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Thursday, January 10, 2013

FMQC Bonus Tutorial, KK DVD, Teri Lucas

FMQC Bonus Tutorial in December using the KK program!

Great tutorial for the December Bonus class with Teri Lucas.  It was exactly what I needed to finally open my KK3 DVD I ordered last year, and not onlydid I finally register the DVD, but I actually upload a family photo and made a Kaleidoscope to put feathers on for this challenge.


Here you see my pinwheel created from a photo of  me, AKA ~ Mimi and Grampa ~ with our two grandsons, ages one and two, taken at the end of summer.  Oh, what a blast being a grandparent to our wee ones is for us!  Love you boys.

Once our photo was uploaded and cropped to fit the pinwheel pattern (chose a pinwheel shape because our grandsons LOVE playing with pinwheels at Mimi and Grampa's house), I printed it on washed 100 percent white cotton pressed to freezer paper with a hot dry iron, and put it through our laser printer.  I would have used the inkjet printer, however, I purchased bubble jet rinse by mistake, should have gotten Bubble Jet wash solution.   Anyway, used the laser, then ironed with HOT dry iron, removed paper, and I was ready to begin.
Once I had my pinwheel shape and size printed out, and my borders attached to the printed piece, I drew out the pinwheel and then drafted some stitches I might like to use, along with some ideas on what to quilt 1st, 2nd, etc.

I stitched on the borders after having used my colorwheel to help choose fabric colors that would go well with those colors in our photo, the trick is using the correct value of color.  Then I stitched using variagated rayon thread the extra batt for trapunto around the pinwheel area and the first row of feathers.  Once completed, I cut away the remaining batt, like a cookie cutter cuts away the extra dough.  Then layered my quilt top, batt and backing,  and stitched in the ditch to secure the quilt.

Next, I added a second row of feathers and filler inside the first row of feathers, with dark purple rayon thread.  I even stitched the pie shaped pinwheels again, which are now pretty puffy with the trapunto work, and raised nicely off of the quilt top.  I then did two rows of echo quilting around the feathers on the pinwheel, before beginning the stippling.  I may add another row of stitching around each family member in each of the pie shapes on the pinwheel ~ haven't yet decided on that for sure.  Here you can see the back of the quilt


I chose the final black border, as this quilt will hang on our family photo wall, in which all the photos are in black frames.   Once I am sure all the stitching is done, I will put a protective finish over the photo printed part of the quilt.

To protect the photo ink from running and fading, I first tried a few different products I had on hand at our home.  Two were iron-on  laminates, both were high gloss.  The pellon iron-on did not hold up to hand washing, while the Heat n Bond surface held up to washing, it would leave the quilt with too shiny a surface.   The other two products were paint on items.  One was a clear varnish, which made the fabric stiff when dry; it did not hold up to hand washing, and the ink faded along with the varnish as it dried.  The final product I tried, Americana Fabric Medium, not only gave the fabric a nice drape when dry, but it held up to the washing, and it appeared to dry without fading or washing away the ink.  That will be what I will apply to my quilt top prior to hanging on display.

Lots of fun doing this bonus challenge, and nowthat I have done one, I have so many ideas for future KK projects. Cindy Needhams E-book updates she mailed out today, had some great tips for completing the quilting while the tutorial by Teri Lucas had great tips and inspiration for finaling opening and using the KK3 DVD I bought a while back.

Thank you again Sew Cal Gal ~ it sure has been a lot of fun participating in the FMQ Challenge.
* To see how this quilt finished, go to
http://cantstopstitchin.blogspot.com/2013/01/fmq-bonus-challenge-is-bound.html

Godspeed,
mary

6 comments:

  1. What a lovely quilt you have made - Family history to cherish - great work!!

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    1. Thank you Joan for your kind words. So thankful to have a precious family to love on! Happy New Year and will enjoy watching your work in Blogland. Keep posting, you inspire me so.
      Godspeed,
      mary

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  2. Thank you for sharing your process! This is such a lovely piece, and it's an inspiration for me to get KK3 when I can, and also trying printing on freezer-backed fabric rather than the stuff sold in stores. I've tried two different brands now and both were disasters. The last one was for the Bonus Challenge #4, so I'm especially appreciative of your sharing this!

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    1. Thank you for your kind words. I have been wanting to get to both the KK and the making my own fabric sheets for printing on. The older I get I find I need more encouragement and inspiration to try new things - the blogging sure has helped.
      Not sure what kind of printer you have ~ I have access to both an inkjet and an old laser printer. I have found most storebought pages do not go in Laser printers ~ and without treating your fabric, the inkjet print will just wash out of your project. I purchase muslin on the bolt at Joanns with those 50 percent off coupons, so have access to both white and off white muslin for trying these experiments. The laser ink took so nicely on the white muslin, it kind of melted right in to the weave of the threads. After rinsing and drying muslin for 24 hours, ironed it and then ironed with a dry iron as steam may shrink the freezer paper and you will get wrinkles; I used wide freezer paper, and when they cooled I cut them to fit my printer in 8 1/5 x 11 inch sheets.
      I am working on some recipes for holding the inkjet printer ink to the fabric, and at some point may try the fabric medium as well. If I have any success will post on the blog so others can try it. I was disappointed I had purchased the wrong bubble jet product, as I have heard that works great, and you can make a lot of fabric sheets with one tub washing.
      For now, the laser jet printer is working for my needs, so I will stick with that. Thanks again for your encouraging words.

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    2. I have a Canon iX6520 ink jet printer. It does a beautiful job of printing on the fabric sheets, my major problem (besides the expense of those purchased sheets) is they are just too heavy and stiff for any FMQ work after printing. Thanks for your insights, and I'll watch for future posts re your experiments.

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  3. How neat! I love your ideas. Thanks for sharing them.
    Blessings~Jen

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