Two samples made into mini quilts.

I have just completed my second weekend at college and have come home with lots of new samples to work on and I even did quite a lot of artwork!!
Before I start to show them I wanted to complete my posting of samples from the first weekend.
To remind you most of the work was done using automatic embroidery stitches on the sewing machine. My personal theme is 1960s pottery and I have used two plates to inspire the two mini quilts. The photos are a visual guide on how I went from plate to quilt - there is more detail on how I made them on my other blog.

This quilt is free motion quilted using the automatic stitch.

This quilt uses the automatic stitch to embellish the stars over the sheer fabric. It is then quilted with a straight stitch around the stars.

Ann's Samples

Today we have been at college. It has been lovely to meet up with everyone again and to celebrate Rachel's significant birthday with yummy chocolate cake.
The following photos have been taken to help us work on our samples for next month. They have all been made by our teacher Ann who has generously agreed to allow me to share her work with you. Ann is very generous in sharing her knowledge, books and materials and has done loads of samples with materials that change when heated. Thanks Ann!


This is a sample using automatic stitches.

A montage using Ann's personal theme of fossils and minerals.

A collage.

Sample using fibretex.

Sample using tyvek - this was made by sewing the tyvek into a circular tucked pattern before heating.

A sample with kunin felt background. The ammonite is covered with irise film.
Sample with goldtex, apparently 'teabag foil' works just as well!
Sample with xpandaprint.

Sample with lutradur.

More samples!

I have college again on Saturday and Sunday and of course I have not done all my homework! I have completed two more samples and have one prepared, ready to stitch.
However I have not done any of the artwork homework. As a minimum I need to do a string print and a scrafitto. I started both at college last month but have not touched them since.

This sample above is my least favourite so far - in fact the only bit of it I like is the stitched border on the black card!
I scrunched up some tissue, stuck on some pictures from a magazine, added glitter and wax crayon shavings. This was then sandwiched between two layers of cling film and ironed to melt the wax crayon. Even though I used baking parchment to protect the iron the clingfilm has melted in places! I then used the automatic stitch to embellish it. This was done in little segments to give a stop start effect, but I also stitched around the paper shapes.

Machine embroidery samples with automatic stitches

My next sample was made using an automatic stitch on the sewing machine but by altering the stitch length and width to give different effects.
I started by attaching quality street cellophane wrappers to vilene in a random pattern. I then covered it with two layers of net, one green and one white. It was backed with a black and white zebra print fabric to give a bit more interest to the background.
I then added wadding and calico backing. The automatic stitch was done as free machine quilting but altering the stitch length and width every few inches.

I then added borders in hand dyed cotton and quilted this with the walking foot but using the same automatic stitch in two of its variations.

This sample shows the different automatic stitches that I tried before deciding which one to choose for my sample. It shows how the stitch changes as you alter the stitch length and width. I will use this sample to choose automatic stitches for my next few samples.

Crazy recycling!

Last weekend was my first weekend at college and was really enjoyable. There are six of us doing the first year of Creative Techniques and we all have blogs so you will be able to follow our progress from the links on this blog.
Our first topic for the machine embroidery unit was crazy patchwork and I have completed my samples.
The use of recycled materials is emphasised on this course so I decided to make a sample with my recycled shirts but using all the bits I don't use for quilting such as the collars, labels, cuffs, pockets etc.

The idea of the sample was to use automatic stitches on the sewing machine to embellish the edges of the crazy patchwork
The binding is made from the button bands
I really enjoyed making it and I love the result.

The second sample is paper patchwork which was a lot of fun! We did this with Lesley, our new teacher and although we were sceptical at first everyones sample turned out great.

We used an embossed type of brown paper which we coloured with wax crayon and decorated with the automatic machine stitches. Then we cut it up and made it into crazy patchwork with somerset paper which Lesley had coloured with food colouring.
I then added a handmade paper border and squared it off.

All our samples have to be the same size for this unit and I have chosen 10 inches square. I think that a square will work better than a rectangle such as A4.