September is always a great time to get back into crafting.  I started out with all the projects that needed to be attended to including a twin size quilt for my son made with Moda Neptune fabric.  This is in the finishing stages of quilting.  I also have some smaller projects including this trivet.  I have been obsessed with the 2" squares of fabric from my Japanese fabric and retro print collections.

and the back...  yellow fabric by Suzuko Koseki.

I have been taking photoshop classes in the textile department at FIT in New York city.  I just finished the second class this past spring.  I learned how to create textile repeats using the offset function.  For this project, we began with a fabric that was scanned into the computer.  I chose Moda Arcadia print by Sanae.  It is one of those lines that became popular after it disappeared.  With the scanned in image, I cleaned it up and created a perfect repeat pattern.  Then I created 2 coordinates (based on the original Moda Arcadia prints) and stripes and woven plaids.  Here is the original colorway plus 3 that I came up with.  I love the dusk color way.

Although it was a ton of work, I had a lot of fun playing around with the program.  I am thinking about taking the advanced photoshop class in the fall.  I would also think about Illustrator.

I have been away from quilting and sewing for a bit.  Thawing weather has brought me back.  The first quilt block I have ever made back in 2007 was a log cabin and I always wanted to make a log cabin quilt.  So for my new project, I decided to look into a mini log cabin quilt.  I gathered several light background prints and several dark background prints.  They are mostly from American jane lines with a few prints from various other lines.

I am preparing to make approximately 30 3" blocks so that the finished quilt is a decent size.

This twin size quilt has been in the works for awhile now.  My son has been asking me about it so I decided to pull it back out to continue to work on it.  I have finished the quilt top months ago but the prospect of making a large quilt sandwich always makes me stall.  It is fairly a labor intensive activity involving being on my knees for a long time.  In order for the sandwich to work out precisely, I first put the batting (I usually use Dream batting - request (thinnest) or select(mid)) .  Then I place the quilt top over the batting.  Then I align the two layers and smooth out the quilt top.  The two will like to be stuck together so make sure everything is neatly smoothed out.  When the two layers are correctly aligned and smoothed into place, I just roll the two layer together and put it aside.   Then I pull out the backing fabric and tape it down to the floor or table with blue painting tape also making sure that all wrinkles and dimples are smoothed out.  Once it is all flattened out and taped down, I unroll the 2 layers over the backing making sure that it is also correctly aligned.  Once everything is unrolled and smoothed out (this will probably take awhile), I get the quilting pins and begin pinning the three layers together.  I make straight alternating rows approximately 3-4 inches apart.  This should prevent things from shifting around.  Once everything is pinned together - and I pin all the way to the edges, I roll it back up so that the maching quilting can begin.

                           

Now the fun quilting part begins.  I have quilted a twin size quilt once before and it's not easy to fit it into a home sewing machine but when the quilt is tightly rolled and I start right from the center, it should work fine.  I have not quilted anything larger than a twin size.

I use a Bernina home machine to sew and quilt.  I have several - one a fairly newish model and others are older models.  I do love the way they sew!

I have been taking a screenprinting class this fall.  I've learned to create designs on vellum and then burn them onto the screen with photo emulsion and ultraviolet light.  Then printing with single color and multiple colors.

designing for t-shirts

 Printing cabbage rose for a textle repeat

mixing paint colors with base

Wonderfully spacious printing space!

working on multi colored repeat

designing artwork to be printed

more textile repeat

to dry textile that has been printed

 squigees to push through the mesh - many sizes!

machine for printing t-shirts

David, the assistant in front of the screen dryers

power sprayers to wash out the screens and squeegees.

prof. looking over artwork

This has been a fun class - and it really complements my photoshop class very well!

Here are my first 4 blocks for a king sized quilt I want to make.  I've been wanting to make one for my bed for awhile now but have been worried about quilting a king sized one.  I decided to just start piecing the top.  I still don't know how I will fit a king size quilt on my home sewing machine but I will think about this later.  Perhaps i'll just have it quilted by someone with a long arm machine.

I decided to make my blocks using mostly solid fabrics.  Solids I am using are: Shot cotton, Kona Ash, Coal, Medium grey and Tomato.  Printed fabrics are Lotta Jansdotter, Kumiko Fujita, American Jane print, Neptune, Hope Valley.  These blocks are improvisational in that I just start cutting fabric and piecing together whatever I have available around me.  Each block, however, will be approximately 17" unfinished.  I am thinking about just piecing each block together the way they are or possibly adding white sashing.  I haven't decided yet.  But I do have 11 blocks finished so far and I do like the way they look together!

I am taking a couple of textile design classes at FIT this semester.  First is Photoshop and the second is screen printing.  I am enjoying both very much - although I find Photoshop a bit challenging as there are a lot of technical terms I need to memorize!  My first assignment for the photoshop class is to create a tile design using photoshop to flip and rotate the image.  Finished product is 8"x10" image that will have 20 2" blocks.

Above drawing is my original that I began with.

Then I selected a 2" square to work with.

Then using the 2" image, I created a 4" by copying the image onto a new document.  Now I can play around with any of the 4 2" square by rotating it 90 degrees or 180 degrees.

Here are the three that I made for my assignment:

It was a fun project and I am happy with the way each came out so differently!