90 Flames

The right panel of the banner is now appliqued. I used one of my machine's shading stitches, in various widths, from 4mm.-7mm. to applique the 5 sizes of flames on the panel. I free-motion stitched them using my regular opened-toed foot because I felt I had better control with it, instead of using my darning foot.












35 more to be stitched -
Since the 125 flames in total will represent 125 years of the congregation, they are also the people. Interpretations of music, outreach, family, caring, and our congregation's passion for taking in Jesus' true spirituality will be added to the flames.

Quilted Center Panel

I just finished quilting the center panel of the banner. Using the two forward, one back stitch on my machine, I was able to get the top-stitch effect that I wanted. I worked on about a 10 inch area at a time, changing thread color quite often. I was having a few problems with my bobbin thread showing too much, so I changed that thread each time too. Since I use this stitch quite often in my quilting, it really wasn't that tedious.

What also helped immensely was that I finally got a walking foot for my machine, so now you could say that I have a Kenmore~Janome machine. The dealer knew exactly what foot I needed.

What's next? I'll be warming up to free-motion quilt on the flames. I'll keep you posted...

She Sure Gets Around

The "Green Goddess Dressing" quilt does it again! Her latest photo is in the current issue of Common Thread,
Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores company newsletter.

They wrote something very nice about me and the quilt...thanks to Sally, Becky and Kayla from Store 610 for setting this up ~

Progress on Banner

After removing over 10 flames from the banner, I felt I needed to break it up a little. I started working on this center panel by fusing small strips of the same hand dyes that I used for the flames. The Luther Seal is about 2/3rds of the way down the panel and in the photos here, you can see the silk organza with some images from the church printed on: the "1882" is taken from the cornerstone. All is going well...when can I start quilting?

To view previous posts on the banner, check out May 24-June 5...

The Latest Pincushions

on my gallery blog: Julaine's Gallery of Artful Adventures

Sacred Spiral Dancers

We have a liturgical dance troupe at Emmanuel who through their movement and music bring so much to worship. Our son joined the group and danced with them for the first time on Sunday. He fit right in with all the ladies and Tim, our music director.

I told him yesterday after rehearsal that I saw something in his eyes that was magical. The youth director was amazed because he's one of the party guys in the youth group, and is often seen being goofy...

He's still a teenager (you know what I'm talking about), but there are times...well, Jeff and I cried.

Side note: not too much complaining ("Mom, I'll look like a bridesmaid") when he saw the sashes that I made for him and Tim. I had to match the ladies' orchid skirts.

Visiting an Old Friend

This is the "Estrogen Patch" quilt that I made 5 years ago when I was still a newbie. At the bottom are actual estrogen patches sewn on and along the top third of the piece are words related to HRT at the time: 'breasts beware' - hot flash finis - beautiful bones - mellow moods - ??? - healthy heart? - sublime sleep.
Pokey, do you remember this one?


The quilt is in Lois' (nurse practitioner) at my gyne's office. When I showed it to her back then, she arranged to have me meet the drug rep from the company who made the patches (my brand). The drug rep fell in love with it, had her company purchase it, and then they donated it back to my Dr.'s office. It still hangs in Lois' office.

I didn't just go to visit my quilt. I had an appointment with the doctor. This past Monday, I had a mammogram and an ultrasound because of some "nip fluid." We have a breast health center here in Rockford that tells you what's up before you leave. Nice.
The doctor took some swabs and put me on an antibiotic because he thinks it's just an infection. If not cleared up in 7 days, I'll have to see a surgeon. I think he's being over-cautious, but how do you tell your physician that?


June 13th update: I found out yesterday that I have a staph infection (ok-I can deal with that)in my breast, but no cancer cells (I am so happy...). The antibiotic that I was on is resistant to staph, so I'm now on another med that will take care of it...



Another solo exhibit coming up for me: Barnes and Noble Booksellers in Rockford
dates: Sunday, August 17th through Sunday, August 24th with a reception on Wednesday, August 20th (time tba). I do have many small works ready for this and I'll be doing a few more in between times of banner creating.

Of Wood and Stone

A few months ago, I found a postcard of Emmanuel from the late 40's - on it was a description "the church beautiful" ~

Here are some of the photos I took today "of wood and stone" ~ the first three are from the sanctuary, and the last one is of a stone carving on a fireplace.

All inspiration for the banner...

Painted Luther Seal

I was a little unsure of how to add the colors to the Luther Seal that will be on the banner...

Remembering that if it didn't turn out right, I could go to plan B...

Here's how I did it:
~ copied the image from the internet
~ enlarged it
~ printed it out in black and white on cotton lawn with freezer paper ironed on it
~ pinned it to a piece of canvas-like fabric
~ painted with Jacquard Textile paints, and Lumiere on the outer circle
~ the color between the rose and the gold circle is teal (can't tell from the photo)
~ Pigma Micron pen for accents
~ it felt a little like "paint by number"

I'm very pleased with the outcome!

Trusting your first instinct

Here's an early work in progress photo on the banner. I should have trusted my first instinct and the first design I came up with...

After placing the flames in two different ways, I came back to this one. One had the flames as a tree, one had them in a large spiral with the colors all mixed. I also realized that fusing them directly to the batting wasn't going to work (what to do with all the little areas showing through), so I am fusing them on black Kona cotton.

The Luther Seal has been printed out on white cotton and my plans are to paint it, or color it with oil pastels. Still working out the details of printing the images of the church's wood carvings on silk organza.

Problem - I counted about 135 flames, and I only need 125.
Ten flames must go. And I must go to bed now...

Emmanuel at 125

"Be ablaze with enthusiasm. Let us be an alive, burning offering before the altar of God." hildegard of bingen, 12th c.

I have been commissioned to create an art quilt banner for our congregation's 125th anniversary that will be celebrated on July 22nd. I am so excited! The size will be about 30x45 inches.

These are most of the cottons that I had dyed earlier in the week, some solids (check out that grape one), some 2-color pieces, and some discharged cloth that there aren't any photos off yet. I've started to cut out 125 "flames" that will be fused on top of my batting, and the quilt will also include Luther's Seal (probably the focal point). Our church has so many beautiful wood carvings that I wanted to do some rubbings on, but most are too 3-dimensional. I'm now going to photograph some of them, and see what they look like printed out on silk organza.

The stained glass image of Christ is from the brochure that our church had put together this year. Most of the photography is by Steve Pitkin (Gee's Bend photographer) and his staff. I'm hoping to have him photograph the banner when it is completed.

I'll keep you updated on the process ~

Discharging Tutorial

Here's the supplies: Cleanser with bleach (my product of choice), any brand should work; a cup with some water in it; containers and plastic forks for mixing; foam brush ~















To make a thin solution, mix 1 cup of cleanser with 5-6 Tbsp. of water. It will be thin, similiar to thin pancake batter. I've used this wallpaper paste brush for heavy applications of the discharge solution ~












This is how I create an "eclipse" on cloth: take different sizes of plastic lids and place them randomly on your cotton. Slowly pour some thin solution to cover the lid. Take a fork or spoon and push the solution off the sides of the lid ~
(the fabric is black cotton sateen from Jo-Ann's)












When the cleanser is almost dry, carefully remove the lids from the fabric. This is what it will look like with all the eclipses ~










I left the cleanser/discharge solution on for about an hour. Here's the finished piece after rinsing, soaking in water and anti-chlor, washout and dry ~
















To make a thick paste for stamping, mix 1 cup of cleanser with 4 Tbsp. of water. It will be very thick, but not dry ~














Using a foam brush, apply the cleanser/discharge paste to your stamp, a little at a time. If you get wayward "glops" on it, you can wipe off the excess around the edges before you stamp on your cloth. Using your fingers, smooth it out to about 1/8" thick ~


















Apply to the fabric using firm pressure. Keep it in place for 5 or so minutes. When you lift the stamp, the paste remaining on the stamp will be solid, and slightly dry. If you wish to use it again right away, lightly spritz the paste on the stamp with water, making sure it doesn't drip ~

*the color of the cloth in this photo is not correct*











Here are 2 finished pieces - hand dyed cotton lawn and sateen ~




By using this method of discharging, you get an added bonus: if friends stop by, they'll assume you've been cleaning because of the aroma of the bleach and the fragrance added to the cleanser - it's such a fresh scent - now if they only came up with either a lavender or lime scented one...I can dream, can't I? the end.

My Dharma Order from the UPS Guy...

came early (9:30am. instead of 5 pm.), so I was able to take advantage of having more hours today to dye some cotton. I made up 16 colors of Procion, dyed 16 fat quarter pieces, and added 2 colors each to 6 other pieces.

I'm sure glad I cleaned out all the containers and spoons yesterday...

I'll post some photos when they're all washed out and ironed up pretty...and tell you what they're for ~

Adventures in Discharging - We have a winner - Gerrie got it!!!

Black cotton sateen ~ potato masher dipped in my special discharge potion and applied to the cloth ~ splatters, too, because of the wayward drips ~ This turned out so well, I'm thinking, "just quilt it."

The first person to guess what my secret is will receive something special in the mail! C'mon, give it a try!

THE SECRET'S OUT - IT'S CLEANSER WITH BLEACH!
KEEP CHECKING BACK FOR A QUICK TUTORIAL AND MORE ADVENTURES - COMING SOON ~
Gerrie Congdon
guessed correctly, and she gets to choose a Wrist Pin Cushion- congratulations, Gerrie...

Painted and Embossed Hardware

I wanted to show a couple of the other pieces that I made for possible inclusion in the article. Even though they weren't chosen, it did give me the opportunity to explore my technique further and to use other metal pieces...

The "Creative Insomnia" journal ~ can you guess what her body is made from? It started out as a silver-plated pie server that was broken. Her head is part of an earring. The moon is a large charm.

I'm sure many of you know all too well why I gave it this title ~







I created this special bead box by taking a metal tin and first had to scratch off most of the picture that was on the lid, using an x-acto knife. I then painted the lid with forest green glass paint (described in my Cloth, Paper, Scissors article) and added the embossing. I adhered some silk around the edges of the tin, and some cotton around the edges of the lid. Embellished with a large washer, beads, copper wire and fibers. Added some "legs" to the bottom with fiber-wrapped ceramic beads ~



detail of the bead box lid ~