Garden Lady #8 - part Five

This is a continuation of 4 previous posts about the making of Garden Lady #8.  I started making all of the leaves with a ton of different fabric and thread.  I like the look of transparent leaves, shiny leaves, mottled leaves, and tons of fall color.  This was so much fun, I almost forgot to take pictures.  My experience with making leaves is that two layers of fabric sandwiched between dissolving products works the best.  When they are all done being sewn and rinsed, they retain a little bit of stiffness that allows me to manipulate the leaves when I'm adding them to the quilt.  I knew that I needed to design the fascinator on her head too, so you'll see some "gems"  that I could put on top of the hat the same way.

Years ago, I picked up a bunch of fall leaves and pressed them into my sketch book.  I used these leaves for the patterns for the leaves of this quilt.  They're drawn onto freezer paper with a permanent marker because the darker line helps to trace the lines later in the process.

I used 2 different dissolving products to make the leaves.  One product was clear Solvay.  The other was Aqua Mesh, which is a white mesh, but also somewhat see-through.  I like both products - one that is more stable, and one that is see through for placement.  So in the following pictures, you'll notice the two different products.   I layer the dissolving foundation on top and bottom and sandwich the two layers of fabric between them.  Then I trace the leaves by slipping them just underneath the top layer.  I try to place them close together so that I use most of the fabric.  I mark this also with the permanent marker - but don't worry!  The marker is on the piece that dissolves and it goes down the sink with the rest of it!.  

I used several different fabrics and different metallic and/or rayon thread.  

Using a tight zig-zag stitch of 1.8 to 2.0 mm width and 0.40 to 0.45 mm width, I stitched around the outside edge and on top of all of the veins and stem.

Then, I cut out the leaves with a small amount of seam allowance on the edges.

These got soaked in water until the product disappeared.  It happens pretty fast with Aqua Mesh and takes a little longer with Solvay.  I feel like the Solvay also leaves a bit of residue which stiffens the leaves a tad.  After they're soaked and blotted with a towel, I laid them on a sheet of non-stick Teflon.  (These sheets are sometimes called applique sheets.)  

One last thing that you'll notice in the picture above are the transparent leaves.  I made a base "fabric" with threads that were sandwiched between dissolving foundation and quilted.  Before I rinsed that out, I followed the same steps for transferring and sewing the leaves. 

 

Some of it fell apart, but most of it stayed together and I laid them out along with the other leaves to dry.

I hope you like my process for making leaves!

Garden Lady #8 - Part Four

This is a continuation of 3 previous posts about the making of Garden Lady #8.

I added white backing fabric to the arms, hands, and face so that the background didn't show through.  Since all of these were made with Steam-A-Seam on the back, I just ironed them to the white fabric.  

Then I placed the pieces between the layers of Steam-A-Seam with the backside on the sticky part of the paper.  I cut them out with a little bit of the white fabric showing and then pressed them.  The non-sticky paper came right off and the new layer of Steam-A-Seam stayed on the back side of the white fabric. 

The final step was to cut off all of the white fabric on the original edges.  At this point, I stopped working on the original paper design, and moved all of the pieces to the background fabric.  I added a strip of black fabric around the edge so that I knew where other design pieces needed to go.

I sketched up a few ideas for a layout that would look like fall.

I used my ideas to cut approximate pumpkin shapes and leaves.  These were pinned on the piece to see if the scale was OK.

Then I made the pumpkins by cutting out different orange fabrics, highlighted them with Inktense pencils, glued them to dissolving foundation and turned the edges.

I made the pumpkin tops with brownish-green fabric and Inktense pencils , backed them with dissolving foundation, turned the edges and stitched those in place on top of the pumpkins.

Stay tuned to see what I did with all of my ideas for the leaves.  And I hope you like it so far!

Garden lady #8 - Part Three

This is a continuation of 2 previous posts about the making of Garden Lady #8.  The next thing that I worked on were the clippers.  I decided to use a silver lame for the blades and a green fabric for the handles.  These needed to have turned edges, since the lame (even though it has interfacing) will fray quite a lot when it gets appliqued to the background.  Here is what the clippers looked like in the hand.

The next thing that I worked on was the dress.  When I pulled out the boxes with my fancy fabrics, tulle, yarn, pieces of fabric and thread, and antique trims, I gasped just a little bit.  I have TOO MUCH STUFF!  It is a collection of things that I've had and have been adding to for years.  I'd like to say that these boxes and bins are all of it.  But......

When I make these garden ladies, I use the master pattern to make templates out of freezer paper.  I'm sure I've shown this to you before, but here goes one more time.  I cut a base fabric in the general color that I want and about 2" larger all the way around.  I then cut medium sized blobs of fabric to get the shading that I'm looking for (light on one side, for example).  The next step is my chop and drop method of adding fabric, trims, yarn, lace, Angelina fibers, thread, wool roving, and whatever else grabs my attention.  When there is enough stuff to mostly cover the original background fabric, I cover it all with a layer of tulle.  I use a couple of methods to stitch it all in place - sometimes I sew long wiggly series of stitches, and sometimes I do a meandering stitch.  Sometimes, I use a stabilizer as a foundation, and in this case I didn't use a stabilizer at all.  In the picture below,  you can see all of the blobs of fabric and stuff that was chopped and dropped.

It gets pressed, then the pattern goes back on top and I top stitch on the seam lines.  The paper comes off and then I trim the edges that will be turned to a generous 1/2" and leave at least an inch on the seams where there will be overlapping.  Then the pieces get pinned onto the master pattern.

I keep making pieces and placing them on the master pattern.  When they're all pinned in place, I start sewing them together with an invisible zig zag stich.

Then I trim the underneath seam allowances to a generous 1/2".

Here is the dress all done and pinned to the background, along with the arms and face.

I hope you still like the progress on this piece.

Garden Lady #8 - Part Two

This is a continuation of Garden Lady #8.  I took the picture of the face into Photoshop, flipped it to the left,  changed it to black and white, and posterized it.  This process helps to get the shadows in the right place.  I traced the face over the colored version and transferred it to clear acetate.  Then I added in the color change lines.  

In previous posts, I described how I make faces using Steam-A-Seam light and tracing paper.  This is the same method I used for this piece.  I learned along the way that doing eyes is better with colored pencil than with fabric, so I used that technique for the eyes this time too.  They are done on white fabric, then placed underneath the rest of the facial features.  

I know that the face looks really odd at this point.  Later, I'll add the fine lines and shadows with both stitching, ink, and colored pencil.  The eyes especially will get a lot of lashes and details added.  I may also add a light interfacing so that the background doesn't show through.  

Next, I worked on the arms and gismos for her to hold.  I still liked the garden clippers, but didn't like the iced tea at all.  I decided to change it for her to be holding something that she clipped.  Staying with my new fall theme, I decided that I would add a vine of fall leaves.  I had my husband take a picture of my hand holding something and used that for the pattern for one of the hands.  Here are the arms and hands without the things that they will be holding.

 

I hope you like it so far!

Sewing lesson withe the dog

My granddaughter had her last sewing lesson for the summer.  She has done fantastic with not only the sewing, but also setting up and threading the machine, taking it apart and putting it away, and keeping me very entertained with her stories.  Some of the things she talks about are so much about her generation and beyond anything I could imagine for myself at age 11.

Today, our dog wanted in on the action too.  She got underneath the sewing table and put her head in my granddaughter's lap.  Geesh.  

We had so much fun over the summer, sewing together and telling stories.  She wants to sew some clothes next and we'll have to see how her Middle School schedule will work out for her.  

Any ideas on easy clothes to start with? 

Garden Lady #8 - Part One

I got the inspiration for this garden lady from a picture I found somewhere - perhaps Pinterest, maybe a magazine?  I actually don't remember.  Anyway, there was a green dress and gardening implements, so it was a great candidate for my 8th garden lady.

The watering can didn't seem to go along with the rest of the picture, so I changed it to a glass of iced tea, and switched the iced tea in the lower hand and the garden shears into the upper hand (thanks to Al for this suggestion!).  I also changed the face to one that I found about hats on Pinterest.  Here are the inspiration photos and sketches.

I made patterns with freezer paper for the dress parts.

I picked some material for the skin and hair.

Then started thinking about the background.  I had 2 yards of a mottled gray with red circles that was promising.  Frankly, it was about the only piece of fabric that I had in my stash that was large enough to be the entire background.  It made me think about another season than the rest of my pieces, so it will become a fall themed quilt.  I pulled some reds, oranges and pinks for the fall colors to start the inspiration.  It'll probably change, though.  And, now the iced tea doesn't make sense at all.  Oh well, I love  a challenge.  

I hope it like it so far.

Modernized New York Beauty - Final

This is a continuation of 8 previous posts about the making of the modernized New York Beauty as part of the Mod Squad Challenge.  I took my time quilting this piece and changed thread colors a lot.  Since I quilt on a sit down longarm, I can only quilt until my shoulders hurt.  I suppose it could be possible to not scrunch them up, and I really do try to consciously relax.  However, I find myself with my shoulders in my ears whenever I think about it.  Then, when they're screaming for a break, I have to quit for the day.  I suppose those working on a stand up longarm have back problems, so there you go.  Its a trade-off.   

I faced it and added a hanging sleeve .  I like that it ended up looking wonky, since it was hand drawn.  It's 58-1/2" x 58-1/2".  (Good thing; the challenge allows quilts up to 60" x 60").

I hope you like it!