Primitive Stars jacket, part two—hand stitching

Detail: running stitch on jacket back.

Did you read Part One about my Primitive Stars ikat Jacket? It was about the machine stitching/quilting part of the jacket-creation process. This post is about the hand stitching—or slooooow stitching—process.

The running stitch

On the front, back and sleeve, this jacket is embellished with a mix of fabric scraps—ikat, yarn-dyed wovens and commercial cotton prints. I was following a color palette and was not concerned with the fabric type. These patches are raw edge and attached with a running stitch by hand. I guess you could identify this technique with any or all of the following terms: boro, kantha, appliqué, or quilting... depending on your point of view. 

For this hand stitching, I used Spaghetti and Fruitti [WonderFil Threads] 12 wt. cotton threads. They come in a broad range of beautiful solid and variegated colors. Thread colors were chosen to complement the color of the fabric patches and the color scheme of the jacket.

Stitching on yarn-dyed fabrics

Hand stitching is a dream with the yarn-dyed wovens! You've gotta try it. Really.

Detail: running stitches with 12 wt. cotton thread from WonderFil Threads,
 ikat, and Primitive Stars yarn-dyed wovens from Diamond Textiles.

The thread color for stitching on the cream-colored ikat is Fruitti FT17, a variegated color story of soft lavender, pale periwinkle and a subtle hint of magenta, called "Mountains." 

Jacket pocket with hand stitched decorative band.

The jacket pocket fabric is from a Riverwoods fabric collection by Janine Burke. Looks like a hand-dyed, doesn't it? It's actually a printed fabric, so it's a "hand-dyed look at an affordable price." Quilters and quilt shops—please ask me about availability of this fabric line.

This shows the hand stitches from the lining (inside). It might look like a lot of stitches, but the process is quiet, rhythmic and relaxing—and a nice break from machine quilting.

Hand stitching on jacket (lining side).

This jacket has two buttons and button loop closures. You can see the streaks of raspberry color in the variegated thread in this photo [YLI 40 wt. cotton, color 15V Vineyard].

Button loop closure.

The sleeve detail—machine and hand stitching. I like the juxtaposition!

Sleeve with ikat fabric patch.

My completed jacket. It's a little boro and a little blue.

Primitive Stars jacket with ikat and slow stitching.

Make a jacket, make a friend

And here I am at the International Quilt Market [wearing my jacket] with Maria Shell, quilt artist and newly-published author with her first book, Improv Patchwork: Dynamic Quilts made with Line and Shape. We met in the Houston airport waiting for the Super Shuttle. We both knew immediately where the other was going (wink, wink). You can usually tell someone's a quilter by the clothes they're wearing. (My ikat jacket was a dead give-away.) We struck up a conversation in the shuttle van and in no time found ourselves at the hotel.

Me with Maria Shell and my autographed copy of
her new book, "Improv Patchwork."

Make yourself an artwear jacket. Patchwork... appliqué... kantha stitching... boro with beautiful threads... whatever techniques and materials satisfy your current afflatus (creative impulse). It will start a conversation and you might make a new friend.

Primitive Stars, ikat and slow stitiching a new jacket

Primitive Stars, ikat jacket (back view).

A jacket—particularly one with a minimal number of seams and pattern pieces—presents a vacant canvas for creative stitching, surface design, and experimenting with patchwork. For fiber artists and garment makers, what better reason is there for pulling out favorite fabrics, threads and treasured scraps and making one?

For my two previous jackets (see this blog post and the photo collage in this post), I used yarn-dyed wovens. These textiles are from Diamond Textiles [don't be fooled by the thinner, copycats] and I am still captivated by the rich, textured designs and the way the threads and stitches present themselves on these fabrics.

My recent jacket finish—just in time for Fall Quilt Market, I might add—combines one of Diamond Textiles' ikats, the blue-grey colorway from the Primitive Stars collection, and a few scraps of yarn-dyed and commercial print fabrics.

Three layers
As with most of my quilted wearables, there are three layers:

• an outside fashion fabric (pieced or wholecloth),
• a middle layer (typically flannel or muslin), 
• a lining fabric, 

... that are stitched—or "quilted"—to hold the layers together. I learned this garment construction method from the Queen of Folk Art, and prolific maker of coats and jackets, Rachel Clark. This jacket has both machine and hand quilting. Here is an in-progress photo of the front right. The "white" fabric you see extending out from the edge of the fashion fabric is the middle layer of the "quilt sandwich."

Jacket front (in progress). The individual jacket pieces are
stitched and quilted and then the jacket is assembled. 

Machine quilting
The photo below is the jacket's outside showing the combination of a straight and decorative machine stitches. This process was manual and random. Sometimes I'd watch the color change in the variegated thread [40wt. from YLI] and switch to the decorative stitch to highlight the new color.

Machine quilting with straight and decorative stitches.

I do not mark the lines for quilting (who's got the time?? not I!). An advantage of using a yarn-dyed fabric is that the pattern or "print" is woven into the fabric and it's on grain. You can use the fabric's "print" as a guide for machine quilting with the walking foot.

Machine quilting (lining side).

When the season turns from summer to fall, think about sewing a jacket to wear in the cooler weather. The Houston convention center for Quilt Market was cool and a few evenings were windy and chilly once the sun went down. I was glad I had a jacket—especially one with a pocket!

Jacket front

Here is the follow-up blog post with close-ups of the hand stitching and other jacket details. Because people ask, here is the materials list for this jacket:

:: Yarn-dyed Primitive Stars blue-greyfabric [Diamond Textiles]
:: Multi-colored ikat [Diamond Textiles]
:: Fabrics from Great Wall collection [Midwest Textiles]
:: hand stitching with 12 wt. cotton Spaghetti and Fruitti thread [WonderFil Threads]
:: 40 wt. cotton variegated thread for machine stitching [YLI Threads]
:: cotton fabric for center layer
:: jacket pattern: "Raggy Jacket" by Four Corners Designs

Creativity blossoms in Art Weave class at Sew 'n So quilt shop

When you ask students to introduce themselves in class and they share things like, "I like to make all styles of quilts...," "... I like to take classes to learn different techniques," and "... I like to step outside the box," you know you have a classroom full of adventurous quiltmakers and it's going to be a fabulously creative class! My Art Weave class yesterday was exactly this!

"Art Weave" class at Sew 'n So Quilt Shop, Rocky Face, Georgia.

Preparing the strips for weaving
and an assortment of fabric panels with other designs.

Yesterday, I taught the Art Weave technique at Sew 'n So Quilt Shop to an eager group of quiltmakers. It was a joy to be back in the classroom again. All the students created beautiful pieces of fabric art with large scale floral designs from Frond Design Studios.

It was a special, serendipitous treat for me when I realized that each student had chosen a different flower design for their art weave piece. This also offered class attendees a bouquet of possibilities for what they could do for the next project. The classroom was abloom with colorful fabric art possibilities!

One of the missions that artist-owner, Stephanie Brandenburg, has for her fabric company, Frond Design Studios, is "Art into the every day." Frond's large scale fabric prints and the art weave technique is an ideal approach for introducing this concept to people of all skill levels.

Courtney works with the Love Blossoms Lily.

Stephanie also thinks of the company's fabric collections as the initial leg of a creative relay race. From the original paintings on canvas and the printing of the fabrics, to the merchandising, displays and class projects offered at quilt shops and independent sewing centers, to the creative hands of quilters and sewers, the baton is passed from maker to maker at each leg of a creative journey.

Sherry (left) works with the Una's Garden blue iris and
Jo-Anne (right) chose the Love Blossoms red poppy.

On their leg of the journey, class attendees put their individual stamp on their piece said they enjoyed the art weave technique. Here is a glimpse of their work.

Art Weave Lily by Courtney.

We discussed a variety of options for quilting and finishing and everyone chimed in with ideas for other projects using these large scale prints and fabric panels. Thank you to all my students for coming to class with a sense of adventure and to Anna at Sew 'n So for hosting the class.

Art Weave Poppy by Jo-Anne.

This is the violets panel from Una's Garden in one of my class samples.

My class sample, Violet Bouquet, using the Art Weave technique.

Inspired? Follow my blog and watch my class calendar to see where I will be teaching this class in the future. Quilt shops and quilt guilds can contact me if interested in scheduling a class.

Looking for these fabrics? As of this blog post, Sew 'n So Quilt Shop has the full collection of the Flower Power fabric panels from Frond Design Studios. Several additional panels went home with the class attendees, so don't delay if you want some for your own quilting or sewing projects.
      If you are a shop owner and would like to stock these fabrics in your store, email me at fabricrepveronica (at) gmail (dot) com.

My guest quilt artist exhibit at Murray Arts Council

I am honored to be the featured artist at a lovely exhibit of quilts and vintage sewing machines at the Murray Arts Council [MAC] in Chatsworth, Georgia. My husband, Larry, and I attended the opening reception this Saturday and were warmly greeted by the staff, volunteers and visitors to the exhibit.

My quilts at the guest artist exhibit at the Murray Arts Council quilt exhibit.
October 14-15 and 21-22, 2017

Nine of my quilts are on display this weekend, October 14-15, and next weekend, October 21-22 along with quilts from local quiltmakers and a wonderful selection of vintage and toy sewing machines from the collection of Debbie Vick Davenport.

"Sidewalk Surprise" (left) and "A Feather Runs Through It" on display
with a vintage featherweight sewing machine.

"Your art quilts set the tone for the exhibit," said Debbie Vick Davenport, my exhibit liaison and one of the exhibit's coordinators. Lori McDaniels, one of the MAC directors, indicated there was an overwhelmingly positive response to my pieces and the Guest Artist exhibit, and just the first day's visitor attendance had far exceeded past shows.

Visitors at the annual quilt exhibit at Murray Arts Council, Chatsworth, GA.

The exhibit has a sampling of quilts from several quilting genres—art quilts, traditional, memory, vintage/antique and patriotic—that are complemented by an exhibit of antique featherweights and vintage toy sewing machines. Here is a preview...

Art quilt (left) by Miriam Duncan and "Flowers for Peyton" by Brenda Bowling.

Debbie was on hand and talked about the history and stories of the acquisition of her vintage sewing machines. She gives each machine a name—usually in honor of a family member that was a seamstress or quilter. It was amazing to see the toy machines and realize how small they really are. (Having one as a little girl, they seemed so much bigger!)

Debbie Vick Davenport with a vintage toy sewing machine.
Right: a model 221K White Singer from 1964. Notice the hard carrying case.

The background for this Cathedral Windows quilt is linen. The colorful patches are fabric swatches from a mail order fabric club. Pre-internet days, fabric stores would mail groups of fabric swatches to home sewers so they could select fabrics for mail order purchase. 

Cathedral Window quilt with linen and cotton fabrics.

The exhibit included appliqué quilts featuring the traditional—and always recognizable—sun bonnet characters. These motifs go by names such as Sunbonnet Sue, Dutch Doll, Parasol Girl and Sunbonnet Sam. I wonder if the alternate blocks of the novelty fish fabric were paired with a collection of vintage Fisherman Sam quilt blocks to make this quilt (below left).

Left: Fisherman Sam with novelty fabric.
Right: "Little Dutch Girls" by Mabel Beavers.

One of my favorite quilts in the exhibit was this scrappy "Pinwheels and Stars" quilt by Clemmie Jones. The checks and stripes gave it an energy that spoke to me. And the mix of prints florals and other prints tells me this quiltmaker was not timid with her choice of fabrics. I think this block pattern would be fun to use in a modern quilt. Modern quilters—what do you think? Can you envision a modern version?

"Pinwheels and Stars" by Clemmie Jones

The quilt exhibit continues today (Sunday) and next weekend. If you want to make a full day of it, the Black Bear Festival is also happening October 21-22. Quilts, crafts, music, food and beautiful scenery of the foothills of the Appalachians... enjoy the day!

A note about directions to MAC:
When you get to Chatsworth (if you've not been), look for the Murray County Courthouse building on N 3rd Avenue with the flags out front.

The Murray County courthouse is right across from the MAC entrance.

The Murray Arts Council location is in the middle of the block right across the street from the courthouse. Look for the red MAC logo on the window. They had a "Quilt Show Today" sign outside on the sidewalk.

Murray County Arts Council with the quilt exhibit.

At some point in the conversation between my husband and the quilt exhibit hosts, it came out that yesterday was our wedding anniversary. So, in addition to being the guest artist at the Murray Arts Council quilt exhibit, I received many compliments on my quilts and well wishes for our anniversary. Last night, we celebrated with a special anniversary dinner at Alleia downtown Chattanooga. It was a very good day.