found materials

Setting Up Shimmer: Moving Color Across the Quilt

| ellenanneeddy
Stippling with flecked metallic

The natural world is full of shimmer. Shimmer is about the change of color, and the change of light. The nature of nature is variance.

How can we create that? How do we build a world inside our art? How do we create the illusion of shimmer and light?

Here are several good ways to accomplish that.

Owl at Sunset process shots.

Hand dyed fabric itself establishes the play of color that nature features. But it’s a soft finish and a soft shimmer. It gives the background of shifting color, and a good glow, but it doesn’t catch the light.

Another way is to put sheers in layers over the the hand dye. It changes the color without losing the fabric beneath it. It shifts the shade underneath and adds texture.

I know some people don’t like the idea of the stipple. But stippling creates more texture and plays against the surface of the quilt. Particularly if your threads shine.

I’ve always found it helpful to separate the kinds of threads I use for field and ground. Different threads offer difference in the shine of the surface. Having a different shine for water, for air, for sunlight, and for your creatures helps your eye to sort those out from each other.

There are three kinds of metallic thread that offer different levels of shine.

Madeira Supertwist Metallic Thread

Fish done in flecked metallic

The soft sheen of Madeira Supertwist gives the fish a scale like sheen that is totally different from either the sliver or the thick metallic threads. That sheen separates the fish from the background, the field from the ground.

Sliver like threads
Stippling with sliver

Sliver, Glimmer, and other flat metallic threads are the most shiny. They look like Christmas tinsel. They come in a myriad of colors, particularly if you are willing to mix different brands. There’s no problem doing that.

YLI Candlelight, Madeira Glamour and Superior Razzle Dazzle are # 8 weight heavier metallic threads. Again, the company brands can be easily used together. These threads have a thick chunky look that is strong and works with rhythmic stitching as beautiful running water. Stitching through a range of color accentuates the light and shadow within the piece. It’s not quite as shiny as sliver, but it makes a strong statement.

You can see the separation between the air and the water in the changes between sliver and thick metallic.

Both sliver threads and thick threads should be used in the bobbin only.

I use all of these threads to make light shimmer across my quilt. And I choose a full range of colors to pull the eye across the surface. And to make the eye track the differences between field and ground by the amount of shine in the threads.

After the Disaster: When It All Goes Wrong

| ellenanneeddy

I like to think I know what I’m doing in my studio. I do know better.

Every so often something happens that just can’t be helped. Sometimes it ruins a perfectly good piece. Sometimes it transforms it.

I’ve been working on this piece for over six months. It’s taken time because it’s so large. Smaller pieces are easy to see, easy to feel secure about, easy to finish. Larger pieces take time.

I was having a problem with the moon. The Angelina fiber hadn’t fused well, and I was having trouble stitching it down. So I laid a corn starch stabilizer over it and stitched it down. It was fine until I poured water on it to dissolve the stabilizer.

I hung it up to dry. I didn’t realized what had happened until I had looked at it for some while the next day. There’s really only one Procion dye that bleeds after it’s washed out. Fuchsia is the stuck pig of the dye world. Dyes mixed with fuchsia also can bleed. Almost everything else is dye fast after it’s washed out. But there was fuchsia in the background.

original owl
owl with bleed

It bled. It bled into the owl stitching itself. I bled too. Then I figured it out. The sunset was now in the owl’s face and wings.

I’ve always argued that art has a life of it’s own. It lives past the artist. It is shown places the artist can’t go, does things an artist can’t do. And it has it’s own problems.

Sometimes life changes a piece. It’s has it’s own life.

I’ve decided that the bleeding is like sunset, coloring the stitching as light colors life. Is it what I planned. No. It’s what happened. But I suspect it’s a good thing. And it’s simply what has happened. It’s not finished yet. But it has been changed.

I considered telling no one. But I’ve always been honest about my work, warts and all. I actually think I’m pleased with it.

Another Fine Mess: Globbing: What’s on Your Floor?

| ellenanneeddy

‘

Dragonflyl Mountain

What’s on my studio floor? Thread! I collect large wads of thread ends. It’s just what happens when you’re embroidering by machine. It’s everywhere, but it pools it places on the floor. It is pretty It seems like a waste, but like most things, it doesn’t have to be.

Threads

Let’s be clear about this. You can save all your thread ends, if you want. But they aren’t all the same. The threads you sewed your jeans with are probably not going to be pretty in an art quilt, unless you want a pretty rough looking texture. I save thread ends that are either poly or rayon, or more wonderfully thick#8 metallic like Candelight, Razzel Dazzel or Glamour. Or Sliver like threads. For me, this is all about the shine.

Nesting Ladies

What does that do for your quilt? It makes a floor of it’s own. Nature is messy. There’s all kinds of bits of things, on the forest floor, or at the bottom of a pond. A nice blob of thread looks a lot like that. It puts in a bottom without a hard line.

So you have this wonderful glob of thread. It’s pretty. You want it on your quilt. How are you going to stick it on?

Angelina moon

You can glue it. Steam a Seam will hold it down. You can trap in angelina fiber. It’s a beautiful addition to a moon.

You still have to stitch it down. If you try to just stitch it down with a darning foot, it will trap your foot and make you crazy. It makes me crazy.

My best answer is to put something over it. Some folk use tulle. It dulls the colors. I prefer using a corn starch film, like Aquafilm or Solvy. I pin it over the glob, and stitch it down. When you’re finished, spritz it with water until it disappears. Problem solved.

Hunters Moon 2

Globbing makes a beautiful addition to a quilt. And it uses up all that pretty thread.

Spring Dyeing!

| ellenanneeddy

Years ago, I did a very bad thing. I had dyed fabric all day and I went to the pool. You don’t get pretty dye on yourself when you dye. And it all soaks through to the skin. You mix all those colors and you get brown. Mostly down your belly and your tits.

So I was walking around with nothing but a towel over my shoulder when a very kind person looked at me and said in horror, “You don’t have to put up with that.” I looked at her and said, “Actually, I do. I’m dyeing.” I did explain to the poor soul afterwards.

I’m a fabric snob. Sorry about that. I’ve been dyeing my own fabric for my projects since I was ten. It was Rit Dye and we won’t talk about the quality of the fabric, but I understood even then that someone else’s fabric isn’t mine.

Don’t get me wrong. I love prints. I can get drunk on color and add good design to it and I’m a sloppy drunk. You can tell by the cut bits of fabric on the floor.

But I want the colors and intensity of my fabric. And I really hate fabric repeats unless they help your piece along. I’m probably going to dye as long as I quilt.

With the stimulus check (Bless those congress critters!) I’m planning a dye day. I need a new batch for me, but I’ve always got space in that batch for someone who might like to order a box of fabric to choose from, or someone who wants something special dyed just for them. A batch of light source fabric in 3/4 yards? A selection of actually not boring browns. Some deep lake or pond scum fabric. All available.

I’ve also dyed cotton/hemp/bamboo/rayon clothes for people. There are those of us who should never wear white. There is inevitably a day when it is white no more. At which point, I dye it and wear it till the threads fall apart. I can do that for you too.

If you would to either make a general fabric order, or order something special for a project, let me know. I’ll dye for you.

The Miracle of Cheesecloth: Not Just for Turkey Anymore

| ellenanneeddy

I love sheers! I love the ability to have my background peak through the sheers to create the connection between background and an object.

But most sheers don’t paint or dye well. They are poly or nylon. They come in bright colors, but they have other problems. You can paint them in pastels. They don’t dye with fiber reactive dyes at all. And if you get your iron temperature wrong, they melt.

But cheesecloth does all that well! It’s all cotton, and woven loosely. And you can iron it on fry and it behaves like cotton.

You know cheesecloth. You just aren’t used to it in the sewing room. It’s an airy woven cotton people used to use to make cheese (hence the name). Or on turkies to keep the breast moist. You may have used it to make Halloween ghosts or Christmas angels.

But dyed, it can be any color in the universe. I include it in a regular dye batch and it dyes like a champ with fiber reactive dyes. And it washes out easily in your regular washer in a nylon lingerie bag.

It makes amazing leaves! The weave in the cheesecloth looks like the cells of the leaves and the stitching defines the color.

My favorite thing to do with cheesecloth is to make mushrooms. Child of the 60s that I am, they are a flora that fascinates me. And they are an excuse for eye popping color.

I do make them in batches. I’ll line up a set of mushrooms on a piece of felt, using Steam a Seam 2, pull out my brightest polyester embroidery thread and stitch up batches of mushrooms at a time, that I’ll use in many different quilts. The bright colors and zigzag stitch pop the the colors to a peak intensity. Now, who doesn’t want that?

What I did differently, is I made some smaller ones for pins and patches for my friend, Sherrill Newman who owns the South Shore Market in Porter, Indiana.

South Shor Market in Porter IN

I almost never make these available to people except as finished quilts. But she talked me into it. I made a small batch for her store. Some of the left overs I’ve put on sale on Etsy. They have pins backs on them, but if you wished to use them as a patch, it would be a matter of a moment to remove that with a seam ripper.

Hand dyed cheesecloth might just be the sheer you’ve been longing for. Bright, cotton, and beautifully texturized, it makes great flowers, leaves and ‘shrooms.

Leftovers: The Art of Including Something from the Past

| ellenanneeddy
Butterfly Garden

I know some people who meticulously plan their quilts. I envy them. They draw them out on cocktail napkins or in a notebook, or a design wall. And it doesn’t change. They have a straight line vision and if they were in a boat you’d say they were rowing to the shore.

I’m just not one of them. I walk into the studio, look at what I’m working on and the squirrel process begins. You know what I mean. I see one thing and it makes me think of something else in a bin somewhere that I know is perfect except that I ran into something even better when I moved a pile over and I found something left over from another quilt.

Elements from Butterfly Barden

Grotto Gem is one of the left over bits from Butterfly Garden. It didn’t quite work with the others but it was magic but itself.

Let’s just say it’s like treasure hunting. There isn’t a map, just the memory of the myth. I’m in a boat roaring down the river without a paddle. I cling to the side and whats where the river of creativity takes me.

Somewhere I have the perfect butterfly, bird, frog, mushroom, name your critter, waiting to go into that new quilt. All I have to do is dig deep enough for it.

In the brand new studio? Are there piles in the brand new studio? Already?

OF COURSE THERE ARE.

I’ve gotten quite precious about left over bits. And I produce them in bulk. If I decide to do mushrooms I am likely to do ten of them when I only need two.

Stag Party

Why?

It’s process. Left over mushrooms in the studio are not different than left over mushrooms in the refrigerator. Did you fry them with bacon and sherry? You know full well theyll go into the next casserole seamlessly.

But its easier to do them in a lump. The machines are all set a certain way, for free motion applique, or for bobbin work, or for zigzag embroidery. The backgrounds are on thin felt, hand dye and stitch and tear. And I’ll have a basket of the thread colors I want to feature. And rather than make two mushrooms for a quilt, I’ll make ten just to have the left overs, waiting for their time on another quilt. It’s also in an organized set of colors. Mushrooms on another day may not feature neon orange, but I always reserve the possibility. They make a collection of mushrooms that go with each other, and that is useful again and again.

I’m going to show you some quilts, some done and some not finished, that were left overs to start with.

In the Reeds 2

This back and this fish sat in the same bag for years. I took out the background and the fish fell onto it. What can a girl do?

I purposely made way too many moths for this owl. The owl is from a quilt that simply didn’t work. They’re both in process.

But one of the moths found it’s way into Stag Party, and I have two more pinned into another quilt.

Ladybug Rising

This aggressively pink background sat in the suitcase until this ladybug came along.

My point is that extras are part of pulling creation forward. They move on the conversation of what you’re working on, into other work, which asks other things of you. They are a natural part of studio work, which is the training of your art.

And your art is a precocious child who needs love, permission, more crayons and free time to find her way. Celebrate it all. Especially the leftovers that start up the process.

left over moth

A Thousand Crayons: Color Theory For Thread

| ellenanneeddy
Moth made of zigzag freemotion zigzag applique

Zizgag applique is the fussiest thing I do. This is the most time consuming thing I do. Every so often I tell myself it’s too much work. It’s endless layers of stitching

So why do I always come back to it? I remind myself that nothing else looks like it. There are a number of reasons. Poly and rayon threads are incredibly beautiful. The grain of thread stitching leads itself to very tiny dashes of color that the eye blends on it’s own.

Eye of the moth’s wing

The process is one layer of color on top of another, in zigzag stitching. It takes forever.

The threads I’m using are a 40 or 30 weight thread. That means if you laid 40 threads side by side, they would measure one inch. They are very lightweight, but it allows us to stitch over and over the piece.

The thread color choices are almost unlimited. If feels like having a box of one thousand crayons. I actually added up what was on the chart of Madeira Poly Neon and found it was only 600. I don’t feel gypped.

Will other 40/30 weight threads work? Absolutely. Rayon too. I just wanted to show you how extensive the choices are.

Madeira Poly Neon thread. My favorite go to.

Color charts always amaze me. But they really don’t tell us very much. They’re raw material like a shopping list. What matters is what we do with them. The choice of thread colors is a lecture on it’s own. I’ll spend several blogs with you talking about why I use the colors I do and where. I’ll also give a short tutorial on zigzag embroidery, zoning a pattern, and placing it into a quilt.

‘Both owl and bug are zigzag embroidered applique in poly and rayon threads.

We’ll go behind the technique and explain the color choices in some future blogs. Follow along and I’ll show you what I can do with a thousand crayons.

Noncommercial Part 2: What Are You Going to Do with All that Dyed Thread?

| ellenanneeddy

If you’ve been following my posts, you know I did some thread experiments on dye day.

Experiments are always just that. Might work, could work, did work, did not work. All information.

But I worked with threads that are NOT workable in a commercial teaching setting, largely because of the way they’re put up in manufacture. The best way to dye thread is in (reasonably enough) a dyers hank. That means it’s in a flat loop, usually confined by a paper label or by twisting into a skein. Do all threads come that way?

  • Sashiko thread
  • #3 pearl cotton
  • #20 pearl cotton
  • Frizzle
Definitely the weird stuff. But good though.

No. No they don’t. But since I’m not producing for class or for travel I can fuddle around with the weird stuff. The trick is to get it in the end into a form where you can get it on the machine. Between a ball winder and a swift I can hank up anything I like. (See Noncommercial blog post.)

Here’s some of what I tried.

# 20 Pearl cotton, dyed and undyed
Well, even I know that won’t work. But look at the colors. The thread and fabric are dyed from the same shades.

# 20 pearl cotton fits in the needle as well as the bobbin! Since the cone didn’t feed onto the machine I filled a bobbin for thread from the top.

I love the Frizzle I dyed!

Look at it as branches for a tree. I have the cotton string I dyed here too, but the frizzle definitely wins.

Do I love the new threads I dyed!
They are to dye for!

Will I experiment with new threads? Well there’s all that thread that didn’t arrive in time for dye day…. Stay tuned!

The Dance of Dye: Seeing Your Fabric Born

| ellenanneeddy

You’ll need to forgive the way I look. There’s nothing glamorous about dye day. Or really dye week. Prepping fabric, dyeing fabric, washing up, washing out and ironing are all really blue collar fun. You sweat and get messy. Never mind that I’ve missed my last three hair cuts.

My friend Lauren Strach used to come to visit, partially for dye day, but mostly for the day I ironed. Because that was the day the fabric came out of the mangle.

Hand dyed fabric is pretty. But like all of us, it likes to dress up. It’s nice hanging out to dry. But you really get to see it when it comes through the mangle, pressed, starched and pretty. It rolls out like a beautiful woman floating down a staircase.

Three pieces


Of course the real moment is when you get to see it with hand-dyed thread

Lauren is a fabulous fiber artist, who explores a number of styles, in amazing ways. You’ll find her work on Instagram.

I’ve been privileged to watch her work grow. And she would come and drool with me over the freshly ironed new hand dye. She lives in Oregon now, and I in Galesburg, IL and all of that would take a lot of arranging to do again. But I treasure the memory of watching her face as the fabric would roll out, pressed and precious. And the things she would do with it.

You’ll want to see more of Lauren’s work. It’s a journey in color, texture and joy.

You might ask why I was mangling in the garage instead of the new glorious studio! We had misbehaving mangles. Don found me a lovely mangle that lasted just long enough to blow black smoke and powder on the floor immediately after it was plugged in. We took it out and found that new amazing IronRight. It stopped opening and closing about five minutes in.

I had a long cry, and we waited a day to plug in my old mangle from Porter and she worked like a charm. You bet I sang to her!

This is Don companionably sitting on his mower in the garage while I ironed my fabric. He had to sit somewhere. Did I mention I really like being married?

I do dye fabric for others as well as myself. This was a good dye run, and People regularly ask me to dye what they want for a particular project. But I do have some fabric from the last dye run I would be willing to sell if there’s an interest. Contact me and I’ll set up a video phone conference if you wish to pick some out for yourself.

You can see the flower already started here.
ellenanneeddy@gmail.com
219-617-2021
1055 N. Farnham Street
true
Galesburg, IL 61401
USA