Relaxing Hawaiin-style




Some of my Mom's orchids and the inspiration for my latest designs!

Are you ready for something easy- or at least mindless?  I know I am!!  Especially, after a grueling week at the office, NOTHING fits the bill like Hawaiian-style needle turn appliqué!  Easy and relaxing with rewarding results. 





Original designs ready to be basted

I had some gorgeous fabric my husband  hand dyed that I was 'dyeing' to tryout.  

For the two tone, matching fabric - he's calling them Tropical Twins- I wanted to design something very simple that would showcase the color- in other words let the color do all the work.  The design itself is really EASY appliqué.  All large shapes and gentle curves perfect for practicing points.




Basted and ready to start applique

Very easy applique

For the mottled purple I knew I could design something a little more intricate.  My Mom's orchids where my inspiration. I chose a simple Kona white background because that is the classic Hawaiian choice and because I wanted to showcase the beautiful texture of the purple fabric.


My original design inspired by my Mom's orchids

Closeup of my Orchid design cut out of my husband's hand dyed fabric

More closeups of my quilt top

I prepped and basted the quilts last weekend.  These two plus one I have been stitching on and off for about a year now should keep me busy for quite a while :)

Until next time... 

Best stitches from Mercy in Miami

Tropical Inspiration - The Esperanza Rose Block



A while back I remember reading a statistic that stated the vast majority (over 90%) of flowers for sale in the US enter via the ports in Miami, Florida.  So, apart from the warm weather, one of the benefits of living in South Florida is an abundance of inexpensive flowers for sale all year round.  Every Friday morning, a flower vendor comes to the office building where I work, to sell the most spectacular roses - 24 roses for $15 US.  These are the roses I purchased Friday. 

The variety is called Esperanza (Hope in Spanish).  They are so beautiful I knew that they would be the inspiration for my next block.   

 

The tile I am holding in my hand is from a visit last February to the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. 

 

Here is the result - the Esperanza Rose Block.  I am still refining the drawing and making notes.  Let's face it, the New World Rose block is a tough act to follow.  My Esperanza roses will be the color inspiration as well.

Here is another block from a quilt in the same show at the museum that has just been haunting my creative mind.  I just love how prominent the needle artist chose to depict the leaves.  I suspect it is supposed to be Heliconia.  The quilt belonged to a Rev. George Eggleston and his wife Frances Muse Eggleston.

 

However, I just saw this beauty blooming in my Mom's yard this weekend. I have no idea what type of flower or bush it is but I love it!  Notice that the flower petals are really distressed leaves.  The ideas are percolating and I already started some sketches.  Hmmm.....

 

I wish all readers a happy, healthy, New Year.  May your 2014 be filled with laughter, friendship, and creative pursuits!

 

Best stitches,

Mercy in Miami

Second Chance...or Love It Now Because It Will Not Grow On You

Happy summer dear blog readers!

I hope your summer (and for those on the other side of the equator, your winter) is happy and fulfilling.  My summer is flying by.  I'm extremely busy at work and at home.  In my studio, I am happily  auditioning fabrics and supplies for the Santa Maria: New World Rose block that I will be teaching in February 2014 at The Elly Sienkiewicz Applique Academy.  Click  HERE and scroll down to Class 405 to read a class description. 
 
In the Fine Arts world, artist frequently work in series.  As series is usually when an artist creates several pieces that explore the same theme.  Some artist work in a series for a few pieces and some work in a series their entire career.  Sometimes,  the work that comes out of a series is referred to as a "Period".  A famous example is Picasso's Blue Period.  One of my favorite artist and his series is Wayne Thiebaud Cakes and Pies.  When my medium was oil and watercolor, I too used to work in series.  In fabric, not so much.  I'm not sure why.  Which leads me to the title of this blog, Second Chance.  I am stitching another Santa Maria block in preparation for the upcoming class.  I don't think I have ever stitched a second of anything on purpose.  I am so happy that I am.  On the second block I have the opportunity to fix all the little design flaws that I was only able to pick up on after the original block was completely stitched.  And of course drive me crazy every time I look at it!  Arrgh!  So the class block will not be EXACTLY the same - because it will be BETTER!  At least in my humble opinion.
 


So much happier with the flower wreath!!!

For the second block, I'm taking photos at every step to include in the class pattern instructions.  Below is a sneak peak.  The photo captions are some of my favorite tips!  Enjoy!


Select a background fabric you LOVE.  You will be staring at it for as long as you work on your project. If you don't love it before you start, I guarantee you won't grow on you later.  It will instead become an excuse to dump the project into the UFO pile.

 
 

Layout all the fabrics you select for a project in some type of order.  Take a photo of it with a digital camera or even your phone.  Take a critical look at it.  Is the combination pleasing to the eye or does anything stand out?  Or look like it does not belong?  Play and enjoy the process.  The only person you have to please is yourself.  If  you love the selections and combination then you will love the outcome!  Again, and sadly, if you don't love it now you will not love it any better later!.

Until next time...
 
Best stitches!
Mercy in hot, humid, sunny Miami

 



 

 

What Color Are Leaves?



Striped Leaves

For most of my childhood my definition of heaven was a box of crayons and a coloring book.  When I started first grade my parents splurged and gifted me with my first Crayola 64 box with the built in crayon sharpener.  I remember pulling each crayon out, reading the names, and lining them all up by color.  I loved each and everyone. 

In 1966, in Miami, Florida, on an especially nice afternoon, Sister Christine took the first grade class outside.  She sat us all in circle under a large banyan tree.  She stood in the middle of the circle and held up a crayon drawing of a tree; a brown rectangle topped by three green cotton ball shapes. She then handed each of us a piece of white craft paper and asked us to draw a tree.  Now, I was more of a coloring book type of kid.  I like choosing the colors and staying inside the lines.  I wasn't particularly interested in drawing my own pictures.  (Maybe that's why today I love to buy other designer's patterns and subscribe to BOM's.)  I copied the basic drawing, the rectangle trunk and the cotton ball shaped leave clusters.  I filled in the shapes using every color in my box - all 64 colors!  I remember feeling quite proud of my drawing.  I also remember Sister Christine's shadow falling over my paper and the paper being ripped from my hands.  She held the drawing up to the class and said "Children, please look at this drawing.  This is a perfect example of not listening to your teacher and not following directions."  Then the drawing was torn into several small pieces.  I was given another blank sheet and asked to do the assignment again but this time correctly.  But, we were sitting under a tree!  Couldn't Sister Christine see the colors were all there?  That my drawing was accurate?  Didn't she know that leaves were red and black and orange and brown and pink with only a tiny bit of green?  The trunk was dark red and purple and yellow - see!  I guess she didn't because she didn't accept my assignment until I turned in a brown trunk topped with exactly three, green, cotton boll shapes.

Polka Dot Leaves

Fast forward 45 years. I am here to say, without fear of another unsatisfactory mark in conduct on my report card, LEAVE ARE NOT JUST GREEN and TREE TRUNKS ARE NOT JUST BROWN.  The photo at the top of the blog is of a bromiliad with zebra striped leaves- how cool is that?  How about the polka dot leaves on the right?  They are yellow green with white polka dots on the top of the leaf and bright magenta on the underside of the leaf.

Below is one of my favorite trees in our local botanical garden.  It's a camouflage tree.  The photo does not do it justice.  It is shades of blue, grey, pink, yellow, etc.





Camouflage Tree




Use your imagination and use your stash.  Use the colors, textures, patterns, prints, values, and scale that speaks to your heart and eye.  Make sure that what you stitch brings you joy.  Isn't that why we all started to quilt in the first place? 



Potential Leaf Fabric



I recently took a quick trip to a local quilt shop and  found some interesting fabrics to use for leaves.  My guidelines for buying fabric is "If you love it buy it"  and "If you use enough variety of fabrics, they all go together" 

This was specifically an applique fabric finding trip.  I found water fabric, sail fabric for a clipper ship. a great red for berries, lace print, very small checks, and multi-colored ric rac for gathered flowers.  My chauffeur ( and wonderful husband) fell in love with the Superman fabric.  I will make a couple of pillowcases for his man cave. 

Quilt Shop Finds



20 1/2 Inch Square Ruler



However, the FIND of the trip was a 20-1/2 inch square ruler.  Unless you are an appliquer you can't appreciate the pure joy of this find.  I am a Baltimore style applique enthusiast.  The original blocks were in a large scale - 18 inch to 20 inch or more finished size.  I also like to have the option of a larger scale block.  For 2 years I have been working on a quilt made up of 13 - 18 inch blocks set on point.  I have had more than one sleepless night fretting about how I was going to square up and trim a block that size (on point) when the largest square ruler I had ever found locally was 16-1/2 inches.  I actually did a happy dance right in the store. 

Here are a few more photos from our local botanical garden.  I find them very inspiring. 

Until next time,

Best stitches,

Mercy in Miami





Lucy and Ethel

Back Basting Takes Flight - In Reverse!

I love all types of appliqué. I get just as excited about intricate, perfectly placed, 100-plus piece per block, Baltimore-style blocks as I do a single folk art heart. Most of the time I am happy stitching on something in between the two extremes. Sometimes I just need it to be simple. These days I am in my Simple Zone.


However, what if I need it to be simple to mark and stitch but I want it to look complex? I have two favorite techniques to accomplish this. The first is to set the block on point. Any block will look more complex this way. Suddenly your piece is bigger and you now have beautiful setting triangles to quilt beautiful motifs.


The second technique to transform the look of simple into complex is also one of my favorite, easy appliqué techniques - reverse appliqué! Traditional appliqué has the stitcher place the appliqué fabric on top of the background fabric. The appliqué fabric is stitched onto the background. In reverse appliqué, the appliqué fabric is placed UNDER the background fabric. The background is cut away to reveal the appliqué fabric underneath. The background is stitched to the appliqué fabric. You can layer several pieces of fabric to make the appliqué look more complex but it's all easy because everything is securely basted in place.

Here is a green rosebud that was appliquéd onto an aqua background. The center of the green rosebud was reverse appliquéd to reveal a hot pink, polka dot fabric placed underneath. Looks difficult but is very easy to execute. The added benefit of using the Template Free or Back Basting technique for reverse appliqué is that the basting stitches secure everything in place and removes any risk of fraying and of fragile pieces coming apart or shifting. Refer to my blog entry Pinch of This and Dash of That for details of how I stitched this bud

I am currently working on a challenge piece for my local guild, Ocean Waves.  My initial idea and sketch was a little more intricate than I really have time to execute.  Out comes my bag of tricks.  I knew I wanted the peacock feather eyes in the finished piece but I wasn't willing to appliqué 20 plus sets of concentric circles.  

My peacock fabric was perfect but I did not think fussy cutting and appliquéing them onto the tail feathers was the right look.  Then the heavens parted, a ray of light shone down, and I heard a choir of angels singing in perfect harmony.......reverseeee  appliqueeeeeeee........amennnnnnn......

Yes - I had a plan.   I studied the peacock feather fabric and realized I would not even have to cut it apart.  I would cut a chuck of the fabric in the shape I wanted the peacock's tail to take.

I then placed the peacock feather fabric face down (wrong side up) on the wrong side of the fabric I was going to use to stitch the main tail. 

I basted all around the outside of the feather fabric to hold it in place.  I then basted (using smaller stitches) around each eye in the feather fabric.  I shaped each teardrop a little differently to add visual interest.  I basted larger teardrops as I move to the bottom of the tail.  I changed the direction of the teardrops to give the tail some movement.  

After all the basting was complete, I appliquéd a single eye to make sure this was indeed going to work and give me the look I was hoping for.  Reverse appliqué is stitched from the top - the right side of the background fabric.  This is easy to do because the basting stitches exactly mark the turn line.

 I prefer to use a seam ripper to make the initial slit in the background fabric.   


I then used my sharpest pair of embroidery scissors to trim excess fabric and leave only the scant 1/8 inch seam allowance.  

I clipped to the turn line in the cleft at the top of the teardrop.  I made several shallow clips perpendicular to the turn line in the concave, u-shape, bottom of the teardrop.  See my tutorial Clip, Clip, Snip, Snip for a refresher on proper clipping techniques.  

I finger pressed my seam against the basting stitches to help score the turn line. 

I was ready to stitch.  I appliquéd the teardrop shape.  YES, it was exactly the look I wanted and the feather eye was centered in the teardrop opening.  

I was able to trim the blue tail fabric so that I would have  a smaller piece of fabric to gather in my hand while I stitched. 

 I also pre-trimmed all the teardrops shapes so that I could preview the tail section.  Fraying was not a worry because everything was securely basted.  This was now a sturdy piece that can travel in my handwork bag. 

Here is a sneak peak at how the tail will be incorporated into the design.  For the rest you will have to wait until after my guild challenge in January.

The design idea, sketch, fabric selection, basting, and stitching were all completed in an afternoon.  For those of you that do not know me - this is a record.  I am going to have to come up with more designs that I can use this technique on.  Fast, fun, and freeform thanks to Back Basting! 

Best Stitches,

Mercy in Miami

Fanciful, Free Motion, Freeform Feather Fun

The second Saturday in August I will be teaching a Freeform Feather Workshop for my guild, Ocean Waves.  I began preparing for the class by pulling examples of quilted feather designs that I stitched freeform (or freehand).  As I studied these quilts I began to write my notes.  The notes expanded into a handout.  The next thing I know the handout became a 50 page workbook.  I am a huge fan of quilted feathers.  They are so beautiful, and once you get the hang of if, so easy to stitch it's impossible to not fall in love with them.

Feathers are made up of three parts, the Base of the Spine, the Spine, and the Individual Feathers.

There are endless variations of Spines.

The Individual Feathers set the tone for the design.

Practice drawing feathers.  It's an easy way to try out design ideas and it teaches your muscles the "feather motion".  Eventually, all you will need to mark is a guide for the Spine, and maybe the outer boundaries. 

When you are ready to commit thread to fabric, your choice of materials is critical to your success.  Machine quilting is unlike other quilt making techniques in that skill cannot overcome inferior materials.  Select the best quality thread, fabric, and batting that you can afford.  For example, investing in Tuscany Wool batting gives feathers a stuffed (trapunto) effect that cannot be achieved with another, less expensive batting.  Stitching in a fine, silk or cotton thread, or a high quality invisible nylon thread hides a multitude of sins.  These threads are so forgiving that you don't even need to stick to the same color as the background for the stitches to look lovely.

I stitched my first free motion, freehand feathers  several years ago right after I took my first class with Diane Gaudynski.  If you ever get the opportunity to take a class with Diane, run, don't walk to sign up.  I never would have had the confidence to try freehand feathers without Diane's instruction.   My feather shapes are little jerky and the thread choice is not ideal but for my first effort I was quite pleased.  The little quilt, Pretty in Pink, (25 inches square) was stitched using commercial Moda cottons, Cherrywood hand-dyes, Tuscany Wool batting, and YLI #100 silk thread on my Bernina 440QE using the BSR.

A few years later I was fortunate enough to take a machine quilting class with Sharon Schamber.   I showed up to class with my 440QE and the BSR.  Sharon immediately zeroed in on the BSR and asked me to try putting it way for the class.  She approach is more along the lines of "Zen and the Art of Quilting".  She was absolutely right.  I found I actually had more control and more freedom to maneuver without the BSR than with it.  It was like taking the training wheels off of your bicycle.  Since then I have never used the BSR again.  However, like the training wheels and learning to ride a bike, without the BSR, I never would have learned to free motion quilt.  The Iris quilt on the left is my first freehand, free motion, none BRS, effort.  The pattern is by Alice Wilhoit.  The Iris is stitched using commercial fabrics, Tuscany Wool batting, DMC #50 cotton machine embroidery thread.  Again, it's far from perfect, but the owner, my good friend LaVerne, loves it as if it were.  And, it shows improvement.

Since then, I have taken more classes with Diane and I have forced myself to machine quilt as many pieces as possible with as little marking as possible.  The exception is Diane-shiko that requires a marked grid. Here is a close-up of my last free motion, mostly free hand quilted piece.  It is a whole cloth design on RJR Sateen, quilted on my Bernina 830 using Tuscany Wool batting and YLI #100 silk thread.  For those of you that own a Bernina 830 and like to use (our would like to experiment with) fine threads for free motion quilting, check with your dealer to make sure that the latest software update is installed on your machine.  Bernina recently adjusted the software to specifically address the challenges of stitching with extra fine threads.  

I hope this blog entry inspires you to try freehand feathers, or at least free motion quilting.  If you are a true beginner, it may be a little overwhelming to to do it on your own so sign up for a class at your local shop or guild. Once you get the hang of free motion quilting you will never look back!  

Until next time....

Best stitches,

Mercy in Miami