Watercolour Quilts
Charles Good
I'm returning to this newsgroup after a long absence, so if this topic
has already been discussed to death I apologize.
Does anyone have any experience in making watercolour quilted
wallhangings. If so, any tips to pass along?
Jan
John Musselwhite
Yes! I have made watercolour quilts with the 2" squares and I love
doing them! I don't have a great deal of "tips," but here are a few
comments. I have also worked in a fabric store so I have seen my share
of the watercolour quilts, at least the ones made in classes.
I tried making a project with larger (4") squares and it was a
disaster. Part of the magic is that the colors all move and blend. If
you use larger pieces, I thought that there was too much of the original
intent of the fabric present and the end result fought together and
didn't work at all. I saw a project done in a show with 1" squares and
it was awesome! The quilter had taken a cross stitch pattern and then
assigned colored fabrics to each spot instead of sewing it with an x.
However, I am not sure I could stand the thousands of seams.
If you haven't done this, you will be alarmed by how much it
shrinks!!!
25% is hard to imagine until you see it in action. I worked really hard
to make the fabrics work together and it is kind of abstract and hard to
match up when the point you are matching is 1/4" in on each side.
However . . . have faith. The end result will be a little choppier
close up than you imagined but will look better from far away.
Bright fabrics only work if you want to call attention to an
area. I
have seen a few done in only bright fabrics, but they don't play well
with others. I, myself, have sorted out the brights and the ones with
the flowers and shapes outlined heavily with black or gold. These only
work in once in awhile and sometimes have to just be tossed out. I
didn't realize how much they would stand out when I purchased them.
Your house will be a mess while you are working on this
project. No
matter how hard you try to sort the project ahead of time, it ends up
being a HUGE puzzle and you will sort for days looking for the piece
that goes from pink to green to make a transition area.
If you have the books by Pat Magaret and Donna Slusser, the
first
project I did was the one like p. 79 (right bottom of page) in the first
book. Most of the people I have seen try to start with something like
on p. 39, which is just basically an exercise in value and they all look
the same. The project I did had the advantage of needing very specific
value changes and I had to find clear, bright prints to put in certain
sections to get the optical illusion that I wanted. After that quilt, I
have not tried to imitate any of the projects in the book. It is too
frustrating, for the fabrics you will use will be different and the
quilt you make will take on a life of its own.
I currently am finishing a wc wallhanging with a mountain
against the
pale blue of a sunrise. I had to collect light lights for years. they
are very very hard to find. Above the mountain lurks a dragon and where
he has breathed out is a river of flowers, turned yellow by his breath.
Not everyone "gets" this quilt, but I love it. (Most of the quilters I
know are not into medieval fantasy the way I am.)
Anyway, this quilt demonstrated very well the problems in
shrinkage. I
had set up the river of yellow flowers and I was thrilled with it. Then
I sewed it up and what was an entire wall of color sewed up into a
postage stamp. I then had to add to it. Calculating what was going to
work sewn next to what I had already finished was a trick. I had to
replace a few parts a couple times. But I plan to finish this by June
and put it into our quilt show.
If you need help collecting fabrics, I would be glad to share. I
bought hundreds of strips 4" wide and there's not much else (besides
watercolor) that you can do with them. So e-mail your address to me if
you want a packet. I can get to it this week, but school starts next
week and I never know what to expect (I am a substitute teacher.)
HAVE FUN,
Phebe
PS I tried mailing this directly to Jan, but the mail kicked it back to
me. I apologize to the rest of you for being so wordy.
DDuperault
>PS I tried mailing this directly to Jan, but the mail kicked it back to
>me. I apologize to the rest of you for being so wordy.
No, no no! This is *exactly* the kind of thing we love to have
people share here...
Dawn
--
Batgirl was a Librarian, too!
http://www.he.net/~dduperal/
reply-to: ddupe...@aol.com
John Musselwhite
If anyone is looking for books and info on Watercolor Quilting that you
would like to purchase, you should browse through the In The Beginning
website. You can get there at http://ttsw.com/faqpage.html
Go to Quilt Shops, Pacific NW. It is listed under Seattle, WA
They have an order form that you can print out and send in once you
find what you want. So even you quilters in Canada can find what you
need.
Enjoy!
Phebe
Little Pua
I have made 2 large watercolor flowerbox wall hangings. The hard part is
not the quilting but finding the right piece for the right spot. I bought
a large felt piece (8 feet by 4 feet), then drew with permanent ink a 2
inch grid that covered the entire piece. The felt is then hung from a
wall. Here I am able to place all of the pieces in the order I want and
step back for a look. From a distance you can see what the quilt will look
like when it is finished and easily make any corrections before you start
to sew.
Happy sewing,
Sherry
Charles Good
Thanks for the great tip about the felt. It would really help get
an idea of the finished look. I'm going to try it!
Thanks to everyone who responded to my "Watercolour quilt" question.
I got some great ideas.
Jan
sarah curry smith
No tips, but I tried it, and it just wasn't my bag. I now have (nobody
can ever accuse me of doing anything halfway) 5 baggies of carefully-cut
(some ordered from the yellow pages in the magazines, which are probably
more carefully-cut than mine, but I was more careful than usual) 2"
squares, each containing at least 500 (and yes, I really did count)
squares. Anybody interested?
Sarah in Las Cruces, NM
qlt...@aol.com
I'm with you, Sarah, WC is just not for me... Something about
fussy-cutting your fabric into swiss cheese drove me crazy but i sure love
to admire those wonderful WCquilts others make! Hope you find a home for
your 2" sqs. or maybe you could make a boston common quilt the old
fashioned way, one sq. at a time. You'd need quite a bit of muslin or
other matching fabrics for the background, or, what about a watercolor
type or radiant 9-patch. Can you believe this, I can't even part with
your excess fabric. Okay, I admit I am powerless before fabric....only 11
more steps to go.
Quilt Happy, Lynn (certifiable fabriholic---even the scraps are sacred)
8^)
sarah curry smith
qlt...@aol.com wrote:
>
> I'm with you, Sarah, WC is just not for me... Something about
> fussy-cutting your fabric into swiss cheese drove me crazy but i sure love
> to admire those wonderful WCquilts others make!
As do I. Every single one of them is drop-dead gorgeous (including the
12" by 18" try of mine, before my eyes rolled up in my head and I began
to froth at the mouth and gave it up).
Hope you find a home for
> your 2" sqs.
I have. This NG is wonderful (although, at this rate, I may spend the
rest of my days at the computer, instead of at the sewing machine ... or
at the job which will help me pay for this computer and the latest
addition to the stash).
or maybe you could make a boston common quilt the old
> fashioned way, one sq. at a time. You'd need quite a bit of muslin or
> other matching fabrics for the background, or, what about a watercolor
> type or radiant 9-patch.
I'll have to pass. I have two quilting (yes, QUILTING, not piecing)
projects on the table, and not touched in 3 months.
Can you believe this, I can't even part with
> your excess fabric. Okay, I admit I am powerless before fabric....only 11
> more steps to go.
Yeah, me, too. I've had those little squares in those baggies for
almost a year (nevermind the Papago basket full of MORE 2" squares)
before I got to where I could turn 'em loose. I'm the same way with
books. Hell, I can't even take a USED book back to the USED bookstore I
got it from!
Sarah
Kathy Morgan
Don't be afraid to use the wrong side of your fabric to help you find
exactly the right color value. I made one small wallhanging at a workshop,
and time was real problem for me--if I was ever going to get it done, it
had to be all sorted and arranged that day. I didn't have enough light
lights, so I turned some of them over and it worked out great. Once the
project is finished and quilted, no one but you will know some of them are
the wrong sides.
Kathy
SherLor95
Dear Jan:
I'm a newbie to quilting, and my first 2 projects have been watercolors.
I've had great fun with Shirley Liby's Color Wash Workbook. Most of the
projects are small, just the right size for wallhangings, and I find them
to be a great way to learn. They'd probably work really well for getting
your feet weta gain if you've not quilted for a while. Hope this helps!
Sheryl
Sher...@aol.com
"The world is a wonderful place. Let's try to leave it a little better than we found it."
OakKnollDr
Okay--everybody who wants to get rid of their little baggies full of
little squares of fabric--I"ll take 'em! This will probably sound crazy
to you, but I learned to quilt using the English paper piecing method, and
I find hand-sewing all those little squares together very soothing! <g>
So, if you've got baggies that need a home, let me know!
Thanks, BTW, for a fun NG--I'm new to all this and thought I'd start with
a quilting group--it feels safer, as quilters are usually such nice folks
I thought maybe I wouldn't get yelled at if I did something wrong!
sarah curry smith
OakKnollDr wrote:
>
> Okay--everybody who wants to get rid of their little baggies full of
> little squares of fabric--I"ll take 'em!
Sorry, but you spoke too late. Far as I know, I'm the only idiot with
baggies full of 2" squares, and I'm the only idiot who didn't want them.
They were snapped up in sort order (thank you, watercolor-ers, and
wannabes, for taking them off my hands, albeit for a fee).
>
> Thanks, BTW, for a fun NG--I'm new to all this and thought I'd start with
> a quilting group--it feels safer, as quilters are usually such nice folks
> I thought maybe I wouldn't get yelled at if I did something wrong!
I'm new to this NG too, and I find that they are just delightful people
... and nobody's yelled at me yet (but then again, I just started,
didn't I :-) )
DMckiddie
One more comment of Watercolor quilts:
DH while very supportive of my quilting does not like wall quilts--Afraid
he will end up in a,padded cell. So lap and bed size quilts keep us all
happy.
Anyway, the larger the water color quilt, the better your focus better be
for a really outstanding quilt.
I made a bed size watercolor quilt using individual blocks of 6 by 6
squares ranging from very light in one corner to very dark in the opposite
corner. Does this make sense? Hope so!
Anyway, put all the blocks together so the center of the quilt was
lightest to the border which was darkest. Was pretty, but
blahhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I am now in the process of cutting out black flower silouette to applique
in the center to give focus.
Food for thought before you begin
Happy quilting,
Diane