Free Motion Quilting Video: Graffiti Quilting

I managed to get my video of my Graffiti quilting styled wall word all edited up and loaded for YouTube. The raw footage of the entire project was insanely long. I edited it down and sped it up for you. It shows a bunch of different designs, all mixed fairly randomly to make the  final piece.

The beginning and end of the video is shot at twice normal speed and the middle is at 4 times the normal speed. It's not too dizzying, and you can see how I stitch the designs out. Since I sped it up, I took most of the narration out.

I hope you enjoy! If you do, give it a 'like' will you? I get some occasional 'dislikes' on my videos and I know that's just the nature of Youtube and the internet trolls and while the ratio of likes vastly outnumbers the dislikes, it's hard to ignore them. If you dislike the video, hit me up with a comment or email and let me know if there's something I should change! I do know that these speed-quilting videos aren't everybody's cup of tea, but I know many like them too.

Free Motion Quilting Fun: Graffiti Quilting

I finished up this little encouraging free motion quilting practice piece yesterday. It feels so good to have another project finished!

I tried to incorporate some elements of Karlee Porter's Graffiti Quilting as I quilted. It was fun and I like the extra impact of using another color.

This was quilted on my Janome 3160, my smaller machine. It has a low shank and I'm going to be giving it a try with more ruler work as low shank machines have clearance issues behind the foot with thicker rulers. I want to see how much this impacts my ability to use my bigger rulers on this machine. Behind the foot isn't a commonly used spot for me unless I'm using an enclosed or inside shape.

I love doing these little pieces and finishing them by stretching them over an artist's canvas. A line of serging around the edge and a bunch of staples and I'm done.

I shot a video of the quilting on this piece and I'm speeding it up for another speed quilting vid before releasing it on Youtube. That will post soon.

Create Some Graffiti Quilting

Well, I cleaned up my creative mess (See the post here) and resumed getting to know my Janome 3160 again. I used the same project and had some fun just stitching. I decided to incorporate a little of Karlee Porter's graffiti quilting style.

What I did wasn't a whole lot different than what I normally do on one of my quilted word art pieces, since I do a free form mix of my favorite free motion quilting designs. But I used 2 colors, and challenged myself to include some of Karlee's more angular designs. She also orients her designs in a particular direction as she travels out from the center of a piece, and I didn't manage to do that. If you're unfamiliar with her book, Graffiti Quilting: A Simple Guide to Complex Designs , you can see a lot of it on Pinterest these days and she's got an article in the latest edition of Machine Quilting Unlimited magazine. Her quilting is COOL!

The front.

The first thing I had to do was address the tension issue that had me ripping out poorly formed stitches last week.  Using the same fabric, thread, and batting as the project, I started on the low side of the tension dial and stitched. I increased the tension a few times until it looked just right on the back. Since I was using purple on the front and white on the back, and the back wouldn't show, I didn't spend a ton of time trying to get all the purple dots to go away on the back.

The back.

There's still something not quite right with this machine and I'll have to check it out further. I also think it's due for a good cleaning and lubrication. The back of the piece had some occasional issues and I could hear my machine make some noises that didn't sound right.

Not a pretty back.

But over all, the piece came out ok. I still have to finish up the turquoise stitching and then I'll stretch it over an artist's canvas and it'll be ready to go on the wall, possibly into my Etsy shop.

While this style of stitching isn't what we'd probably use on a pieced bed quilt, being so tiny and dense, it was a lot of fun and good practice. At a larger scale, it would really add interest to a lot of negative space. Plus it will give me a nice encouraging decoration for my wall.

I'll be switching from the open toe FMQ foot to the ruler foot on this machine, both the Janome one and the one from Westalee and doing some ruler work on this machine this week.

Art and Quilting Inspiration from the Book

Even though I've been trying to set some boundaries for myself when it comes to the times I write blog posts and other "work" type stuff (and I use 'work' pretty loosely here), I could not wait to share what I found today!

There are two things that are part of my quilting 'style': ruler work and using text in my quilts. Some of my quilts are inspired by my faith and I love using text with these.

So when a gal from church showed me several pics of 'Bible Journaling' that she had found on Pinterest, I was totally into it. Journaling in a bible or in a separate journal is nothing new, but apparently, some people are combining text and illustrations together in a special bible. Since I firmly believe that creativity comes from the Creator, I just love this! (Whether you are of the Christian faith or not, I believe we possess creativity as part of the creation, however you believe or don't believe.)

Here's a great discussion from Jann Gray about how she uses Bible journaling. She's got some beautiful examples and talks about the how and whys of her practice, including her reverence for the Word in doing it.

I wish I had a picture to show you directly on my blog, but I didn't have time to ask permission to use someone else's pictures here. I certainly could have easily scraped a picture from somewhere, but that's bad blog etiquette you know.

You can see a ton of beautiful and inspiring pages by searching Pinterest for  "Journaling Bible". I have also pinned quite a few images to my Good Words board on Pinterest.



I hope it doesn't seem crass to share these affiliate links above when it comes to talking about the bible, but "the worker is worthy of his wages" perhaps and these are relevant to the post. I have had the two books on the left for several years and love them. I think one of these journaling bibles is in my future too. This one is a little lighter than my current study bible, which I love, but I find that reading through a new bible after using a well-worn and highlighted version for a while helps me to learn anew some of the old and timeless truths. I hope the pages are thicker than the average bible paper!

I am looking forward to then taking some inspiration from these pages and translating them into quilts. Painted, appliqued, stitched, however I am led to create them.

Now back to some family time and Sunday rest.

Hugs to you!

A Free Motion Quilting Finish

I've mentioned before that my word for the year is "Finish". I gave a tiny peek into this project in my Transferring Designs to Fabric post.

It would not bode well for me this year if I couldn't finish my "Finish"! It's all done now, stapled onto the frame and ready to hang in my studio.

 I am so happy to have it quilted up to put it on my wall. It's ridiculously densely quilted. The canvas I stretched it over is just 8 by10 inches.

I shared it with a few friends on Instagram and Facebook in its unfinished form and we had a good giggle over the irony of the unfinished piece.

Speaking of Instagram, I've now got a smart phone and am trying to make better use of that service. I had to have my baby sister walk me through a few points of using it. (She's a mere 21 and her iPhone is nearly a permanent appendage.) If you are on Instagram, you can find me as "amys_fmq_adventures". I'd love to follow more quilty folk there!

I used a white Kona cotton for the front and backing of this piece. I had done another similar piece in december and shared that I only used a front piece of fabric and batting, no backing. I'm back to using the standard 3 layers of top, batt, and backing.

I had forgotten to mark one of the dots above an 'i' and quilted right over where it should have been. I could have stalled out right there, but I ripped out the area and stitched the dot a few times. It was too small an area to tie off and bury the thread ends unless I ripped out a large section.

I've decided it's a symbolic happening. A reminder of when I need to push through the perfectionism that makes me stall out on so many projects and just finish. Not that I'm embracing poor workmanship or sloppy technique, but keeping it in a workable perspective.

These swirls make me happy! The thread is a Sulky Blendable. It's a pretty variagated cotton thread that's been in my stash a long time.

So here's to many more finishes this year. Some of my finishes are quilting projects, some are more personal, but all need to get done this year. I hope we will inspire one another other to do more free motion quilting and get more finishes under our belts.

Farm Quilt Finishing

Finishing up the binding on my farm quilt. I love the free motion quilting on this one, especially the ruler work with the curved crosshatching. Actually turned out pretty darn close to my vision for this project. Netflix is a fabulous binding tool- put on a great movie, but not too great (nothing too distracting from stitching), and stitch until your bottom goes numb.

Speaking of binding.... I nearly didn't have enough fabric left! These are the only scraps left from this project.

I like using my take on Sharon Schamber's glue technique for mitered seams and binding. First I fold the strip and get it just right. Then I press the fold as I slide the ruler off.

This next pic is at a funny angle, I swear the fold is at 45 degrees, it just doesn't look like it. Then I use a little watersoluble glue. Yes, glue. Shoot me, quilt police. Sometimes I just use Elmer's school glue, but this Roxanne's Glue-Baste-It had an awesome tip, so I'm using it and will either buy more, or re-fill it with the cheap stuff.

Apply the next strip carefully lining it up, then press to set the glue in a hurry.

Then I can repeat the process until all the strips are glued to make the length I need. Next, I sew down the fold line.

 I stitched the binding on with my walking foot, but I'll finish this binding by hand. Another night or two of Terra Nova on Netflix and it'll be done!

Above is a shot of the back, though I don't think you can see a whole bunch of detail. Maybe I'll get more pics when it's completely done. But for now, it's definitely "Off the Wall" and I'm linking up with Nina Marie.

Fall Free Motion Finish

I finished all the free motion quilting on my little fall wall quilt yesterday. I McTavished, or tried to McTavish the background. And it came out ok. But it still needs a little something.

I can't decide if I want to hyper-quilt in the feathers and the rest of the motifs or maybe try a little paint.

What it looked like before quilting the background, with the larger version

While I was thinking on paint versus thread, I decided to see what colors I had in which kinds of paint. I don't use the paints much, though I ought to play around with them more. I found them easily enough, tucked away safely in their plastic project box.

Washing my Paints

Yes, I had to wash my paints. Not clean up my paints, or even clean up the painting area. When I opened the box, I found two bottles had blown their tops!

Thankfully, the paint was contained within the box and didn't spread within the box the any of the brushes, sponges or paint sticks. In fact, the main offender wasn't actually paint but paint extender. It cleaned up pretty easily and I did see that I have enough colors and choices of paint to add some sparkle and color to this little wall quilt.

I have no idea how this happened. I do keep the paints in a backroom that gets less AC than the rest of the house, but it's not enough to cause them to swell with the heat.

I am still undecided about adding paint, but it does seem like a good piece for some play. Stay tuned and I'll show you what it looks like soon.

McTavishing

I really love the look of McTavishing, especially how Karen McTavish does her signature fill. I have her book on McTavishing, Mastering the Art of McTavishing, but somehow mine just doesn't have the swirly goodness that hers has. I know that it is in part due to the larger range of motion she has on a long arm. Since I'm quilting on my sewing machine, I just can't get the same long, sweeping curves that she can, at least not without repositioning my hands. But I know I can do better with more practice.

I have been toying with doing a series on McTavishing or maybe a quilt-along link party so we can work on the stitch together. What do you think? Anybody want to play along?

I'm linking this post up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday and Leah Day's Free Motion Friday.

Poured Out 2 is going to Sacred Threads Exhibit

I just got the news last night that Poured Out 2 was juried into this year's Sacred Threads Exhibit to be held in Washington DC this July!

Believe it or not, even though this was a goal I set for myself since seeing the 2011 exhibit, it was just icing on the cake for this week! In part because I was hoping for news from the jurying committee next week, but also because I had completely surprising news this week.

I was contacted about possibly using an image of Poured Out 2 as an illustration in a (non-quilting) magazine! After convincing myself (mostly) that it wasn't some sort of scam, I was over the moon! This quilt really 'speaks' to me and I am glad I will be able to share it with others. I am glad I will also be getting some professional photos taken of this quilt, because this pic just does not do it justice.

Now to keep my feet firmly on the ground, my little guy has the flu. My sewing room clean up has been somewhat delayed by laundry and snuggling time.

Doodle Quilting and Ruler Work

 I'd like to think that I work best with an imminent deadline, but if the truth were told I am a huge procrastinator. We had a wedding to go to last weekend and I stayed up late quilting up a quilted linen pillow for the happy couple. First I made some guide lines with my ruler and air erasable purple pen. Then the names and a few designs were drawn out.

Then I started stitching in the middle of the pillow, and worked my way out. I did this in a kind of Zentangle style. Have you tried Zentangling? It's a lot of fun and uses many quilting designs as well as many zentangle designs lend themselves to quilting.

 Linen can get off grain pretty easily, so I used spray baste to adhere it to the batting. When I spray baste, I use Sulky's KK2000, Temporary Spray Adhesive. It's safe to use indoors and no odor. It's temorary, lasting 2-5 days, though it comes undone with ironing too. I use it for fast and small projects. Even though this will be a pillow, I used a lightweight fabric for the backing of the quilting so there's plenty of texture and dimension.

 For the background around the main design, I used my handy-dandy ruler toe and did straight lines on a 45 degree angle about half an inch apart. The hardest part was making it line up (enough) when I got back to the beginning. It saved me from doing my usual 'quilt the heck out of it' routine and then taking forever because of the density.

 

 I promise I didn't misspell her name!

"Love" is written in letters about 1/2 inch high!

This was really a lot of fun! I love to write and doodle with my sewing. I changed direction of the straight lines at the center of the sides, top and bottom. This made a nice little chevron-y thing.

Love putting in little details!

And this tiny flower near the word, "Grow". I pray they will grow old together with much joy.

 
 The couple are a bit unconventional, so I thought something less traditional would be just the thing. I do hope they like it! After all the work, actually only 4 hours or so, it snowed and we couldn't go to the wedding.

I'm linking this article with Leah Day's FMQ Friday, go check it out for more free motion quilting fun!