamed it down, so I didn’t think it would come up.

But I was wrong. Today I found my little Clover ball point awl and a tiny bit of heating the applique with my iron enabled me to slip the awl under the edge without damaging the applique and remove it from the background, as well as separate the horse from the stream. I recut it, reironed it down and it looks great. The picture below shows all the wrinkles and things of the background, but trust me, it is in good shape and all those will disappear with careful ironing and as I work it through. So I am ready now to start the edge stitching, threadwork, and details that go on before adding the border, the word block, the birds and then sandwiching it, which aren’t many. Most of the details are quilted on. The horse gets most of his tail and his main. but beyond that, it is mostly edge stitching. I am so grateful I managed to fix this! On to the next challenge!

Ready for the edge stitching.

Sew I assembled a bunch of markers to see what I can do about marking the border, which has to be carefully marked, quilted, and then painted. The border is black cotton/silk Radiance and I am not going to wash this quilt. I will probably spritz and steam it a little for the blocking, but not enough to remove my favorite marker…the Crayola Washables. I love those markers, because you can see them, iron over them, and they wash out completely. But you have to wash the quilt to use them.

Anyway, I tested everything from Frixion, Clover White Marking Pen, Fons and Porter mechanical pencil markers, Quilter’s Choice chalk silver and white pencils to White Mark Be Gone. The Mark Be Gone works on black cotton but not on black Radiance. You can’t see it. The Frixion is completely unseeable. The only ones that you could see are the Quilter’s Choice chalk pencils and the Fons and Porter mechanical markers. They both rub off fairly quickly. The Fons and Porter is what I used for Canterbury Silk, and it was very hard to keep on. I kept having to remark frequently.

The winner, is Quilter’s Choice, both silver and white. But even they rub off, just not as fast. The Frixion works great on the other colors*. And I only need those marks a little for placement of things, so I can do them in such a way that even if the quilt gets frozen in transit and they come back, it won’t be visible. I do have to mark the light grey castle (yes, it’s grey, not white) for quilting. I will use the silver chalk pencil for those.

Sew happy everyone! Don’t get discouraged if you make a mistake. It can often be fixed, and if not, you CAN remake something, though often there is another solution.

UPDATE: I also have tested Pismacolor colored pencils, upon the suggestion of Hollis Chatelain. These are very visible and remove easily with a fabric eraser. I found they rub off, but not as easily as most markers.

* If you use Frixion, be sure you place it in such a way that even if it comes back that won’t be a problem. In my case I am only using it for placements of objects on the central block and it will not show even if it does not go away. I have been told that quilts that sometimes get in very freezing weather when shipped have been known to arrive with the marks all showing because Frixion returns if frozen.