Keeping it together

Things have been really busy here at Casa Quintana.....and I've also been struggling to keep on going because the current chemo has me wiped out.  Thus, you haven't been seeing much of me.

However, I have been talking about Mistyfuse....partly because I had the opportunity to work once again with Attached Inc.'s head and Empress of the Sheerest most environmentally friendly fuse, Iris Karp.

I started working for Iris because I had found the Mistyfuse Ultra-violet and believed in it.  Having said that...I think that Mistyfuse-UV is probably the most misunderstood fuse out there.  It doesn't glow in the dark.  It is no different than the regular white Mistyfuse, except for one important aspect.  Mistyfuse-UV has an ultraviolet retardant in it.

All fusibles will discolor over time.  When Iris heard about a 9-11 memorial quilt which had discolored areas where the fused sheers had been exposed to ultraviolet light (from sunlight and flourescent light), she spoke with her chemist who worked with her to add a retardant to slow down the discoloration.

Of course, since Mistyfuse uses fewer extra chemicals, it is probably a slower one to change anyway, but after I had little dots of brown show up on the clouds in a baby quilt I made....the curator in me started investigating and found Mistyfuse-Ultra Violet.

I use a lot of sheers as you can see from these two pieces....as well as some solid, light colors.  Mistyfuse-UV is perfect for these as it won't be as much of a problem overtime.  Of course, I do have to be careful as when I'm working with it...I can't tell the difference between the regular Mistyfuse and the Mistyfuse-UV....I HAVE to keep them in their proper envelopes.

Mistyfuse is easy to needle through, doesn't leave things stiff or hard, and doesn't gum up your needle.  It doesn't come with a release paper, so you must use a teflon pressing sheet or silicone coated baking parchment....but it makes things so much easier....you can transfer the pattern by tracing it in pencil (or light colored Prismacolor pencils if your fabric is dark) RIGHT SIDE UP onto the coated baking parchment, then flip it over onto the fused piece of fabric, and iron the graphite/pencil side down on to the fused side....this transfers the pattern without having to reverse it or change scissors to cut through your paper...and it makes things a lot faster and easier.

Since my hands are so numb, I have turned to using more fusible...but with Mistyfuse it leaves it supple.

Here are a couple of tutorials: Sue Bleiweis using mistyfuse:

 http://suebleiweiss.com/blog/mistyfuse-tutorials/

And Iris herself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xNZcN01FR0

There are others out there as well....and there are lots of ways to use it...as decorative elements, in order to make your own fusible batting...and lots more.  I showed you in the Dayton Landmarks' St. Mary's  piece I recently finished how I used it to create shadows.

So...because I like it so much....and because I have some which Iris sent me home with...I'm sharing a package of Mistyfuse Ultraviolet, which contains 2.5 yards by 20" wide piece.  I will use a random number generator from online to pick a number.  All you have to do is leave a comment....if you don't use sheers, that's OK....you can use Mistyfuse-UV just as you would use regular Mistyfuse.  I will pick the number on May 5.  Good luck!

To read more about Mistyfuse, go to www.Mistyfuse.com  or like the Mistyfuse FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/MIstyfuser?fref=ts

Working on Dayton Landmarks Redux St. Mary's

 I've been being a good little doobie and working ever so slowly on my St. Mary's Church for the Dayton Landmarks Redux exhibition.  I need to have it done by the end of this week, and I think I will..but it has been a very busy time around here with lots of distractions.

For the body of the building I am using brick printed fabric which Chris Landis was so kind to share with me.  However I need to show some of the building in shadow. I could paint it, or I could use Shiva Oilsticks to add the shadow..or even just oil pastels, but I think I want to use sheers. This is a layer of netting laid over the print.  Works...but it needs to be a bit stronger.

Attached Inc, the makers of Mistyfuse carry a black fusible web which I like to use as a design element.  It is great to use with dark fabrics, but when yo use it on top of stuff...you can get a really neat effect.

On the right, you can see the black Mistyfuse under the netting and on the left, it just has the netting.

Here's the shape of the building fused.  The far left has no netting on it at all, The center portion has a layer of black illusion netting with a layer of black Mistyfuse, the far right, a layer of black netting (the coarse stuff), a layer of black illusion and the layer of Black Mistyfuse.


One of the things you have to be aware of when using sheers, is that netting and other open fabrics such as lace will have the fusible coming through the holes.  This is great, because you can add other stuff if you so desire, such as Angelina, glitter, or whatever and it will stick to the exposed glue....but it also means you have to be careful.

See all these little black specks on my Goddesss Sheet? (aka Telflon sheet made by Attached Inc.)  If I ignored this and didn't clean it off by brushing it off with a Scotchbrite pad, then it would get all over whatever I was going to fuse next....and this would not be a good thing.

Tomorrow I'll show you how I'm positioning all the building parts and fusing them down.  I've spent several hours adding in stitching line guides (pencil marks) on the pieces as well as cutting them out.  

Someone give me a Forward Shove....PLEASE

The Miami Valley Art Quilt Network was so pleased with how their last series of co-operative "slice" quilts turned out, they decided to commit to another.  I signed up for one piece...and think I need to be committed. Once again, Ronnie Doyal went out and took photographs of buildings and scenes around Dayton.  I opted NOT to lead this time, but turned it over to Ronnie and Carroll.  They chose the images and sliced them, randomly assigning the slices to members.  Totally random....as in you put your name in and you got a piece.

Mine is the towers of St. Mary's Church  in Dayton.  I love the colors and I love the way the light is striking the towers and the crosses in the upper windows are glowing.  But....I am having a really hard time getting into it.

In fact...I've been procrastinating...plus I've been busy.....and I've started a new chemo which has left me extremely fatigued.  I thought that I would quickly complete this piece last week and this week.  Instead, from Sat. night until Tuesday, I spent the days in bed....as well as the night too.  Not exactly the way to get my derriere going.

This is my section of the photo.  Rather than hand us the photos and have us make the drawings and patterns,  Ronnie and Carroll did this for us...primarily because although for the first series we said that the sketches we made should be blow up so that all of them were 42" long.....many of our members had problems with this.  Even the resultant quilts were not the same length.  One poor member who did indeed make hers 42" long had to shorten hers three times in order to make it match the others.

So....rather than have this issue again, Ronnie and Carroll supplied it.

Here is a section of what I got, a black and white print...I have a little difficulty because I have no idea what size the bricks should be.....but there's also another difficulty.

See the little tiny fragment of the second tower to the right? I have to match mine to the other side..completing these little whiskers of the tower.  It would have been better if it had been sliced not in the exact center, but to one side...just a smide to the left.  I would have to pick up the arch on the window surround, but the tiny little bits of the cupola would have all been on my partners slice.

I did paint my background fabric and then started to select fabrics.  Chris Landis had some brick fabric left from her slice which also included a brick building and it is the right shade for the light struck side of my tower.  I will mess around with it to shade it for the dark side.

For the glowing parts of the white, my rust dyes will work well.

I will use the back side and the top side of the upper right neutral, plus some linen, and a frosted cream on the left.  The blue is a shaded batik which I will use for the domes of the cupola as well as the slate roof, but I will add some threadwork for the darker part for the slate, and make sure the lighter parts of the batik fall for the domes.

Usually, I trace over my sketches with a sheet of clear vinyl, the kind people buy to put over their dining room tablecloths on top to prevent spills....or what is still on the furniture in the house my husband lived in in Cuba in the 1960s...  I use a sharpie, then I can make sure that I get the pieces in the right spot...but last time, the vinyl stretched and I had to fiddle with it to make it match it's partners, so this time I opted to put my painted background on my light box and trace directly onto the fabric.  I will also probably take a piece of tracing paper and make another full size piece to put over the top to double check.  Tracing paper tears, but it usually doesn't stretch.  I have made the background wider and taller as I know that it will shrink when I quilt it as I probably will put quite a lot of detail quilting in....if I don't, I will trim off the excess once my partner's section is done and reading to face (however, I will use an "escape hatch" finish on mine.

I like to use Mistyfuse as it is soooo thin.  I know that some people are put off by the fact it doesn't have paper on it....but I use it like this.  I lay a piece of baking parchment (I use the Reynolds brand which is readily available in the grocery store) and lay it over the top of the photocopied blow up (or sketch if I was doing this all from scratch).  I then take a soft pencil if the fabric is light enough to see a pencil line on it, a light colored Prismacolor pencil if it is dark, and trice directly over the RIGHT side of the drawing. No having to think about reversing...it is a direct trace.

I then take the fabric I have previously fused with Mistyfuse (or you can do it in one step if you like) and place the tracing PENCIL SIDE DOWN on the Mistyfused side of the fabric.  I then iron over the top of it...Because nothing likes to stick to the treated Parchment Paper and Mistyfuse likes to stick to EVERYTHING.....it pulls the pencil lines off onto the back side of the fused fabric.  I then can use my micro-serrated scissors and cut the piece out, looking at the lines left on the fabric.

See? No switching out scissors...no flipping things around...it's just there and ready to go.

Now if only I can get myself ready to roll.  I'll show you what I am able to accomplish as we go along.....

I'm going to join Nina-Marie Sayer's Off the Wall Friday Fiber posts....I've been remiss and haven't participated....largely because I have been so bushed, or off the wall busy...

Take a look at the other blogs here

Heart throbs and Mistyfuse

Last month, for Fast Friday Fabric Challenge, I hosted the challenge and wanted people to explore texture.  For my submission, I did a realistic sort of heart.... I took some strange braided Mylar tubing which I purchased on clearance after Christmas.  I think it was intended for specialty gift wrapping.  I machine appliqued it down, then made the various parts of the heart, hand stitching the blood vessels with perle cotton, then adding machine stitching over the top.  Each segment was stuffed to give it dimension.  I added an EKG line which I based on a "normal" EKG I found on line...(only my nurse friends said that if they saw a line like that, they would be very concerned about the patient.

Hopefully, you can see it a bit better in this version.  This isn't completely finished, in fact the tape you see around the edges was to help me stop quilting at a quarter of an inch from the edge.....but for some reason, my Bernina was having fits....I broke three needles (size 100) trying to quilt through a layer of monk's cloth (the background) fused to Decor Bond, a layer of warm and natural and a backing of plain cotton.  The needle went down on the stroke, hesitated then broke the needle....and I wasn't moving the quilt sandwich.  So, I wasn't able to finish it and off the machine went to see what was wrong with it (according to the Bernina shop....nothing....).

One of the FFFC participants suggested that I add more lines of ekg....which was bobbin work with blue perle cotton. I have added lines in Photoshop (none too well I might add) to see what it looks like.  What do you think? Should I add more lines? Inquiring minds want to know.

Since my hands are not being very happy or useful, I wasn't able to hand applique these pieces down..my preferred method.  Instead, I used Mistyfuse to help me out.

Here's what I did....

I took a little strip of left over Mistyfuse....I know it is hard to see, but you can really get an idea about how thin this stuff is.  You really can't feel it if you are hand quilting through it and it doesn't stiffen the fabric much at all.

I took the piece I wanted to applique, and ironed the freezer paper template over the top, on the RIGHT side.

The freezer paper gives me an edge to turn the fabric against.

I tucked the piece of Mistyfuse under the turned edge, which I am holding here with a chopstick, and ironed the edge down with my little Clover iron.

I know you can't really see it against the Reynold's Baking Parchment...and I apologize...I was using a friend's ironing board and I didn't want to risk leaving anything behind...and I had forgotten to tuck my Goddess Sheet (Attached Inc.'s teflon sheet) in my work bag.

After a few seconds, I pull the "tail" of the Mistyfuse away....it melts and is quite easy to do, leaving the adhesive behind.

If I were really doing this, I would go around the entire edge, but this is being held well.  When I finish fusing the entire thing, I smack it down flat one more time.

Iris says she is working on bringing out some smaller "rolls" of Mistyfuse.  I'd love it...I think I really want 1/2" and 1/4" rolls....This would also be great for fusing bindings...

Once again, I am participating in Nina-Marie Sayre's "Off the Wall Fiber Friday"  and for once, I'm actually posting on a Friday! Yay!

You can see everyone else's posts if you go to her blog here.

Please also keep on checking Pozible's listing for the fund raising for the Tent Maker's of Cairo!  We're almost there, but they still have a bit to go!

Thanks also to Lynn Mosher who took the photos while my hands were otherwise occupied.

Halla! International Quilt Festival Cincinnati

Sign at Duke Energy Convention Center, Cincinnati, OH

"Halla!!!" Yes, I know this isn't how you really spell it, but every time I look at this sign I smile and think of my daughter yelling "Holla!"  This is the sign for Hall A, at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.  For the last two years, the International Quilt Festival has been held here, having moved from Rosemont (near Chicago).

Last year I went and worked for Iris Karp at Mistyfuse, and I did the same this year.  My intentions were good....I brought camera, iPad, laptop, cables, etc....but I found after working at the show all day, I was just too tired to blog afterwards!

Vendor set up, International Quilt Festival Cincinnati 2012

I stayed at the Millenium Hotel with a friend starting on Wed. night as she was taking a class Thursday morning.  On Thursday morning, I wend on the floor to Iris' booth to put down rubber pads I had brought from home and to bring in my stool....last year I had neither and between the pelvis fracture and the chemo drugs...I was in agony and I resolved NOT to do that this year.

If you've ever wondered what set up looked like, here it is.  I was on the upper gallery looking down onto the floor.  See the golf cart going by? It's rolling along on plastic covered carpet.  Other parts had yet to get the carpet down. In other areas, however, the carpet had been laid and the plastic partially removed.

International Quilt Festival Cincinnati 2012 vendor set up

Here's one of the vendors working as fast as possible to get out their wares.

International Quilt Festival Cincinnati, OH Vendor set up 2012

B

Quilt Display, prior to opening 4/12/12 International Quilt Festival 2012 Cinci

That plastic caused me no end of grief.  After setting up my part of the booth, I walked away and tripped on some of the plastic, because of the neuropathy in my foot, I couldn't tell where my foot was.  I thought I cleared it, but all too quickly found that I had injured my foot!  My own darn fault...one of the issues one gets with cancer treatment and I'm still learning to live with. Fortunately, it was only a sprain, but it meant that one more year I was hobbling around the place.  NOT a good thing if you want to see everything!

I love attending this show.  I worked in the SAQA booth and had some really enlightening conversations with Nysha Nelson.  There's nothing better than the opportunity to talk art with other interested people.  I always come away with new and better perspective.

Of course, the vendors are really cool too, but I try to limit myself there.  The quilts, now that's the thing!  Quilts from around the world....several of the SAQA exhibitions, Quilt National, the Twelve by Twelve show, the Soft Village, O Canada.....just absolutely wonderful!  So many ideas and so much to share!

I can't recommend going highly enough.

International Quilt Show Cincinnati, OH

Fountain Square, Cincinnati

 Last year, when we found that the International Quilt Festival (IQF) was moving from the Chicago area to Cincinnati, a number of the members of my local quilt guild jumped on the reduced rate offers at the Hyatt and signed up.

I wanted to go to IQF Chicago for years.  Now that it was only going to be an hour and a half from home, I was really happy.  Since I didn't know exactly how I was going to feel or how I was going to juggle chemo (which was supposed to happen Friday) and the show, I didn't sign up for many classes, but I did sign up for a class with Noriko Endo 

I had the great fortune to work for Iris Karp at the Mistyfuse booth, which I did a lot.  She's one special lady and while I was sold on Mistyfuse before, I really learned a whole bunch more from Iris.  I hope to put up some tutorials or a video on Mistyfuse in the next week because the pencil transfer really confused me when I read about it. Now I understand it!  For more info, you can go to the Mistyfuse facebook page. :)

IQF vendor's floor, right side

The show was large, but not as large as I thought it was going to be.  Cincinnati, as long as you stay downtown right around Fountain square, is very clean and safe.  Here's a shot of the floor from the second story walk over.

I didn't take any photos of the quilts, because on the oneline information it said "NO PICTURES" and there were additional signs to that effect at the special exhibits.  However, people were taking photos of the general entries.

I thought the show was a good mix of traditional and art quilts.  While there were probably more quilts falling into the "art quilt" category, the Baltimore Album exhibition should have satisfied the most die-hard of traditionalists.  It was pleasing to meet Susan Shie and give her a hug at her solo exhibition.  Carolyn Mazloomi also had quilts on display from the Underground Railroad museum, but I missed seeing her. 

IQF Vendor's floor left side

Pokey Bolton was in my class with Noriko Endo and danced with a bunch of my Batty Binder Buddies at the "Welcome to Cincinnati" party.

I also met Roxanne Lesse, another SAQA member who does really neat work AND is a dancer.  I suppose this sounds a lot like name dropping....but I really think these larger shows are wonderful.  You get to see the quilts of people you already know and admire, you get to meet some of those people you only know through the internet and you are exposed to a ton of work you've never even thought of.  Since it is an international show, there was an exhibition called  "Oh, Canada" which showcased Canadian artist's impressions of their home country as well as quilts from quilters from overseas.  I talked with quite a few people from the Netherlands, Germany, France, England and Australia.

Notable events for me:  I managed to get out of the show without buying a single piece of fabric...YAY! Threads, batting and paint....not so good at keeping those items out of my arms.  The other thing? Well, the "confetti " technique Noriko Endo teaches involves a LOT of cutting up scraps into slivers with a rotary cutter.  She warned us NOT to cut our fingers as it was easy to do later in the day when you're tired. About an hour into slicing up fabric, I squealed....and the room fell silent.  A small voice from the back said..."Did you cut yourself?"  Oh! No! My rotary cutter just exploded! I was using one of those ones with the handle you press to open up the blade and the screw had come undone...the spring, washers, protection disks etc. went flying...and my squeal was merely of surprise.

Cincinnati is a really nice city, the people are nice.  I'm a little worried that it won't return after the three year contract is up.  I'm told there weren't as many people who attended.  I'm not sure how much of that is because Ohio is a "fly over state"---one which people don't think about visiting.  Vendors and the IQF staff were happy about the ease of parking and lower cost.  While some vendors were having tough times, some, like the Hobb's booth and a lady from England selling printing blocks, were selling out.  One attendee was complaining about the food.  The food court upstairs was sort of cool as it was showcasing Cincinnati's local foods--Graeter's Ice cream, Skyline Chili, Montgomery Inn Barbecue, another barbecue place (Scott's) which had grilled turkey, another pizza place, another with salads..I ate at the food court on Saturday and was fed quickly, with reasonably priced, good tasting food.

Very close to Duke Convention Center (like one block north in Carew Towers accessible  going through the skywalks if you preferred), you could eat at Hathaway's, a diner,  which had good food and fast service, there were food carts, as well as many other eating establishments with very good food (Bagpiper's, Nicholson's, an Indian place, and several others of various price-points and speed. So, I'm not sure that that was a valid complaint.

I know I had a good time and hope to attend next year for an even better one when my hip doesn't hurt!