I spent the past couple of days designing new projects for this summer.  I haven’t finished them yet, but I have a clear concept and so it is time to start  hunting down all the supplies I need for them. I will make patterns with step-by-step instructions to be available in my website shop and, of course, videos so you can watch me make them.

Those of you who have followed my blogs for a while know I like to have at least two projects going at once to give me some variety of activities for mental and even physical changes across the days.  That helps me keep from getting too bogged down in things.  So I have three small projects I decided on, all of which are largely thread work and some have a little yarn couching and painting too.

One is a pleasant small scene of evergreen trees of various sizes showing some perspectives in distance and size of the trees, reminding me of a walk or drive through a pine forest.  Beth, my daughter-in-law likes to do pencil drawings that tend to capture her own hikes and camping experiences, and of birds, and flowers.   She did one that really shows a delightful perspective to it in evergreen trees with a path winding through.  In my mind, I can almost smell the sweet pine forest scent. It doesn’t quite work for what I have in mind but it certainly inspires me, and so I have been trying to capture a pattern of an evergreen forest that incorporates all the perspective, sizes, colors, and techniques I want to share. I am not quite there yet.  I have a couple of really lovely linen weaves (they are quilt weight cottons) that I will choose from for the background fabric.  This will include both free motion thread work and couching.  I am even considering making the forest floor using needle punch roving with my little Bernina 350 for which I have that attachment.  It’s so much fun and I haven’t used it nearly enough lately.  I bought it for travel but it has ended up being my workhorse for  several unusual attachments and precision piecing as well.

The second one is a somewhat complex piece featuring a couple of stylized birds from a  Dover coloring book of Paradise Island birds.  That will be all thread work with a little paint.  I was originally thinking that would be entirely a whole cloth quilt, but after working on the design, I decided it would benefit from a simple pieced setting that puts that scene in the focus area and has a simply pieced addition of fabric that can have some light in-the-hoop embroidery embellishment or be made from some lovely printed fabrics of the maker’s choice to set the whole thing off. I completed the design work for this little quilt and most of the pattern today, though I still have to write the workbook and a video script.  It is about 30″ x 40″ and I will be using a lot of beautiful specialty threads on it.  This should be fun, and doable for the advanced beginner or above…so stay tuned.

The third piece is a second Birds of Paradise stylized scene from the same book using thread work.  I will be making that into a pillow.  I found a really nice set of two pillow forms on Amazon recently, so decided to make them in different types of fabric art so I can use them in my home.  That may end up with a little paint too, but I will wait and see.

All three are small and light, and should be something really fun to work on when the weather gets too hot to go out or we are having a rainy day (I love rainy days…no thunder storms, just rain).  Just right for summer projects, don’t you think?

I do have some fun things in mind for fall and winter too, including a more complex pictorial appliqued wool wall hanging using the techniques I presented in my first three videos, and a scene for Halloween, among other things, but I’ll talk more about those later.

So just in case you want to know what I will be using and maybe make one or all three of these along with me, I decided to include a small list of some of the specialty threads and other supplies I like to use, since getting things shipped these days can take some time.  These links are affiliated links, so if you buy them from the links I provide it could help support my little micro business at no additional cost to you.  It is not exactly a list of what I plan on using, but I think it is a nice list of items that could be fun to add to your studio even if you don’t do my projects.  Of course you won’t be buying everything here, but I thought you might enjoy some of them if you don’t have them already.

Pillow forms (2 – 18 x 18)

Pellon SF101 Shape-Flex Cotton 20” x 10 yards

Sulky Temp Spray Adhesive

Setacolor fabric paint

Artists crayons

Light board with cutting mat

Hobbs Tuscany wool batting throw size

Quilter’s Dream 80/20 select loft batting throw

Crayola washable gel pens

Madeira Cotton Stable fusible

OESD Ultra Clean and Tear

A Sampling of Wonderfil Threads

Spageti Packs (12 wt cotton)

Splendor Pack (40 wt rayon)

Invisafil Pack (100 wt polyester)

Accent (12 weight rayon) Evergreen

Glamore (12 wt rayon with one strand metallic

Sew happy everyone!  Come fly with me through these fun summer projects, whether you just watch the progress or make them along with me.  But above all, have fun in your studio!

 

I am not sure I have adequately expressed what I am trying to do with my YouTube videos and accompanying downloadable workbooks.  I am hoping to pass along the skills and techniques I have learned and use in the making of my wall art quilts and possibly other sewing in an affordable way.  I am thinking about the advanced beginner, intermediate, and even advanced quilter or fabric artist when I am making these.  There are many many many such videos out there for the basic beginning quilter, but not so much for those who are ready for a little more.

I guess you know already that such videos and workbooks are not free to make.  There is a fair amount of technology and equipment involved–sewing machines, cameras, lighting equipment, tripods, computers, software, website maintenance fees, and then there are the fabrics, threads, paints, and other supplies required to test, practice and make the various pieces.  This does not include the hours at all.

For you, the YouTube videos are free.  The accompanying workbooks and patterns are either free downloadables, as in the first set on Wool Applique by Machine, or are or will be downloadable from my website shop normally for something under $10.  The one for my first tree project is just $5.  If you both buy the workbooks and view the videos, you have a full class.

My blogs and videos will frequently have links to products I recommend and use myself that work with a particular project I present.  Not all, but some of those products are affiliated links, where I get a small percentage of the sale if someone purchases them using that link (not if they just look at them and go buy them somewhere else…I have gotten lots of clicks but no purchases from these links so far).  The cost for the products is not increased in any way from my affiliations.  It is from the affiliations and the workbooks that I hope to make a little money to fund the continuation of the YouTube videos and give me a little play money.  Eventually, if I get as many as 1000 subscribers and 4000 viewing hours within a 12 month period, I might be able to receive a little from YouTube, but it would not cost the viewer anything.  Of course, there are ads on the videos, which is something I have no control over, but that is how YouTube funds itself.  I have had people tell me they won’t watch my YouTube videos because there are ads. I also have found out that some people think that subscribing to a YouTube requires signing up and paying money or filling in a form.  Truly, they should have called it “Follow” because all it requires is clicking the red Subscribe button.  I have had others say I should provide kits, but I have no storage space, time, and money required to do kits.  It takes hours and hours.  I did kits for my classes I taught locally in the past, so I know.  But I do have good instructions with lists of what you need in my workbooks.

I’m not begging here, but want to let you know that if a maker decides they want to contribute to this process to keep these things going in some other way than subscribing to my channel, watching my videos, buying the workbooks or linked products, there is a Donate button on the lower right side of my blogs.

I decided to give this all a good try until the end of this year.  I have a clear concept of how I am approaching the teaching films for at least the next year.  There are sets of things, like continuing working with wool fabric art by machine, learning how to make Landscape Elements (trees, rocks, mountains, water, and top it off with a larger piece using them all); Experimental Fabric Art (you can watch my video on that to get an idea of this); Heirloom Quilted Fabric Art (this is something I will explain at a later blog, but you can get the idea by seeing Out of Mom’s Workbasket quilt), and other sets. Periodically, I will show the making of a show quilt, but it will not be a class format.  So if you follow my videos, blogs, and download the workbooks over the course of several months, it is my hope you will learn or perfect a fairly sophisticated set of quilted artistic sewing and quilting skills and techniques and can go and have a lot of fun in your studio making your own.  I am trying to figure out how to open a way for you to share what you make some other way than Facebook, but haven’t gotten there yet.

Sew happy everyone!  Tell me in the comments what you think of this plan, provide me with some ideas for what you really really wish someone to teach online if you want, and come fly with me through the wonderful world of quilted fabric art.  But above all, have fun in your studio!