WOW: Pomegranate Anyone?

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays 

I've been taking many trips down memory lane this past week - you see I've been clearing out my sewing studio and making room to create the space I need to sew a wedding dress (but  more on that in another post!). It's been a good time for me to pull out those patterns that are three quarters finished and create a kind of priority list for my design WIPs. 

I found two Pomegranate wall hangings half completed (not counting the one above which is hanging in my lounge room) and they are really fabulous. I just love finding projects I am still in love with, it's a good sign. Anyhow, I will be releasing the pattern Pomegranate this week after WOW so if you've ever wanted to make it, don't forget to visit on Friday. Once again I will be allowing members to download new patterns to my online shop at the very reduced price of $4.80 for 48 hours - it's a small window that allows anyone who's interested to take part at a discounted price. 

And of course, today I'm working on a rose (what else?) themed wedding quilt which I expect to release next week. It's a busy time in my house and I can't wait to share more with you just as soon as I get to the next step.

What's Your WOW?

An InLinkz Link-up

Meet My Quilt: Peony Pride

I've been revisiting my stencil quilt patterns and oh boy, I'd completely underestimated how much stencil work I did back in the day! Well, just lately I've started receiving more and more interest in stenciling fabric so I thought now would be a good time to revisit my stencil quilts- by showcasing one each week. I hope that sharing my technique and passion, those of you who are interesting in trying this technique will be encouraged to give it a go. Applique is my true love, but there's no denying the allure of stenciling and what it can allow you to create.

Back in 2007 I wanted to create a modern quilt that had all the traditional elements I loved from those quilts of a bygone era - it had to be simple, be floral and make an impact. As a textile artist long before I was a quilter, I was completely comfortable with the idea of stenciling - even though those around me weren't so keen in my newfound interest and I couldn't find any like minded quilters to share my passion with. Not that this put me off, I was determined to see through my own personal stenciling challenges.

You see, I think that stenciling is ahead of it's time - way ahead, and I do think that one day it will get the respect it deserves- I hope it happens whilst I'm still quilting as I feel it's long overdue. It's especially odd to me as stenciling is not some new 'fad' but is up there with heritage quilting techniques - it's been with us since those very first New England quilts so there's no reason to avoid it for the sake of sentimentality.

I got the urge to create Peony Pride because I wanted to create a 'classic' quilt which was completely stenciled, and by doing so challenge the idea of what 'traditional' could mean for a quilt. I decided to just make a go of it and keep it simple. I designed Peony Pride in a single afternoon after flicking through my design journals and I have to say, looking on 9 years later, it still feels relevant and 'now' and yes, I would make it all over again. I still love it. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Let's Stencil: Learn How Right Now

Let's Stencil: The Tulip

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Materials:Cutting matt
Tracing pencil
Permanent fine marker
Craft cutting knife or scalpel
Sharp scissors
Paper towels
Stubby paint brushes for stenciling: I like using round brushes, size 8 & 10
Small containers for mixing up colours
Freezer Paper ( I use Reynolds Brand)
Acrylic or textile paints (textile medium if applicable)
Extra fabric for experimenting
Plain background to be stenciled, approx a 12 ½inch block, however the size isn't as important as this workshop is focusing on technique.
Whichever acrylic paint you choose, ensure that you use Textile Medium unless specified otherwise by the paint manufacturer.
Textile Medium helps paint adhere to fabric—for better setting, and is always recommended.
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A stencil pattern is what you create when you cut out selected segments (holes) from a design according to a line drawing. Starting with the line drawing that you want to turn into a stencil, trace this line drawing onto freezer paper (use a light box if required)

  

Position freezer paper on cutting mat 

Then carefully cut out the design with a craft knife

It will look like this when complete

When cutting out your design, allow plenty of time. I find working with a scalpel best, however some people prefer sharp thin bladed decoupage scissors—use whatever method you are most comfortable with. You do not want to rush the cutting out as the lines will show up in your stenciling—jagged edging shows. If your work is neat, keep all the ‘cut outs’ separately for use later.

You want to keep the bottom half of the leaves for shading, so don't discard them

Iron your fabric and position your freezer paper stencil. On a mid heat, iron down the freezer paper. Do this carefully and ensure that all the lines are firmly ironed down as you do not want edges coming loose and lifting up when stenciling!

Set up your paints and pre-mix the colours you want to use. For this workshop, I used green and red and to create a darker green for shading, I simply blended the two together. Use a new brush for each color. There will be no need to rinse your brushes during stenciling.

Have plenty of paper toweling ready for blotting off excess paint from your brush. I can't stress this enough. Stenciling is not about 'painting' fabric, it is about building up layers of almost dry paint stippled into position - and these are very different things. 

Apply some paint to your blotting tissue. Now blot off any excess paint. It is important that your brush remain somewhat dry. Remember that you are building up color. When applying paint to your stencil, buff the color in with quick circular movements—with stenciling you are building up color, almost as if you were dry painting. DO NOT SATURATE THE STENCIL.

Colour is blotted into the fabric with a dry brush. This allows you to go over areas and build up stronger color where desired, creating shading effects. If you saturate your brush, or if you did not iron down completely, parts of the freezer paper will lift—and this will lead to color seeping through and smearing. THIS IS TO BE AVOIDED. As below.

When you reach an edge of color, such as red meeting green—use a plastic template as a barrier to keep colors separated. 

The stencil is now stenciled

Lift up your fabric. The painted stencil should be dry to touch and NOT leaking through the fabric. Leaking, seeping & blurriness mean too much wet paint! This image below is how your underside should look - essential dry to touch with no bleed through. 

To create 2 color shading effects on a leaf, return to your earlier cut outs and re-position half of the leaf cut out back onto the flower, as shown below. Iron down the freezer paper piece on top of the paint. Iron down both leaf pieces.

Painting the darker hue: Use the same circular dry method of stenciling. You are only covering half the painted leaf—you are covering the half you do NOT want painted a darker hue. 

Now, using a darker green, paint the top of the leaf

The freezer paper acts as a barrier to protect the color beneath

When dry, peel off the added freezer paper leaf pieces  to reveal two tones of color

Leave the stencil until dry to touch

Then carefully peel back the freezer paper stencil as seen below

Allow stencil to dry

Turn over and iron on wrong side of fabric

Turn to right side and iron over stencil to heat set

Cover ironing board with pressed cloth or paper and heat set the paint by ironing on the back of your stencil with a dry iron set on cotton. Ironing on the back of your stencil sets the paint most successfully (3 -4 minutes). I use fine paper over the stencil to protect my iron against staining when ironing the front. 

Now, what's stopping you from trying your hand at stenciling? 

The Tulip
Free Download
$0.00

Simply click on this image to download your free

The Tulip Stencil Pattern 

Instant PDF Download

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Start Stenciling Today PDF Guide

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Buy the full guide to this tutorial post 
for just $1 USD

Instant PDF download 

Quilt Stenciling: Have You Tried It Yet?

Stenciling is not  new; in fact, it is one of the oldest and most authentic quilting techniques.

The European migrants arriving in New England brought the craze of stenciling with them to their new land. At that time, stenciling was popular on walls and furniture, eventually making its way onto textiles and whole cloth quilts. At it’s peak, the demand for stenciling saw ‘travelling stencil craftsmen’ make a living moving home to home with their stencil designs, working during the day in exchange for board and food. 

If only we could go back in time, I would love to unpack the settler’s luggage with them so I could see their beautiful stencil quilts and stencil patterns. We just don’t know what a rich legacy we’ve lost as the paints they used were either corrosive or food based and did not survive. From what little evidence exists from their walls and furniture, they were highly skilled and creative people and we’ve lost a lot. Today, stenciling is undervalued. This is a great shame as it demands workmanship and creativity and deserves respect as an authentic technique with a rich heritage.

Thanks to advances in fabric medium and paint, stencils made today will last as long as commercially printed fabric. And stenciling is so versatile, you can also achieve these results using paint sticks.

Do you have a journal full of design ideas?

Maybe you just want to try something new?

Stencilling allows you to really 'own' your quilt, from designing to technique and through to quilting. It forces you to really know your work whilst allowing you to run free of conventions. When I stumbled across stencilling, I was delighted with the results. Whilst not wanting to replace beautiful appliqué, the effect is beautiful and unique and allows a quilter to really make their mark in design and quilting. What a wonderful technique.

An InLinkz Link-up

WOW: Roses Galore!

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays

I've got roses on my mind this year: rose fabric, rose lace, rose prints, rose fragrance and now, rose patterns. Oh yes, we're rose crazy in my house. I have three upcoming patterns, each one rose based and I have no idea which one to release next as I love them all equally, so I decided to take some time out and relax - by colouring in a page of my own rose head designs. It worked!

Today I'm 'tidying' up my WOW piles and clearing out my folios - those patterns 1/2 and 3/4 near finished need to be finally completed and released so I can move on with new pattern adventures. I also have a Nelke update I need to get done and am looking forward to have some new designs float out into the world very shortly.

I can't wait to share more with you, but for now, it's back to my roses and pattern making.

What's Your WOW?

An InLinkz Link-up

July Glad Tidings!

Happy Christmas in July!

I just received an invite to a dinner party celebrating Christmas in July. What? When did all this happen? It's July already and my head is spinning!Where has the first half of the year got to?! I've been in a bit of a daze since my mother's death and I'm shocked at how quickly the months are rolling by. I had planned on releasing a 'Christmas in July'  pattern, but look at me now, it's already  the 5th and I haven't even looked at the Christmassy side of my folio.

Have You Made It?

Last year I released 'Glad Tidings' as my free end of year pattern set and after Christmas, I released the table runner over on Craftsy for free where it's been downloaded every day since then. Last night I received an email alert like I usually do letting me know how many downloads there have been. Well, there's been a sudden peak in downloads and the totals are now over 6,000!

Do You Love It?

I suppose everyone else is more organised than I am - July is the perfect month to start a festive quilt. And you  know what? As much as I love each piece of Glad Tidings, I haven't even made one for myself! So here's my request, if you've made Glad Tidings (any item) please send me a pic, I'd love to see it all made up :)

Can I see it?!

And if you haven't you still can, the complete table runner is available for free over in my pattern shop.  You can download it by clicking here now. 

Dear You Know Who You Are

Dear you know who you are,

You read my blog and became excited about my upcoming project - so excited that you joined my Yahoo BOM Group the very same month my pattern was first launched in June 2013. You know the one: the historic, epic, heartfelt work I spent years drafting just so I could share it with the world - and did so, -freely- in order to revive interest in it's legacy. You know all about that too, because you faithfully downloaded my free patterns each month alongside thousands of other quilters. And like many others, you opened an album in my Group and shared images of your progress on the quilt I had released. You enjoyed working on such a historic and beautiful pattern.You were moved by the story behind the once lost quilt - but not because of its historic value, no, you were motivated by other factors.

Like many members making the pattern, you were inspired. But then you went and did something very different to all those other quilters. You waited. And once my pattern release was complete, once all 18 parts had been freely given and downloaded, you decided that it was now time for you to start your own historic quilt. Coincidentally, it was of course the very same historic quilt which I had just released. It was, you would point out, very different from mine. And yet, not really.

For this time around, you had the luxury of using my pattern as the foundation basis from which you could work from and tweak to suit. You pretended to create a pattern in the manner I had documented several years before. But you forgot to mention that you already had my pattern available to copy from. And copy you did. To you, Copyright meant nothing. Sharing my skills was simply a platform for you to take from. And you took. And you made superficial changes which you thought made you a new original, but it did not make you any such thing. You made a counterfeit in the truest sense of the word, for you copied without acknowledging the source design, you copied without respect for me or my work, without respect for the original, without respect for the first quilter who had labored and who's identity was lost and without respect for yourself.

You know that I strongly encouraged quilters to take my pattern and 'make it their own' with my best wishes on one condition - that they acknowledge the source of their design. Many did this with increasingly wonderful results. But not you. You refuse to acknowledge and credit the source of your design.

Now I get continuous emails letting me know you're selling this pattern of yours. And I wonder: do your students know the source of your design? Do they know the legacy of the work? Do they know the original was found and potentially saved because of the free pattern release? Do they understand what Copyright means? Do they know what a destructive domino effect occurs when quilter's start turning a blind eye to Copyright? With all these documented facts recorded, I'm shocked and disappointed by your brazen, dishonest behavior.

Quilter, you know who you are.
But, I wonder, do you know what you are?

LE: Month by Month, Part 5

 

Well, what a week for Love Entwined, it's been one good event after another for this this quilt this month! As I type this Month by Month installment, I'm still over the moon for Narelle Birchall who won 3 awards at the Sydney Quilt Show for her extraordinary Love Entwined. And the best bit? The LE quilt explosion has only just started warming up. There are thousands of LE's out there and I can't wait to see more of them in the years ahead. What a lovely start to July.

Now, time for covering part 5. Last month I went over what starting the vases looks like from a technique point of view and I also listed lots of links full of information and lovely pics to help you decide how to fashion your own. With the 4 vases, each of the four months is relevant, so don't forget to re-visit the Part 4 link for inspiration and techniques. 

The vases are so special, and you have so much scope to fine tune them to your own style. They're a focal point for the eyes and they're surrounding the main centre, so you can make each unique and standout in its own corner, or style them to all harmonize. The fabric choices you make here can really impact your borders to come. That's why the colours are so important. A few well placed blender tones introduced in the centre now will allow you to reintroduce those colours later in the quilt. 

For me, I chopped and changed my vase flowers multiple times, I just couldn't settle. And each new idea worked in it's own way, but I couldn't stop fiddling until it 'felt' right. LE has that effect on it's makers, you can play around for hours before the quilt lets you know what works. You can read all about how I got through the always difficult fabric auditions in my posts related to Part 5 linked below. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Love Entwined is an extraordinary historic quilt pattern with it's own dedicated Group over on Facebook. You can purchase the pattern outright, or sign up to a monthly subscription that delivers a 'Part' to your email in-box each month for just $9.95. If you're interested in this once in a lifetime heirloom quilt, there's never been a better time to start. We've gone before you and have the blog posts, pics and experience to show you how we did it. Also, with an encouraging online group making LE themselves, there's always someone to connect with and chat to about this quilt.

What's stopping you?

Click here to buy the pattern as a complete download

 or as an ongoing BOM

WOW: What a Week!

WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays

I'm still all in a swoon about Narelle's Love Entwined looking so magnificent at the Sydney Quilt Show this year. I love all my quilts but it's a extra special feeling when they start showing up at Quilt Shows around the world and looking beautiful. I know there'll be a Love Entwined hanging at Houston this year too and I can tell you, I'm over the moon about it.

A few people have asked me if I'll release another free BOM after Hazel (which is nearly finished) and I'm happy to tell you that yes, I certainly will - so stay tuned. I'll announce the next free BOM when Hazel is completely done and dusted. Once again, I will be showing you what the completed quilt looks like because lots of members told me it was too hard to plan for a mystery, and I can appreciate that. So it will be a full reveal.

Thank you to everyone who supported me and purchased either Goldi, Bed of Roses (or both!) in the last 48 hours. I have a lot of patterns which I have decided to release and will be offering them for sale as and when I draft them for PDF patterning. Due to some loyal copyists out there, I'm no longer showing my design process here on my blog. This is because I design numerous quilts at once and it can be months before I get around to completing something I started months before - plenty of time for someone to take my idea, run with it and pose it as their own. So I'll only be showing them when they're ready for sale. And the next one? It's lovely, I can't wait to show it off..

What's Your WOW?

An InLinkz Link-up

Narelle's 'Love Entwined' wins Viewer's Choice!

Narelle Birchall, Love Entwined

I'm thrilled to bits to hear this morning that Narelle's Love Entwined has won Viewer's Choice at the Sydney Quilt Show! It is an extraordinary piece of work with a breathtaking standard and intensity of workmanship. I know, I've been lucky enough to see it in real life.

Not only was Narelle the first person to finish Love Entwined, she finished it to an excelled standard of beauty and dedication and really did the pattern proud. Can you tell I love it?

Judging is a fickle thing, so it's all the more wonderful when quilters get to cast their own vote for their own quilt of choice - and it's no surprise to me that Narelle won Viewer's Choice. Frankly, I would have been amazed if she hadn't.

See more pics of Narelle's amazing quilt over in the Love Entwined Gallery by clicking here now.  

An InLinkz Link-up

New Patterns: Goldi & Bed of Roses

Bed of Roses (finished size:66 x 66 inches)

So many patterns, so little time. When will I find the time to squeeze in this romantic beauty? Oh, I don't know but I have a feeling I will - somehow. I simply have to - those rose heads are calling me and I have no excuses because this quilt simplifies all those fabric indecisions - you only need to pick 4 fabrics and your quilt to ready to make.

I love limited colour schemes at the moment, they sooth my quilting conscience because they allow me to actually start without buying any additional prints!

I designed a series of quilts on this layout and in this size and have been lucky enough to see them made in real life by friends who were after 'quicker' wedding quilts to give as gifts and these two really satisfy without being overly committal time wise but still having every inch of charm and handmade beauty that you expect from treasured pieces.

I am madly in love with the white background because it would suit my current living room as a throw where I take my tea in the afternoons - and I love that white brightness against the wood and leather of my room -it brightens the room and matches my teacups- in fact I can already imagine it looking like an extension of my tea service, and I just love that idea so much that I can't pass it up. But, you know me - I did play. And look what happened when I made it in gold and browns. How warm and cozy does this look??

Goldi was designed to show off my gorgeous gold fabrics - which have been stacking up but difficult to work into other designs, so this one's all about the golds and warms browns with some splashes of red and pink to make the whole thing shimmer.

Goldi (finished size:66 x 66 inches)

The flowers in Goldi have a more naive feel and I love them all the more for it - they're large enough to show off those lovely print fabrics you're hesitant about cutting into. Is it just me, or are there some fabulous fabrics that just don't work once you've started cutting into them? I had that scenario on my own design board a few weeks ago and it encouraged me to make bigger designs, spatially, to give those types of fabrics a chance to breathe. These flower heads allow you to see glimpses of those gorgeous fabrics without the fabrics completely taking over the design. I think it's a difficult balance sometimes and Goldi strikes just the right chord with my eye.

For me, gold is the only way to go with Goldi, but I bet you're still as curious as I was to wonder what it would look like in lights? Like this:

I'm so happy to be releasing two new pattern today, it's always a special feeling to throw open my design folio and share my work with other quilters. To celebrate the release of Goldi and Bed of Roses, I'm offering both patterns for just $4.80 (USD) for 48 hours only. After that, they'll go into my online shop for $19.95.