Hawaiian windows?

Judy S, asked if I had ever seen a piece that had watersoluble windows with stitching in them. I can only imagine the Hawaiian windows that she is describing, although I have made some small quilts that had the fabric cut away to make a window that was filled with a lacy, stitching design, letting you see through the quilt at that point.

If you look closely at this butterfly, you'll see that the inner butterfly is part of the original block, but the wings are only thread that was stitched after the fabric was cut away.

Water soluble stabilizers are very versatile, almost anything that is light enough could be suspended in a window that can be stitched into, or a lacy background could fill the opening, and then the item glued on. The key to any designs that you create on water soluble stabilizer, is to have the stitching interlock before it is dissolved.

Some free motion work

This is a new sea sponge I made yesterday - do you think it looks anything like a basket sponge? Originally, I had intended for it to be golden colored sea sponge, thin enough to see through, even though you really can't do that with the real thing, but I just kept adding layers until I ended up with this: Still planning to make a lighter, more sheer little project, I decided to create a leaf. At least this time I was able to stop while it still had a few open spaces. Maybe I shouldn't work so late into the night?

No, I don't have a specific project in mind, I'm making some new samples for the first Creative Twist class that is being held here in Woodinville, at Fresh Air Farm. It is a continuing bi-monthly class where we will be exploring all sorts of techniques, with this month's lesson being free motion lacy techniques on water soluble stabilizers. I'm hoping our weather will cooperate, so we can have fun in class and not be snowed out. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

free-motion trees

I received some questions about how my trees were created, so I thought you might like to see another picture that I took before I washed out the stabilizer. The how-to instruction below is a copy of what I had posted in the art quilt class that I'm taking. One thing I forgot to mention, is that you need to make sure that you have the threads locking with others (you can stitch a grid in the area you will embroider to help hold it together).

My trees were free motion embroidered on Romeo, which is a super heavy weight water soluble stabilizer. I drew what I thought I'd like with a sharpie on the stabilizer, and then hooped the stabilizer and stitched with lots of thread, changing the colors from darkest to lightest. It's kind of like scribbling with colored pencils to fill them in, except you're holding a hoop and stitching with the machine. The trees were still on the stabilizer in the photo that I posted, so today they had a nice bath in very warm water to wash it out, and now they're drying. Once they're dry, I'll take another photo with them on top of the quilt, but I'm seriously considering cutting it into two sections, putting the two trees that are close together towards one side and the other tree on the other (but opposite of the way they are now). They are not wide enough to fit all the way across (would have when I was going to do the quilt in a portrait format), and I think they will cover the valley between the hills if I don't cut it. Anyway, I'll find out when it's dry.

Landscape mini quilt

This is another of the projects I'm simultaneously working on. It's homework for the art quilt class with Jane Fazio at joggles. I haven't made much progress on this landscape in the last few days, although I did get the trees sewn down. I tried adding beads to the tree on the left, but they were too large and I ripped them back off. I've pulled out some embroidery threads to add some french knots and maybe some other stitches. At this time, I'm unsure if I'll add hand stitching along the mountain / hill crests. I'm also considering adding shading with markers, all purpose ink or paint. Maybe if I let it rest a few days I'll be able to make a decision.