Table Runner with Handwoven Fabric

I was contacted by a student at Earlham College in Indiana about making a table runner using the hand-woven fabrics she and her classmates made this semester. Each had to weave 7 yards then cut them in to 19 pieces so everyone could have one. She sent me 12 to make into a table runner and also she also sent this fun photo of the students with their fabric before it was cut.

Not having sewn with hand-woven fabric, I was concerned about it stretching when it was sewn and I also decided to use a half inch seam allowance instead of the usual quarter inch.

Since I wanted the hand-woven pieces to be 4" x 6" when finished, I cut my test pieces at 5" x 7" but they slid a bit so when I cut the actual pieces I cut them at 5" x 8" so I’d be able to cut them down to 5" x 7" if something shifted. And when I cut them, I made sure to have the 8" along one of the selvage sides since it was less likely to unravel.

I arranged the hand-woven fabrics into color families then sewed together each pair, using a half inch seam allowance. Then I hand pressed the seams apart and top stitched 1.4" from the edge to hold the seams down.

The black sashing between the hand-woven fabric was 1" finished so I cut them at 2" to allow for the larger seam allowance. I pieced each pair of hand-woven fabric with a 2" black sashing strip then pieced the pieces together.

The borders were only half an inch wide so I cut them at 1.5" and sewed them on.

I layered the quilt top with the batting and backing fabric (the same black as the sashing and borders) then basted it. I used a black thread for quilting and quilted 1/4" from the seams, being careful to go in the same direction every time. I started in the center and quilted an “L” shape on the hand-woven fabric then started back at the beginning and quilted a reverse “L” shape. There was some stretching of the fabric but since it was the same way every time, it was easy to control.

I also quilted 1/4" from the seams in the black sashing and the black borders. Since it’s a table runner and won’t have a lot of stress on the binding like a bed quilt will, I trimmed the backing fabric 1" larger than the quilt top and batting and folded the backing fabric in 1/4" and then to the front where I machine stitched it down.

Keepsake Quilts Made With Kids Clothing

 

"Baby Boy Blue", 31" x 25" 

I've made several T-shirt quilts and was thinking about making some quilts using baby and kids clothing. Since I don't have kids I asked my sister if she had some clothes that her kids have outgrown. I don't think I told her what I was going to do with them. 

 

So I made some samples quilts. I made one using 6 pieces of clothing her son wore. Just like his Daddy he wore lots of polo shirts and seemed to favor a blue and yellow color combination. I quilted over the shirts but I made sure that all of the pockets were left accessible.

"Sweet Pea", 27" x 32"

The pink one had 6 pieces of clothes her daughter had worn. The four shirts, the light purple row under "Big Sister" was from a pant leg and the wide strip in the middle with the flowers and cherries was the bottom of a dress that my sister loved.

Most of the embroidered parts were already on the clothing. I did cut out a few fun pieces that were on the sleeves and made them into patches that were appliqued in other places. 

 

"I've Been Very, Very Good", 25" x 25"

And there were even a few pieces of clothing that both kids wore for Christmas, so I thought it would be fun to make a Christmas-themed quilt.

With some of the tops that had snaps I left them so the snaps could be opened and left a secret message inside.

So guess what I gave my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas this year? Three quilts made with the clothes their kids had worn.

Like the T-shirt quilts, all the clothing was stabilized before it was cut and pieced together. The borders and bindings were made with cotton fabrics and pieced by machine. The quilts were machine quilted and all have hanging sleeves.

Why I haven't blogged this month

Red Carnation, a fabric mosaic

I have finished the custom orders that will be Christmas presents for people I don’t know, several of them given by people I don’t know. There is a relief to being done with these. Often the people that hire me say “I can’t wait to see it when it’s finished” and I want to reply “me, too,” partially because then it will be done, and also because I will know if it came out well.

Yes, sometimes I have doubts. While I can see the progress in my art that seems to get better every year, sometimes when I start a project I doubt my abilities. Often it seems that the client is requesting something that I’ve been thinking of trying, but it just hasn’t made it to the top of my list yet. Like…

Making a quilt from clothing (aka "Heriloom Quilts"): A few years ago I was asked to make a wall hanging out of a wedding dress, bridesmaids dress and flower girl dress. Cutting the fabric was a little difficult emotionally, if I ruined this I wouldn’t be able to just refund her money and give the dress back. But it all went well and the client loved it. This year I made some t-shirt quilts. The stretchy material that makes t-shirts so comfortable also makes them difficult to work with, unless you attach some interfacing, which means more time needed to finish the quilt.

Fabric mosaics from actual photographs: Most of the fabric mosaics I’ve made have either been abstract or an abstracted representation of something. One client asked me to make a fabric mosaic of a carnation (see above). Daisies, sunflowers and tulips all have defining characteristics that make them obvious what they are. Carnations, not so much. This client has also asked me to do a fabric mosaic of a house, place of business, and this year a sport event and a relative’s pet.

Using an ink jet printer to print on fabric and then quilt it: I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. I’d love to scan in some of my original watercolor paintings and quilt on them. For this client I scanned in pages from a favorite children’s book (with permission from the author and illustrator) to print on fabric and then quilt.

I’m happy to report that all of the custom projects I worked on this year actually came out better than I had expected them to, and the clients that I’ve heard back from are all very pleased with the results. It is a wonderful feeling to know that someone is going to receive a gift that I made and that it’s possible it will be one of the most special gifts they’ll receive this year.

I promise to post photos of these projects soon…while I know it’s a long shot, I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise by someone accidentally coming across their gift before they’ve received it.

(You can see the photos of the custom quilts I made for Christmas 2010 here.)

I've also noticed that this is my 100th post.

The Ties That Bind...something a little different

"The Ties that Bind"

I'd gotten a call for entries for a new gallery in Tipp City, Ohio, was planning an exhibition called "It's a Guy Thing." They were looking for art of men, about men, or things of interest to men. I wasn't sure if any of my existing pieces fit this category, then I remembered a bunch of silk neckties that had been hanging around my closet (literally) and thought I should use them for this exhibit.

I cut the ties apart, then wove them back together.


The exhibit will be on display at the Studio 14 – Benkin Gallery of Fine Art’s from June 3 through July 25, with an artist reception this Sun., June 6 from 2-4 pm. The gallery is located on the second floor of the Benkin building, 14 E. Main St. in Tipp City.

Christmas Handkerchief Table Runners

December just flew by in a blur. I was fortunate to be busy with some custom orders including these 5 table runners using vintage Christmas handkerchiefs that belonged to my customer's family members. She had 13 of them and she also provided the other Christmas fabric and decided which handkerchiefs she wanted grouped together. She also wanted the quilting to be subtle so I used white thread.

All handkerchiefs and borders were stitched-in-the-ditch with some seasonal quilting where there was room for it. All of the handkerchiefs were stabilized by using fusible webbing to adhere them to a white cotton fabric.

This one is called "Santa's Sleigh" and is the largest at 18" x 45". It has 3 printed handkerchiefs that were almost all the same size and each one had a decorative scalopped edge which I left showing and carefully quilted just inside the borders.
The details of Santa's reindeer, the holly berry border and the houses was just exquisite and I used these elements to quilt around.

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This table runner, "Poinsettias" also featured three handkerchiefs although these were embroidered. The middle and left have poinsettias and the right shows a candle with holly leaves. The inner border of green offsets the white handkerchiefs and the white borders which has gold swirls printed on it.

Again really hard to see but there is a white poinsettia quilted in the middle of each of the handkerchiefs.

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The "Holly" table runner has holly in the borders and the sashing. Since the fabric is linear on it, I mitered the corners to keep the lines going around the quilt.

The handkerchiefs on this quilt are embroidered and more detailed than the poinsettias above.

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In "Golden Swirls" the handkerchief on the left had some gold metallic threads around the outside. There is a thin inner border and sashing that has gold swirl printed on it (also used in the "Poinsettias" table runner). The border fabric has holly berries and some more gold in it.

The holly berry fabric was also used for the backing of this quilt and when I quilted it I had the back part facing up and used the gold swirls to define where the quilting lines would go.

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This table runner is called "Candy Canes" because of the candy canes embroidered on the left and right handkerchiefs and also because of the candy cane print fabric in the borders (and also on the back).

The handkerchiefs with the candy canes embroidered on them weren't as large as the one in the middle with the printed Santas so they have a white sashing to make them the same size. And it's a little hard to see with the white on white quilting but there's a large holly berry quilted on the candy cane handkerchiefs.