Mini art quilts

I would never have made a mini quilt if I didn't belong to an art quilt guild. We have worked our way through a couple of design books and in the process have made mini quilts to practice what the chapters were teaching. I moved from thinking that mini quilts were a waste of time as they had no purpose, to realizing that they are a great way to test out ideas ideas for a larger quilt, or to try new techniques.

This one began life as an exercise from Lyric Kinard. She suggested tracing around a pair of scissors and then playing with the tracing to make an abstract quilt. I liked the intersection of the handles, but when I repeated the design it insisted on becoming a flower shape. Some times you just have to give in... Next blog post I'll show you what happened when I explored that intersection further. Here it is the "flower" center.

Scissor "flower"

Something I find helpful when I am between ideas, or needing to do something mindless while ideas percolate, is to make strips. The strips here were fused from small leftover pieces. One day I fused long chains, just playing with colors and using up scraps. Lo and behold, I finally found a use for them.

Another reason to love hand-dyes: the ability to create graduated color. All of the outer sections came from one piece of fabric, which was dyed in a graduation from cerise through apricot. 

Of course a mini quilt is also a great excuse to play with some hand embroidery, and to couch some hand-dyed threads. Because it is so small it comes together quickly and is a breeze to sew. A mini quilt can be like a mini vacation after a big project!

Cushions inspired by Jane LaFazio

I have had such fun making cushions a la Jane LaFazio's DVD "Layered and fused applique quilts". I may just have made 10 of them...Obsessive, moi?

Hand-dyed and hand and machine stitched fused cushions inspired by Jane LaFazio

The thing about learning to dye fabric is that you end up with lots of color samples, in not very useful sizes. I used fat eighths because I was interested in color effects not yardage, but a fat eighth is not a lot of anything. It is perfect for this fused project though! I didn't dye the dark blue circles, that is a Robert Kaufman fabric. I need to figure out how to create a look alike. I love dark blue with brights, and it is a particularly indigo tone. So much commercial dark blue fabric has a heavy purple cast to it.


Once the fusing was done I got to play with all the variegated thread I have collected over the years, and played with my sewing machine's fancy stitches. I found out I can't mirror stitches. How about that. I traded my Husqvarna for a much more upmarket Bernina, and ended up losing a feature. (I love you Bernina, don't pout!)

I really enjoyed the DVD. By the end I wished I could invite Jane over for coffee. She is such fun!

The great part about making 10 cushions was the production line I got going, and the way they could all be different, but the indigo circles gave them some unity.

Hand-dyed and hand and machine stitched fused cushions inspired by Jane LaFazio

Jane recommends Steam a seam, but I have to say I did not take to it. Besides being more expensive than Wonder Under (which I buy by the bolt with a 50% off JoAnn's coupon), I just didn't like the texture. I guess I am a creature of habit!

Once the whole front was machine stitched it was time for the big fun!!! Hand embroidery. I've been watching some Benn and Morgan videos, and Claire Benn often uses the word "meditative" about her process (See sidebar for links). I find hand embroidery very similar. Stitching french knots is very relaxing (until the knot doesn't seat properly, then the air has been known to become a little blue). I wasn't entirely happy with how the middle join lined up. Spiderweb to the rescue! I love this stitch. My mom, embroiderer ace that she is, taught it to me, and it just made sense immediately, unlike bullion stitch, which I have never got the hang of, even though she has demonstrated it repeatedly and it is one of her go to stitches.
Here is how to make the spiderweb. 

Spiderweb embroidery stitch

The number of spokes and the distance you whip the web allows for different effects. And of course, if you are me, you just can't resist adding some more french knots. 

No longer threadbare!

Procion MX continues to rock my world with color! I love to add hand embroidery to my fiber creations, so what could be better than dyeing my own thread? Quilting Arts Aug/Sept 2014 had an article by Melanie Testa and Carol Soderlund on dyeing your own thread. I bought the thread winders they recommended, but when I came to do the dyeing, I couldn't find them. You know how that goes...But it was all good, because I like my way better, although there is some winding and untangling at the end.

Once my dyes were mixed and my fibers were soda soaked, I took some trusty plastic shelf liner and added three generous dollops (very scientific term..) of analogous colors towards the back of the plastic. For more complex colors I added black or grey. Then I laid the skein of thread closest to me on the plastic. With gloved hands I then drew beads of the dye down to the fiber, mixing the colors in some parts, keeping them pure in others. It is so fascinating to see them blend and change, and this way I could get a lot of color variety because I could adjust the length of the fiber strands. I have several sets of lidded plasticware for batching, and I also used them for soaking each color set in water to get rid of the excess dye when the batching was complete. Three days of changing the soaking water and the dye was gone. The hardest part was getting them dry! They are more tangled than usual because I got impatient and threw them in the tumble drier in garment bags. Luckily my daughter is almost as obsessive as me, and will join me in a winding and untangling fest! Grown up daughters are the best! So companionable!

Once dyed, the threads can also be overdyed, providing you haven't saturated the color receptors the first time around. Great for couching, embroidery etc. Yarn is from Dharma Trading.

Procion MX dyed cotton yarn

The first time round I added a reasonable amount of soda solution, but didn't cover submerge the fiber, and when I came to add the dye, it didn't penetrate all the way in some places. The second time I completely covered the fiber in soda solution, expecting to be able to drain off the excess, but it drank it all in! Greedy stuff. You could probably soak it in water to get it saturated and then just add the soda ash you need for dyeing. Once wet, the dye seemed to travel fine. This yarn takes forever to dry too, but is very rewarding once it is done. The first yarn pack I bought, I cut it into lengths suitable for couching or embroidery and then dyed half in oranges/corals/pinks and the other half in greens. What was I thinking?? These are big packs. No one needs that much green! Luckily it overdyes beautifully. This was a desperately boring pale lilac, but not anymore! Some of the green is now teal and turquoise.



I had so much fun with the first yarn pack, I then tried the shahrazade. Clearly I should not enter spelling bees, that is a word with waaaay too many letters! This yarn has rayon slubs, which also dyed beautifully. The more prosaic thread is DMC 8.

Procion MX hand-dyed DMC and rayon/cotton blend

Lots of fun, and not difficult at all! Give it a shot! (If you haven't used Procion MX dyes before, do some research and make sure you use safe practices. Paula Burch's website is a fount of information )