Textured Appliques

Posted on April 8, 2021 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.

It’s Spring…Finishing Up the Wool Project!

Posted on March 21, 2021 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Classes, Food for Thought

Here is the finished wool applique by machine prototype.

Hi everybody! Spring is pushing up the flowers and the trees are leafing out. The birds have donned their spring mating feathers and are laying eggs and having a spring party. I have just finished the embellished wool applique by machine final video in which I sandwiched, quilted, and bound the prototype piece. I also added some hot fix pearls to the centers of some of the flowers because I had some left from another project and I thought it needed a little more something.

Here’s the video link: Wool 3

Here is the downloadable pdf of free motion fills that you may want to use for practice either before you quilt your own wool applique piece or just for free motion practice. This is the only handout for this third video. So before you quilt your piece, print this out, build yourself a practice sandwich, put on that audio book, and have some fun practicing stitching.

FMQ Basic fills

You will notice that in my video I used the red Bernina Gripper rings to help me in my quilting but I forgot to mention them there. They really make a big difference in my control, and I don’t have to wear gloves. They are designed for sitdown longarms and sewing machines with a longer harp space. They have to be purchased directly from a Bernina dealer. I got mine on sale, but even so they are kind of expensive. You can also get a very similar product by Martelli that are slightly cheaper and you can buy the sizes seperately. They are worth the price, though. Lots of people saw the center front hole on the Martellis rings in a similar fashion to match the Bernina rings, but I don’t know if that is necessary. I have heard that Martelli makes the Bernina rings anyway, so they are almost the same except for the gap in the front and the color.

I would love for you to watch this video, and the others if you haven’t yet. If you made a wool sampler along with me, please send me a picture bettyjo@bjfabricartist.com and I can show them on my blog, if you don’t mind. Or at least tell me you made one in the comments.

You can use these same techniques I showed on some of those absolutely beautiful commercial patterns intended for hand sewing of wool applique I have seen out there. My hope is by the fall, I will have some patterns of my own available. I might even do another video or two on wool applique using my own patterns, but not next.

Keeping the Experimental Quilting Process Going

I am so excited about all of this. I am finally getting in the swing of working through the design and creative process of the projects in a similar fashion to my show quilting work, and just filming most of what I am doing so I can share it with you. It has required a fair amount of adjustment to my studio and my thinking, but I believe I will be able to produce some really fun and professional-looking fabric art even while I film the process and I hope you will enjoy it too.

I am planning to do a little show and tell VLOG and talk about my experimental fabric art quilting. I think you might enjoy it, and it will give you an idea of where I may be headed in the future.

Oh and don’t forget to get my son David’s latest book (if you have a Kindle reader, you can read it for free) and we would be most grateful if you review it when you are done.

Sew happy everyone! Have fun in your studios!

My Uncle and What’s Happening in My Studio

Posted on October 22, 2017November 13, 2017 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Art Quilt Techniques, Church banners, My Family, selling quilts / 2 Comments

I’ve taken too long to write a new post. This past month has had its lows and highs.

My uncle Betterton passed a week and a half ago. He was 91 and was two years younger than my mom. I had five aunts and six uncles on my mom’s side and one aunt on my Dad’s side and all are gone now, as well as my parents. Uncle Betterton was one of my favorite uncles. He was always close with my mom and someone everyone could rely on for help. He had various tough illnesses the last several years, mild dementia, and is now no longer suffering. He was a strong Christian. Like my father, he was a civil engineer, both served in WWII, and he and Dad enjoyed a strong friendship. My memories of him are sweet and dear and the pain of losing him is softened by his wonderful long giving life and his final release from the difficulties of his last few years.

Sew what’s going on in my studio these days? My “apprentice” Anita and I finished the church banner celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The church members apparently love it, and I was really pleased with how it looks. I have still not gotten a good photo of it, but I will share as soon as I do. The big community celebration is next Sunday. I guess this tells you that I attend a Lutheran church. I do. It’s five minutes drive from my house and the it’s a lovely church with services not far in liturgical style from the Episcopal church. I grew up an Episcopalian. For many years I drove down to Georgetown to go to the historic St John’s Episcopal in Georgetown where Marvin and I both were very active and sang in the choir. After Marvin passed, I moved to Ashburn, Virginia, and the drive to Georgetown got even longer, so I looked for somewhere closer. Our Savior’s Way Lutheran Church is in my neighborhood…now that’s a luxury I had not had for decades.

I have gotten a start on my next show quilt. I’m not sure I would call them “show quilts” any longer, except that’s a term many understand. I like to show them, but my primary goal for these quilts is to make wonderful art, and hopefully sell most of them in the long run. Everything I make I hope to meet show quilt level, but sometimes show judges don’t seem to understand why the techniques I choose are done the way they are, or how difficult they really are. Sometimes they seem to see things and remark on them that I simply cannot see, and sometimes I think they don’t see something about my quilts that I think is especially unique and interesting. Maybe I need new glasses, a flashlight, and a better magnifying glass. Or maybe I need a microscope. LOL So I have found a lot of freedom in reaching for creating beautiful art the best way I can make it and not worrying too much about what a judge might see or not see. Competition can be rough on one’s ego. He-he-he

Anyway, back to my latest project. It’s based on the art piece I bought the rights for one art quilt from the Disney artist Joel Christopher Payne. It’s set in the Bayou and has interesting trees, and two rather rundown homes with light peaking out through the cracks in the boards. One is a houseboat, and the other is a shack built on stilts on a platform. The scene is at night and there is a little pale light filtering through the trees in a way that suggests a heart shape, and there are fireflies. This is a huge challenge for me, but really, I am enjoying myself so far.

I have the houseboat “built” and the shack about half done. Yesterday I did a little low and high lighting with Neocolor II pigment crayons. When you use them with fabric, you can just color it on and then brush it with water to blend it onto the fabric and then heat set it for a permanent color. Sometimes when I heat set it, it gets lighter so I have to go back and add more color, but it’s a wonderful way to over color an existing fabric pattern to add shadows and lights where you need them or “correct” colors. In this case, I have three different wood print fabrics that I have backed with Steam-a-Seam II light and cut into board shapes. I am using these to “build” the shack and the houseboat.

The picture has really big trees that also have some Spanish moss hanging from them. I have five different tree bark prints that I will use to make the tree appliqués. They, too will need to be overpainted to get the right look and color, I am planning on thread painting the Spanish moss on, and probably it will be more than Joel put in his picture because this is a fabric and threads interpretation of his wonderful art piece.

I have obtained some glow in the dark paints and threads to make the fireflies with, and the paint has some additional pigment so it will look good in light too. I may add crystals to the fireflies for added dimension.

The biggest challenge as I see it is the light that is getting the back light that is coming through the trees and reflecting across the water right. I am thinking this will have to be done with paint, but I’m still thinking about it.

Sew I hope you all have a wonderful week. Try something new and push to get it as well done as possible. I have a lot going on in my studio besides this new quilt, so I hope I will get back to my weekly blogs for a while. Cheers!

Christmas, Advent, Blogs, and Magic

Posted on December 12, 2016December 29, 2016 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Art Quilt Techniques, Books, Design Work, Food for Thought, High-Tech Studio / 2 Comments

I am astonished to see that it has been nearly a month since I published my last blog post. In general, I try to publish once a week every weekend, but sometimes I get caught in that time vortex where each week is but a day and each day but an hour…you know the ones I mean. I am just bobbing my head up from the latest whirl as I prepare for Christmas and work to complete some deadlines.

I am waiting on a wish list from my most difficult of all family members to buy a gift for (my oldest son Ken), and if he doesn’t give me one he gets a gift cirtificate. But other than that I have completed my Christmas shopping. I have not yet even started decorating for Christmas. I celebrate Christmas, the birth of my Lord, from Christmas Eve through 6 January. I also celebrate Advent as a time of preparation and reflection. So for me, having the house decorated by about December 20th or so is just about right and in tune with the preparation part of Advent. Yet, the other night I was driving home from being out and saw my whole neighborhood is bright with beautiful Christmas lights. So I think for my neighbors we will endeavor to get our outdoor lights up this week.

My youngest son, David, is under a heavy set of deadlines for his writing. He has been asked to contribute a novelette for a collection of stories that is due by the end of the month, and he has to get it to his editor by the 15th. So I am putting off decorating until he gets that manuscript to his editor. He is a necessary part of this endeavor. After all, someone has to go up that ladder to get the decorations down…LOL.

He also has been asked to be a guest author at a writing/fantasy/sci fi conference (Raven Con in Williamsburg, Virginia) in April, and he has the third book in his Law of Swords series close enough to completion that he wants to get that one published in time to have it in hand for the conference. So snatching a bit of his time here and there is really difficult. But I’m excited for him. His writing is downright magical.

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If you haven’t read any of his books, I encourage you to do so even if you don’t normally read fantasy, because they are full of romance, intrigue, and adventure and are so very well written. They would make great Christmas presents too, and talent as deep and wonderful as his is needs supporting. So please buy a book and see what you think.

I have not forgotten the blog this past month. I have been struggling to write a post about the magic of combining today’s wonderful drawing and painting software with fabric art and specifically with art quilting. But I think I’m going to put that one aside because I just can’t get it put together like I want. But believe me, it’s worth the time and money spent to obtain and learn such technologies as Corel Draw, Corel Painter, Bernina Design software, Electric Quilt, and any photographic editing software. With it, you can paint in the computer and print on fabric. You can design in the computer and print a full sized design. You can design your own fabric and have it printed. You can draw a whole quilt and have it printed full sized on wonderful fabric and quilt it. You can digitize your own embroidery items and stitch it out on your embroidery machine.

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You can just draw something wonderful and print it out full size and replicate it on your free motion machine (even a treadle machine if that’s how you roll). It’s so exciting and wonderful that it’s almost magical.

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And so what are my deadlines, you wonder. Ahhhhh….that’s a good question! Maybe I’ll tell you some of them next time.

Sew happy everyone! I bet you have some kind of artistic software lurking around your computer somewhere. It’s time to learn to use it if you haven’t already as part of your quilting and/or sewing adventure.

Encouraging Enthusiasm in Quilting and Sewing

Posted on August 14, 2016September 11, 2016 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Food for Thought, Quilt Journal, quilt shows, Sewing Clothing, Teaching Kids / 4 Comments

Woman sewing

Gloomy feelings are prevalent in the quilting community recently at the announcements of the closures of several quilt-related magazines and businesses, or parts of businesses. I was recently talking with a close friend of mine about this. These things have a way of being self-fulfilling prophesies by making people hesitate to dive in and do things because they think the industry is closing and they don’t want to invest their time and money in a failing pursuit if supplies, or when fellow quilters might not be around. Linda Thielfoldt captured it well in her blog post in which she ends up by calling on us to mentor a child.

Sew let us think about this a bit and brush the dust off of our dreams for making that piece of funky or pretty art for your wall, a well-tailored jacket, a set of decorative pillows to spruce up your living space, a really nice outfit to wear to special occasions, some new pot holders, or how about that costume for your favorite fun festival or party. Sewing and quilting can be calming and also a fun adventure.

I’ve actually seen recent comments from quilters or sewists criticizing other sewists for the way they shop or buy a class, or blaming problems on the “aging” quilters, who, they assume, don’t buy anything anymore (WRONG!!!); or on young sewists and quilters who have very little time and not so much money so they pull learning and patterns from where they can. Such comments are not helpful.

I call upon these naysayers and those who are worried to welcome all manner of quilting and sewing into our folds…the costume maker, the art quilter, the modern quilter, the traditional quilter, the tailored clothes maker, the hat maker, the bag maker, the doll maker, the sewist who makes items for charity, the ten minutes-at-a-time stitcher, the incredibly talented hand stitcher, and those who do all of these things just because they can.

man sewing 1912

Sewing and quilting is an adventure, an occupation that takes our minds off of the difficulties of life, the politics, the horrible things happening in the world, and gives us the opportunity to think about how to construct that tote bag, or make that art quilt, or tailor that jacket to wear to work. In the end, moreover, we often end up with something truly wonderful.

I do also hope we can stop categorizing the sewists of this world into preconceived ideas in a way that may limit opportunities. The younger quilter is not always interested in modern quilting. The older quilter is not always interested in traditional quilting. The middle-aged quilter is often ignored in discussions of this type. The art quilter is often as committed to excellence in their craft as the traditional quilter. Some people have jobs or other responsibilities that don’t allow them time to take half a day to shop or go to that show. Sew, wonderfully, they download classes (some of which are wonderful and thereby they support that teacher), they order on the Internet (maybe even from their local fabric store)…but they order and they take classes, they buy that fabric and thread and machines. This activity will keep the industry alive even if it doesn’t help our neighborhood fabric store with the owners who have been in business for decades and are ready to retire to do their own sewing.

Red, my favorite color, is not as plentiful in my home as I would have expected. I staged this in my studio using the red things I could find that seemed to go together. Interesting challenge. Shot with my Nikon D200 on tripod, no flash, f14.

I hope we will continue to support each other and encourage the “ancient quilter” making something spectacularly different, the middle-aged man sewing a vintage costume, the college student making something for their dorm room, or the twelve year old boy quilting. Let’s keep this industry alive with enthusiasm even as it changes to encompass the new methods of communication and shopping!

DSCN0129

Sew happy everyone! I loved Linda Thielfoldt’s blog about mentoring new young sewers. This is important. Might I suggest, also, that it does not just have to be a young person (though, again, this is important)…an older person with a little more time and money on their hands might also want to get in on the fun and then pass it on to their young person.

Testing Border Designs

Posted on August 6, 2016August 7, 2016 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in A Little How-To, Ancient manuscripts, Art Quilt Techniques, Design Work, Embroidery, High-Tech Studio, Machines, Quilt Journal, Ruler work, Threads / 4 Comments

This will be the last blog post I write on making Ken’s special quilt until it is completed, and probably until after it has been debuted at some show in order to keep it for a surprise, but I wanted to tell you how I was solving the border problems. I will write the posts, but not publish them until then. I will, of course, continue writing blog posts about other topics.

I have been kind of concerned about whether or not I could get the border right for the quilt my son Ken designed for me. It uses complex Celtic knots and designs.

So this week I managed to get all but one of the corners digitized and tested to stitch in-the-hoop at my Bernina 830 LE (Gibbs). While working in the embroidery module, Gibbs rebelled over most of my gold metallic threads, finally accepting Superior metallic. With some testing and fussing with tensions and needles, coupled with slowing way down to nearly the slowest speed, it decided to stitch out my designs without any further tantrums. But I don’t much like the way the thread looks, so I am going to test some near-metallic colored threads.

After all, this is the outline for painting the design with Setacolor gold paint and finishing with Setacolor Gold Glitter Finish. I have used these paints for several years now on my show quilts and they are permanent once dried and heat set. I’ve even washed them with success. The glitter may need a little refreshment after a couple of years of shipping, folding, showing, folding, shipping, but the underlying gold stays solid and most of the glitter is still there even so. I’m fairly certain with ordinary hanging in one’s home or office, and an occasional light vacuuming with a cheesecloth over the end of the vacuum hose, these paints will last for decades.

This is my first test of stitchout 1...small right corners. Here you can probably see that I have only half of the block finished with glitter paint. It seems the right finish to me. But I am not happy with the metallic threads here.

This is my first test of stitchout 1…small right corners. Here you can probably see that I have only half of the block finished with glitter paint for comparison. It seems the right finish to me. But I am not happy with the metallic threads here.

My biggest problem was getting the long designs on the border that were too big to fit into a hoop and that I thought were too exacting to manage a good multi-hooping of the many hoops required. So I decided to see if I could get the outline stitching done with good marking and free motion/ruler work on my new sit-down longarm Bernina Q20 (Fritz).

Fritz is a dream. Fritz does not dislike any of my metallic threads. Neither does Gibbs, for that matter, if it isn’t working in-the-hoop. But I practiced on Fritz this time in non-metallics. Oh my….I set it up in BSR2, which Bernina recommends for ruler work. Using 7 of Lisa Calle’s wonderful rulers, I have done some practice work. While I need more practice, I am fairly certain by now that I can make these border pieces. I have found that Fritz can place each stitch where I want it…it will slow way down, work at higher speed, stop when I stop and start when I start, and all controlled only by how I move the fabric when it’s set on BSR2. I will note that this can also be done at most any sit-down sewing machine, although perhaps not as easily.

I am pre-stitching the designs, not quilting them in. I will quilt them after sandwiching the quilt, and will use either Superior’s monopoly or 100 weight silk matching the backgrounds. This will provide further definition to where the design goes over and under to make the Celtic knots.

So I starched and then backed my test pieces with my favorite stabilizer for embroidery (for that is what this is). That is Madeira Cotton Stable, which has a light fusible on it, and is 100 percent cotton. Thereby no hooping is necessary. This stabilizer can either remain in the border or tear out. I usually tear out most of it and don’t worry about getting absolutely everything before sandwiching.

The top corner design was done at Gibbs in the hoop and then painted. The lower left and right designs were done with rulers at Fritz and then painted.

The top corner design was done with Gibbs in the hoop and then painted. The lower left and right designs were done using rulers and the Bernina #96 ruler foot with Fritz and then painted. I left unpainted some of the stitching on the lower left so you can see how it looks before painting. It needs practice.

I still have to complete the digitizing of the one big upper left block, and when I finish and test that, and dye my PFD Radiance a dark green (which kind of makes me nervous, but they don’t make it the color I want), I will FINALLY be ready to start actually making the quilt top.

This is progress, though it kind of doesn’t seem like it since I haven’t actually started assembling the real quilt yet. But the time I’m taking to work everything out beforehand I will mostly gain back when I make the quilt and know exactly what to do each step along the way. 🙂

Sew happy everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. God’s blessings.

Spiral Galaxy Completed and a Few Thoughts

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Deep space quilts, Food for Thought, My micro-business, Quilt Journal, quilt shows, selling quilts / 6 Comments

I finished the quilt! It hasn’t been professionally photographed yet, so full pictures will come later, maybe after its debut at a quilt show. Here’s a detail shot I took myself in which you can sort of see my quilting:

detail picture by BJ

When I finish a show quilt I really enjoy making I experience mixed feelings of delight that I have made a new quilt and a little let down on not having it to work on any longer. This is at least in part because I am driven to create.

To me, creating is a most wonderful privilege given to me as a blessing by my Creator and encouraged by my family and friends. Ever since I was a small child, I have been blessed with many talents, the strongest of these being sewing, art, and music. I do not engage in all of these at once, but like many artists, I have traveled from one to the other through my life with some overlaps from time to time. For the past ten years, and drawing in more than sixty years (!) of sewing, I have worked to develop quilting as an art form and I have retired from music making. What I find so wonderful about quilting as an art form is that it draws together many of my interests and talents, even applying some of what I learned in the decades of my music, but that’s another topic. Quilting has its ups and downs, but it’s very fulfilling to me to create a quilt of any kind and especially wall art quilts. I intend to continue making quilts until I can no longer hold a needle or run a sewing machine…perhaps into my hundreds. 😀

I love showing my quilts to share the fun with my friends and in the hope that it makes people happy or inspired. It adds a little spice and fun to that when I win a ribbon too. I love sharing my techniques and quilt adventures because I would be delighted to see what I have learned become useful for other quilters.

Here’s where you can see my quilts as of publication of this blog post:

First of all, you can see pictures of many of my quilts either on my website gallery or you can also see them here on The Quilt Show. If you click on the photos in my website gallery, you’ll get the full view and look at the caption on the bottom of each quilt for the name of the quilt and the price of the quilt if they are for sale. If you are interested in purchasing one of my quilts, or just want to know more about it, just contact me at BettyJo@bjfabricartist.com and I’ll get back to you shortly with more details about them. I have a paypal account that enables purchases safely, so just contact me at BettyJo@bjfabricartist.com and I’ll get back to you shortly.
If you are going to AQS Syracuse at the end of this week and over the weekend, my little quilt Canterbury Knight is in the show. It’s been through several shows and received Stevii Graves Judge’s Choice ribbon at Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival earlier this year. I would be very surprised if it takes a ribbon, but it is a very nice little quilt you would probably enjoy seeing. I’m thinking this is probably the end of its show season and I plan on hanging it in my living room when it comes home. It’s sister quilt Canterbury Silk is already hanging, and I think it will be a nice addition. So I’m keeping these two quilts and not putting them up for sale.
G Street Fabrics in Rockville has generously hung several of my quilts in their Bernina section. Those are for sale, and include Dad’s House Plan, Kanazawa Memories, and The Storyteller. I periodically change the quilts hanging there.
If you live or are coming near Ashburn, Virginia, send me an email and we can arrange for you to come see any quilts that happen to be here at the time.

Next it’s full speed ahead on the quilt my son Ken designed for me and continued work on my book.

Sew happy everyone! Teach someone to quilt…your child, grandchild, husband, wife, or neighbor. It can be fun for everyone and a great stress reliever in these troubled times.

The Importance of Practice Pieces

Posted on July 20, 2016July 20, 2016 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in A Little How-To, Art Quilt Techniques, Deep space quilts, Design Work, Quilt Journal, Techniques / 6 Comments

I approach show quilting as an adventure (hence the words “Adventures in Fabric Arts” found on my blog heading). Every show quilt I have made to date has been designed entirely from my own vision, or inspired by copyright free photographs interpreted by me, or my own vision enhanced with elements from royalty free sources such as Dover Publications. I so far don’t use other people’s patterns, which I realize are often a wonderful way to approach quilting, and many people make magnificent quilts from patterns and add their own spin on them. I admire these quilts too, but for me, I love my adventure in quilting.

Because of this approach, for every show quilt I have one or more test pieces accompanying it (I’m getting quite a stack of these little things, and I am reluctant to throw them away). For making my Spiral Galaxy quilt, I have found this little test piece extremely useful:

Spiral galaxy study/test piece

First, I tested the painted background, which I put behind the spiral of Angelina Fibers:

painted background on the test piece

Then I tested the threads for the quilting on this, which allowed me to make the decisions needed for both the threads and the quilting patterns/fills (see this blog post about making my deadline, in which I discuss these choices).

I also tested the spires behind select stars that I designed in my Bernina v7 software and stitched in the hoop.

Star spire test

Today, I am thinking of adding some fabric glitter paint to the very center of the spiral to enhance the look of my homage to the magnificent spiral galaxies created by God and photographed and processed by NASA that have so inspired me. So I am testing that on the study piece. So here you have the overall test/study piece, which is very roughly 15″ x 15″.

Over view of test/study piece.

Sew I encourage you to include test pieces in your quilt making. They can save you a lot of mistakes, picking out, restarts, and headaches of all kinds.

Sew happy everyone! Develop your own adventures in fabric art, but be sure to start with a small study piece.

Spiral Galaxy Quilt: Finished the quilting and adding the stars

Posted on July 16, 2016August 1, 2016 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in A Little How-To, Art Quilt Techniques, Deep space quilts, My Studio, Techniques, Tools / 4 Comments

I am totally amazed that I was able to finish all the quilting for the spiral galaxy so quickly. Now I loved quilting on Gibbs, my Bernina 830 LE, and it made it possible for me to make quilts I would have otherwise struggled with a great deal. But I am awestruck by the ease of free motion stitching/quilting on my new friend Fritz, my Bernina Q20 set up as a sit down longarm. It is fast, its stitches are very even when I am using the BSRs, it has no problems that I have encountered so far with tension, it sews smoothly, and I can see everything. I even found that using rulers (with foot #96) is just plain easy. I see a very happy future with Fritz.

My new Bernina Q20 named Fritz.

Gibbs will still, of course, be a big player in my quilting life as will E.Claire, my little Bernina 350 I named after Edith Clair Head. I also have Betsy, my sweet old Bernina 1230, and she is a wonderful machine that I use occasionally for some special stitching, since I have a lot of unusual accessories for her, and when I have other stitchers here in my small studio.

I am feeling exceptionally blessed with my studio lately and have some fun things planned for the future. Next on the docket is my oldest son Ken’s quilt design he gave me for my birthday (see my blog An Extraordinary Present).

Sew now I am putting the many hot fix crystals of different sizes and colors that represent the stars on my spiral galaxy quilt. I am using a new notion to help me with this project. In the past, I have occasionally burned around a crystal when I was placing it on a deep space quilt. The veiling is nylon and the Angelina Fibers darken with too much heat.

I have been looking for something to help me get the crystals heat set without that and, thanks to a Facebook friend, I “discovered” rhinestone transfer tape. There are several brands that were originally created for placing hot fix rhinestone designs worked out in cutting machines and others. I am using it slightly unconventionally. I place a bunch of crystals on my quilt about where I want them, making sure they are right side up and then carefully lower down the tape and stick them all down.

Tape holds down the crystals in place and acts as a pressing cloth.

The crystals stick to the tape and it holds them in place while I iron them on. I then use my little individual crystal placement wand and hot fix them in place (the tape is still there between the crystal and the wand), and count (tapping my foot…one, two, three…twelve (for little crystals)…15 (for medium crystals)…32 (for big crystals).

Heat setting individual crystals with the wand with the tape still in place.

Once all the crystals on the film are heat set, the tape peals off, leaving them behind. You can tell from this if you have them all set, because if you missed one, it stays with the film, so you can set it back down and set that one. No burns, no color changes for my Angelina Fibers, no movement of the crystals, no flipping them off the quilt and having them fly through the air to the other side of the room (yes, I did that!). I caution not to keep the wand down too long, and to use the smallest wand end that works for the crystal size, though, because it is probably still possible to burn the quilt if you aren’t careful.

Sew happy everyone! I hope you have some time to create something wonderful. In these dark times it is particularly important that we make our homes and office spaces beautiful and warm and surround our families and friends with love and beauty.

Spiral Galaxy Quilt: Using Reference Aids

Posted on July 12, 2016July 17, 2016 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in A Little How-To, Deep space quilts, Quilt Journal, Techniques, Threads / 6 Comments

Since my last blog I have made much greater progress than I anticipated by this time. I have completed the basic quilting, and I am currently adding the rust colored star dust streaks that swirl through spiral galaxies. I was a little worried about this part of the quilt, because the dust swirls in complex ways throughout the overall spiral and there is no way to mark this quilt.

I am happy to say that my method seems to be working, so I thought I would share. I started the quilt by placing a NASA photo of the galaxy I am using as my model (see my last blog post) in Corel Painter and “tracing” a simple outline of the placement of the spiral arms and then moving it to Corel Draw and printing it full size. Corel Draw will tile a picture into whatever size paper your printer handles, so you can tape it together and have a full sized pattern to work with. If you have Bernina V7 design software, and don’t have Corel Draw, you can use the art canvas, which is a version of Corel Draw. I also have found that Excel spreadsheet will also tile a picture, which is what I used before I had Corel Draw.

This shows how Corel Draw has divided the full sized picture into tiles for printing.

Then I traced the pattern onto the black fabric, but that is the sum total of any kind of pattern I could use on this quilt because after the Angelina Fibers and the veiling are placed down, you can’t trace anything, and there really isn’t much more you could make a pattern for anyway.

Sew I have gotten all the fiber applique and nylon veiling completely quilted, using 40 weight black thread and rulers for the basic swirl, monopoly over the fiber applique part and black 100 weight silk over the purely black part. I also embroidered spire star backgrounds for ten stars, using in-the-hoop and gray variagated 40 wt thread.

In order to free motion stitch (is it embroidery or is it quilting?) I have printed several pictures of spiral galaxies that show the rust colored dust swirls fairly clearly. It actually looks very much like a woody vine. Anyway, I place the pictures close by or even on the quilt so I can see them frequently and out of my peripheral vision and have begun the stitching that way

Sttitching with a reference picture

This quilt is a homage to the fabulous spiral galaxies sometimes photographed or even envisioned by painters in NASA’s website. It is not supposed to be any particular spiral galaxy. I am intrigued by the realization that our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is a spiral galaxy. Here is a link that talks about that and gives us some idea of where we are in the Orion spur part of the galaxy. Milky Way link

This is the third of my deep space quilts. Now that I have developed the techniques for making pictorial deep space quilts I am planning on making more. I’m not sure how many more or which wonderful space entities I will use for the models. I hope to develop at least enough to put together an exhibit in some gallery somewhere some year. I have discovered that some space entities work better than others for my quilts. I have found that those that have more distinct characteristics, those that have more color, and those that stand a better chance of the viewers recognizing what they are looking at seem to be the best models. Maybe some of the quilts will actually earn some ribbons for me. That would be wonderful.

Sew happy everyone! I hope you can have some time to create in your studio this week.