Field Trips in Fiber - Adventures in quilting, hand dyed fabric and fiber art.

New metal quilts and a giveaway

In January I shared this framed metal quilt that I hung over the bed in the guest house. The metal quilt comes from Classic Metal Company. My friend gave me the quilt for my birthday. After considering hanging it outside I eventually decided that I wanted to frame it with some fabric. Anne had told me how nice Mark, the owner, was to work with so I sent him this photo. That resulted in me sending him some fabric to make some framed quilts for his booth and several conservations back and forth.

I got 3 of these 1 foot quilts and finally got around to fixing them up for my Mom. 

I used my Coleus gradient as the background and I think this will look good with the colors in her house. I've even created a short tutorial on how to make these.

These metal quilts are very well made. All of the edges and surfaces are perfectly smooth. Best of all, Mark, the owner, is fabulous to work with. You can email him with questions or special requests and he will do his best to accommodate you. The quilts I am showing here are the 2 foot and 1 foot size. While I chose black for mine, he also makes them in blue, red, green and white.

He also has extra large barn quilts in 3 and 4-foot sizes, rusty finish barn quilts and, his newest product, barn quilt minis! You know that I want to frame some of these with glass behind them. Wouldn't they make great gifts for your quilting friends?

For now, let's focus on a gift for you. Mark has graciously offered a 2 foot barn quilt to one of my readers. All you have to do to enter is to go to his site and pick your favorite barn quilt design. Leave a comment telling me which quilt you would want if you win. The drawing will be open through Sunday and I'll announce the winner Monday, June 10.

Another new project....

I know I said I was done decorating but I don't consider this one technically decorating. Our kitchen has an oak floor so I keep rugs in front of the counters to protect the floor. I've been buying cheap cotton runners and I just throw them out when they get grody. (Actually Chris uses them as floor protectors when he is painting.) But the cotton runners are getting harder to find and when I do find them they are too expensive to be disposable. 

I am still using the floorcloth that I made 2 years ago and it's holding up really well. I've decided to replace the kitchen rugs with floorcloths.

This is the basic design for the rug that's in front of the refrigerator. The other 2 are about 8' long but will be this same basic design. Next I needed fabric.

I wanted fabrics that would go with the tile backsplash and also look good in the oak floor. Here's that I came up with. It took 2 attempts to get a green that I liked.

I have my canvas, some paint, some ModPodge and I hope to get started in the next 2 weeks.

 

Easy and elegant table runner - a tutorial

You may remember last September when I stamped a piece of the Kettering gradient. I used my favorite nature stamps from Fred B. Mullett. I always intended to make a table runner with the fabric but it languished because I could not figure out how I would quilt it. Then while redoing the guest room and putting away my grandmother's dresser scarves I realized that I didn't need to quilt it!

I decided to use mine as dresser scarves for the guest house bedroom. Here's how I made them.

I had stamped a half yard of fabric and decided to cut it in half lengthwise for 2 table runners. Square up the panels of fabric and measure the length of the panel. Note that measurement to use later.

I think that the wide border is what makes this look so elegant. I cut 2.5" strips and added a mitered border. You could do straight borders but I like the look of the miter. Here's a great Youtube video on making mitered borders.

This could be finished in several ways including a narrow hem or narrow binding. I decided that I wanted mine faced to give a little more heft to the edge of the table runner and it to cover all of the seams. I cut more 2.5" strips and finished one long edge with the serger. A zig-zag stitch would work. I used this method because I didn't want to turn under a hem.

I made a frame the size of the border on the table runner. Instead of making miters I seamed these pieces with straight seams so that there would not be double bulk under the mitered seams. To do this I first cut the long edges the same length as the cut length of the center (the measurement from above). I cut the end pieces the width of the table runner with the borders. I I stitched them together so that the finished edges are on the INSIDE of the facing.

In this photo the facing is pinned to the table runner right sides together. You can see the serged edges toward the inside. Sew through both layers all around the edge at 1/4".

Before turning the facing clip off the corners to remove bulk from the turned corners. One secret that I learned in garment making is that it's easier to turn a facing if you first press the seam open. I press my seams open over a point presser but you can do most of it flat and you can finger press the corners.

Here's the facing turned to the back and pinned in place. You can see that the facing covers all of the seams.

Stitch in the ditch next to the border to secure the facing in place and you are all done! It really only took about an hour to make this.

 

I made 2, one for the dresser at the top of the post and one for the chest. These pieces of furniture are pretty beat up so these cover a lot of blemishes. 

 

 

A metal quilt and some hand dyed fabric

can make some cool wall art.

Anne gave me this cool metal bear's paw quilt for my birthday last year. The Metal Quilt company designs them to be hung outside on the sides of barns or the side of your house. I really wanted to hang it on the side of the guest house but I just couldn't get Chris on board with drilling holes int he side of the house.

As an aside, my Mom passed on a pretty sizable yard-art gene to me and if the two of us lived together we would probably have crap hung all over the outside of the house and I am certain that there would be at least one giant whirligig in my front yard and some sort of rustic fountain in the pond. Because I am an artful redneck. 

But someone I live with it's the least bit interested in the joy of collecting large yard art so I had to figure out how to use my big metal quilt block inside.

Over the bed in the guest house seemed like a grand idea. It added some much needed color to that room and I love how it looks with the fabric behind it. I think it would have been quite boring had I hung it straight on the wall.

I "made" this in about 30 minutes. I bought frame sections like this from Hobby Lobby. The ones at Dick Blick are nicer (and more expensive) that what I bought. The quilt is 23" square so I bought 2 packs for about $20. I cut a piece of thick cardboard to 23" square and covered that with 2 layers of cotton batting. The batting fits exactly to the size of the cardboard because there isn't enough room in the frame for the batting to wrap to the back. After figuring out how I wanted the dye pattern to show through the quilt I cut the fabric about 2" larger all around the cardboard and used my favorite adhesive (duct tape) to hold the fabric in place on the back of the cardboard. Everything slid easily into the frame and I followed the frame instructions for putting it all together.

Because I used ugly printed cardboard and duct tape on the back I also slid in layer of brown craft paper to cover the back. 

Now I think I should get some smaller metal quilts to hang around it........I also have "permission" to get one to hang on the front gable of the porch.

Treasure to trash to treasure

Chris' Dad is 95 and has recently had to move into a care facility for Alzheimer's patients. It's been a long process for Chris and his siblings and the last stage has been to get the house ready to sell. Fortunately there wasn't a lot of drama over the contents. They took turns selecting items. There were a few nice pieces of furniture and each got a favorite or two. There was also a huge clock collection. I remember the first time that I stayed in the house I could not sleep for all of the clock dings and dongs. It really gave me the creeps.

There was this one big brass clock (the insides of a grandfather's clock) hanging at the end of the hall. It was hideous but they all thought it was a nice French clock. I told Chris that if no one took it to get it and I'd see if I could sell in on eBay.

See what I mean? Hideous. There was a paper that Chris' Dad taped to the side that I thought explained what the clock was. Well, in a dream this might be a nice clock. It's really a cheap knock-off.

On top of that the pendulum was damaged. So, what I though might bring a few $$ in eBay turns out to be fodder for the trash bin. But then I started thinking and realized that I could get some vaue from this clock.

It was full of these! Once I figure out how to get the gears separated from the posts I will have a great supply of sun printing masks! These are only a few of the gears in the clock. Isn't that cool?