Under the Sea

Finally, fishes in their habitat is done. What I see in my imagination never turns out exactly as I envisioned but this is close enough.

The sky with a crocheted sun, the water with lace waves lapping the shore, and seashells at the seashore.  The seashells are embroidered felt and the sand dollars are stamped acrylic paint.  There are some stamped fishes, too. This was my first venture into stamping. I loved the technique. I hope the heat-set paint holds up.

 Susanne asked if I could add zippers. Pricey trinkets at today's prices for a donated item, but I found one in my notions stash to try out. I made a little pocket and there's a surprise inside: felt goldfish on a satin ribbon stream.

  Flipflops on a ribbon were around some washcloths I bought recently. I gave the zipper a ribbon pull tab and a green grosgrain ribbon anchor tab to hold onto when zipping.

 

There's a pocket, every quilt gets at least one pocket. If you count the zipper, this one has 2.

The center part has 6 reverse applique fish, each a different texture. Linen, plain cotton print are shown here.

One of the 'fish' is just a silk circle with 2 little folded points that could be fishes entering the area. The other three are felt, linen and a piece of lining fabric, silky to touch. I couched several different yarns and used crochet thread in the bobbin to stitch a decorative pattern from the back side.

Green organza ribbon is couched to form seaweed, too.

I kept wondering why quilt clubs showed their donation quilts as just random pieces of fabric with touch items like zippers just stitched on and odd bits of fringe and stuff with little attention to colors and patterns and maybe a theme. 

The answer to my question was heart-breaking. They said, "Don't make them pretty. The touch is the thing for the residents. If you make pretty and bright and attractive, they will likely be stolen."

I decided to make mine as interesting as possible given what I have to work with, and add a feature that makes theft less tempting: a label. I roughly added the initials of the facility: MCNH on a bright tag that can't be missed. I embroidered it over and over so picking it out would be too painstaking to a thief and stitched it several times to the front. Then I stitched through all that into the whole quilt when the backing was on.

Just in case that is not enough, I made a regular label, printed with a fabric marker that is supposedly permanent and stitched it on the back side with enough lines of tiny machine stitches to make removing it difficult.


I'd like to think that theft is not a problem around here in small towns. Not so. A small blooming plant in a dollar cache pot that I sent to Miss Trudy when she was in another facility near here was taken from her room. Her sister visited daily and knew the day after it was taken. It was blooming and fine the day before when she visited, so it was not discarded because it died.
I also branded the quilt with my initials stamped in white acrylic paint, a fanciful JC in cursive so the J makes a butterfly's wings. The rest of my quilts will all wear a butterfly brand.

Stamping at the Savoy

Yesterday it rained all day. I made stamps using fun foam carved and glued to corrugated cardboard with a little tab handle of white Duck tape. Maybe it was the bright colors of fun foam that urged me on past a reasonable number of stamps.

I made a flamingo, some butterflies, a fox, poppy pods, flower forms, leaves just for fun and abstract lines. A tulip, a star, a seahorse, a bony fish --I could hardly stop.

Today when the sun shone bright, it was time to try out my work. I unrolled the undersea quilt and a lady quilt with fuchsia velvet and poplin.

I got cold feet. I had to remind myself that it was just cloth and thread and a little paint would not hurt.

I stamped a sand dollar beside some felt seashells.

I let some bony fish swim up out of dark water to tie the two 'water' fabrics together. While we're here, the two color item on the right is a little embellished zipper pocket. Suzanne encouraged me to add some zippers. I found one in my treasures to put on this quilt.

I added a stylized butterfly that forms my initials. While it rained, I read about Whistler --the one who painted the famous Portrait of his Mother-- signing his work with a similar mark. Of course, Whistler's was hardly recognizable as a butterfly, no more than mine is but his is much fancier. This first stamp, a negative shows up well but I decided a regular stamp was better suited.

  







I gathered courage to stamp my butterfly initials on  blocks belonging to the Lady Quilt.

I am emboldened to try some new decorative details since I joined free classes at Textile Evolution.

It sounded like such a fun place, I could not resist, even though it was a year past the time when others were taking part in the original studies. They assured me that it was all right to visit, comment, have a great time.
 
"Check out the free book studies of Fabric Embellishing: the Basics and Beyond with my friend Ruth Chandler and I under the Online Classes tab. You do need the book to participate in the book study but there isn't any fee to jump in and play. You will find tutorials, videos and fun projects." --Liz Kettle.

I had to make a little laundry list of the embellishments appropriate to my projects with Touch Quilts, else I'd be hauling out boxes of beads and ordering off for things not suited for tugging and tasting and going though a hot washer and dryer.  

Some of the class elements are things I already use: Couching, reverse applique, and decorative stitching using heavy thread in the bobbin sewn from the wrong side.  

I had already stitched many of the different stitches my sewing machine can make, but mine are just on pieces of scrap cloth, not neat and suitable for binding into an awesome book of embellishments. I did think to label most of the better ones.

Twenty-five years ago, I would have been flying off to the PNW or Colorado to take part in live classes for an unequaled learning experience. This is the next best thing.

 

Auditions Today

I am auditioning quilt blocks, ribbons, scraps and pieces of brocade material for touch quilts today.

 

One of the late Rachel Johnson's hand appliqued butterflies.

 Earlier this morning it was shocking to read that Fidget Quilts should not be pretty --I'd noticed that they often are not-- because it makes them tempting to theft from facilities where they're donated.

To make my quilts less attractive for larceny, I started machine embroidering the initials of the facility in 2" letters along the front edge through all layers. One would have to be really adept with a seam ripper to take out 3 layers of close zigzag without destroying the quilt. So sad it's necessary.

 

I think of my Touch Quilts as art. Maybe it isn't fine art, but I want them to look pleasing to the eye, so I have try-outs for fabric combos, complimentary colors, and ribbon trims.

 

Cabbage roses from this strip of upholstery

fabric can be turned in trapunto-style roses

with great touchable texture.

 

The orange color in the upper wing of this 

butterfly compliments some other pieces I may use.

 

A closer look. Note the fine hand stitching.  

I may zigzag over the stitching with monofilament 

thread to insure the vintage stitches stay in place.

While I'm auditioning colors and textures, I am also reviewing which trinkets and trims were successful in previous quilts. From left: 1) couched heavy knitting yarn, 2) crochet thread wound on a bobbin and machine stitched using a fancy stitch from the reverse side, and 3)lighter weight yarn, couched.  At the top are reverse applique 'fish' in different textures with ribbon trims.

The machine bobbin work is pleasing to the eye, but the touch factor is not nearly as good as the softness of couched yarn.