Volare

Volare is the Italian for 'to fly' (or soar) and is the name of the current European Space Agency mission being conducted by Luca Parmitano on the International Space Station. And now it's the name of my latest quilt:

It's now in the possession of the young boy I made it for, so here are a lot of photos...

(closest to the sun, Mercury, then Venus)

I explained in earlier posts about piecing the background. It came together really well, and with a bit of care at the sandwiching and quilting stages, laid beautifully flat, especially given all the free-form curves.

The planets were all made from fabrics which I painted myself after researching the colours and textures required for each. One (Mars) was an over-pained commercial print, but the others were all plain white when I started.

(Mars, with two Martians and an approaching Space Shuttle)

Each of the planets is fused with a narrow (roughly 1/4in) ring of fusible web to a matching solid print, and then with another ring both layers were fused to the background and appliqued in place with a blanket stitch in matching thread on my machine.

The double layer was used to enhance the colours in some cases, and avoid the background showing through. I only fused around the edges to keep them soft. Before sandwiching, I pinned cut-to-size circles of scrap batting under each planet (and the comet and moon) in a simple trapunto technique to add extra dimension and fullness.

(Saturn, with rings added by machine and an astronaut on a spacewalk)

Obviously it wasn't possible to make them all to scale - or keep the distances to scale; I applied a liberal dose of artistic licence to make the layout visually pleasing. With the exception of Earth, they're sized in order, and the planets were initially placed in order of their position from the sun, but somehow Saturn shifted a bit closer than intended and here appears about as close as Jupiter.

(Jupiter; my favourite of my hand-painted planet fabrics)

Most of the details were free-motion stitched prior to sandwiching (e.g. the Martians, plane, ISS and Saturn's rings) but near Jupiter is something I added during the quilting. It's visible in the image above, below and to the left of the planet, but here's more detail below:

Rotated here to its more familiar orientation is the Southern Cross, a constellation always visible in the southern hemisphere, and depicted on the Australian flag (as well as others).  On the Australian flag, all but the smallest star are shown with seven points, one for each of the six states, and another for the two territories. So I chose to quilt the larger of the two pointer stars (bottom left of the photo above) with seven points (the others were really too small for such detail).

Uranus is a pale greeny-blue, but I'm still not used to how much lighter the painted fabrics are once dry, and it's a bit paler than intended:

Furthest out is Neptune, among the darkest background fabrics:

I remember the passing of Halley's Comet in 1986, so I decided to add it into the quilt as well.

Some of the tail was added prior to sandwiching, but I added a little more yellow at the quilting stage, and if you look closely at the main image of the quilt (open it to view it larger), you'll see I quilted a subtle extended tail in navy thread round underneath and up past the left-hand side of Saturn. I used a pale yellow fairy frost fabric for the body of the comet, which gives it a but of luminescence.

The greatest detail went into Earth. I over-emphasised its size to be able to include more detail - although it was still hard at 7in across. I used a commercial leaf-print batik for most of the land appliques on Earth - and a pearlescent snowy-white fairy frost for Antarctica. I used a combination of straight-stitch and blanket-stitch to applique the fused pieces in matching threads.

I'll tell you a little secret. Australia is sufficiently symmetrical in shape that when traced in reverse on the fusible web, I forgot it was flipped. I carefully positioned it on the fabric with a brown section to represent the drier desert areas of the central outback and northern Western Australia - and ended up with it towards the lusher rainforests of far-north Queensland instead, and didn't realise until it was permanently fused in place - oops!

The larger land areas and islands are appliqued (I especially like the peek of Antarctica down the bottom) and I added a few more in thread-only, but naturally had to simplify considerably. I took special care to make sure the Philippine archipelago was recognisable.

This tiny little plane over China was also thread-sketched (by machine of course).

And of course, one of my favourite details, the International Space Station (also rather simplified, at about 1 1/4in across) passing by New Zealand.

I had the perfect fabric for the crescent moon, then had to find a section of sky that was both suitably close and suitable dark to place it!

I mentioned several posts back about our plan to go and see the ISS. Well, we had a perfect viewing, as it passed right over Adelaide on a clear evening, and was easily visibly for over 5 minutes. James was the first to spot it. I set up my DLSR on the tripod and took a number of 4-second exposures. Without a remote-shutter, even the most careful depression of the button moved the camera a fraction, and my small tripod isn't the most steady, so the path looks rather jagged in my photos, but I was pleased with the results from so little effort. I especially liked the image below, which was towards the end of when it was visible (moving away from us, 'down') and shows a change in colour as the angle of the sun's reflection on it changed. (Several stars are also visible.)

Chain-links

I started today on another customer's quilt. First up, each block is being encircled with pebbles:

I'm using my favourite Sewline air-erasable markers and a couple of bowls to mark the inner and outer circles, then filling the resulting ring with pebbles free-hand. I made a mini template to mark the guidelines for the wavy links between the blocks in each row.

After that, there will be detail to add to the centre of the blocks, and some feathers between them.

Quilting in space

Inspired by James and Eleanor's recent interest in the International Space Station and the idea of a quilter in space (AstroKarenN launches tomorrow), I thought this was a suitable addition to my space quilt:

It's very simplified, being only about an inch across, but hopefully it's clear what it is!

James and Eleanor have been wanting to see the ISS and we've been checking on where it is at various times using this tracker, but then I found a really handy website which tells you when are the best times in the coming days to see the ISS from almost any place on Earth. Just after sunset is usually the best time, and for us, this Thursday will be a really good opportunity. So as long as it's not too cloudy, we're heading to a nearby lookout with a camera and hope to wave to Karen!

Residents or visitors

This is one of the details I planned right from the very beginning in my first sketch of the quilt. They're done in free-motion using a fine BottomLine thread; I would have chosen something a bit thicker, but this was the perfect colour, so I went around them twice so they're not too hidden. They show up in the detail photo, but at little more than 1 1/4in tall, you need to look to spot them on the actual quilt.

I decided these two would be best added prior to sandwiching, so I added a small piece of fabric behind them to act as a stabiliser. They're deliberately a little different from each other; it'll be up to the new owner to make a story about that...

And while I think of them as Martians, and have placed them on Mars, who's to say whether they are residents of or visitors to the planet. Until I need to complete their Inter-planetary Census form, it doesn't matter.

Evolution

Here's a close-up of Australia, appliqued to Earth before I affixed all the planets to the quilt background.

In the next few days, I'll share some peeks at the details I'm adding to my 65 x 80in solar system, both before and during the actual quilting.

Earth and Sun

I've had a couple of lazy nights, but here's the latest progress on the space quilt:

I cut the sun from three fabrics and fused them together and to the background. There's only fusible web around the edges (about 1/4in wide) and they're cut so that there's not too much build-up of layers. They're not appliqued yet though.

I've also got things ready to trace the parts of land I want to fusible web. Earth is currently a completely water-covered planet, but Australia and some of her neighbours will change that tomorrow. Later, I'll probably add more of the smaller islands in thread only - they're too small to applique (Earth's diameter is about 7in here).

Painting planets

I researched images of the planets to get an idea of textures and colours. I already had an ideal commercial print for the moon, and an over-painted print which will work well for Mars, but the rest I painted myself today. Earth is going to be the hardest with the details; I'm undecided yet how to achieve it; probably raw-edge applique on top of the circle prior to adding it to the quilt top.

 Top - Saturn; bottom left - Venus, bottom right - Jupiter

I'll create the planets and insert a layer of batting to work as trapunto and give them a little fullness, then I think I'll applique them by machine as invisibly as possible, but I'm undecided just yet, so am having an early night while  I mull it over..

Top, L-R: Neptune, Uranus, Moon (commercial print)
Bottom, L-R: Earth, Mars (over-painted commercial print), Mercury

After that, there are just a few details to add before quilting - at which stage I'll be adding a lot more details. I want to add in some of Jupiter's moons, a pair of green martians, the ISS, Saturn's rings, a comet and tail, the Southern Cross....

Making space

As James and Eleanor have been watching youtube videos from the International Space Station (the function of the toilet in particular is hilarious to 5- and 7-year-olds!) I have been piecing together my own version of space.

Once I'd run out of my flower-headed pins with cutting the pattern pieces from fabric, I started pairing them up and sewing them together. After going back and forth to the computer screen and flipping between the 12 photos I took of the layout, I decided to print them out and puzzle them together. I edited the photos first, removing any colour and increasing the contrast and sharpness, then printed them at about 20 x 25cm, trimmed the margins and puzzled then taped them together as neatly as possible. This is taped to the wall next to my pinning/sewing space, and I mark each seam with a wiggly line as it's sewn. It worked really well; I managed to keep track of what I'd done nicely.

I divided the pieces into piles for each 10 (1-9, 10-19, 20s, 30s and so on) so they'd be easier to find, and that worked well, too. I did find it frustrating when I'd work out a pair to join, then find I hadn't cut one of them, but that'd be solved by buying more pins - which I've been meaning to do for ages and now done - for next time!

Because of the way I drew out the curved shapes, some seams need to be sewn before others - although with some it's less important. This keeps the sewing lines as smooth as possible. I've found that the registration marks are beyond helpful, although I wish I'd put a few more in in places. On the whole, the curves sewed together really nicely. I pin as little as possible - at the registration points, any cross-seams, where there's a big curve, and from the first registration mark back to the beginning of the seam. I leave the end unpinned, and just ease the edges together under the presser-foot as I sew. The main difficulty is getting the ends of the seams smooth at the same time as ensuring that the ends of each seam are completely encased in the next seam. It's all pieced using my usual 1/4in foot.

I pressed with low steam as I went, just to make sure they're lying nice and flat, and the seam allowances stay neat when I sew across them. I was worried that the unmeasured and hence somewhat inaccurate and varying seam allowances (added by hand/eye) might mean the top wouldn't lie flat and square. But that's not been an issue and the few small problem areas are easily pressed into submission with a little steam.

 

I finished the background late last night. Above is the whole pieced top (apart from the sun; I just need to decide on the fabric) and below is a closer section. It's lying square and is accurate size-wise. Although it doesn't lie entirely flat, I'm confident it will do once quilted.

 

 

After the sun (and I also need to add some flame-shaped rays) it will be time to add the planets etc., so tomorrow I'll be painting some fabrics to get the right colours and textures.

 

BQF Bed Quilt: Along the Jetty

This is my recently-finish beach scene quilt, which I called "Along the Jetty".

Each of my beach scene quilts is a little different, and this is one because of its size (single, or twin)and borders. To make the scene work on a bed, we (the friend who commissioned it and I) decided to make the scene to cover the top of the bed, and use a coordinating pieced border for the drop at the foot at sides, otherwise key parts of the scene would be lost. I also thought the scene might not work so well at the much larger size.

Something else new on this one is the appliqued kite. I continue to add to my stash of fabrics suitable for these quilts, and the kite print was a recent purchase. I like the extra pop of colour, and it's fun on a child's quilt.

The sun is the only section where the foundation-piecing is pre-determined. Everywhere else I allow the prints to dictate the cutting. In the lower section of sky, I used both an as-purchased section of a commercial pinkish sky print, and a few pieces of the same which I'd over-painted with a blue wash a while back - I like the over-painted bit better!

This time I also tried adding in an extra hut from a different print as an applique. I left a little of the background around the hut in the applique piece for a few reasons; to include the dog, to see if it would blend in better (not really!) and because the applique stitches would blend better on the background than over the edges of the hut.

Because of the taller scene section, I built the reef deeper than usual. This is all foundation-pieced onto sections of lightweight interfacing. Because the reef isn't right at the bottom of the quilt, I didn't quilt it quite as densely as usual, so that the quilt would be flat and have an even hand.

It's all free-motion quilted; I started by going along in the ditch where the beach section is appliqued to the sky, and where the water is appliqued to the sand, and then did the kite strings. The sun is quilted in the ditch, and then has a row of peachy-orange flames surrounding it, and the rest of the sky is filled with wind-like swirls. The sea is filled with wavy lines, which get more free-form deeper down, and I quilt around the feature creatures as I get to them. The reef is quilted in a multi-coloured variegated Superior Rainbows (trilobal poly) thread to add to, blend and complement the prints. I quilted in the ditch around the border frames, but left the actual strips unquilted for contrast.

I really like the way the borders worked; it just took a little luck and some calculations to make it all fit nicely.

Size: Approx 66 x 82in
Completed: April 2013
Design: Original
Techniques: Free foundation-piecing, machine applique, free-motion quilting

I am entering this quilt in the Bed quilts category of the May 2013 Bloggers' Quilt Festival.

BQF Applique Quilt: Fluttering By

I made Fluttering By for my Gran. Gran taught me how to do English paper piecing when I was in my teens - unwittingly setting me on the path to quilt addiction. I've now been quilting over half my life!

After Gran moved to a smaller home several years ago, we decided she needed a new quilt for her smaller, single (twin) bed. That it would feature butterflies was a foregone conclusion. Any letter from Gran is instantly recognisable even by my children, by the flock of butterfly stickers she adds!

I had Vicki Welsh custom-dye the wide fabric for me in a gradient of Gran's favourite greens and turquoises. All the butterflies are cut from my considerable stash of Vicki's hand-dyed gradient fabrics, too.

I found a selection of butterfly silhouettes online and printed them out in several sizes, then traced lots and lots of them onto Lite Steam-a-seam2 - from memory the quilt has 137 appliqued butterflies!

It took a while to position them to my satisfaction, then I fused them in place before sandwiching the quilt. They're free-motion appliqued in place, and I went around each one twice, using matching Aurifil threads. By doing this after sandwiching, the applique stitches are also quilting. While appliqueing the butterflies, I added the antennae. There's also one wholecloth butterfly, for something a bit different.

Once all the butterflies were done, I quilted some feather plumes in the large open spaces, then filled the rest of the space with a free-hand swirly design which worked well in all the odd spaces.

I finished by binding with the main fabric. I'd carefully cut what I needed for the top leaving enough spare all around for the binding. I flipped it so the turquoise section is at the bottom, against the green, and vice versa.

Size: Approx 66x82in
Finished: 2012
Techniques: Machine applique, free-motion quilting
Design: original

This is my entry in the Applique quilt category of the May 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Curved piecing

Here's just a quick glimpse of the first few pieces coming together; more later when it's not 4am!

I've got a system in place to help me keep track of all the pieces, but I still need to be really careful to build it in a smart order so the piecing is as smooth as possible. So far, so good...

Starting a big quilt

I started a new quilt on Friday night. It's one I've been designing in my head and on paper for a while, and I finally made a decision on how to achieve it. Unfortunately it requires me to draft a full-size pattern to work from.

It's 1.7 x 2m, and the background is pieced from curved shapes - 125 of them as it turns out. I started by taping together large sheets of paper to get a piece big enough, then drafted the shapes in pencil. Then I drew over them in a black marker, numbered all the pieces, added registration marks on all seams, and photographed the whole thing in sections for future reference.

Then I had to cut them apart. The cut shapes are the final design, and it doesn't matter if they're not perfectly along the lines, as long as the curves are smooth.

Then I pushed the pieces back together into position, and started selecting fabrics. Note the supervisor on the sofa; it was probably about 2am by this point, but I couldn't leave it like this, so kept going - luckily Simon had taken James and Eleanor away for the weekend, so there was nothing to get me up on Saturday morning!

I used a funny assortment of household items (different coloured straws, cutlery, plastic cups, coins, even balls of yarn!) to represent the different fabrics, as I chose which pieces would be cut from which prints:

(Note the other supervisor on my folded quilt - I kept blocking access to his basket under the table shoved to the side, so put out the quilt as a replacement; arthritis stops him from jumping onto the sofas.) I finally got to bed at about 4.30.

Then came the slow task of pinning each pattern piece to the selected fabric, drawing around it with a contrast marker, adding the 1/4in seam allowance as I went. I also marked the registration marks in the same black and white permanent markers (all in the seam allowance or on the cutting line, so none will show in the finished quilt). Oh, and cutting them out. I keep them pinned to their pattern piece until I use them, at which stage I also write the piece number in the seam allowance. More on these next steps tomorrow...

Foundation piecing

Although as far as I'm concerned, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, removing the papers is definitely the downside of foundation piecing. However, it's made far better when you have a 5-year-old assistant who just wants to hold the bowl (for all the paper scraps) in exactly the right place for you, and have a cute conversation. Thank you Eleanor!

It certainly made the process much more enjoyable, and got I all the blocks done this afternoon. One of my favourites is above. This evening I've joined all the block, added the first border, and am no auditioning the main border. I couldn't find a batik matching what I had in mind anywhere, but have found a print (from my stash - even better!) which gives the right effect. It's just not quite the colour I'd intended, so I'm not rushing into a choice.