TA DA!!!
It’s finished!
This printed piece was inspired by a project in the book
Intentional Printing
By Lynn Krawczyk
(You can read my review here. The giveaway for US residents is still open – go there and leave a comment for your chance to win this fabulous book!)
I learned several things in the process of making this piece:
1- perhaps insulated batting plus another layer of regular cotton batting (I want it to be a giant hot pad for my dining room table) might be too much to wrestle with going through my home machine. Even with fuse basting and using a walking foot the layers wanted to separate and shift.
2- I found that didn’t care enough about perfection to take the time to make this piece perfectly square. I know I could have done it but finished was better in my mind than perfect. I did cut the batting and backing perfectly square before quilting but the stitching distorted things. I had left the top bigger with the intention to fold it to the back as a fused facing. I went ahead and did it that way. If I had trimmed the whole thing then added a sewn on facing it would be square, but not done. Knowing my tendency to put things off if I don’t like a technique I went ahead and finished it. Guess what!? I LOVE IT!
And just to make you feel a little better – this is what the table looked like before I cleaned it up to take the picture. My youngest daughter decided to work on her own project while I worked on mine. She made the bat toy – a lovely addition to her growing collection. She’s made a giant squid and an octopus so far. She has since embroidered a giant red smile on the bat. No help or instruction from me – she just makes up patterns and cuts and sews. Things fall off sometimes and if she cares enough she will fix them. I do give her instruction if she asks for it, or sometimes just suggest an easier way to do something but I don’t make her do it my way. She will learn by making mistakes and perhaps will still love creating things instead of remembering sewing as a chore.
And now – to all my dear and patient international readers – if you want a chance to win a copy of INTENTIONAL PRINTING please leave a comment here. And no, I decided not to ask you to chip in on shipping. It will be my gift to you. Just tell me one idea you might have for paying the gift of creativity forward. Whether it’s sharing your talent with the next generation or being brave enough to send your own work out to a wider audience, I want to hear how your creativity makes the world a better place. I will pick a winner next Sunday the 13th of April.
Update:
Congratulations go to Arlene in Papua New Ginea!!! She is the lucky winner of Lynn’s fabulous book.
Do me a favor everyone – let your other international friends know this is available. Share this post via FaceBook or whatever your favorite social media outlet is.
And if you can’t wait to win, perhaps you want to purchase the book.
You can buy it from Interweave / F+W Media for $26.99 bit.ly/NCGKHb
or you can purchase a signed copy directly from the author herself at https://www.etsy.com/shop/SmudgedTextilesShop?ref=em
35 Comments
Anne Harkin
April 13, 2014 at 8:06 pmLove using found objects as one of my fabric printing techniques. Started this occupation by chance and was spurred on by finding Traci Bunkers’ Print & Stamp Lab in a bookshop. Now I’ve built a studio and teach kids and adults, make clothes and housewares and LOVE the whole creative process. My arts include photography, African and Arabic traditional percussion and paper crafts as well as textile arts. Here’s a photo of printed bunting made by school kids I taught for a local festival, as well as a print or two from my found objects prints…if I can find where to attach the photos!
Deborah M
April 12, 2014 at 8:42 amNice work, Lyric! I would love to teach women, who are somehow disadvantaged, to sew!
Ronni Hunter
April 9, 2014 at 10:07 amI belong to two critique groups where we all help each other with roadblocks and encouragement. I find the exchange of information about techniques or artistic ethics is a really great way to give back to other creative people.
Joanne
April 9, 2014 at 12:54 amI volunteer co-teaching an art/craft class at a senior center once a month. We encourage everyone to enjoy the process. I have worked with preschoolers, seniors and every age in-between and they all want to know if they’re doing it right. We tell them there is no wrong way if you enjoy what you’re creating.
Michele Lea
April 8, 2014 at 10:51 pmMy most memorable mistake was with the 2008 Kaufman Quilt Quest Challenge. I miss understood the directions/requirements of the challenge and made assumptions. I got the fabric had a really cool design and proceeded to cut the pieces and put it together – orange and purple grape shapes hanging from a wall. Then I went back and reread the instructions for some reason and to my horror I was to use a “traditional block”. The word traditional through me off and I literally thought it had to be a block with a traditional pattern. Well, hell, my collage of seemingly grape like shapes contrasting against a variety of stripped rectangles varying in sizes was not a traditional block! Soooo, I bought some more fabric and selected the card-trick block and came up with a pleasing composition and added a little nature to it by intertwining green ivy by appliqué The card-trick block is a combination of triangles sewn together to give an illusion BUT it is a “traditional block” so all the corners had to match perfectly. (By the way, I had not taken a traditional quilting class yet-I assumed I could figure out how to sew triangles together – what is so hard about that? Well, after ripping out little triangles for seemingly the 100th time I finally completed the card-trick pattern with a lot of verbal abuse directed at my quilt. I now have a pieced quilt top using a traditional quilt block. For some reason, I went back and reread the instructions, to my horror again, I realized that a traditional block could be a plain block with any design in it, so I could have used my original design after all! I was not a happy camper but then started to laugh at myself and sat back and realized I had learned an awful lot – true, it could have been a lot easier but not as memorable. Nothing is as simple as it seems, read the instructions/challenge requirements and make sure you understand them, if not, ask someone to explain them to you-preferably an experienced quilter and do a little reading on a technique that has been tried, tested, and works rather than trying to guess how it is done-read, listen, and follow the instructions for a challenge. I now know what a 1/4″ seam is and that little bit off turns into a big bit off after a couple of squares. I know the card trick block inside and out and I don’t want to do it again. I have an incredible amount of respect for those talented and precision conscious artists that do traditional piecing, especially in such large formats as queen size quilts. “Twice Over Lesson Learned” did not win but was juried into the show that traveled the country for a year. The winning piece was an appliqué of a pelican – beautiful, but my question was “where is the traditional block”?
Sandra Betts
April 8, 2014 at 7:52 pmI try to pay it forward by mentoring those who need to access my experience . I would like to share whatever I have been fortunate enough to have learnt.
Lynnelise
April 8, 2014 at 4:31 pmEvery time I learn a new technique or get a new art book, i can’t wait to share with my friend who lives in another state with no access to an art group. We get together once a month and experiment with these new techniques!
Yvonne R
April 8, 2014 at 5:22 amFor me, spending time with like minded quilters who share the enthusiasm and dedication to produce work with textiles that both inspire and add passion gives enormous pleasure. To give gifts of textile art that been made personally to both family, friends and to the community certainly gives me a great deal of satisfaction as well as a “feel good” feeling.
Christine Robinson
April 8, 2014 at 4:07 amI have made my stash of fabric open to my friends. There is so much and I know I will never use it all and I am not getting any younger!!! It means they will call and have a chat, ask for help and share a laugh. I am not able to get out and about as I used to but at least my fabric can.
Keren Evanson
April 8, 2014 at 12:31 amI have a co-worker in her twenties, much younger than i am, who is so excited to learn to sew. I convinced her to buy a sewing machine and can’t wait to help her with her first project.
Beth Hammergren
April 7, 2014 at 11:03 pmI help pay it forward every year by helping create a quilt to raffle off to benefit a local farm.
Jo Vanderney
April 7, 2014 at 9:40 pmAs a kid I was always helped to learn stitching, sewing and making things by mom and her friends. I also learned from being a girl guide. Week after week, year after year the leaders shared with us kids to make our lives better. I guess this is where I learned to share.
I loved sharing with my kids friends, my kids, great nieces to “play” with my stuff. The craft queen mom… Now I share with anyone who would like to come and play in my room.
Through the quilds i belong to we have lots of fun making things from neo natal quilts, comfort quilts, quilts for shelters etc.
My favorite way to share is spending time sharing my love of quilting and sewing with my daughter. She has been quilting sindce she was in her teens and is now in her twenties. It is wonderful to see her share her gift by making lap quilts for her friends for their weddings,
arlene
April 7, 2014 at 9:00 pmI help ladies with their quilting and artsy projects where we live in Papua New Guinea.
Valerie
April 7, 2014 at 4:49 pmI have been teaching my niece and nephew sewing and embroidery. My niece likes making very long stitches with the embroidery, so the project will be done faster. It is a lot of fun and interestingly, me nephew is much more detail oriented than his sister.
Margy Johnson
April 7, 2014 at 1:03 pmMy friends and I are in the process of starting a craft group in our local area. The idea is to pass on skills to anyone who is interested combined with tea, coffee, biscuits and a chat for anyone in the community who may be lonely, wants to learn something new or get help with a project
Laceflower
April 7, 2014 at 1:03 pmI’ve just formed a small group of women to explore design and we are working through design exercises in various books. Also am entering 3 quilts for our guild show and I’ve never shown before but have been quilting for some time.
Margy Johnson
April 7, 2014 at 12:56 pmA few of my friends and I are setting up a craft outreach into our local community for elderly lonely folk, stay at home moms or anyone who wants to learn a craft or two in a supportive friendly environment. The idea is to have tea and biscuits, a chat and create.
Linda Kittmer
April 7, 2014 at 12:18 pmLove your table topper Lyric! I make fibre art journal covers to fit standard composition books, which I donate to our local women’s shelter each fall. I’d love to incorporate some of the ideas from this book into my covers! I find that these journals are a wonderful gift for these women because whether they choose to write about their personal journey, use it as an art journal or even as a place to make lists and keep notes, it’s a ‘pretty something’ just for them! Art journalling can be very healing, and has helped me through some pretty difficult challenges and I hope that the journals I donate can do the same for the women who find themselves in need of the safely of the shelter.
Kit Lang
April 7, 2014 at 12:18 pmI am fortunate enough to have had my work in a number of show nationally and internationally in the last few years.
However, I just recently started volunteering my time teaching arts and crafts to the kids at my local community centre. I’ve got to say, it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done, art-wise. I’ve discovered I (really) like teaching, the kids are often hilarious, creative and WAY more brave than I am – and make me think about my own work in a different way.
I’m teaching them to add hand stitch to their mixed media collages – once I get entrenched in this – I’ll be campaigning for sewing machines too! 🙂
Laura
April 7, 2014 at 12:10 pmSharing is part of who I am. I’m happy to share at my local guilds about anything I find out – either by a casual conversation or a mini workshop. I’m happy to share the creative spirit at the grocery store by pointing out our upcoming quilt shows to the check out clerks or when I am paying my insurance bill and the receptionist comments on something that might perk up her elderly mother. Beauty is joy. I would certainly create a mini workshop at my guild, combining my new found knowledge with what I’ve accumulated to date on fabric art.
Sharon Matthiesen
April 7, 2014 at 11:56 amI love to see the look in others eyes when their work is embraced and enjoyed. My contribution to the work is to confound and enraged the quilt police with my acceptance of all work as art.
Jody
April 7, 2014 at 11:05 amI love to share my love of fibre with anyone who is willing to try. I gift fabric, threads and yarns to those who express a genuine interest in learning how to create things that mean something to them. I am inspired by a wide variety of artists, fibre and non-fibre, and am sad that due to time constraints I was unable to get my creativity fix in this past weekend. If I have energy I just may have to work that in later today….
Katina
April 7, 2014 at 9:21 amRecently I found a wonderful book at the library, Beading and Embroidery, Stitch Samples. I took it to my Thursday stitching group and we were all so impressed by the book that I ordered a copy for each of us from Chapters. Would love to win the book so that I could share with the group again. I just returned home from a Fibre Arts Retreat. Over 200 spinners, knitters, hookers and quilters. Exhausted, but oh what fun.
Annie Andrew
April 7, 2014 at 7:13 amI want to start my fellow guild members on a new path – away from their traditional quilting ideas and venture into the exciting and creative world of art quilts and modern quilting. They new trends are where younger people want to be and if we want to attract new younger members we have to be up with the new ideas and encourage their creativity instead of just following the old patterns and ideas. Let’s get with it and learn some new techniques for our own benefits along the way.
Margaret Price
April 7, 2014 at 6:19 amLove your blog, thank you. I have recently joined an on line “create art” programme, and one thing being done is leaving ATC’s in a public place for someone to find and enjoy……I love the idea, so I am going to join in, make a few ATC’s and leave them somewhere, hoping they will give the “someones” who find them a moment of pleasure.
Thanks for the opportunity to join in for the chance to win the book.
Margaret Price
Martine Brion
April 7, 2014 at 6:16 amSorry, I have forgotten my website !
Martine Brion
April 7, 2014 at 6:14 amI run a textile printing workshop in the “Centre de la Broderie du Hainaut”, in Belgium. It has a lot of success. I love to make discovering original fabric printing techniques, including yours ! I also practice these techniques on my own creations, some of which will be exhibited soon.
Friendly thoughts of Belgium and my apologies for the English mistakes !!!
Ms Lottie
April 7, 2014 at 5:48 amAhh! I just went and tweeted your giveaway and Bloglovin’ ate my comment! I think I said how much I liked your table topper in it’s final spot and how great it is that your daughter is into creating and especially on that Elna, as it was my first sewing machine too.
I ran a taster session at my guild on printing on fabric and it was lots of fun, so now I’m putting together a workshop on dyeing to show that it’s not scary and once you are finished you can print on your ‘own’ fabric. Your ‘pay it forward’ prompt reminded me that I want to volunteer this year at my kid’s school when they do their annual activity days – I think a fabric printing workshop for kids would be messy, but great fun!
Ms Lottie
April 7, 2014 at 5:39 amI’ve enjoyed watching you create this and I think the result looks great in it’s final setting.
Loved seeing the old Elna – I learnt to sew on one of those! Fantastic that your daughter is into making and sewing.
I ran a short taster session at our guild on fabric printing and we had so much fun! So now I’m planning to run a fabric and thread dyeing workshop soon to show people that it’s not that complicated and really a whole lot of fun too! And seeing your ‘pay it forward’ prompt reminds me that I want to volunteer and put together a workshop in fabric printing for my kid’s school at their annual clubs day – now that’ll be even more fun…and messy!
Gill
April 7, 2014 at 4:44 amFor me it’s helping children at my local school to express their creativity – the curriculum leaves so little time for this today, I love to help out when I can.
Linda Pyne
April 7, 2014 at 2:18 amHi Lyric,
I love your Table Topper too…it is very striking! My way of ‘paying forward’ my love of creating is to include a ‘message’ in each piece. I have strong Spiritual beliefs and incorporate either icons, words or images..usually in a very subtle manner… in my pieces. It gives me joy, and hopefully brightens the day for other people, too. Best wishes….Linda
Adele Thomas
April 6, 2014 at 7:26 pmI help with the talking textiles project in schools for year 5’s every year for free. I teach them the history of textiles, I teach them to felt, weave and stitch. We dye, print and paint.
I also do printing and dyeing activities with the young women at church whenever they let me. If anyone reads this from the Devon areanof the UK and wants me to do something like this please message me =)
Deb
April 6, 2014 at 7:00 pmI wish I had grandchildren to play with, but since I don’t yet, I enjoy offering workshops at fiber events.
Nancy Davies
April 6, 2014 at 4:56 pmI enjoy mucking around with fabric paints etc. with my grand-daughter. Last summer I picked up an old Twirl ‘O Paint toy at a yard sale. We used transfer paints to make the most amazing colorful swirls on paper and later transferred to fabric. It made my heart sing to see her eyes go wide as she squeezed the paint, watching the patterns centrifugal force can produce, and exclaiming “Cooool Nana!!”
Catherine Parkinson
April 6, 2014 at 4:10 pmFor me it is teaching others to have passion to be creative every day. Whether it is to create a beautiful meal or to arrange some flowers in a vase or to read a story with wonderful voices or to be inspired by beautiful art work which ignites a passion to create even more.
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