Blue Butterfly

Quilt Documentation # 132

This quilt is the result of one of Northern Ontario Fibre Artist's mini workshop. Whenever our group meets, one of more of our members demonstrates a technique or application and then everyone gets to play and experiment.

Blue Butterfly

The print in this quilt was made by squirting acrylic or fabric paint between plastic page covers that had been cut open on 3 sides. The cover was closed and the paint was spread around by rubbing the plastic. The cover was opened and two black squares of fabric were placed back to back inside the cover for a mirror image.

I cut out the shape and fused the 7½” painted squares side by side on black printed fabric.

The black at the edge of the wings and the head were cut out of ultra suede.

Ultra suede wing edges

 I used the little semi circular pieces that I cut out of the wings on the centre of the body.

Quilted body following the lines in the paint and bits of ultra suede

The quilting was free motioned using black, grey and gold thread and a row of heavy gold thread was hand stitched at the edge of the wings.

Blue Butterfly - back (label and sleeve)

Linking up to The Needle and Thread Network .  Have a look at what other Canadian quilting bloggers are doing.

And it's Off the Wall Friday at Nina Marie's.  Check out great fibre art!

Happy Quilting,

Terry

DOCUMENTATION:

Quilt Name: Blue Butterfly

Description: paint - applique

Pattern: original

Size: 19” x 16”

Fabrics: 100% cotton, ultra suede

Predominant colours: blue, green gold, black

Construction Techniques: fused and quilted

Back: 100% cotton

Batting: ?

Edge finish: Double fold french binding, top stitched using decorative machine stitch

Quilting: Free motion quilted on Domestic Machine

Quilted by: Terry Whyte

Sleeve: yes

Label: yes

Date completed: 2010

Inspiration:

Quilt History: Displayed at the Kirkland Lake Mile of Gold Quilters' Guild - 2011 Quilt Show

Maker: Terry Whyte

Country Hearts 1

Quilt Documentation # 131

Country Hearts 1

This quilt was made using Karla Alexander's pattern Crazy Hearts from her book "Stack The Deck!  Crazy Quilts in 4 Easy Steps".

I like this method of making crazy patch. Stack, slice, shuffle and sew.

detail

The purple and red hearts were machine appliqued using a blanket stitch.

I quilted the top using a variegated thread in spiral and stipple design.

signed and dated

The binding was made up of strips of the crazy patch fabrics sewed together and the back is one of my hand dyed muslin.

Country Hearts 1 - back

Crountry Hearts 1 measures 27” x 27” and was made 2002.

Curvy Paths

Quilt Documentation # 130

Curvy Paths

This is a Drunkard's Path variation, in reds and blacks, to which I added a red border and then appliqued a dog tooth border using a blind hem stitch.

drunkard's path blocks

dog tooth border

In 2009 and 2010, I followed along with Leah Day's The Free Motion Quilting Project.  After making many little 4” squares, I wanted to actually use several different stitches in one quilt.

Curvy Paths - back

I outlined the curvy paths from the front of the quilt and then flipped it over and quilted it from the back. This was mainly because the top was so busy, it was hard to concentrate on the quilting designs.

quilting detail

 I alternated silver grey and a gold rayon threads in the “paths” and background. I consider this table topper reversible and have used it as such. Actually, I just may like the back better than the front.

quilting detail

quilting detail

 Most of the quilting designs are Leah Day's with one or two of my own favourites.

All fabrics are 100% cotton, it is bound with a double fold french binding,measures 26” x 26” and was made 2010.

Linking up to  The Needle and Thread Network WIP Wednesday and Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

Happy Quilting,

Terry

Mysterious Star I, II, III

Quilt documentations #  127 – 128 - 129

More Table Toppers

I named this pattern Mysterious Star because I taught it as a mystery class back in 1998 when mystery classes were all the rage. I usually end up with a second quilt when teaching because of the samples I make for the class but I can't really remember why I made three. I must have really liked the pattern. 

Quilt # 127 - Mysterious Star I - 1998

Mysterious Star I 

This quilt has 3 different blocks, 1 centre star, 4 middle blocks and 4 corners.

detail

Some of the flying geese in this quilt are 3-D (remember those?) 

30D Flying Geese

Mysterious Star I was quilted in the ditch and stippled, it measures 28" x 28".

Mysterious Star I - back

Quilt # 128 - Mysterious Star II -  2000

Mysterious Star II 

  The small inner border is simply folded and caught in the seam allowance.  I learned that using a tightly woven fabric  (like batik) and making this border as skinny as possible works best.  I like the one on #III best.

detail

 Mysterious Star II was quilted in the ditch and feathers, it measures 29" x 29".

Mysterious Star II -  back

Quilt # 129 - Mysterious Star III - 2001

Mysterious Star III 

 Mysterious Star III was quilted in the ditch and leaves, it measures 28" x 28".

Mysterious Star III - back

 All three quilts have double fold bindings. 

Happy Quilting,

Terry

Red Vortex

Quilt Documentation # 126

Remember this ?

Sneak peek from a couple of weeks ago

Red Vortex

Red Vortex was accepted in the 6^th Annual Juried Contemporary Art Exhibition 2013 at our local Museum in Kirkland Lake.   Approximately half of the pieces entered were juried in.  The theme for the show is Digging Abstract.  Although it did not place but I'm always so happy just to be juried into any shows.

A friend also entered a fibre piece into this show and she tied for the Viewer's Choice award. It seems that we (as fibre artists) are making progress with being accepted into the “Art World".

Construction 

I started with a small cotton piece that I dyed using the shaving cream method, some black cotton, and a red snow dyed fat quarter.

supplies

I first made a quilt sandwich and then cut the small monoprint into strips and applied them to the black cotton and stitched it down using a red-purple variegated thread. I kept echo quilting in a random wavy design.

quilting on monoprint

To tie the curves to the centre I decided to paint 3 of the rows, starting with a coat of gesso and then using a fabric paint mixed to match the centre.

painted with gesso

I then thread painted 3 rows of using the same variegated thread and then quilted the remaining curves with a semi circular design to try and give them some shape.

detail

detail

I added a facing and stitched it to the back.

before appliqued onto background

  

When I placed it on my red fabric I decided it needed something to tie the two together, so I extended the rings onto the background. I layered my red fabric, batting and back and quilted it all with straight lines except for the “rings”. I painted those with Tsukineko ink.

background quilt

Red Vortex

I added a binding strip on each side and then finished the top and bottom as a facing.

The “black quilt” was then appliqued to the top of the “red quilt”.

A sleeve and a label were also added.

It measures  20” x 24”.

I will link up to The Needle and Thread Network and Nina Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Friday.

Happy quilting,

Terry 

Table Toppers – Miniatures

Quilt Documentations  # 123 - 124 – 125

It seems that making table toppers has always been one of my favourite ways of trying out new patterns, techniques and/or practice my quilting.

Some more recently made, are already documented here.

Three Oldies from the Early Nineties

I didn't realize how many I had made until I recently came across several oldies, some of them well-worn. I'm happy to see that my piecing & quilting has improved over the years, although at that time, I thought these were all wonderful. Only one of the three is dated but all three were made in the early nineties, when I was in my miniature phase. 

It's still hit and miss when it comes to labelling my quilts, but since I started this blog to document my quilts, I try hard to at least sign and date even if it is just with a marker, but preferably stitched in. A label is always a bonus.

Quilt # 123

Beige & Blue Mini Charm Quilt

Beige & Blue Mini

 This one is probably the oldest, it is dated 1991, the beige is a polyester and it is also hand quilted of which I did not do a lot of after I found out I could machine quilt.

I remember going through all of the fabrics I had at the time and anything with blue in it was fair game for the 1” half-square triangles.  I think this would make it a Charm quilt, which means that all the pieces are from different fabrics, no two pieces the same.  I'm not sure if using one fabric as the background makes a difference to calling it a Charm Quilt.

1" half-square triangles

It has two borders, a double fold french binding and polyester batting.   The back is one large half-square triangle and it is signed.  It  measures 23" x 23".

Beige & Blue Mini - back

Quilt #124

Jewel Box Mini

Jewel Box Mini

This mini also has some polyester fabrics in it and it is machine quilted using invisible thread on the top and white polyester on the back.  It has one border, double fold french binding and polyester batting.

four-patches and half-square triangles

The half-square triangles are 1½“ and the little squares in the four-patch are 3/4” square.

Jewel Box - back

The back is made of four half-square triangle repeating the pattern on the top.  

The whole quilt measures 23” x 23”..

Quilt # 125

Crazy-Patches

Crazy Patches

3” x 3½” crazy-patch rectangles were sashed and machine quilted with some hand quilting added to some of the patches.

piecing

The fabrics are all 100% cotton and I see that the navy has faded. We are so lucky to have the fabric we have nowadays. 

Crazy Patches - back

The back was turned to the front and stitched down as binding. It measures 23” x 24”.

More Table Toppers to come.

Terry