Its been awhile since I had something new to show my readers. My small A4 challenge group’s theme was Monochromatic. It is never as easy to do as it sounds! I chose to use a piece I stitched from rust dyed fabrics.
I know, I used blue thread for my hand stitching so it technically isn’t monochromatic but I plead artistic license!
I’m working on perfecting this method of construction for my work. These small A4 size challenges are perfect for sampling. This bi-monthly challenge was Into the Woods.
This month’s theme for my ATC, artist trading card, group is Sunshine. I can’t think of sunshine without thinking of shadows. And the one thing that says sunshine to me is a peanut butter kiss, they make sunshine in my mouth and make me smile. So, because it was just Halloween I have been hoarding kisses and the papers they are wrapped in. The papers became the base for the cards.
I covered the crinkled waxed paper with black ink and rubbed it off to highlight the crevices. Then I tore them unevenly to make the Ozark hills, used dyed dryer sheets and mulberry paper for the sunkissed sky, added dark tree trunks with the sunlight hitting them. You can see some of the view I see on drives in the fall.
This month’s Arts In The Cards theme of Sky for our color could be interpreted many ways. There can be the requisite blue sky with fluffy clouds, an angry gray sky, colorful sunsets and sunrises and so on.
I remember as a child waking up to a frosty window over my bed and being fascinated with the slowly lightening sky seen through the frost patterns on the glass.
I attempted to capture that here. The cards began from a piece of randomly free motion quilted fabric left from another project. It was painted with textile paints and then highlighted with a lavender/silver pigment. I then randomly embellished with clear glass glitter and silver mirror glitter. Just like frosty windows, no two cards are alike.
Finally. This is the first time I’ve plugged in my new Sunshine 16 that I purchased in Houston at Festival. It isn’t that I don’t have pieces to quilt…I do. They are laying on the trundle bed in the background. I didn’t feel there was a big learning curve with this machine since I’ve been doing free motion quilting on a home machine for over 15 years. But…as much as I hated to take the time I thought I should do some more test driving.
Taking a cue from David Taylor who I watched using the Sweet 16 ( the Sunshine 16 competitor) on Utube and at Festival, I simply stacked a backing, batting and top together without basting…this is only for something small that won’t be scrunched around and I was anxious to get stitching.
You can see in the next photo it is really easy peasy. I can’t say that I had any tension issues . The learning curve is finding the speed that is right .
I had a couple of thread breaks at super high speeds but I didn’t really match my top and bobbin threads since this was practice. I didn’t get any bird nests on the backside, so that’s good. I found a speed that worked well for me, not too fast, not too slow but just right. I could practice more but I don’t think I want to take the time.
Since the pieces I have to do involve a LOT of thread sketching and heavy quilting, I think I will just get to it. There are miles of thread to go before I’m done with them.
So far I have this machine sitting on top of my Koala cutting table. There isn’t a frame with the one I bought but they have a frame it will fit onto if that floats your boat. With the portable table you can see in the photos it is just the right height for standing to quilt. I can sit on a stool if I need to take a break, too. I bought a new cushy rubber mat at the home store. Each of these little bubbles squishes when you step on it. It feels wonderful and is a great surface to stand on without fatigue.
JP Dawes Contemporary Artist 