Another Quilting Gallery Show & Contest

This weeks theme is wall hangings. My "Bear Lake" is one of 67 entries from 9 countries, 4 provinces, and 22 states.

"Bear Lake" 45"x 34"

Viewers get to vote for 6 favorites this time. I rarely find choosing my favorites easy so it's nice to get so many choices. Go here to vote for the ones you like before Monday at 6pm.

I find it amusing that so very many people have pinned the tutorial I wrote when I made those shrubby trees in the foreground.

In fact, 49 people have visited my blog just today to read that post. Over the years I've used a number of different ways to make trees. The technique I came up for creating these is easy and most effective.

To read the story behind this quilt go here.

Bear Lake Revisited

Bear Lake up in the Rocky Mountain National Park outside of Estes Park is one of our favorites.  This photo was taken in 2006.

In 2008 I made this quilt, "Bear Lake" from that photo.  Click here to see the posts about its creation.

Bear Lake - 45"x 34" (2008)

 

In the photo taken from the other side of the lake on this trip, you can see the big rock from which the previous photos were taken.

The brown trees are the result of Pine Needle Beetle damage.  Each year we see more brown trees on the east side of the park.  The damage is much greater over the Divide on the west side.

Enjoy these photos of the trail around the lake.

 There's been quite a bit of rain leaving big puddles on the trail.  This is a captured reflection in one of them.

... and another photo taken this year of the scene featured in the quilt.

Bear Lake Wall Quilt

We took the finished quilt to the spot on Bear Lake where I had taken the photo that was my reference for making it.

It is now hanging in the living room of our friends who live in Estes Park.

Bear Lake - 45"x 34" (2008)

From the moment I began creating this piece I knew it belonged in Colorado so it wasn't difficult to part with. I'm pleased to leave a bit of myself in a place that is dear to my heart.

The Back of the Mountain Lake Quilt

The fabric I chose for the backing is full of bears. One of the reasons is to represent my close encounters with black bears in our cabin. Go here and here to read about those.
The other is that the name of this depicted lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park is Bear Lake. So, of course, whatever else in the world would I choose.

The front of the piece is machine sewn and quilted. That was finished before I left the cottage in Michigan. All the handwork is done in the construction details on the back side. I've been working for days in one of my favorite spots ... along the Big Thompson river, the stream that runs past our cabin here in Colorado.
A facing (double width and folded) was machine sewn to the edge of the quilt before the yarns were to couched to finish that outside edge. The fold is hand-stitched in place. This facing helps to stabilize that edge since there is no binding which functions to do that to most quilts.
A tube of fabric covers the machine zig-zag stitches that connect the border to the quilt and the decorative yarns that hide the seam on the front. It is hand sewn into place leaving space for a narrow piece of wood doweling to be inserted. This will help the sides to hang straight with no flipping up of the corners.
A little trick that would not be allowed in a quilt show ... at least, not in the SMQ show.

A double thickness fabric sleeve is made in two parts ... the method I use for all larger quilts so it can hang from the center as well as from the ends. Here you see the flat piece of wood with a drilled hole that the nail it will hang from will fit through. There are also holes drilled in each end so it will hang from three points.
Soon it will be finished and hanging in its new home.

Rocks and Borders

Back to the mountain lake piece. The edges of the rocks had been left loose so the shrubby trees and flowers could be tucked between and behind them.
The raw edges of the rocks are free-motion quilted into place with a brightly colored variegated King Tut thread. I drew more stems and trunks with oil stick pastels, water color pencils, and felt tip pens ... in other words, I used whatever worked to get the effect I desired.

Here's a photo of the huge boulders along that lakes shoreline.
The quilt's shoreline is greatly influenced by the one along the stream that flows past our cabin.
The borders are done in my "ortwork" collage technique.
Lengths of various yarns were laid across a base fabric that has words pertaining to forests printed on it. I had made two long extra wide pieces ... one for the sides, the other for the top and bottom. A layer of black tulle was laid over the top and then I machine quilted and couched other yarns through all the layers.

The borders were cut to size and the corners mitered. They were zig-zag stitched to the main part of the quilt. Various yarns are couched over the outside and inside edges over the border.

Now the not-so-fun part of hand-sewing facings and a sleeve to the back begins.

Quilting the Lake

Determining a quilt pattern for the lake was the most difficult for me. I didn't wish to lose the wind wave patterns created by the crayon rubbing, but I could see no way to accent them. So, I just did ripple patterns. Now that it's finished, I see that the quilting does not obscure those crayoned patterns.
I began at the far shoreline with a small scale free-motion ripple pattern using a dark variegated blue King Tut thread. The water's edge is shaded with watercolor pencils (my first experience with them).
Then I switched to a medium value variegated blue K.T. thread and free-motion quilted a larger scale of the same ripple pattern in the foreground.
The middle of the lake reflects the light sky and is stitched with a light value variegated blue K.T. thread with a medium sized ripple pattern.
I don't know how excess top fabric got in the middle of this lake, but it did. Thankfully, it ended up there where wind waves do occur rather than on either bank. Although if I had worked sequentially across the lake from the far bank, I could've tucked the wrinkles behind the rocks. The lake is a bit more "sculptural" than I had intended.

The scrubby trees and flowering weeds came next.
The back sides of the individual pieces were sprayed with a temporary fabric adhesive to hold them in place between and behind rocks. I cut over-sized pieces of aqua tulle netting for each "grouping" and pinned it in place to do the quilting. Free-motion stitching along the stems and branches was done with a beige variegated K.T. I used a variegated K.T. green for the leafy areas. The excess tulle outside the quilted areas was trimmed away.

I wish to thank Anne for suggesting the tulle layer so that a minimum of quilting would suffice. It's amazing how difficult it is to see the tulle layer. The aqua color blends into the color of the lake between the foliage.

Next is the border.

Quilting Mountains & Sky

Machine free-motion quilting of the mountains and sky was done much more quickly than that of the trees.
Tomorrow the mountain lake ...

Quilting Trees

Finally, I've gotten to the machine quilting for the mountain lake piece. The pine trees are done in three steps.
The first quilting is done on the foremost trees and the top edges of the dark green forest with a lively variegated mix of greens. I dropped down from those top edges to add spots of brightness here and there.
The second round of quilting filled in the dark green forest with a variegated thread that is a blend of greens that nearly matches the fabric.
The third round of stitching is done on the trees up in the mountains with a variegated blend of muted green, gold, and rust colors.
I stitched varying sizes of zig-zag patterns since these are pine tree forests of the Rocky Mountain National Park. All the top threads are King Tut by Superior Threads and bobbin thread is Bottom Line ... also by S.T's. The free-motion quilting is done on a Brother Nouvelle 1500S. I very much want to love this machine, but the overly sensitive tension settings drives me nuts. Do any of you have this model? Do you have any tricks to maintaining an even tension? Both the top and bobbin tensions change while I'm stitching ... aargh!

Tomorrow I tackle the mountains and sky.

Making Trees

Scrubby trees that grow along shorelines are needed for my mountain lake piece. The only other trees I had made were for this piece:

Across the River (24"x 24") - 2007

and the forest fire trilogy.

Regeneration (60"x34") - 2006

Bits and pieces were stitched directly on the background fabrics. In the full grown forest in the above piece there are three layers of complete trees. That's a lot of stitching that distorts the base fabrics. So, I came up with another method that surely I'm not the first to discover.

It begins with cutting trunks and branches.
Laying them in basic tree shapes on a sheet of water soluble stabilizer that has been lightly misted with a spray adhesive. To add leaves, I cut thin strips of many colors of green fabric and snipped bits directly onto the stabilizer. I let them fall "wherever".
I kept building up branches and trunks and lots of leaves. Then laid another layer of water soluble stabilizer on top. It also had been lightly misted with a spray adhesive.
That "sandwich" of tree pieces was heavily stitched making sure that all lines of stitching crossed a number of times to ensure that all of these tiny pieces are connected. Click the photo to see a close-up of the stitching. I used a Microtex needle and Superior's polyester thread ... smoke in the top and clear in the bobbin (because I have more clear than smoke).
I slipped a plastic bag over a cutting board to give support to the lacy trees while I ran water over it to dissolve the stabilizer. I set the nozzle to a light spray to more easily wash away the sticky stuff.
I patted it dry with paper towels while it was still supported by the cutting board.
It was easy to pick up and lay on this plastic grid to dry flat.
I've made several batches of scrub trees and bushes for the foreground shore of the mountain lake piece. That is the first project I'll work on when I get to Michigan.

We are packing up the Elvismobile and our projects and machines to head north on Thursday. If you see a red SUV pulling a smallish black trailer plastered with Elvis "stuff" through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan give a honk and a wave.

Next week I'll be back to post the results of those newly constructed trees. By then I may have thought of the best way to stitch them to the quilt top. I'm open for suggestions.

To the Mountains

Most of you know of my love for Lake Michigan, but the Rocky mountains are also dear to my heart.

44"x 35"

This is the photo from which I was working:
One of my favorite spots is on the shoreline of Bear Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park. My quilt will not be exactly like any of the photos that are posted, but will incorporate what I remember and feel when sitting quietly and looking across a high mountain lake. For those of you familiar with the Rockies, the snow covered mountain on the far right is Longs Peak in the above picture and my quilt.

I like sitting on big flat rocks that jut out into most of the lakes up in the mountains. However, I'm not sitting in this pic. My husband likes a pose :-)
My next step is to machine quilt what is in the background. Then I will compose the shoreline in the foreground based on these photos.

This picture was taken along the Big Thompson River that runs past our cabin. I will be including some of these flowers on the shoreline of my lake piece.
Now that I've caught your interest for this piece I'm sorry to say that you won't be seeing it finished for a while. I had rushed to get it started to see if it could be finished in time for the Smoky Mountain Quilts Guild Show. Well, I determined that I could, but it's too late. The limit for the number of quilts that can be displayed in our show place has been met ... in fact we have to turn away quite a few submissions :-(

Watch for it to reappear late May or June. Now, I can get back to the lake series.

Can You Guess

... where I'm going with this?
Stay tuned to find out.