Four Continent Fish Bag - Part 1

Happy 4th of July America!  It seems like a good day to post about fish.  I started this project as part of the Minnesota Quilter's Global Challenge.  We got four Cherrywood Fabrics (red, yellow, blue, and green) and then were to add up to four more fabrics that were global.  I used Some silk (dark purple), Velvet I bought in Houston from an Australian vendor (the red fish face), fish leather from Iceland (the turquoise that looks like it has scales!), and something else too you'll have to wait to see.

Here's my fish all fused down.  I decided to add the yellow outline around him so you could see him better.

And here he is all blanket stitched up.  I decided to use black on this one so you could see the pieces clearly.

I hope you get to quilt today!  And maybe fish too...
Suzy

Inspired by International Traditions

I'm working on a project right now that includes some "international" fabrics that are traditional to places around the world.  I'm using leather from Iceland (fish leather!), hand dyed silk velvet from Australia, and Asian silk at the moment.  It's so much fun and it's truly amazing what fabrics you can find at quilt shows!  Here's a peek.

Here's the back of the fish leather.  It's salmon!  It's amazing to work with.  I haven't bought more.  YET....

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Futuristic Flowers Part 3

The next step in the process is picking the threads for the blanket stitching.  I use Glide thread for this because it's so shiny!

Here you can see that I've done my stitching around the circle.  I decided to match the paint color on the inside instead of the purple fabric.

Here is that flower with the velvet stitched down.  It's the red fabric.  I used a larger size blanket stitch so that it would go a little deeper into the fabric.

And the flowers are all blanket stitched!

This orange ring is leather, I also used a larger size blanket stitch for this flower.  I love the diamond weave to the silk. 

This flower is dupioni silk with peach and purple pain in the oval and circle.  The ring is leather.

The stems and ovals on the stems are leather.  The bottom leaves are velvet.  The top leaves are dupioni silk with purple pain underneath.

More coming soon!  Wait until you see the vase they go in!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

My IQA Houston Auction Quilt - Part 1

I was absolutely thrilled to be asked to make a quilt for the International Quilt Association's Mini Quilt Auction in Houston again this year.  I decided I wanted to step outside the box and try something different.  I decided to use silk and leather together for my appliques.

I started with this orange silk that I bought last year in Houston and just love.  I realized after working with it that due to it's sheer nature I either had line all the pieces or have minimal overlap so shadowing didn't occur.  I opted for minimal overlap.  That's why the stems don't touch the leaves or the flowers.  The inner green silk is also very sheer.  The stems are dupioni silk which I didn't have this problem with as it's not as transparent.

I then decided to add some leather dots.  It was so nice to cut the dots out of leather and they held their shape really well.  I also added pink ovals at the top of the flowers so I didn't have to worry about shadowing there either.  I used my favorite fusible Steam-a-Seam 2 lite on the leather and it worked like a charm, HOWEVER, I did realize that you need to iron it from the back, not the front.  It takes a long time for the heat to make it through the leather on the front, but not the cotton on the back.

I tried to use Steam-a-Seam 2 lite on the silks as well, but it didn't want to stick.  The silks are saturated with Terial Magic to make them more like cardboard than silk.  It makes them much easier to work with.  I contacted the manufacturer to find out if you had to wash out Terial Magic or if you could leave it in permanently and they assured me that it could stay on the fabric as long as I would like.  With silk?  Forever works for me.

So how did I attach the silk pieces?  Elmer's School glue and a fine tip applicator for the bottle.  It sticks and then you iron it dry and it stays in place.

Then I had fun with my favorite double blanket stitch stitching around all the pieces including the leather dots with a leather needle.  It was so fun!

And here's the final block!  Come back next Wednesday to start talking quilting.

Less than a month until IQA Houston!  I can't wait!

I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy

Free Motion Friday - Silk Trial Piece #1

Over the next few weeks I'm going to show you the three silk trial pieces I did all quilted up!  I'm excited to share them.  For these small samples (they're 8 x 10 inches or so) I decided to just quilt what came to me when I sat down.

This piece of background fabric an accident.  I put it on top of my ironing board to catch leftover dye when I was ironing dry pieces of Dupioni Silk using Terial Magic stiffener.  I decided it was a fun border so I put a butterfly of Dupioni silk and leather (body) on it and then had fun quilting it.

Here you can see the background fill.  I did circles and random things inside circles.  I wasn't worried about being perfect so many of them are a little wonky looking.

For the top and bottom I used a 50 weight variegated Aurifil Cotton thread in pink that I received as an Island Batik Ambassador.  It was so fun to watch it changing color and I like the look over the dye.

I hope you get to quilt today!

Suzy

Terial Magic Review - Part 2

This is the second part of my review of the fabulous Terial Magic!  It is an amazing product that makes fine and fussy fabrics stiff and easy to work with.

For today's post I'm sharing a butterfly I made using dupioni silk I'd sprayed with Terial Magic.  It worked like a charm.  It was easy to cut and fuse with little fraying.

I decided to go outside the box with the body of my butterfly.  I fused a small scrap of leather!  To do this, I fused from the back side.  You can also see I had a fun time adding blanket stitching to my butterfly.  It's done with the fabulous Glide thread.

Here's a closeup of the leather.

 I hope you get to quilt today!
Suzy