thirty six hours in a day - stitching

Stitching up a cushion storm

Well, I am back from a long round the world business trip that had me in the air with wheels off the ground for a total of 83 flying hours (not including airport time!).  I intended to stitch something last weekend but (surprisingly!) I was pretty tired and jetlagged when I got home.  So, I just started my next 830 project, but didn't get too far.  Anyway, I'm feeling much better this weekend and I have been stitching like no tomorrow!

This machine is AMAZING!  Can't quite believe what I have been able to make it do so far......and still only scratching the surface.  The tension issues I thought I had last time seem to have gone away....hmm, guess it was user error!  I am getting quite good at checking tension and adjusting a bit if needed, and now I can get really perfect stitches.

My first project was the second in my series of cushions (all stashbusting items using Elly fabrics that I have had in the cupboard for a while).  I decided to try my hand at machine applique this time, a la Sue Nickels' "Machine Applique - A sampler of techniques".  I decided to do raw edge applique (decided that in my jetlag fog last weekend) even though I am not SO keen on raw edge.....but it was a good chance to try something new - using decorative stitches to stitch down the applique.  Here's the finished product:

 

So, what I tried (and learnt) was:

1) Decorative stitches work fairly well to stitch down applique, for example the stitches I used around the inner leaves.  However, you have to have a stitch with a narrow width and short repeat or you can't get the pattern to go around the corners.  A lot of the stitches on the 830 are not suitable because they are too big and glorious and they simply don't fit around such a small space.  I stitched more on my test piece than on the actual block!

2) The 830 has the most unbelievably awesome satin stitch!  Wow, it's so even and smooth.  Very pleased about this as my old elna never did one row of nice satin stitch in its 16 years!

3) The little embroidery dooflackey in the center flower was just a try out......it's actually reduced too much from its original so it is very dotty - about 6000 stitches in a 2" diameter circle....but the concept has potential I think - ie to combine embroidery with the applique.  I also did a programmed embroidery by bringing in regular stitches into the embroidery module and then stitched them in a circle...also an idea that has potential but needs further exploration.  It worked ok but I didnt choose the best stitches to do it with.  I'm also a bit confused about what tension should be used for this - ie whether the machine should be set up for regular stitching or embroidery?  I did set it up for embroidery but the bottom tension was too tight.  Didn't have problems with other embroidery.

4) Stipple quilting - see that stipple quilting?!  Cool, hey!  Not sure what I was doing wrong with the BSR last time but this time it worked perfectly!  I think the trick was something to do with a combination of bringing the speed right down so the machine was working at the same speed as my brain, plus unplugging the foot pedal so I didn't do any erratic zooming.  Anyway, this was my very first go at stippling and I think it is pretty darned good!

On Saturday morning when my 8 year old and I were at IKEA together with 2/3 of Beijing's population (it was raining) buying a second sewing desk (the machine is so big there's hardly room to put my scissors down on the same table)......the afore-mentioned 8 year old lobbied pretty hard for a cushion for herself.  I relented because a) we had assigned the "IKEA visit impulse purchase" to her (and anyway, the cushion insert was only 80c so I got off pretty lightly as far as impulse purchases go); and, b) I wanted to test some embroidery software I bought while in Washington recently so a couple of cushions could fit the bill.  So, another weekend stash-busting project was conceived and here is the result:

 

The patterns were selected by the girls (which is why the 5 year old chose the one on the right which has "his big fat bottom waving in the air...giggle..giggle..giggle" [her words, not mine]).  Things I learnt/discovered were:

1) It is surprisingly easy to do the machine embroidered applique.  A bit time consuming because of all the thread changes.  I also had trouble with thread breakage on a couple of spools of Mettler thread.  The one Isocord I used didn't break at all. 

2) I need to play with colors more.  The first one (the one on the left) has better contrast between the fabric and the thread but I used a couple of thread colors which I wouldn't use again.  On the other hand, the fabric selection for the one on the right wasn't the greatest.  Bit hard to see the actual shape.  This is the reason I wanted to test these before embarking on a quilt for a friend.  I'm pretty limited on thread color, to be honest, and I could see that it might be tempting to embark on a major thread expansion program....but one has to be realistic!

3) Anyone who gets anything sewn by me at the moment gets stipple quilting whether they like it or not!  It is good to use every available opportunity to practice!  And I don't think the girls even noticed, to be frank. 

4) I need to get some different stabilizer.  the one I have is water soluble and it is very gooey even when a bit of water from the spray bottle gets on it!  eesh.  I think I will get a tear away or cut away one.

5) All the embroidery instructions talk about using temporary spray adhesive to do this and that.  Well, not surprisingly, that isn't exactly a hot seller in Beijing and it's one thing I can't import in my suitcase....so, I need some ideas about what to do replace it with.  This time I just used a large enough piece of backing fabric to be able to hoop it directly, and when putting in the large applique pieces, I ironed a small bit of mistyfuse under it.  But there must be a better way to save backing fabric and hold the applique fabric in place while it is being tacked down....

Anyway, that's it for this weekend.  I am off to clean up the sewing room office so it will be habitable this week.  The troops have just come back from a birthday party at a stifling hot indoor play place.  my husband is looking like he doesn't plan to do much more looking after the kids today so I better get on to it.....

Grinning from ear to ear...!

I am heading towards a big birthday in July (and no, it is not my 21st), so my dear husband has given me an unbelievably cool present.  Yes, it is is an:

 

wow!  that's cool!

It arrived this week - two HUGE boxes delivered by a happy DHL man and this weekend I have been giving it a whirl.  It's the most incredible piece of machinery ever invented, I am completely sure of that!  It's just amazing and upgrading from my previous Elna is like going from a Ford Escort to a Volvo.  A couple of months ago I bought some cushion inserts for some cushion covers I have, but the inserts are too big for the covers they were supposed to fit inside, so I decided my test pieces for the machine will be a series of 4 cushion covers.  Here's the first one I just finished:

 

These are the techniques I used:

1) the central panel is embroidered using a built in design expanded to 8" square, embroidered in the jumbo hoop with Oliver Twist thread.  I used 3 layers of batting to try to make it puffy but I don't think my batting was very good (it was a very thin polyester one that I found in the cupboard).  But overall I am very proud of this part because I have never used an embroidery machine before and I managed to hoop it, change the design dimensions and center it!

2) the red and green borders have decorative stitching.  the stitching on the green border is a composite pattern.  i tried to change the length of the stitches so they would fit accurately in the border with complete patterns and it sort of worked, but still needs practice!  I also found it difficult to keep the decorative patterns from wandering around down the borders because it seems hard to keep the machine going in a really straight line when it is moving the fabric from side to side as well as forwards.  not sure how to make a guide to keep this straighter?  will experiment.

 

3) free motion quilting using the BSR around the leaves on the outer border.  this was the least successful part so far, because I have never done any free motion quilting before.  again, I think the batting did not help.  at the beginning the tension was all over the place.  this was improved by putting another layer of muslin on the back.  but definitely this is a work in progress.  we'll call this "impressionistic quilting" for the moment.

4) stitching with the dual feed.  I worked out that stitching over lumpy bits is easier with the dual feed engaged (ask me how I worked that out).  so the ribbon around the center panel is stitched on with the dual feed working.  I also used it for the decorative stitching on the back panels (oops, forgot to take a photo of the back).

5) automatic buttonhole and stitching buttons on with the machine.  my old machine never once did a good buttonhole for me but this was 3 out of 3 perfect ones first time around!  and you can also sew the actual buttons on with the button sewing on foot.  that's cool!

some things I learnt:

a) it is IMPOSSIBLE to unpick some of the decorative stitches (!)

b) sewing decorative stitches over lumpy areas is difficult.  it seems better if you use a stitch that can be sewn with the dual feed but not all of them can.  have to work on this again later, not sure how to solve this.

c) tension seems to be the trickiest part to get right.  the machine seems to need tension to be adjusted for some things, especially for regular stitching.  ironically, it had perfect tension with no adjustments for the embroidery and decorative stitches

d) the machine goes too fast for me, so I have to slow it down, especially to get accuracy with the 1/4" foot

e) the 10D foot is seriously cool for accurate stitch in the ditch!

anyway, that's it for today.  now I need to tidy up and get organized for my rather long business trip starting Tuesday!  will have to go back to hand work for the next couple of weeks until I can get home to try more things on my 830.  I think I will try machine applique for the next cushion cover!

this is SO much fun!

On Lotus Pond - finished

Been a bit slow the last couple of weeks (story of my stitching life) but I have managed to finish and photograph the first finished block from this year's Academy.  This is "On Lotus Pond", from Nancy Kerns' 1-day class.

Academy photos

here's another photo from the Academy - Jan Vaine's class.  Photo courtesy of Jan:

Elly on The Quilt Show

Don't forget, Elly Sienkiewicz is on the current episode of The Quilt Show!

http://www.thequiltshow.com/os/shows.php

Elly's Applique Academy 2009

Well, I am home again safe and sound after a whirl-wind week at the Applique Academy and a few days out at the earthquake area.  I had intended to post to the blog while in Williamsburg but somehow that didn't quite happen!  What with early morning constitutionals around the historic area, classes, socials and evening sewing (until nearly midnight most nights!), I didn't get much time to go online.  I had a smooth flight home this year (no rerouting or unscheduled stops), and I returned to snowy Beijing.  It's the first snow for this year so it feels rather different to warm Williamsburg where the daffodils were already out. 

Academy was wonderful again this year - I think the more often I go, the better it gets because I know more and more people.  It is so nice to see familiar faces and catch up on the year just gone.  This year everyone seemed rather preoccupied with the current economic situation, which is quite understandable.  There are so many people at Academy who have a small business associated with quilting (pattern design, quilt shop, teaching etc) and everyone is worried about what this year will bring.  So the mood was a little bit subdued, but nevertheless I think everyone had a good time.

I had great classes (these are the teachers' photos, not mine!!)

Jan Vaine's 2 day class combining embroidery and applique on miniature BAQ blocks;

 Shirley Bloomfield's "wildflower basket" 4 day class with tons of dimensional flowers and;

 

Nancy Kerns "lotus pond" 1 day class to finish off. 

In Jan's class we played with lovely threads, experimenting with different combinations of threads and stitches to get different effects.  We tried several overdyed threads from YLi, which were really lovely to stitch with.  My big discovery of the week was gimp which is a rayon thread sort of like a rope - quite thick but amazing to stitch with.  It makes great stems.  Jan also discovered (by accident) that a "bullion knot" made off the fabric with gimp could become a cool caterpillar.  Jan had many threads for sale (tempting!), and also some other interesting gadgets like the very best embroidery hoop I have ever used.  We learnt some stumpwork techniques (like wrapping beads to make grapes), making little bees wings out of organza with wire (fiddly!), and silk ribbon roses.  We made thistles out of turkey knot, fluffed up (ie attacked) with an eyebrow brush.  I sat next to Melissa in class and we had a lovely time being the slightly rowdy corner.  Melissa loves beads, and can manage to find a way to embellish just about anything with beads (including her miniscule bee)!

Jan had brought lots of samples, quilts and all her lovely things for sale.  Because I arrived early this year and had some time to spare before the Academy started, I helped Jan set up her display on the day before classes began.  Of course I had an ulterior motive - I wanted to set up all those lovely threads because it is so nice to play with them even if you can't buy as many as you would like!

 

Here's Jan at her teaching table

 

Melissa in class

Jan was also kind enough to teach me how to do needle punch one evening after class.  I had never done this before but I think it could be a very cool way to add texture to embroidery or even applique blocks.  One of the other teachers, Jen Buechel had used needle punch to add grass to an applique block she taught this year at Academy.  Could be a good technique to have up my sleeve for the future (but I will need to get a punchneedle)!

My main conference class was Shirley Bloomfield's wildflower basket.  This year was Shirley's last year teaching at Academy and she will really be missed.  She has a wonderful style which she calls "Baltimore with an English twist".  I just love her dimensional flowers.  I was lucky enough to take her main conference class last year which was a vase of dimensional flowers that I really enjoyed stitching.  You can see a picture of the finished block from last year here.  But taking Shirley's class is much more than just stitching a block - I found last year and again this year that Shirley is a marvellous teacher - so organized and clear in her instructions, and she has a wonderful way of looking at flowers and depicting them in fabric.  I gain so much inspiration from Shirley's classes!

This year's block was equally spectacular.  The wildlower basket included some of Shirley's "signature" dimensional flowers including foxgloves.  The block included a woven basket, which I decided to up one degree of difficulty by stitching in silk using silk bias ribbon for the ribs and weavers.  I enjoyed the additional concentration that this took to get it even and accurate and I think the effect worked well.  Instead of a plain handle for the basket, I made a "plaited" one, at the suggestion of my table-mate Susan Day.  I also decided to make the foxgloves in silk for added lustre, but wisely agreed with another suggestion from the table that cotton lining would be better than silk!  The foxgloves were a bit slippery to stitch in silk but the finished product worked out well.  We had lots of laughs in the class about the "pixie hats" that we were stitching (the fox gloves DID look a lot like pixie hats) and I am sure Shirley won't look at them the same way again.

Here's our class with their blocks just before we finished the class.  It looks like we all finished more than we did - there was a bit of "strategic pinning" that occurred at the end of class before the final show and tell!

My third and final class was the incomparable Nancy Kerns' "On lotus pond".  Nancy is a superb teacher - so organized and generous.  The lotus pond block helped us practice shading of flowers using batiks and also some embroidery of a dragonfly.  Nancy encouraged us to do this in #$%#^$&%% metallic thread (!!), which looks nice but is a bit of a bother to sew with!  This class was just a one day "wind down" class at the end of the week so we chilled out and just had a pleasant time sewing on the last day.  In fact, I chilled out so much I forgot to take any photos in that class (oops).

Unfortunately, I haven't finished any of my three blocks yet, but I PROMISE to post photos of them when I do (watch this space!).

Again this year there were wonderful entries for the challenge competition.  Here is the winning block (sorry, I cannot remember the winner's name!).  It's a lovely vase of flowers, which nicely depicts the challenge theme, which was "Friendship is a rose without thorns".

 

I've noticed over the years that it is the more traditional challenge blocks that seem to win (ie the winner this year, above), but I also like very much some of the more contemporary ones.  This is my favorite from this year - a wonderfully striking design that really caught my eye (sorry, I don't know who stitched this either!).

 

We also had the amazing privilege this year of seeing Ellen Heck's friendship quilt after it had been quilted by Sharon Schamber, winner of the $100,000 quilt challenge and multi-year Best in Show winner at Paducah, Houston etc etc.  The tradition at Academy is for the students and teachers to contribute blocks for a friendship quilt for teachers as they retire from the Academy.  Ellen retired a couple of years ago but her quilt has just been finished by Sharon.  The quilting was jaw-droppingly stunningly amazing and just shows why Sharon is the master quilter that she is.  She spent 800 hours on the quilting (can you believe it?), it is quilted with 100wt silk thread and is just the most unbeLIEVABLE thing you will ever see.  Here's a couple of my favorite blocks from that quilt (please do click on these to see the large version so you can appreciate the amazing quilting):

 

In Academy tradition, the final luncheon included show and tell from all the classes, including Shirley's class:

Nancy's 2 day class:

and Elly's clipper ship class:

We were also privileged in the socials to see some of the Friendship Quilts that are being made by groups all around the country in honor of Elly.  They will be shown in Houston in 2010 and for that reason, they cannot be photographed now.  I enjoyed seeing the block I had made for Kathy Dunigan's quilt together with all its mates in the lovely quilt Kathy has put together and has nearly finished quilting.  I am also hoping to contribute a block to the 10th and final quilt - the one for Williamsburg that will be stitched soon.

Aside from the wonderful classes and socials, the Academy didn't disappoint with all the opportunities to spend time with lovely women from all over the place.  I think there were less internationals this year compared with last year, but overall, the enrollment was almost as high as before.  In the evenings we returned to Nancy's room after the social and continued to stitch on our various class projects.  On Thursday night we had a champagne celebration for the approval of my earthquake project, and I was touched by how interested everyone was in the work I am doing on the earthquake reconstruction.  I had taken my earthquake embroidery with me to the Academy and many people asked to see it.  Frankly I was a little surprised at how deeply it seemed to resonate with everyone because the earthquake really is a world away from most people, but I was grateful that the ladies did find it meaningful.  I think the piece that shows the mother who has lost her child affected many of the women at the Academy quite deeply. 

Overall, I had a wonderful time at Academy again this year.  I hope I will be able to go back again next year for another "inspiration fix" and to catch up with all the wonderful ladies who share and interest in this beautiful hobby with me.

the earthquake series - together

and here they are all together in the manner I plan to frame them, with a black background

final earthquake embroidery

I finished the sixth and final embroidery in my earthquake series.  it is pretty self-explanatory:

 

the piece is red felt with red dupioni silk on top and a piece of velvet ribbon.  the silk is sewn down with meandering feather stitch which couches a sparkly (Caron Rachelette) thread.  some of the large "beads" are Chinese jade.  the predominant color is red, the Chinese color of hope, prosperity and good fortune.

the next task is to work out how to mount the 6 pieces so they can be framed.   i have an idea!

earthquake embroidery, fifth of six

I've had a bit of time in the last few days of our holiday to make more progress on my earthquake embroidery.  This is the last "pictorial" piece of the set.  The final one will be a dedication to commemorate the earthquake and its victims. 

In this piece I have tried to think about the future of the many people who have suffered as a result of the earthquake.  The previous piece was about rebuilding the houses, schools, hospitals etc - the things - that they will need to restart their lives.  This piece is about rebuilding their spirits.  PTSD, suicide etc are extremely common after such a traumatic event as the Wenchuan earthquake.  Very early after the quake, the Chinese government with support from the international community (UNICEF, Red Cross etc) rapidly put in place trauma counseling for the quake victims.  We have heard quite a bit about these programs as we have traveled the earthquake area, so it is obvious how important this part of the recovery effort this is.

For many the symbol of the earthquake trauma and hope for recovery is Li Yue, the 12 year old girl from Beichuan county, an aspiring ballet student before the quake, who lost her leg as she was being rescued from the rubble of her school.  She was under the rubble for 70 hours, at first she was able to talk to her classmates also caught under the rubble, but gradually their voices fell silent.  She was one of only 7 students to be rescued from her school.  Her story was widely reported in China after the quake, and as a result, she was invited to dance at the opening of the Beijing Paralympics in September. 

Li Yue danced from her wheelchair to the music of Ravel's Bolero.  She was surrounded by a troupe of deaf dancers who, using their arms, danced as her legs.  (There is a photo here.)  The deaf dancers were conducted by four women standing in a circle around the stage.  Towards the end of the piece, Lu Meng, China's most famous male ballet dancer came out and danced with Li Yue.  The image of this little disabled girl in a wheelchair surrounded by a sea of dancing legs was incredibly moving.  It is very difficult to describe in words, so if you haven't seen it, I suggest watching this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2XvhMWsZaA

While Li Yue is one of the most well-known earthquake victims who has shown courage to recover her life, of course she is just one of many.  Everywhere we travel in the earthquake area we meet government officials, farmers, workers, people of all walks of life who have lost loved ones - children, spouses, parents - or who themselves were buried and saved, or have been injured in the quake.  I am constantly amazed at the way all these people are conquering their own trauma to contribute to the recovery of their communities.  I have written about this in my recent blog post on my work blog.

Li Yue is a symbol for all these people who, step by step, begin to recover. 

When I think about all these people, I think about the lyrics of the Lee Ann Womack song "I hope you dance":

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat
But always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small
When you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances
But they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake
But it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart
Leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out
Reconsider
Give the heavens above
More than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance

 

So, for all the victims of the earthquake, and especially for Li Yue,

I hope you dance:

  6 x 6" embroidery and applique on felt.  various stitches, bead embellishment.

(P.S. 1/30/09 - I have replaced the photo as I have changed the lettering on this piece from the original white alphabet beads to black ones.  better, I think!)

Earthquake embroidery, four out of six

Well, now I have finished the fourth earthquake embroidery piece and I have decided that I will complete 6 in total.  When they are done, I'm thinking about mounting them on black silk and then having them framed. 

As you can see from this one, I have turned the corner on thinking about the impact of the earthquake and the vulnerability of the victims, and I am now concentrating on the next steps - rebuilding.  There is so much rebuilding to be done, it is difficult to imagine how it can all be done in just a few years as planned.  Still, when visiting the area now, there is quite a contrast to several months ago.  Nowadays it is possible to see houses under construction.  Large piles of bricks are everywhere on the sides of the roads where they have been delivered to the farmers to help them build their houses.  People are industriously helping themselves by getting on with it and getting the houses built.

The enormity of the task - more than 4 million houses to be rebuilt, not even counting the infrastructure, roads, bridges, pipes etc etc etc - reminds me of a Chinese saying by Lao Tzu (600 - 531BC):

a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

千里之行，始于足下

Four million houses, but each must be built one brick at a time:

 Embroidery on felt.  6 x 6", applique in silk dupioni. beads.

Now onto the fifth one, which is about the recovery of the children after the quake.