found materials

Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Fabric: With Apologies to Samuel R. Delany

| ellenanneeddy

I’ve worked on cleaning up the studio over the last two days. Finishing The Garth left me done in a lot of ways. It’s hard to change gears and start something new. Usually I fish around for what’s left over from something else to make something new. It’s kind of like stone soup. You start something out of pretty much nothing and throw things in. It works for me. It isn’t often I start something out of complete nothing. There’s something left over, and it needs it’s own place.

You can really measure time in objects. Certainly you can measure time in work you’ve done. I was thinking about how my work has changed over the years. I’ve been quilting since I was 21. I’m 68. I have had time to see the art quilt movement start, grow, boom, explode, and retreat a bit . But if I’m honest about it, much of what I did was about the fabrics that were available to me. So I thought I’d look back at some of my work, and show where it shifted for me. Please forgive some of these photos for their size and detail. Some of them are quite old and out of my hands.

Solid colors:

I made my first quilts as bed quilts. I made them. We used them. They died, as most bed quilts do.

After that I fell in love with Amish quilts. That kind of stitching can only show up on solids. They arrived on the quilt scene around in the beginning 1980’s . Of course I couldn’t hand stitch them either. I was a dreadful hand quilter always. I worked with a walking foot and quilting by counting four stitches over for each row.

Hand Dyed Cotton

I’d been dyeing fabric since I was ten. But it was a game changer when I started treating dyed fabric with sponge painting. It gave me a light source within the quilt that I didn’t need to piece.

Sheer Fabrics:

I discovered sheers and laces as applique for translucent things like water, air, fire and flower petals. It gave me a way of layering things objects. It’s a cool trick and I still use it.

Weird brocades:

I first came into fancy brocades at the textile discount outlet in Chicago. But I’ve hunted them ever since. They make magnificent bugs.

Hand Dyed Cheesecloth:

Hand dyed cheesecloth makes a marvelous sheer. And It acts just like cotton because it is cotton. Here I used it to make mountains, but I’ve used it for flowers, mushrooms, rocks, and all kinds of things. The texture is cool too.

Oil Stick Rubbed Fabric

Oil Rubbed Fabric.

For as much as I avoided prints and textures, I’ve now fallen in love with the textures I can create with paint stick rubbed fabrics.

As I was cleaning out my studio I found all of these things. Some of them I use constantly. Some of them I see as a thing I outgrew a while ago. But art is not measured by our products. It’s measured by learned skill, new ideas and inspiration in use.

Couching to Define the Line

| ellenanneeddy

You quilted it. You designed it, you’ve stippled and embroidered. And still it’s not quite there. It doesn’t quite move.

Terribly frustrating. Easily fixed. Sometimes all it takes is a scrap of yarn.

Yarn doesn’t work in a sewing machine. If it’s lumpy or thick, it won’t go through the needle or the bobbin. But it can be couched down. What is couching? You stitch over the yarn to attach it to the quilt. Almost anything can be couched as long as it’s not so thick a needle won’t go through it.

Here are some quilts that aren’t quite moving. And here are some yarns I considered using on them.

Any of these yarns would work. But what do I want them to do? On the pink butterfly piece, I want to accentuate the green plant like forms. A dark stem will do that. For the grey moth, I want a swirl of color to draw the eye through the surface of the quilt. I t needs the brighter bolder choice. On the butterfly in leaves, I want to punch up the stems to define the leaves better. All those greens will work.

I use a regular pressor foot with a groove in the center. The yarn slides right through it.

A walking zigzag works very well to stitch down yarn. Although a zigzag works as well. I use monofilament nylon in the top and regular poly embroidery thread in the top. I take a few stitches with the feed dogs down and then raise the feed dogs and stitch the yarn. Then I drop the feed dogs again to anchor the yarn.

Once the thread is anchored, I can just trim off any edges.

A scrap of yarn can make your whole piece dance!

Eye Popping Color: Charting Color in Fantasy Mushrooms

| ellenanneeddy

I’ve written a lot about color because I think a lot about color. I It fascinates me, from dye, to fabric to thread. I’ve been working on a batch of mushrooms for some new quilts and I decided to look at the colors through the color wheel just to codify what I was choosing.’

I’m not going to talk about color theory here, precisely. Instead I’m going to talk about relationships in color. Color theory can be deeply and obscurely discussed in millions of ways. I’ve seen it discussed as building blocks, tonal poems, wave lengths and light waves. I’m not sure how much of that is useful. I thought it might be helpful to simplify instead. I’m not dissing color theory. But I am trying to think about it differently.

I’m also not going to use color names. I want you to look at the relationships of the colors instead. But here’s the distinction I find most helpful. Color harmony has to do with how close colors are on the wheel. Contrast has to do with how far away they are. Harmony is of course beautiful. But contrast is what draws our eyes, It is what makes colors pop.

Contrasts come in several style. The colors themselves are their positions on the wheel. Darkened and lightened colors make the tones and tints. Then there is the clear colors. So for fun, sit back, get drunk on the colors and ignore the names. But look where the contrasts and the harmonies are in these color choices.

Notice the range of purples together that create a smooth section of colors and the yellow and greens that contrast. Notice the differences between the dark blues and purples and the lighter yellow and greens. The further distance colors are from each other, the stronger the contrast. The contrast creates the pop.

It’s not as simple as a recipe. It’s not what I was doing. But I did pick full swaths of colors next to each other with a few colors opposite from them. I also actively chose light/dark ranges for harmony and for contrast. It’s not about what we name colors. It’s about their relationship together. The very light green makes the sparkle on this ‘sroom. It looks white. But the green heightens the contrast.

Shading looks different than colors put side by side, but they still meld into each other. The eye blends thread colors that are sitting side by side.

Where are they going? They’re not in place yet, and I’m hoping for smaller frogs to go with, but bright kick ass mushrooms are exactly what I had in mind. I think I’m going to make it rain.

In process forest floor with mushrooms

I’m going to leave you with a small gift here. There are two color wheels here that I made for this blog, one empty and one fully colored. I invite you to use them to chart your own color on a project as you work. Down load them, print them up and use them to see how the colors you use chart up and relate to each other. And let me know what you find. It can be eye opening.

You are welcome to download these two pictures to chart your own colors!

The Light of the World: Creating a Fabric Universe

| ellenanneeddy
The blue fabric creates the light that shades these flowers with blue, and pale green as well as white

You would think that the light in a quilt begins with the color choices of either thread or fabric. It does, and it doesn’t.

The red/fuchsia/ soft orange shades this white mantis with bits of pink and yellow as well as white.

It comes back to hand dyed fabric. I dye fabric because it creates a world of it’s own. The color of the fabric creates the light of that world.

I’ve been working with an idea of frogs on a false bird of paradise vine. I wanted a daylight background that would bespeak greenery without being strictly green. So I started looking for a piece that create that world.

I did not dye fabric for this specifically. This is what I had in house.

So which will I choose? I pulled out the purple first thinking it would give more contrast. But it was absolutely glum. The blue looked like a good choice but it was in itself too watery and not long enough. I didn’t mean to pull up the piece with the lavenders and greens, but I love what it does with the purple stitching in the frogs.

And look what it does with the red/yellow fabric for the vines. The fabric makes the light of the world I’m building.

Had I dyed fabric for it, I might not have been as pleased. When I do, I dye at least three-five pieces in a range to get one I like. Hopefully.

But all those purples, greens and yellows can’t be too wrong.

I’ll show you more of this piece as it goes along.

Thread Colors to Dye For: How To Dye Threads for Shading

| ellenanneeddy

I’m obsessed with thread shading. I want images to be as 3-d as possible. To do that I shade with as many colors as I can. With regular #40 embroidery thread, I can use almost an infinite number of colors to shade an image. Particularly for a larger image. It’s a pretty large paint box. And you can use them all.

With heavy weight bobbin threads, there’s just not that much space in an image to shade. So this is my answer. Instead of adding more and more colors, I dye the thread so that it’s got a range of color within each thread.

Most commercially dyed thread comes in one of two styles. Either they mix a dark color with a number of lighter shades ending in white. Or they do the rainbow either in pastels or brights. The rainbow color ones work for stippling. They don’t shade well at all. The ones with dark to white leave a white area I really don’t like.

Most images can be zoned in dark, medium and light areas. They also can be zoned into different colors, like the spots and the frog’s body.

Dyeing threads to shade images can be set up the same way. You can dye a shader, a shocker and a smoother. The shader thread is the color of your image darker than you want the whole image to be. Add in a dark shading color like dark brown, purple, green or blue, or it’s complement, plus 4-6 dark shades of the whole color. The shocker is a medium range of 5-6 colors with a shocking color mixed into it. Usually a bright complementer color works best as a shocker. The smoother is a color that is a bright highlighter shade that fills in the image and finishes in the shaded image.

The range of colors gives you at least a 15-18 color range in a small bobbin work image. Other colors can be added. There are no rules, but here are some color ranges that work well.

Shader: Dark orange, yellows and reds, and browns

Shocker: Yellows and two purples

Smoother: Yellows and oranges

Shader: Dark purples, blues and greys

Shocker: Medium greys and teals

Smoother: Medium to light purples

Shader: Teals, and oranges

Shocker: Yellows and teals

Smoother: Yellows, and oranges

You get the idea. Dye the thread to do your shading for you. As you fill in the stitching with rhythmic motions, the shading progresses across the image. All you have to do for thread like that is dye for it.

New Threads:

| ellenanneeddy

There’s nothing like new threads. You know I love thread. It’s the most important component in my art. I love my fabric but I am nuts over thread.

One of the things that is different for me now that I am no longer on the circuit, is that I don’t have to make threads that are commercially saleable. I’m not constrained by that so I can explore threads that can’t be reproduced in regular quantities for students. I’ve used # 8 pearl cotton because it came in dye hanks. I could easily dye it for myself but also for also for students who were in my class and needed access to the threads I worked with.

#10 pearl cotton

Now that I just in my studio working my own art, I have the freedom to work with things that can’t easily be put up for sale. This last dye load, I dyed up a load of thread that I’m so excited by. I’m looking forward to trying out my #10 pearl cotton.

You can’t dye thread wound in a ball. You can hank it off with a swift, but there’s no way to make even skeins without counting accurately. Those of you who know me know how likely that is.

8 and 10 pearl cotton

The smaller ball is #8 pearl. The larger on is #10 pearl. The larger the number the smaller the thread. The #10 still needs to be worked in the bobbin case, but it will give a finer grain stitching. I’ve started the first row on this frog in the #10 so you can see how it stitches up. I am so excited!

frog in #10 pearl cotton

Sometimes a change in materials changes our work immensely. Sometimes it makes a little change. Sometimes it changes nothing. There’s no way to know until you work with things. But the possibilities make me giddy.

Skimming the Surface: Bobbin Work as Stippling: Part 4

| ellenanneeddy
Fall Stream Detail

Up until now in this series, we’ve worked on images both in thick and thin threads, in zigzag and straight stitching. There’s one other place I use bobbin work. I use it for stippling.

Why? More of those wonderful beautiful difficult threads.

It’s no secret I’m a magpie. I love things that are shiny. And I always want to pull the eye across the quilt.

I often use Sliver, which I’ve shown you before, as a stippling thread. It’s fragile. It can be used with Sewer’s Aid and a #90 topstitching needle but it’s always easier to put it in the bobbin and match it with a polyester or rayon 40 weight. I’ll start with the lightest color around my light source, and shade outward one color after another. It helps define the light source, carry your eye across the piece and make it all shine.

I love sliver as a sky stipple or as water. So many colors! And so many ways to shift the color across the surface of the quilt.

Commander Koi

But sometimes I like to do something different with water though. I love sliver, but it doesn’t show up as well over organza or lace. So I like to use the #8 weight metallics, again in the bobbin. They make wonderful waves and rivulets. This is a thread you can use only in the bobbin. It defines the movement of water beautifully.

You can see everything from the back!

Everyone always worries about not being able to see from the back, but it ‘s not true. Here’s an unfinished piece almost ready for stippling. You can see the sun, the dragonfly and the rocks all on the back side, All you have to do is stipple.around them.

I hope this series leaves you excited and able to try all kinds of threads you thought were too hard or too difficult to work with in the bobbin. It’s a brand new world of possibilities, and beautiful choices.

Zigging Upended: Zigzag Machine Applique: Bobbin Work 3

| ellenanneeddy

The last two posts we did looked at bobbin work for thick thread. This time we’ll look at a whole other reason to work from the bobbin and a whole different result.

Everyone loves metallic thread. It’s beautiful. I’ve heard it described as candy. I concur. That is until you start to stitch with it. There are a number of things that make it “easier” to work with metallic thread. But no one ever says it’s easy.

Why? If you look at the construction of metallic thread, it’s pretty obvious. Metallic thread comes in a twisted flecked thread, a metallic colored lurex wrapped around a core, and a thin strand of lurex. Either way, it’s thread made to be shredded. It’s not one solid strand of one thing. It’s a combination that uncombines with ease.

How do we get around that? Sewers Aid (silicon treatment for thread) and a number 90 topstitching needle help. But the easy answer is to put it in the bobbin and work from behind.

I know. I know. I can hear you screaming “What????” at me through the computer screen. Sensibly enough. But any time my thread goes through the top of my machine, it goes through the needle 50 times. It gets pulled up through the bobbin once. Are you wondering why your thread broke? It’s so much easier to put the breakable thread in the bobbin.

Madeira Supertwist Metallic Thread

For this, I used #40 weight metallic thread. I really like Madeira’s Supertwist for it’s color and shine and the color range. So we don’t need an adjusted bobbin case. We can use the regular bobbin case. But we still want to match the needle thread color to the metallic thread color. You will see both threads on the right surface of the quilt.

I do these most often as appliques. Why? Because they really pucker up. The distortion on zigzag stitching is ferocious. I make the same sandwich as last week, my drawing on Totally Stable, Stitch and Tear, felt, and hand dyed fabric.

I’ve talked a lot in this blog about free motion zigzag stitching. What matters is the angle that the fabric goes through the machine. Straight through gets a thick clunky line. At an angle gets you a very nice outline. Going from side to side gets you a great shading stitch. All out of the same zigzag.

I started by zoning my piece so I know the areas where the color changes.

I began with a black out line zigzag. Then I built my colors in, first with an outline, then the shading and then that clunky line to smooth it out, one shade after another, starting from dark to light. The last color I put on will be the color I see the most.

Here’s the process shots for this frog.

  • spots
  • spots from back
  • outline
  • green shading
  • purple shading
  • turquois shading
  • medium green
  • lighter green
  • medium purple
  • lightest green
  • soft purple stomach
  • apricot shading
  • light yellow
  • finished frog

After I’ve stitched it completely, the stitching lay flat, but the area around it ruffled like a party dress. I cured the whole thing by simply cutting off the background.

To apply it to my quilt, I stitched it down with the same black thread outline, run through at an angle to make a great smooth edge.

What is the difference between thin thread and thick thread?

Thick Thread

Bobbin Case Only

Adjusted Bobbin Case

Always Abstracted by Stitching

Puckers Up Some

Thin Thread

Use in Needle or Bobbin Case

Regular Bobbin Case

Can Be More Detailed and Shaded

Puckers Up Mightily

The other major reason to use bobbin work with thin thread is because you can tie up the ends on the back. Every time you clip your threads from the front, there’s two thread ends poking up. For multiple layers of stitching, that can make the whole piece look fuzzy. I always prefer to work from the back and tie my ends up from behind, to keep them out of sight. This works just as well for poly/and or rayon threads as well. These moths were done upside down as well, but with poly threads only.

Don’t be afraid to work upside down! You’ll find all kinds of threads that have been fiends are now your best friends.

Topsy Turvy: The Wonders of Thick Thread: Bobbin Work Part Two

| ellenanneeddy
Thick metallic thread and pearl cotton bobbin work make up the heron

Do you like instant gratification? But of course! Using thick thread in the bobbin is showy, exciting and quick as machine embroidery goes. It’s one of my favorite techniques.

Bobbin work is the only way I know to free motion with thick threads. I’m defining thick threads as #3-8 threads. What those numbers mean is that if you put 8 threads side by side, they would make an inch. This is what thread count means.

adjusting a bobbin case

Thick threads can’t fit through the needle. They do fit easily in an adjusted or bypassed bobbin case. How do you know what kind of machine you have. If you open up your bobbin and it’s in a little silver housing that comes out of the machine, that’s a bobbin case. For thick thread, you loosen the bobbin case by turning the screw about 3/4 of a turn to the left. It’s best to have a separate bobbin case for the purposes. Bobbin cases get old, so it’s never a bad idea to buy a fresh one and make your new bobbin case your true bobbin case. Mark the old one with nail polish, and keep it just for thick thread.

If your bobbin just drops into a housing in your machine, it can be bypassed. You simply don’t put it into tension. No need to adjust anything.

I tend to keep extra bobbins to hold and store thread I’ve wound off. One bobbin per thread. If I don’t use it for one project, I’m bound to use it for another.

Never wind a bobbin on top of thread on the bobbin. It messes terribly with your tension.

I usually stitch on a similar fabric to the background, or one that matches the color of the embroidery. Don’t fool yourself. IT WILL SHOW!

a different frog, zoned

Your image is always backwards. Think of it as a slide. You can see it through either side. I use Totally Stable as my patterns, drawn with marker. It irons on but the excess will tear away.

Stitching in a creature is like coloring with different crayons. I pick black as my outline, and then I zone my drawing. On this frog, there’s a tummy zone, a stripe zone, an eye zone, and the basic body.

I choose my darkest thread in that zone first, the color I want to be dominate. I add a shader color, usually purple, brown or a complement to the color. Then I go through a range of the color, dark to light, and add a shocker color, usually the complement right before the last lightest color.

eye colors in sliver

The eye is always done in sliver thread so it’s shiny and wet. I use black for the pupil, an iris color, and iridescent white for the spark.

Eye

Here’s a progression of stitching and thread on this frog

  • thread one green zone
  • thread two green zone
  • thread three green zone
  • thread four green zone
  • thread five green zone
  • thread one stripe zone
  • thread two striped zone
  • finished frog on background

Some basic things about thick thread bobbin work:

Only work with a straight stitch: Zigzag stitching tends to sew your piece to your needle plate and jam your machine.

When you fill in your stitching, remember that the thick thread fills up more space than the thinner thread on top. Leave a little space.

Pick a #40 weight embroidery thread for the top thread. I like polyester, for it’s strength. You should either match the color to your bobbin thread, or like the mix of them together. You will see both on the front of your piece.

New project, new needle! New day, new needle! I use #90 topstitching needles because they’re strong and have a large eye that reduces thread breakage.

Midnight Stroll

I could stitch directly into my top as well. It integrates better into the background, but it tends to distort things. If an image is under three inches square, I may well embroider right on the surface.

frog cut out and ready to go

But if it’s a big enough image, It’s better done on a separate sandwich of felt, Tear Away, Totally Stable and suitable hand dye to match. It can be appliqued onto the surface and will look like it belongs perfectly

Don’t be afraid to be upside down. Bobbin work makes the most impressive images quickly and easily.