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Fiat Lux: Studio Illumination

| ellenanneeddy

You can’t do art in the Dark

Normally I talk about quilting, art and design technique. But my beloved sewing machine is currently at the vet. So my 230 is on the table and I’m puddling along with projects. I thought about the lighting makeover we did recently.

Light is sight. We see nothing without lighting, and without good lighting we just don’t see well enough. That affects everything, from threading needles to photography, to fabric choices. And my eyes aren’t getting younger.

I’ve done my sewing in attics, and basements and back closets, and in class in all kinds of lighting, most of it pretty bad. But a studio makes it’s own demands. Besides, I was hunting everywhere for my reading glasses, all the time.

Lighting has changed drastically since the beginning of leds. I decided to put Don on it. There had to be a way to make this better. He had the best ideas. We made some mostly cheap changes that changed it all!

Led Lighting

Some simpler changes that are really effective. Don changed the 60 watt warm ceiling bulbs to 100 watt bright white leds. It’s not a restful change. But it’s real illumination, even at night. The change is dramatic. It makes the room crackle with energy and it takes out the dark spots. I can even see the things I dropped under the machine on the floor.

The old incandescent bulbs took a lot of energy to create light and threw a lot of heat off as a byproduct. The compact twisty florescent bulbs were more efficient, but they had mercury in them and it made them really bad to clean up after they broke. I’ve had ott lights, but I never really noticed a big difference with them. Leds create light just through electricity. They can be very bright without the heat and so much safer. And I can adjust the temperature on many of them. The link on top will take you to a great Cnet article about leds.

Swing Shop Lights

I’ve already discovered shop lights. My favorite ones have a ring in the center with a magnifying glass. These are one pivot and can be swung directly to the spot where you need one. My first one had a florescent and an incandescent bulb. Now the new led ones can directly change the temperature and intensity. The table clamp means it can be anywhere and won’t fall over. These are a bit pricey but lovely. I have one on each machine table. Pay attention to the lums, the magnification and the size of the arm. The wider the arm, the wider area it illuminates.

Floor Lights

We also put in a pole light at my sewing table with a reading light on it. These are a cheap fix. A pole light reflects light off the ceiling and brightens the whole area. The reading lamp is direct light on your work. They both help a lot. They’re available at all kinds of places at a full price range, and help particularly as a hand sewing or ripping light. Remember to change the bulb to a 100 watt cool blue and the shade to white.

Under Arm Lights

My 770 Bernina has a bright light under the arm of the machine. One more reason to love it! But you can buy those lights, and put them under all kinds of sewing machines. Light right where you need it. Even on old machines.

Photo Lights

We have some excellent photo lights. But they are big and unwieldy. For smaller pieces it’s like chopping vegetables with a machete. Just too much power for the task. So we put in some smaller photo lights that can change temperature and intensity at the push of the button. The heads on both of them are about the size of a large post card.

Consistency with lighting makes for a consistent portfolio. Work is has a consistency in color ranges and tone. Having consistent lighting confirms that and makes it shows off better. In a way, it’s good branding. And they work well for vlogging and videos.

If you aren’t regularly taking photos of your work, start now. If your critics don’t care, your grandchildren will. Everyone’s art deserves to be documented. Yours too.

Neon Signs: My Warning Lights

Did you leave the iron on? Is the mangle plugged in? Are the machines running? Unanswerable questions unless you’re really willing to look hard at every appliance at the end of a hard day. All satisfied by a florescent light and a power strip.

These aren’t about illumination. But they let me know when the electricity is flowing. They’re plugged into a power strip with the other studio electrics. When they’re off, everything on that power strip is off. When they’re on, you know just by putting your head in the room. Some go on the wall. Some are free standing. I have one for each room so I know when I’ve left something on. Do I have the same kind in each room? Don’t be silly. I have a dinosaur, a whale, a star, Jupiter, and a flying bat.

Power Strips

The downside to a lot of this lighting is that is that they use USB plugs. I can’t say I understand it. They just do. You can buy power strips with USB plugs or use an adapter.

I’ve put in links so you can easily find these things. But they’re universally available.

Look for the lighting that lights up your life.

There’s another byproduct of good lighting. Bright lighting makes me happier. That never hurts either.

The Wrong Bird: Not Settling

| ellenanneeddy

Sometimes it just doesn’t work. most of the time I can see it in my head. Except when I can’t tell until I get it up on the wall.

I was a bit unsure when I drew the bird. But he had great movement. I stitched it out anyway.

Two things happened. It shrank and that was a real problem. How much? I had a notion so I measured. Roughly 8.9 %. Doesn’t sound like much but it didn’t help. I’d used a yellow thread in the mix that didn’t make me happy. And I hated his legs. They just didn’t quite work.

But honestly it was just the wrong bird. Much happier with this drawing. Ignore the lines with squiggles. They are off. It will have to be drawn in reverse for the picture.

Years ago in college I made a stone wear red queen as a portrait of my mother. Trust me. It was appropriate. It blew up in the kiln.

Stubborn is just tenacious in a different dress. I built again and this time it survived the firing. Of course they put all my work after that in the firings where a woman did work that always blew up.

So I have an extra bird I don’t quite know where it goes. And a bird I love drawn ready to go. Not a big problem as these things go.

Sometimes it makes sense to settle. Sometimes it costs your heart and soul. I hope not to get in too big a hurry to hear myself. Or to work until it’s right.

Update:

Here is where that bird finished up. He’s so much better sized for these fish.

This is what happened with the second bird drawing. Boy, am I glad I refused to settle.

The Importance of Backing Up: Looking before You Leap

| ellenanneeddy

There’s nothing like being on a roll with a piece. You’re sewing away. You have one more bit to do, or maybe three or maybe five. It’s a bit questionable but you push through because it’s so good to be done.

By now I should be prescient about that. That’s a ledge with a chasm right by it. And I should know I’m likely to fall. I did that this week.

three fish

I had that green heron quilt ready to go. Got the heron on. Looked at the fish and decided I needed an odd number. Three was a bit empty. So I decided on five.

five fish

Did I look? Actually I did. Did I think? Perhaps that’s the problem. My brain knows that odd numbers work better than even ones. My eye knew the fifth fish just didn’t fit in. I listened to my brain. Not so smart.

Theories don’t always work. If your eye tells you it’s wrong, then it’s wrong. Had I listened I would have saved myself three hours with a mustache trimmer and seam ripper. And a ruined fish.

Design is important. So is color. So is drawing. But in the end, it’s how the piece balances and flows when it’s all done. This is the part you can foul up with everything else right. And the answer is simple. You need to look at it.

Not just put it up and see. Put it where you can really analyze whether it balances and flows and whether there’s stuff.

I’m bad at this. That moment when I get that urge to finish…. it gets me every time I follow it.

So how do we look at a quilt differently?

Old school is to just back away far enough from it to see it. It’s not enough to see it laid on the table. You need to hang it to see it. I used to hang really large pieces off the porch and walked down the alley to really see it.

I’ve also used a a wide angle viewer. These let you view a big quilt in a small space. They are very valuable.

Another old school method is a ruby beholder, or a color evaluator. It’s a red or green piece of plastic where you can see the values in your quilt as opposed to the colors. It’s a huge help.

All of that steps back to a digital camera. And yes, your cell phone will probably do that.

Just get far enough back to photo the whole piece. And then, changed the photo to black and white. You can see the movement, whether something needs to be put over slightly to one side. Whether you’ve just got a hole or it’s too cluttered. Whether something disappears. It will also show you if you’ve got a value problem.

My bird is a bit subtle here. But I don’t think I mind that. He’s hunting after all, so he needs to be.

Leaves in place

It’s always better to do that before you sew things down. You would think I would learn. Experience is the best teacher, and some fools will have no other.

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.

Thinking Outside the Box: That’s Not What You’re Supposed To Use That For

| ellenanneeddy

I remember being told I should color within the lines. It’s probably just as well I never was able to do that. I’m certainly not about to start now.

I’ve been totally hooked on paintstick rubbing. Like everything else, it’s a tool to be used with other tools. I’ve been exploring more and more how to incorporate different plates with each other in design. Here’s the latest batch.

I love them. And I’ve recently found some iridescent paint sticks in colors that didn’t come in the kits.

There’s only one limit I don’t like. The plates tend to be small. You can repeat all you like. But they don’t lend themselves to larger pieces. Not to worry. I decided there needed to be a way. I went looking for more kinds of rubbing plates. The choices are limited.

I tried drawing with glue on placemats. I tried carving foam. I got desperate and bought some fondant plates. All too small or not quite enough. Or a huge mess. Not satisfactory.

Not everything that works marvelously was made for that purpose. Some of the best tools of the quilt world have been borrowed from some odd places. My favorite thread bags were originally worm bags for fishing. Rotary cutters started as carpet cutters, I’m told. Surgical seam rippers really are a surgical tool some brilliant nurse brought in to their quilting studio.

So in that same spirit, I bought some ceiling tiles. They’re two feet by two feet. And beautiful! Stiff textured plastic. Exactly like a rubbing plate, only bigger.

Here’s what they look like rubbed. I’m in love!

So I’m not supposed to use ceiling tiles that way? Isn’t a good thing I didn’t pay any attention to those rules? I think so.

Hello, My Darlings: You Are the Heart of My Art

| ellenanneeddy

There aren’t many times in your life when you bring home a new sewing machine. Even for those who work in the industry, it’s a red letter day.

Thursday, I brought home a new to me (gently used ) 770 Bernina from Feed Mill Fabrics and Quilting in Oneida, IL. Don took this picture of me having fallen into the machine sewing. Yes. Like that. I sew until the machine and I are one.

I’m not a high tech girl, and I’ve worked most of my life on mechanical machines. But there are things about this bemouth that are to love. The throat size. The quiet motor. The speed of it. The excellence of the stitch.

My 630 is gratefully on the side as a backup, but I can see this new machine is going to take center stage of my sewing. It’s just as well the dogs and cats are banned from the studio, because I think it could eat a cat solid. We just won’t go there.

You don’t just buy a sewing machine. You buy the ability of a sewing machine. You buy the ability it gives you. I don’t need the embroidery capability. But this is the kind of solid sewing I crave, and what I test out every day doing the crazy stitching I do.

So this is what I did the first day I brought it home. I stitched my ass off for an afternoon, 12,000 stitches according to the machine! It ran like a top.

It needs a moth, I think!

Most of all, I’m touched by the support I’ve had. Don has believed in me and given me more backing than I’ve known in my life. He gave me my studio and walked me into get this machine. He leaves me amazed. He sits in the studio and cheers me on day after day. I adore him.

We kind of crisped our plastic purchasing it, but it was possible at all because people like you bought quilts and made it possible. The quilts are all still on sale until Sept. 21, in case you would like one, or like to help.

But all of you who helped me, bought quilts, backed me up, went to my classes, read my blogs and have wished me well, Thank you! You’ve made it possible for me to follow my art. You are a part of my heart and my heart.

You can hear me with my heart beating in time with the machine. I’m in love.

No Place Like Home: Quilt Stores Make Our Community

| ellenanneeddy

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of doing a live Facebook show with Beth Rylander in her delightful shop, Feed Mill Fabrics and Quilting in Oneida, IL. I talked about free motion stitchery, and brouht in a small trunk show of work.

I’d visited Beth’s lovely shop, looking for a new Bernina. I believe I’ve found my machine, a lovely 770 that is coming in as an experienced machine someone has pre loved for me.

Today was so much fun! She does this every Saturday. She reaches out to her group by doing a live show weekly, so people can know what is new, fun, exciting and there for them.

Beth’s shop is stuffed stem to stern, and top to bottom with beautiful fabrics. And she not only sells Berninas, she has two lady mechanics. I’m impressed.

But her store bears something much more precious even that fabric. She has made a store in a feed mill in Oneida, that is a community for a huge circle of other women, like you and like I who love fabric, sewing, and each other’s company. What a quilting store does best is it makes community. Which is why all quilt stores are precious, and need our support. Because they support us all.

Here is the video we ran this morning.

Farewell, My Lovely: What Can You Do When Your Sewing Machine Dies?

| ellenanneeddy
Quilts 40% off!

It’s the words no one wants to hear. Yes, if it’s stopped changing stitches, the board is probably going out soon. Gasp. No. It’s my machine!

Lots of desperation here. I do have backups, but they are not meant as major machines and they won’t back me up long.

My dear friend Elaine always knew when I called her at 7am, that I’d trashed my machine again. I’d call to ask if I could borrow hers. She’d thank me for having waited until 7, That bad.

I may be retired, but I’ve sewn and quilted all my life and probably will until they dig the final hole. I need a new machine.

But the other difference when you’re retired is that the easy money is much harder to find. So I’ve put all my quilts on a 40 % sale. I have a number of great new works at every price range. And I’m willing to let them go to make sure I can get a new machine. The sale will be on until September 21.

If you’ve been wanting a quilt of mine, this is the best time! The prices won’t go lower, because they really can’t. And I have some fabulous new work.

  • 842 Hosta Moon
  • 866 Arabesque Rose

IF you are new to my work, please take some time to see what I’ve made. I feel each quilt is a separate world of it’s own, there to warm you from your wall, visually.

Prices on the web page and on Etsy will show the full price and give you the discount in your cart.

I’m asking your help to replace my machine.

Thanks!

Oil Stick Rubbing: Instant Gratification Glam

| ellenanneeddy

I know paint sticks are old news. But I really didn’t get it the first time around. Did I buy them? YES! did I know how to use them? Not so much. Was I disappointed? I was devastated.

The premise is that you take oil paint sticks and rub them on fabric with a design rubbing plate. Simple. Not so much. Everything slid all over the place and I made a special mess. Like many things, it went under the heading of “Well, I tried.”

It was several years later when I walked into a booth full of oil paint sticks and I told the lady I had failed. She said the words I longed to hear. “You’re doing it wrong.”

There is nothing as lovely, if not also annoying as knowing there’s a better way to do something that will make it work for you.

I love oil paint sticks, particularly the metallic ones. Glowing lovely color on hand dyed fabric with texture, what’s not to like. These Shiva Oil Paint Sticks are from Amazon.

The rubbing plates come from a lot of sources. My favorites are from the Cedar Creek. They have numerous kinds and sizes. Again you can find them at Amazon.

Here’s the secret hand shake. You have to keep the plates from moving around on you. There are two tools to do that.

The Grip-n-Grip Mat: Use this 14 x 11 inch rubber mat to hold the rubbing plate on so it wont wander under your fabric while you are rubbing.

Use 505 Spray on the rubbing plate itself so the fabric doesn’t move on you.

Basic Tips:

Peel the oil paint stick to get to fresh wet paint with a potato peeler. The surface of the stick will dry after your’re done and protect the paint stick.

Secure the rubbing plate on the grip mat and spray the rubbing plate with the 505 spray. Place the fabric on top. The fabric can be removed but it won’t slide around.

Gently rub the oil stick over the surface of the fabric. Feel free to mix colors.

Let the fabric air dry for at least 24 hours. When it’s dry to the touch, you can iron it with a paper towel as a pressing cloth to set the color.

You can clean up with Goop, the cream you find in the car care section for cleaning oil off hands.

Artifact: Wind over Water

These are done on hand dyed fabrics. They create something like a batik look, but with ultimate control. The metallic colors absolutely gleam.

I’ve discovered I can stitch into the oil paint stick rubbing with metallic thread for extra shine.

920 Artifacts: Dragonfly 4

Don’t be afraid to try something that didn’t work once for you! It may be there’s a secret handshake you just need to know.