Month: April 2021

Making a Few Quilted Studio Guides

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Uncategorized / 2 Comments

Hi everyone!  As those of you who have followed me for a while will know I really think trying things out before using them on my primary project is essential for good outcomes.  I realize this takes a lot of time for busy fabric artists.  Sew one way I’m planning to cut down on the time for this and still have the advantage such testing offers in making decisions is to make something I’m calling “Studio Guides” for techniques and products I use fairly regularly.  Making the guides will take a little time, but once done I can eliminate some pretesting and use the studio guides to reference as I go.  They can also provide something to look at to keep on track in things like balancing quilting across the quilt.  I actually got the idea from watching a YouTube video by Linda Taylor.  Here’s the link to that video:  402 Linda Taylor and Sue McCarty

Sew it doesn’t matter how experienced you are, you still may find these helpful for future reference.  These are the ones I am thinking of doing:

  • Stippling Size Guide
  • Most Used Basic Fills Beyond Stipples
  • Paints and Crayon Types On Quilted Cotton
  • Paints and Crayon Types on Quilted Silk
  • Thread Weight Comparison Guide Using Decorative Stitching
  • Stitched Raw Edge Applique Stitches Library

I will probably video the making of at least some these in various quick tip videos and may not make them all.  This can be fun to do!  I will start with the Stippling Size Guide. Note that you will still have to make a small test of how your specific thread, tension, batting and fabrics work together before quilting your major project, but it will only take a minute or two and could be done in the edge of your project that will be cut off when binding, for instance.

Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studio!

 

 

A Show-and-Tell of My Experimental Quilting

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Ancient manuscripts, Applique, Art Quilt Techniques, Deep space quilts, Design as you go, Design Work, Embellishment, Embroidery, Exhibits, skill building, Techniques, Videos

knight detail from “Equipped to Stand”

My family helped me produce a new video I could never have done on my own for my YouTube channel that is a discussion and trunk show of my experimental quilting.  I think you might enjoy seeing it.  Here’s the link:  video

For years I have thought of much of my work as experimental fabric art, where I try to get certain looks in my quilts and sometimes had to develop a new technique or figure out how to apply a known technique to produce the look I wanted or just to see what something would look like.  It has been a bit of a wild ride over the years and so it seemed the thing to produce a show and tell for you all.

Thanks to my family for their help and encouragement both for the videos and the quilting. There are some fun things on the way.

Sew happy everyone!

 

Textured Appliques

Posted on by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in A Little How-To, Applique, Art Quilt Techniques, Design as you go, Techniques, Wool / 2 Comments

                                                    Detail from The Wizards’ Duel

Textured appliques can be derived from using a combination of techniques.  Such appliques can add major interest, even take center stage, on an art quilt and I find them really fun to do and a little challenging to figure out what needs to be done.  The detail shown in the picture above started off as  white basic quilting cotton that I washed and steam pressed.  Then I traced the applique outlines on the fabric using my light table, painted with artists water soluble crayons, backed the applique itself with wool batting, quilted (I think of this as “prequilting”),  backed with fusible  web, cut out closely to the applique, fused it down.  Then I and edge stitched it to the top.  After the quilt top was completely ready, I sandwiched the quilt with a double bat of wool on top and 80/20 cotton/poly on the bottom and did some more stitching to improve the look of the appliques.  I was particularly trying to help show muscles and shapes on the dragon and so I added more paint highlights, this time with iridescent Shiva sticks.

Here’s a little closer picture of the dragon so you can see it better.

That’s just an example, but I have used a lot of other techniques to get textured appliques for my work.  I’ll probably do a video on this…maybe within my upcoming tree series.  They need a lot of texture.

Sew happy everyone!  Have fun in your studio.