December/January Interpret This!

Weeds 8" x 10"

Altered image photo transfers, hand dyed fabrics, fibers

Machine applique, machine quilting

The photo for our last Interpret This! photo challenge shows river weeds and grasses.

I wanted to use the yellow flower as my focal point, and also to emphasize the diagonal lines of stems and grasses.  This could have been done with applique, but I thought I'd try photo transfers this time.

I tried many different approaches, and although I didn't use most of them, it was an interesting experience.  I'll summarize some of the things I did, and although they may be familiar to many people, it seems there are so many possibilities with this software that you may find something you haven't tried.

First, does everyone know that if you edit and save an image repeatedly you should not do that in JPG format, but instead use PSD or TIFF?  I found this out fairly recently.  Apparently a JPG looses quality somehow every time you save it.  So do the altering in one of the other formats and then go back to JPG to post.

After cropping the flower section, the first thing I did was clean up the background around the flower by taking out some extra stems and buds.   I used the Clone Stamp tool.  You select that tool from the tool bar on the side of the screen, choose a size from the brush settings at the top, roll the brush circle over a section of the photo that will replace the part of the image you wish to remove, and Option Click.  Then put the circle over the part of the image you want to remove, and click.  The background you have selected replaces part of the image.  You can click repeatedly until the part you want to erase is gone.  It's good to Option Click on a new background occasionally to get a smoother fill.  As you can see from the examples, this is a rather crude method and wouldn't work if you wanted a sharp finished photo, but for most fabric transfers it works fine.

The next step was to make the flower sharper and brighter.  There are several filters that work for this, but I used the Watercolor Filter.  Choose the Filter pulldown menu, and the filter you want to try.  On Photoshop I use the Filter Gallery option, which shows me several filters at a time. (Filter-Filter Gallery-Watercolor) Like all the filters, Watercolor allows you to adjust several different sliders to get the best effect. Just play with it.  After applying the filter and saving it, I chose Filter-Sharpen-Unsharp Mask, and set the radius slider at about 130.  As I understand it, this increases the contrast between the pixels and can make the object stand out brighter.  Here's the flower after those two steps.

The final step is to go to Image-Adjustments-Hue/Saturation.  From the pulldown menu at the top of the window, I selected Yellows and increased the saturation by 30%.  The image looks garish on the screen, but because cloth absorbs lots of ink, the extra brightness is needed.  (The version below has also been resized and slightly distorted.)

The background required more trial and error.  I wanted to use actual photos of the background, but the photo was so busy that it didn't allow the flower to stand out much.  There are lots of fills that can change the color, but I wanted to keep the greens.

First I selected the left half of the image, copied it, pasted it in a new layer, and flipped the image so I only had the diagonal stems.

Then I tried different filters to blur or soften the busyness of the background.  Here is a spray filter  (Filter-Brush Strokes-Spray Strokes) with a green fill layer.  Pretty but not right for what I wanted.

Here is the final choice.  It's the stamp filter (Filter-Sketch-Stamp) with the foreground color set to match the darkest green in the photo and the background color set to approximate a fabric I planned to use.

If I were doing it over, I'd make the foreground darker, I think.

For all these trials, I printed a sample on paper to see the general effect, and used the paper copies to plan a layout.  After deciding on a final plan, I upped the saturation (Image-Adjustments-Hue/Saturation) and printed on fabric.  I printed the flower on a purchased silk fabric sheet, hoping the luster would make the flower clearer.  I'm not sure it did. The background is cotton pretreated with Bubble Jet Set and attached to a postage label.

Everything I've done here is pretty basic; for this project, I didn't even try some of the various fill effects possible, or the selection tools to cut out the flower from the background.  There's so much trial and error in using these techniques you could spend months doing this.  I'm not sure I want to, but this was fun.

November Interpret This!

Bricks, Boards, and Window Panes

20" x 29"

I stayed away from the detail in this photo and concentrated on the geometric shapes. It was put together using a modified version of Ruth McDowell's technique. Instead of cutting a freezer paper template for every piece, I just divided the design into large sections (door, window, three sections of wall) and pieced each section by rough measurement. Then I used a template to cut the section to size, and assembled the sections. Except for the window section, it was simple.

I blogged earlier about the border fabric problem, but the result is passable in my eye. The holidays kept me from thinking much about how to make this more interesting with elaborate quilting, more thread work, even some embellishments. I just went with the simple geometric patterns.

This is a piece that makes me keep thinking about alternative approaches. For instance, the various textures in the photo are lovely, and it would have been fun to find fabric with textures instead of standard quilting cotton. Perhaps someone else in the group has done that. Be sure and click on the sidebar link to find out.

October Interpret This!

SaratogaOvals

12" x 9"

Batik, organza, machine applique and quilting

I probably win the out-of-left-field prize this month, since as you can see, this looks nothing like the photo. Sometimes you just have to do what feels right to you, especially in art, however you define art. There is more about my thought process on the Interpret This! blog, and you can see the other lovely work by people who were able to stay much closer to the original image. Reveals began yesterday, so be sure and scroll down.

September Interpret This

Behind the Gate  22 x 22

Machine pieced, quilted, and appliqued

Strip piecing worked well to give the basic feel of the gate in this photo.  I added the leaves to create a tropical lushness and to contrast with the stiff graphic lines of the fence.  Flat traditional applique didn't seem right for the feeling I was trying to create, so I attached my leaves loosely, with only one seam down the center so that the edges and ends would curl a bit, giving a three-dimensional effect.  I also extended them beyond the edges of the quilt.

I worked out a way to make a two-sided leaf with raw edges that won't fray, or at least I think they won't.  First I pressed a freezer paper pattern of the leaf to the right side of the fabric, cut around it leaving about a quarter inch margin, and then painted the edges of the wrong side with Liquid Thread, slightly diluted with water.  It's important to be sure some of the Liquid Thread goes inside the margin of the leaf.

After it dried a bit, I fused the cutout leaf to the wrong side of the fabric.  After it cooled, I cut out the shape of the leaf and peeled away the freezer paper.

I tried fusible web for this also, and it would work too, but the glue of the Liquid Thread seals the edges of the fabric, so there's little raveling.  It also gives a nice crisp hand, with a tendency to curl, which is exactly what I wanted.  

I must say it's a bit of a tedious process though.  There were lots of leaves!

You can see the original photo and other interpretations on the Interpret This website.

July August Interpret This

Palais de l'Isle  15" x 17"

Machine pieced and quilted

I jumped at the chance to use Ruth McDowell's piecing methods in creating the medieval castle at the center of this challenge photo.

 Planning the pattern and piecing sequence is like creating a jigsaw puzzle and putting it back together, but once that was done, the piecing went smoothly.  This particular design didn't require curves and only one or two Y seams.  I did learn the importance of clear and complete marking though.  

You can read more about my piece and see the other reveals at the Interpret This! blog.

May Interpret This

Spring Dreams

16 x 14

I went very literal this month; I'm not sure why that seemed the best thing to do, but it also worked into my tight schedule since I didn't change my mind several times.

Everything is simple and straight forward except for the tree, where I wanted to add a texture to suggest the softness of the blossoms and change the color a bit.   I wet the fabric, twisted it until it doubled back on itself into a ball, put rubber bands around it, and then stuffed the ball into the toe of an old nylon footie until it dried; drying takes about a week. ( I guess this is a kind of dye-less shibori.)  I did this about the first day of the month, which was fortunate, because when I came home from my unplanned trip, the fabric was dry. 

Then I opened it, smoothed it a little and fused it to a piece of light weight interfacing.

Stitching at random back and forth adds texture and holds the wrinkles in place.  Lots of different decorative stitches, threads, and couched fibers can be used, but I kept it simple here.  Then I pressed a freezer paper pattern to the textured fabric, stitched around it to keep the edges flat,  and cut out the tree shape.

Since I wanted to do the branches with reverse applique, I marked their outline on the freezer paper and stitched around that too; then when the tree was in place I stitched again around the branch outline, and cut to reveal the branch fabric I'd placed underneath.

Since the tree fabric already had lots of stitching, I just quilted in a circular pattern to emphasize the design in the fabric, then added the beads for more texture.

April Interpret This

Here's the photo:

And then we have the good, the bad, and the ugly. Which is which?

This is version three, the official one.  You can read more at the Interpret This! blog.

Down to the Root

14 x 12, machine applique and quilting

Version one:

Untitled

8 x 11

This lay unfinished, in pieces on my worktable, until last weekend because I was so unhappy with it, but then since I wasn't happy with the others either, I thought I'd finish it. So here it is.  It looks much better finished, and I actually like the way I pieced in the diagonals.  Also, it was good quilting practice.  I wish I'd thought of the free-motion zig-zag for version two.

Version two:

Untitled 2 (Working title: The Big Root)

12 x 11 (in reality)

 I'm cheating here.  It's actually almost square, but it occurred to me that it would have been less boring if I had elongated the root.  Through the wonders of Photoshop, I have done that.  Except that the rocks are now oddly shaped, it looks better this way.  I hope I can remember this technique in the future, not to use after the fact, but in the planning process.

So there you have all my dirty little secrets.  April is truly the cruelest month.  And to continue the T.S. Eliot theme, we're ending April not with a bang but a whimper. 

March Interpret This

Eyes Wide Open

16 x 12

Photo transfer on cotton and organza,  machine piecing, applique and quilting, hand embroidery

This is my interpretation of the March photo shown below.  You can read more about it on the Interpret This blog and see other quilters' versions in the coming days.

Photo transfer was the technique I used for this interpretation.  I took many photos of my old doll, edited them in Photoshop to select the head and provide a solid background, increased the saturation by 25 %, and printed them on cotton and ExtravOrganza by Jacquard.  Then I began arranging them until I found something I thought worked, and added the quotation, also printed on organza.

I chose not to use a binding, and used a facing technique I read somewhere that puts squares folded into triangles in the corners.  I don't recommend it, because it creates too much bulk.  Next time, I'll go back to having a join in the center of the sides.

February Interpret This

Indigestion  

31" x 32"

It was a rocky road this month.  It never occurred to me to be thematic, I think because I've done Chinese before, so I tried to keep a visual relationship to the original photo (which you can see here).  Since I don't draw, and prefer to work with shapes, this was difficult.  I could only see the circle and the diagonal.  You can read more about my struggles on the Interpret This blog.  Be sure to look at all the other interpretations too--two already posted and more to come today through Sunday.  There's a fascinating range of approaches.

Some technical points that might be interesting:  1.  Quilting with a walking foot at an angle that's not a straight bias is difficult.  The quilt tries to move back to the straight and narrow, producing lines that are wonky in a different way than intended.  It also distorts the quilt a great deal.  2.  Twelve weight thread and batiks are not a good match, at least on my Janome.  Even with a #14 topstitch needle I had problems with skipped stitches and thread breakage.  I've ordered some #16/100 needles for next time.  3.  I was using a scrap of Quilters' Dream Poly batting which has been recommended as good for wall quilts. Having used it twice now, I don't think I'd agree.  Its denseness compounded the stitching problem, and being polyester, it didn't help in blocking the quilt back into shape.  Now that it's gone, I won't buy more.

I have this piece hanging in my studio, and I like it more all the time.  Odd how your feelings about things change.

Self Portrait

                                                                    

                                         14" x 14" fusible applique, machine pieced, hand quilted

You can read more about my self-portrait on  the Interpret This blog.  This was a challenge, both in planning and in technique.  I did quite a bit of work in Photoshop to manipulate my photograph and create the faint background images.

I also used some new techniques with the fusible applique.  This was by far the most delicate fusible job I've ever done and I wanted to minimize the tracing and retracing of the pattern, both for convenience and for accuracy.  After some thought, I worked out a way that I thought was very successful.  It probably isn't new, but it was new to me.

After I got the image the way I wanted it in Photoshop, I printed a copy as a reference copy, then I printed it on a clear plastic sheet of the kind that used to be used for overhead projectors.  You could also make a tracing or maybe print on lighter paper.  This copy is for an overlay to help place the pieces.   I used a Sharpie to draw a dotted line from the center point of each side, and make a pencil mark in the seam allowance of the background fabric as alignment points.

 Then I pressed the shiny side of a printer-sized sheet of freezer paper to the right side of the fabric.  (I used batik so there wouldn't be any fraying.)  I pressed hard with a hot iron to make sure there was a very tight bond.  I put this through the printer so the image was on the dull side of the freezer paper.

Then without removing the freezer paper, I attached fusible web to the wrong side of the fabric according to directions.  I used TransWeb, but Wonder Under would probably work.  I wouldn't use

Steam-a-Seam though because I don't think it bonds tightly enough.  Then I removed the paper back of the fusible.

Using an Exacto knife, I cut through the freezer paper, fabric, and fusible and cut out the piece.  Then I removed the freezer paper.  You can see I started with easiest part, the shoulders.

Then I placed the plastic overlay on top of the background, lining up the marks, and slipped the cutout piece underneath, lining it up with the printed shape on the overlay.  When it was correct, I carefully lifted the overlay, and pressed the cut out lightly.   Here you can see the marked reference lines on the overlay, and the very dark part where I've put the shoulders in place underneath.

I cut and placed a few pieces at a time until everything was placed. After everything was placed and lightly pressed, I pressed again with hot iron to set it tightly.

This technique would have to be adapted if you're using more than one fabric in your applique.  But as it is, it's perfect for a silhouette or for letters, since the image isn't reversed and can be cut very accurately.

Two Works-in-Progress

As I've said, I'm hand quilting my Interpret This self-portrait. I appreciate the suggestions about the net question, and it's interesting to know how many of us suffer when we do handwork. Here's a shot showing those beautiful quilting stitches I mentioned yesterday, with my hand in its support glove. The glove is very helpful. Also, like Rian, I have little bits of freezer paper to show. I used an Exacto knife to cut these; that's something I've never done before, but it worked great.
















I'm also working on this little piece. It's a texture study using all white and off-white fabric, based on an exercise in Lyric Kinard's book, art + quilt. Since taking this picture, I've added horizontal lines of stitching underneath the circle shapes and am doing some seed stitches in the center circle, which gives it a pebbly texture.  (More handwork!)  These changes have improved it, and I think I'm going to like it. A finished version should be visible soon.



And finally, the temperature is above freezing, and I was able to go to the car wash!

Planning Ahead

One thing I'm looking forward to this year is participating in the Interpret This group. Eleven of us have committed to the challenge of creating a work every month based on a photo. All members will interpret the same photo, except for January, when each of us will interpret a photo of ourselves. Clicking on the Interpret This badge in the sidebar will take you to the blog dedicated to the challenge, where you can read an introduction by the members, see albums of our work, and at the end of the month see the reveals. If you haven't seen this blog yet, I hope you'll go look, and sign up to be a follower.

I'm not posting year long goals, but besides the Interpret This challenge, I hope to work through some design exercises I received as a Christmas gift, make as many service quilts as I did last year, keep making small works for Alzheimer's Quilt Initiative, and do whatever else strikes my fancy! One of the first things is to finish Boring Baskets. I finished the alternate blocks yesterday, and will now start the pieced setting triangles--maybe today!