Studies in Contrast 1, 2, & 3

 After I decided to do the contrast between the Milwaukee Skyline and Lake Michigan, I searched for a black and white skyline of the city. (even if slightly inaccurate)

 Got it sized and cut out and traced onto black fabric with wonder-under adhered to it.

 The I carefully started cutting.  Actually after just a few snips I decided to do it carefully and tried to preserve the skyline and its opposite.

At this point, I thought I'd see what I could do with the opposite skyline and try out my ideas and techniques before proceeding with the 'real' quilt. 

 I went ahead and fused it down to the orange, straightened it up and sewed the seam to the blue.

 Then I got completely distracted, let the first two skylines sit and started improv piecing.  If you've read my blog for any length of time, this isn't really something I do much of, if ever.  But I started playing around with the orange and blue contrast pieces and ended up with a piece that I thought would work for the back of one of the skylines.  I've got two shots here to try to show the color contrast.  It is pretty bright!

 So once the back was done, I tried out the straight line quilting for the upper half and the wavy quilting for the bottom half, and also tried out the satin stitch edge - matching colors along the sides.

 And so, Study in Contrasts 1 & 2 were done.
On to number 3.

 I did the straight line quilting in orange, with a purpose.  My plan was to color the the areas in the skyline with a sharpie, so I didn't have to change thread.

 Coloring in progress.  It worked. 

In this shot, you can see some of the orange actually came back, but I'm pretty OK with it.  If I wasn't, I'd just go over it again with the marker.

And so, here we've got the final version of Study in Contrasts: 3. 

Four-In-Art - Urban: Contrasts

 This round of our Four-In-Art group had a theme of Urban: Contrasts.

My first thought when I heard the theme was something to do with the city of Milwaukee and the one farm that is within the county limits. (it's at the zoo)  As I was looking at Milwaukee skylines, it occurred to me that the greater contrast was between the city and Lake Michigan.  Complete urban vs Complete nature.

 This is the skyline as seen from Lake Michigan.

 And so here we have A Study in Contrasts: 3. 

 Straight Line Quilting vs. Wavy Quilting.

 Black Skyline vs. White Reflection

 Orange vs. Blue (opposites on the color wheel)

Next post I'll share Study in Contrasts 1 & 2 which were made in preparation for Number 3 and some construction details.

I do need to point out one thing about this quilt.

That building under the big green arrow?  Not there anymore.  It was knocked down this spring and will be replaced with a new one over the next three years.  Mr. Riley used to work in that building!

Now, go check out all my partners in crime and their amazing quilts!  I know I will be!

Amanda Kattner-- blogs at: http://www.whatthebobbin.com

Anne Deister-- blogs at: http://www.springleafstudios.com

Nancy Myers-- blogs at: http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com

Carla Timberlake-- blogs at: http://lollyquiltz.blogspot.com

Elizabeth Eastmond  blog: www.opquilt.com

Betty Ayers-- no blog, but a Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toot2/with/8892547999/

Leanne-- blogs at: http://shecanquilt.blogspot.com

Wisconsin Gas Building Art Quilt: Behind the scenes

 

 Today's post is a bit more of how I put this particular quilt together.  Part of the reason I was drawn to this print by Liz Carver, is because of the simple and bold lines in it.  It captured the essence of the building.  And, quite frankly, I can't draw like that.  I would never be able to distill a picture of the building down to the basic lines.  My brain doesn't work like that.

When I was still daydreaming about my plans I wrote up three things: Andy Warhol, diagonal quilting, and stabilize!  Well, two out of three isn't bad.  So here's how (and why) I went about constructing this thing.








I mentioned previously why I did the four color thing.  It all goes to the flame on the building and the poem.

I decided that I would like to try using a freezer paper pattern that I could iron to the fabric and cut around rather than using a fusible (and tracing the pattern 4 times).  I also thought that if I used some stick glue, it would help keep things softer for the quilting part.

See, here I've used the same freezer paper pieces on the different colors.

I guess I would say it worked reasonably well.  Parts of me wanted really crisp lines, but with this method, that's just impossible, so I had to let it go.

Building the pieces.  Everything is held in place lightly with stick glue.

 So at this point I've got a 12.5" x 12.5" square top ready to be quilted.  I took the top with me to the fabric store to try out what I wanted to use as an overlay.  I did this after reading Elizabeth's (fellow Four-in-arter) last Mini Quilt post about different sheers for overlay.  I brought home a champagne organza and a grey tulle.

 This is the organza.

 Below is the tulle.

 I ultimately went with the tulle.  I felt the organza washed out the colors too much for this particular project.  I also learned that you can steam blast tulle to the get the wrinkles out.

The layers are backing fabric, Pel-tex, thin poly batting, quilt top, tulle.

So the quilting.  I had originally planned diagonal straight line quilting with my walking foot, but, as I was in the basement riding the bike to nowhere, I realized that my walking foot might not play nice with the tulle.  I tested and was right!  Caught and tore it.  So, what to do.  I needed something dense to hold all the pieces down and in place.  Solution: Matchstick quilting that I was totally and completely stole from inspired by Leanne.  (her Cycles quilts are phenomenal.  Seriously.)  So I put on the free motion foot, Superior Threads clear in the top, Grey Bottom Line in the bobbin and went to town.

 This picture is to show you the difference between the quilting and the 'puff'.

 I stabilized stitched along the seam lines, and then started from the center and worked my way out.

 I've got the narrowest binding I could manage on it.  I would have preferred to face it, I think, but I didn't think I could get it wrapped around with the Pel-tex in there.  In real life, the quilt has a definite sheen to it from a combination of the tulle and the 'clear' thread.  It isn't unpleasing. 

All in all, I am quite happy with how it turned out.  For me, creating these things is a journey.  I really never truly know what it will look like until I am done.

And a couple pockets on the corner for hanging.  And the label?  Still jammed in the new printer.  It's been a busy few days...

Building My Neighborhood

 A little bit about how I put this mini together today.  I'm never sure what I should write about on reveal day, and what I should save for the 'behind the scenes' post.  But anyway.

 I started with a fairly large pile of fabric, all colors that I thought would pop against the green I had chosen for a background.  This pile above represents the 30 actual fabrics that I used on the quilt.  Each piece of each house, tree, etc., is a different fabric.

 As I mentioned yesterday, this is roughly based on an aerial view of our little town that we vacation in.  Once I got the road mapped out, I started free form cutting house shapes.  I would rough cut a piece of Wonder Under, Pellon 805, fuse it to the fabric and cut out my shape.

 This is after I had the houses where I wanted them and fused them down.

 Then I added in some greenery, a fence, and the train track.  I was excited to start the embroidery, so I forgot to take a picture until after I had started.

 I did the embroidery through the batting, for texture, but not through the backing.  I learned this from Laura Wasilowski.  Actually, this whole quilt is really inspired by her bright style, fused pieces and hand embroidery.

I've only done a couple of cross stitch projects in my life, but I inherited all my mother's floss, so I have a great selection of colors. 

Here's what my embroidery looks like from the back.  Not so lovely, so I like that its hidden by the backing.

 If I wanted to be true to the cardinal directions, I would hang my quilt like this, however, I think it actually looks better with the train track weighting it at the bottom.

 French knots!  I'm still pretty excited about figuring them out!

 In case you missed it, check out the initial reveal post for this quilt and also all the other quilts that were made by our little group!

Our next theme is Urban: Structures  I've got two ideas brewing already!

Four-In-Art Reveal: Urban:Maps

Woo Hoo!  Its reveal day for our Four-in-Art group.  Four new members this time around, so a total of eight mini art quilts to check out today!
The year's theme is Urban. This quarter's theme is Maps
Without further ado, I present:

'In Your Neighborhood'
(all together: 'who are the people in your neighborhood?)

 This is a map loosely based on the small town that we visit 'up north'.  An aerial view.  The funny thing about art quilts is even when they seem fairly easy they generally cause me some angst.  In this case I had to let go of being an exact copy.  There just wasn't enough room to fit all the houses in town without going ridiculously small.

Lets take a walk around the neighborhood, shall we?

 I have finally mastered the french knot! 

 Every piece of fabric is different in this piece. For a total of 30 different fabrics on the front.

 Lots of thread variety for hand embroidery, as well.

 Green Gutermann polyester for the background stippling.

 I'm in love with my train tracks!

 I put hanging pockets on each corner, because I'm not sure how I want to hang it, and I might change my mind.  Hanging it with the train tracks looks better, but that puts South on top.

Now, go check out all the other Four-in-Art quilters!
Elizabeth - Occasional Piece Quilt
Leanne - She Can Quilt
Betty's Flickr Page
Amanda - What the Bobbin?
Carla - Lollyquiltz
Anne - Spring Leaf Studios
Nancy - Patchwork Breeze
Next post I'll give some detail of how I put this mini together.
*sorry for the horrible picture editing.  Had to use old laptop to post this and couldn't crop my pictures.  Perhaps I'll go back and fix them when I get a chance....




Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts
Leah Day- Free Motion Friday
Can I get a Whoop Whoop