Fall Leaf Project

I've been wanting to create a design to remember the beautiful fall leaves. I pulled some appropriate colors of 50 wt. Presencia thread to support the quilting, along with a few leaves for inspiration. This is the mulling-it-over stage, an important part of figuring out what to do next.

Sarah made this card for my birthday, knowing how much I love the leaves on her college campus. I'll never recycle this one. When I went to visit her last week, she had tacked leaves all around her dorm door. Crazy creative girl. This got me thinking about this project again...

When in doubt, toss it all together. Leaves are a most interesting shape to quilt. So much variety! Try sketching an arc to form one side of the leaf, come up to a point, then arc down the opposite side. Add a stem, then go inside the leaf and add veins. After a few drawing attempts, go to your fabric and stitch what you have taught your brain to do. Being 'artistic' is not required. Just follow the lines nature has shown you, keeping a sample within eyesight as you quilt. If your shape looks anything like a leaf, you're doing great. I definitely stitch better than I draw but the pencil work is an important precursor to quilting. Get your sketch book out and try it.

Copyright ©2008, Sharon Baggs

Spectacular Spectrum

Color can intimidate. But look at nature, an obvious place to start. A myriad of brown, green, yellow, orange and blue dictate color choices. You can't go wrong. My little neck of the woods, Portland, has been more gorgeous than ever this fall. Chalk it up to a long stretch of sunny days that brilliantly illuminate creation's vibrant palette. Who wouldn't want to wrap up in these rich autumn hues? Time to pull out these colors from your fabric stash before the cool blues, grays and whites of winter set in. Go make a quilt.

Copyright ©2008, Sharon Baggs

Using the washable blue marker

I love the washable blue marker. If you follow some basic guidelines it will work a charm everytime. The basic ink is produced in Japan, then packaged through different manufacturers. I like Dritz's Mark-B-Gone and Clover's Water Soluble Marker (Thick) for marking through stencils. For marking grids, I use Clover's thin version or the Water Erasable Fabric Marking Pen.

Some pens come with a blue water soluble marker at one end and a white eraser pen at the other. This is helpful when you need to remove a marked line in a small area. For larger areas, wet a paper towel with COLD water to lift the markings. You must wait for the fabric to dry before marking again or it will not hold the mark.

Never apply heat to blue washable markers or the ink can set and may reappear as brown lines. Mark with a light touch; the less ink you have to remove the better. Plan to mark, quilt, and remove the ink as soon as possible for best results.

When quilting and binding is complete, submerge the quilt in COLD water. I use the bathtub for this step so I can see the lines disappear! Either continue to hand wash with a bit of Quilt Soap or Orvus Paste (Sodium Lauryl Sulfate) in the tub or use the washing machine. Remove excess water by rolling up in a terry towel or use the spin cycle of the washing machine. Lay the quilt flat to air dry or use the clothes dryer on a low setting for a few minutes. Finish with air drying.

Copyright ©2008, Sharon Baggs

Spray and blot

On the butterfly quilt I was curious what the thread looked like apart from the blue marking. I decided to use a "spray-and-blot" method to remove some of the blue marks. Complete removal comes later after binding.

Using a spray bottle of COLD water, saturate the blue lines.

Blot up the excess water/diluted dye with a terry towel.

When using the spray-and-blot method, it's important to dilute the blue dye as much as possible; a slight spray only temporarily fades the lines as the dye migrates into the batting. Traces of blue usually show up when the fabric dries again.

After binding, the quilt should be completely submerged in cold water to remove any remaining dye. Hand wash in the tub or in the washing machine with a bit of Orvus Paste (sodium lauryl sulfate), rinse, spin and dry on low for 5-10 mins. Lay the quilt out flat to finish air drying.

Copyright ©2008, Sharon Baggs