Tulips & Rose

"Tulips & Rose"

37.5" by 45.5"

"since the thing perhaps is

to eat flowers and not to be afraid"

- e e cummings, Complete Poems, 1904 - 1962

Tulips & Rose will be in the fiber art exhibit at Olbrich Gardens this winter.

The show runs from November 3, 2013 through January 26, 2014 at Olbrich Botanical Gardens, 3330 Atwood Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin.

The opening reception will be held on Wednesday, October 30, 5 - 7 p.m.  Here is a link to the Olbrich Gardens website.

I used raw-edge appliqué.  The tulip colors and Rosie's freckles were added with Tsukineko inks.  The rest was done with Aurifil 50 wt thread.  

And for Beth and Lynne, the backside.

First Day Out With My New Foot

I have mostly finished the thread work on the tulips and Rosie.  I decided that some more traditional quilting in the background would be a nice change from all the intense threadwork on the rest of this quilt.

For quilting and thread-painting, I have been using the same foot I purchased with my sewing machine some ten years ago -- I can't believe it's been that long.  It's a clear circle and has worked pretty well up 'til now.  But I wanted to do some really tight quilting around these lovely feathers and I just couldn't see through the plastic well enough to do it.  

So I finally broke down and got an open darning foot.  Fortunately, I didn't just start right in on my Tulips and Rose quilt because it works very differently from my old foot.  I made up a sample with the same fabric and wool batting.  I used the blue washaway marker and drew some feathers.  

It took a bit of practice, but I have gotten the hang of it.  It's interesting (to me, anyway) that my freemotion feathers are better than the ones I did stitching along the lines I drew.

I'm linking up with FMQ Friday today.

One Stitch Forward, Two Stitches Back

So I was merrily stitching along on Tulips and Rose and I realized that I had done a terrible thing.

I finished a large section of Rosie's fur with the same stitching that I used for the tulips.

Aaarrrrrrgggggghhhhh!  It was particularly noticeable when compared with the correct Rosie's fur stitching.  I did take a moment and think, "well.... I could just leave it.  No one but me will know what it was supposed to look like."  But I couldn't.

Even DH, who entered my lair as I was grousing and mumbling profanities, agreed.  "You can't leave it," he said.   "It will bother you forever," he added helpfully .  AAARRRGGGHH!!

Of course, black thread on black fabric is a teensy bit difficult to see.  And as anyone who has ever ripped out quilting stitches knows, thin thread is especially awful to remove.

So that evening, was I comfortably ensconced on the couch watching TV?  Sitting on my can reading my book?  Happily doing anything?  No!  I was bent over the ironing board with a seam ripper, tiny scissors, and a pair of tweezers picking out stitches.  I discovered that the ironing board was a pretty good place to do this because, first of all, the light is good in my studio.  Second, it provides a firm surface and I could flip the quilt back and forth to snip and rip.  And third, it provides something against which to lean my tired self.





I'm pretty sure I heard the studio gecko snickering...

I used the dog hair remover roller thingy to gather up all the loose thread (sadly, it was not useful for threads that were not already loose).

 I estimate that I probably spent twice as long reverse stitching as I did stitching it twice.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely.


Yeah, I know that it's hard to see the difference.  But guess how much fun it was to try to remove all those threads.

So now I'm a little stuck on the eyes.  I'm not sure how to do the thread.  Usually, when I paint them, I don't use any thread on them.  But I'm thinking that the appliqué needs some thread to anchor it.  Does anyone have any suggestions?

I'm linking up today with Nina Marie at Off the Wall Fridays.

Tulips and Rosie - the Beginning

Usually the bunnies nibble the stems of the tulips.   Then the buds fall off and I never get to see them bloom.  For some reason, this year the *%$&! rabbits left my flowers alone and I took a series of photos with Rosie posing with the posies.

I need a piece with a botanical theme and I really like this shot.

I wanted to work big this time, so I cropped it, converted it, made a line drawing, and printed out this pattern on my computer.  I laid it out on the rug and taped the sheets together.

note to self: next time vacuum up the dog hair before laying out the papers!

I traced it onto freezer paper and began cutting out the fabrics.  I'm using raw-edge appliqué for this with MistyFuse for my glue.

Getting the eyes done really makes a difference.

I made the tulips using Tsukineko inks on plain white fabric.  Then I fused them.  The pieces were just too small to fiddle with and I plan to cover them with thread anyway.

I'm linking up with Nina Marie at Off the Wall Fridays today.