Fabric calligraphy tips

A few questions came in about the calligraphy so here's a couple more tips.

Yes, I do use freezer paper on the back for stability. I find that it keeps the fabric from moving around while you are writing, and I pretty much use it every time. I just rip off a piece, and iron it to the back.

I don't need to heat set it, because I use pigma pens, and they are forever without heat, so be careful, don't write on your white pants while using them! They come in all sorts of colors and thickness.

I get some inspiration from various books on the form of the letters as well as some of the fancy loops. My favorite book is called The Technique of Copperplate Calligraphy by Gordon Turner, ISBN 0-486-25512-3.

If you have some extra lunch money burning a hole in your pocket, perhaps you want to surf on over to Purl and pick up one of their Liberty of London fat quarter packs.

Liberty fabric (to those who are lucky/crazy enough to own some) is what fabric looks and feels like in heaven, I think.

Permanent ink on quilts

Writing on your quilt is like giving it a tattoo.

Traditional Baltimore Album quilts had copper plate calligraphy on them. There is a cool video on you tube (short clip) that gives you an idea of how the real artists make these beautiful letters.

I did a pseudo-wanna-be version of this that works on fabric w/ an example of how to do calligraphy on fabric in an earlier post.

The above is a little bag I made for Zegi who won the give away contest.

First, I took some fabric and wrote a letter to my coming-soon baby boy on it, using my own 'copperplate calligraphy' and a pigma pen.

Then I made it into a little bag, place some adorable taupe-blue dots on there, and used a clover zipper (the ONLY kind of zipper to use on bags!!).

The letter says:


May you have health and love in your life; true friends, and passion. Take comfort in the blessing of family. Find joy in every day and appreciate the beauty of nature. Work hard and find pleasure in learning. You are an amazing gift to the world.



So this is my wish, for my yet to be born son, and to all of you as well since these are the things I find to be the most rewarding in my own life.

This technique of writing not only makes for a very interesting treatment on fabric in general, but is perfect for making quilt labels too. (Label example from earlier post).

Calligraphy Tutorial: Chalkboard Lettering

I have been getting fancy with addressing letters and put together a simple tutorial on how to make your calligraphy look like hand written chalk board letters.  


This technique can also be applied to fabric, but use Pigma Pens for permanent letters of quilt cotton.  Lots of sizes are available.  I like .05 size a lot.

Here are a few simple steps.  If you try it, let me know how it went for you.

1)  Write out the letters using handwriting on a dark piece of paper.

I used dark navy blue paper that I got from PaperSource and a white pen that I also got from there.  The specific pen I used is the uni-ball signo broad pigment ink in UM-153, white.  It is easy to control and did not cost a lot.

Some of the letters had some curly starts and stops.  Those are not very hard to make, but it's good to practice on a scratch piece of paper



2)  Put a second line to the right of your letters only when your pen stroke is going down.  Don't do this if you pen is moving up towards the top of the paper.  See the example of the letter H below.  In the second photo, you can see a lot of letters with the 2nd lines added.

3)  Fill in ink between the lines.  Use light small strokes of the pen.  Go slowly, don't rush or you'll end up with extra ink on there and it will get messy

4)  At this point you can drop it in the mail and the person will eventually get it. 

I conducted a test and addressed a letter with non-fancy writing and another with fancy writing.  The one with fancy writing took an extra 3 days to get there.  I think it may have been because the automatic postal system could not recognize the address and a person may have had to read it in order for it to get to the right postal delivery person.  Just an interesting data point for you.

5)  Making it look like a chalk board for digital use:  If you want your photo to take on that chalk board look, just snap a picture of it on your phone and put it in black and white.  On iPhone, you can go into your photos, choose 'edit' then choose 'tonal' filter.  You can also try the 'mono' filter to see which one you like better.

6)  Putting text on top such as the "Easy Calligraphy Tutoral" text above:  If this is something you also want to add for a blog post or for a Pinterest tutoral pin, you can download an app called "Over".  It looks like this app is made for iOS.

Good luck!

Hand Sewn Bookbinding & Calligraphy

Making beautiful lettering has been a passion of mine for a while.

Writing on fabric, paper, wedding invitations (cannot find a photo of them all for you, sigh), post-it notes, chalk boards, and anything that holds still for too long is something that I picked up about 15 yrs ago when I was learning Copperplate Calligraphy for Baltimore Album quilts. 

Wandering around CreativeBug, I ran into some super cool classes on bookbinding by Jody Alexander.

I made the above book after taking her online class on Coptic Bookbinding.

The cover is just a simple art paper in light blue that I decorated with calligraphy after the book was all finished. 

I'm using this as a notebook for some of my creative thoughts and classes I've been taking. 

One of the other classes she has covers how to make a book cloth out of fabric.  My next version will hopefully be covered with Liberty of London fabric, with any luck. 

It's been a real adventure for me in learning about paper and glues, including how to make glue from methyl cellulose power.  Hint: dumping some powder in cold water is hardly the place to start.  Can you say sticky icky goop?  Oh yes you can, it's almost Halloween after all.

I have thoughts about making some of these for give-aways since I'm addicted to making them.  You get to sew paper!  It's almost as much fun as sewing fabric.

Paper flowers

For Father's day, I made paper daffodils for my husband.

They came from Paper Source. It's taking more discipline than I have to avoid also picking up the kits to make their Fringe flowers, Vintage Blooms, and Norsa flowers.

The girls in their shop recommended that I trace some more blossoms on more colorful paper, if that was my taste.

I'm HOOKED!!

Their web site even has how-to videos. Is that the coolest or what?

They offer classes in certain shops, including calligraphy. One even had a class on my all time favorite, Copperplate calligraphy. Oh, how I want to take that class!!

My husband loved them too. He took the above picture because he was so impressed with the little father's day gift offerings, and he wants to take the paper flowers to his office when I'm tired of them on our dinning room table.

It's rare that I stumble, or tumble for that matter, over a new blog that really lights my fire. Of course Ravenhill by Emily is still on the top of my list (give-away in process now, go check it out!), but I also just started reading Tumbling Blocks blog.

Tumbling Blocks has some beautiful creations and some extremely tasteful photographs that have been making me smile.

Japanese Crafting: Home Made Notebook with Washi Tape

I did a search recently for Japanese Crafting blogs and it is a shame that there are not more of them out there since Japanese Crafting is so unique and beautiful.

In an effort to make something Japanese and Crafty...I created this little notebook with washi tape.

Washi Tape is basically the cutest thing since sliced bread.  Why would anybody ever use boring old scotch tape again, I'll never know, but I digress.

The basic construction of the book itself was inspired by this post on Angry Chicken blog that shows you how to make some simple board books to keep notes in.

I covered the top cover with washi tape, left some room to write a title on there, and decorated the back with more crazy calligraphy.  More photos on Flickr.

Ages ago I did a little calligraphy tutorial, so if you're bent on making one of these, you can read about it here.

I made some of these books for my applique quilting 'students' (read 'friends') for them to use as a mechanism to track the fabrics in their quilt.  More on that in another post.

Ok, so who went to PIQF today?  Are you out there?!  I'm going tomorrow....hopefully you left some fabric for me to buy!  Only a few photos have turned up online so far.

2012 Holiday Gift Guide for Quilters, Knitters, and Spinners

Not sure what to get your quilting friend for Christmas?

Looking for a link to give your DH a not-so-subtle hint? 

Here's the first annual Quilt Otaku 2012 Holiday Gift Guide for Quilters, Knitters and Spinners!


Quilters:

For the space constrained - I have a tiny house and a tiny space for my quilting.  In the interest of keeping it 'small' - how about a gift that doesn't take up any space?

Q1)  Creative Bug:  This is on the top of my list for Santa.  With videos from Alabama Chanin, and Christine Schmidt from Yellow Owl Workshop, you couldn't go wrong with a gift subscription to the awesome classes here.
 
Q2)  Calligraphy Class:  I Still Love Calligraphy has a class that would help you ink on quilts in style.  Your labels would probably never be the same.  You may even find yourself inking all over your quilt tops and fabric.  I haven't taken this class...but you know I kinda want to! 

Q3) Tote Bag:  I have a couple of tote bags that I like, but the one available at The General Store in San Francisco is the cleanest looking large one that I've seen in a while.  You could fit a pretty big hand quilting project in there.  For sure a baby quilt.  Made locally.

And for the tool junkies -

Q4)  Pin Cushions:  I find it hard to believe that Foxtail Creek Studio can keep pincushions in stock because they are so well made and so affordable.  This is my top pick for cheap thrill, and they look like hours of time have gone into their creation.


Q5)  Scissors:  Sajou makes so many beautiful pairs and you can find them all at Bagsmith.  You can pick up a super tiny pair for around $50, or a fancy pair that has been on my 'someday' list for ages in the shape of a horse and cart for $180. 

Knitters:

K1)  Learn to Knit:  Purl Soho just came out with a really cute learn to knit kit.  Even an older child could really get into using this cool kit.
 
K2)  Lace Yarn:  I have used a lot of lace yarn in my knitting life and nothing is nicer that the Reliquary II from A Verb for Keeping Warm.  It's merino and silk, and for under $40 you've got almost 900 yds of pure joy to whip into just about anything.
 
K3)  Needles:  Chiaogoo Interchangable knitting needles set has gotten rave reviews out there.  Pointy and coming in a very impressive variety of sizes.  If you're looking for a set of needles - look no further.
 
K4)  Sock  Yarn:  Willing to get up on Saturday morning in order to purchase yarn balls on Etsy?  If you're as crazy for striped socks as I am, you'll love knitting with this yarn.  It's an addiction really.  Maybe you should stay away from Twisted Limone.


K5)  Sock Needles:  If you knit socks, you need to check out Blue Sky double pointed needles.  They are my favorites.

Spinners:

S1)  Spindle:  Who isn't after another drop spindle?  Bosworth spindles are both beautiful and start at $55.

S2)  Fiber:  Local bay area dyer Pigeonroof Studios has some very cool color combo's for spinners who like a little variety in their yarn.


S3)  Wraps Per Inch:  Knowing how thick your yarn is turning out is really important.  I like the card that comes with this Wraps Per Inch tool from Nancy's Knit Knacks.  It tells you WPI info for various yarn weights.

S4)  Fiber Basket:  When you spin a bunch of fiber, it's hand to have a bag that can hold it but won't snag it.  Baskets made out of cotton cord by Doug Johnston are perfect.  Order quick for holiday arrival.

If that list doesn't keep Santa busy, I don't know what will!

Label for Doll Quilt Swap #2

OK, this doll quilt is ready to roll out the door.

This weekend I finished the label, and attached it (by hand, of course) to the back of the little doll quilt.

The back of the quilt is sort of nuts with tons of dots, but its fun and it's just the back after all.

I used my usual pigma pen, and calligraphy style. Hope that my partner likes it...

I'm looking forward to going berry picking in Watsonville this afternoon. Strawberries, and olallieberries are ripe for the picking. Not sure how many will be eaten vs. how many will make it to the bucket to take home.

All dressed up

Today Wee Wonderfuls blog has a post about the quilt that I made for Hillary's coming-soon baby girl.

It's a little quilt with apples on it, and has a totally crazy label on the back with more of my wanna be copperplate calligraphy all over it in this wild manner.

I had so much fun making it that I'm tempted to make another one.

The bunny above is from a pattern from her site, and I finally got my act together and made this little darlin' a dress. I put some french knots on there to dress it up, and after Kleas had a post on stamping out felt and wool, I took some hand dyed 100% wool fabric, and punched out a couple of flowers.

Babyschool quilt

Our 2 yr old son drags a tiny little infant blanket to school with him, which is way too small, so I decided to quickly put together this little quilt for him.

Luckily, I picked up this farm house fabric when I was at the Purl Soho warehouse in S. California some time ago. I got this green and red color as well as pink.

I couldn't find it on their web site anymore, but I did find it on Superbuzzy, and wow, it's even on sale. There used to be some there in taupe brown colors, but (ahem) somebody just bought the rest of that bolt.

Different topic: Are you hooked on Woot yet? Do you Woot? Have you gotten something cool from this month's Woot-off?

Apparently, all the dude-geeks (yes Carlos, that means you) already know about this, and I'm the last to visit this incredibly cool, super clearance, electronics web site.

And I promise to say more to answer your fabric calligraphy questions next post, I swear.

Traveling Gnome

Anybody who has seen the movie Amelie or even just had a neighbor who put out a lawn gnome for too long probably understands the urge to pull the travelling gnome prank.

Although the above gnome hasn't traveled too much in his somewhat short life, if I were a gnome I would have logged at least 6,000 miles since I last had a moment to do a blog post.  Busy busy.  Home now and happy to be back.


I knit this little gnome for my mom to take around on her travels actually (and to possible tempt her to visit me).  It's from the Mochimochi book - very addicting.

I have this very strong urge to go on a basting binge.  Yes, to baste all the quilt tops I have laying around waiting for some hand quilting love.  Once they are basted they seem to quilt themselves and 'poof' finished quilts are flying off my hoop.  For lack of a quilt basting fairy visiting my house, I will have to get off my tuffet and have a basting party.  Wanna join along?

This week I started to run low on these little notebooks I sometimes make for myself and my sister so we can jot things down in them.  I ordered a few more chip board covers so I can make another batch.  I decorate them with calligraphy on the outside to make them a little special.  They cost only around $1 each to make, although they do take me a few minutes to put together.  


On the machine quilting front - have any of you out there got an opinion on Aurifil thread?  I've been hooked on it lately and wondering if I'm the only one in love with their 50wt cotton.  Maybe there are an army of quilters out there that feel the same.  Agree?  Disagree?  Never tried?



I recently got a question about how I made the quilt in my banner.  I'll have to do an upcoming post on that.  Oh and while I'm at it, maybe a little give away too...hm...ok, soon!


Wish me luck on my baste-o-rama.  I'll be reporting back with my amazing progress (ahem, hopefully)!

Finishing Quilts: The End Game

Hand quilting is a relaxing process that should be savored and generally calming to the person doing it.

When the needle and thread are in my hand, I am relaxed and always having a good time.

I'm sure we usually move forward with the quilting process in the same general order, but here are some of my thoughts about what happens along the way:

1)  Your Quilt Top is Complete:  At this point you need to have a little party for yourself and your quilt.  Many quilters ship their top off to be quilted now.  I can see how that simplifies life, and I have had long arm quilters do work for me, but these days I love hand quilting too much to delegate it.
 
2)  Baste it:  Yes, it's time to put those 3 layers together.  I like this process for one reason only.  My DH usually helps me!  It's always some late night quality fun time together.

3)  Hand Quilting:  This is by far, my favorite part of the process.  I like it much more than designing the quilt and piecing the top.

I put a lot of thought and effort into planning the quilting design.  I often quilt a message into the quilt using the quilting stitches themselves.  I try to put the person's initials in there with quilting if I know the quilt is for a specific person.  

I can hand quilt a queen sized quilt in 30 days flat, but that involves heavy work on weekend days, and also heavy work every night (at times until 1am).  I haven't tried to pull that off in a while, but it's good to know how long it takes to quilt a quilt.

4)  Trim up the quilt and bind it:  I enjoy squaring up the quilt, and putting the binding on is not all that bad.  I don't really enjoy making the binding, but I do enjoy the 2nd part of hand stitching the binding down on the back of the quilt.

5)  Make a label:  For goodness sake, all quilts need labels.  If you are out there making quilts with no labels, you are doing a dis-service for your quilt!  They are much more valuable with labels, and they are so much more personal this way.  I do a lot of planning when creating the label.  I either do calligraphy on them, or applique, or both.  Put your name, where you live, when you made the quilt, who it was for, a poem...get creative!

6)  Take it off to the quilt show:  Ok, not a required step, but wouldn't your friends want to see it hanging up in all it's glory?  Think about it.  Share it with the world.  Who cares about the judges.  Let the people photograph it and be inspired!!!


Anybody out there think I'll finish my niece's quilt in the next week?  I am pretty close....I would love to have it done for her sooner rather than later.
 

Quilt labels

I love copperplate calligraphy, and try to use it in my quilts either on the front or at the very least for that label.

I use pigma ink pens most often in black color and just go nuts with it writing whatever happens to come out of my brain. Perhaps someday I'll learn to plan this a bit, but haven't done much of that yet.

I am also interested in quilt restoration, and found this cool workshop. Not in my backyard, but still very tempting. More interesting words on antique quilts here.

Quilted art bags - for kids, and encounters with handmade fabric

Last weekend my 5 yr old son went to the birthday party of his twin girl schoolmates.

I heard that their favorite things included art supplies, so I jumped at the chance to make some cute art pouches for them.

When I make bags or things that need to hold shape, I bring out my super heavy interfacing: Timtex. I used a couple of different linen fabrics, with the Timtex inside.

It was fun to whip these up. I used Velcro to create a closure mechanism on the inside of the flap. The size of the pouch was designed to house the contents I knew I was putting inside.

Superfun and adorable for two very cute little girls. I hope they enjoy them. I did my usual calligraphy on the front with their names and I had my son sign his name on the back using a pigma pen.

On a different note, I discovered the most amazing fabric printing artist the other day. The very talented Gina Pericini started selling her hand printed fabrics up in the fabric/yarn shop that I teach in.

Her etsy shop is called Flock Home and includes the most adorable fat quarter packs. I find it rare to encounter fabric that is hand made, and even more rare to find it so clean and with such beautiful designs.

I'll take some photos of the fabric I got to show off in a future post. I am thinking of making a protective pocket/holder/bag for my Japanese quilting magazines using her fabrics.

Handmade Quilt Label: broderie perse (part 2)

Here's the 2nd part of the Broderie Perse labels - this label is on the back of our baby son's quilt.

Again I took some fabric from Anna Maria Horner's design and cut out some white leaves. I wrote on the leaves in my funky calligraphy style. Oh, and it was so nice of my friend Carol to applique most of it on there for me. That was perhaps the best part.

Makes me want to finish more quilts just so I can put labels on them!

Don't forget to put the name of who the quilt is for, who made it, date, washing instructions if you are going to give it away (wash cold, gentle, hang dry...wash as infrequently as possible), location of where it was made.

On that note...perhaps I HAVE finished another quilt. Maybe Kathie knows which quilt it might be....Is the suspense killing you?

Handmade Books: Listmaker's List of Lists

In my last post about bookbinding, I did some calligraphy on the outside cover.

I took another stab at it, pun intended, and sewed up another coptic style book based on what I learned in Jody Alexander's bookbinding class on Creativebug.

This time instead of using plain paper from the art store, I used paper from PaperSource.  I like this better than the first try and would like to make some more of these.

I'm using this book to make my to-do lists for all sorts of things.  It makes me feel better to make lists of things when it gets really busy and it seems like there is not enough time in the day to get it all done.  I found a poem about list making by Shel Silverstein that was pretty funny.  

I couldn't help but decorate it a little bit, so below is what the inside cover looks like.  I call it the Listmaker's List of Lists.  What a mouthful.


The gradient paper was made on my own personal printer from a file freely available for download at Mr. Printables.  Sweet colors.

Before and after - how to make your doll quilt label!

I wanted to do a special post for all you doll quilt swappers out there.

Truthfully, it applies to all quilters, or all those who work with fabric I suppose.

I'm in love with Copperplate calligraphy, as I've mentioned before. This style of writing was popular in the 1850's or so. I love to write all over my quilts. Tops, labels, everywhere.

After studying this writing style and trying to memorize how to make the letters in that elaborate, beautiful manner, I have boiled my quilt tatoo secret sauce down to pretty much one simple technique:

Write out your quilt label text on a plain piece of white fabric. Mark some writing lines on there if you don't want it to get too nuts and crazy looking, as your guide.

Use a pigma permanent marker. Don't try anything else, just go with this...trust me...it works!!!

Use your best handwriting, or the best that you can muster at the time.

Then..........drum roll please....go back over the writing and every time your pen writes "down", meaning - a mark that moves from the upper part of the paper to the lower part of the paper, make that line just a little tiny bit thicker.

To prove this would make any handwriting better - I didn't have to look far for my volunteer. My husband (an incredible amazing man who I adore and admire endlessly) has pretty much the worst writing I've ever seen. Even HE can't read it half the time.

I asked him to write a sentence, and afterwards, I filled a little shading in, and voilà!

Looks better, right?

Quilted Feathers

This little quilt I'm working on is turning out to have a couple of firsts for me.

I have practiced a lot of feathers just for fun, but never ended up adding them to a real quilt top. Perhaps this is out of fear of getting myself in over my head or not having the dedication to getting them perfect.

Well, I'm going out on a limb here, and throwing caution to the wind. Feathers, here we come.

I'm also using some self-designed fabric on the back - photo of it here on an older post. I love to design fabric with my calligraphy but it's hard to cut into it.

Solution: Put it on the back of the quilt! No cutting required.

And for those of you (my sister) who were wondering what book I want for my upcoming birthday, Album Quilts of Ohio's Miami Valley by Sue Cummings is on my short list.

Day Trips

Last weekend was packed with multiple day trips all in only 2 days.

We visited Berkeley to pick up my new matchless spinning wheel at A Verb for Keeping Warm. Kristine, the shop owner, was so lovely to go over all the bells and whistles on the wheel. I'm already spinning up a storm.

As much as going to 'quilt stores' (my sons call all stores that only I want to visit 'quilt stores') we needed a boy-friendly adventure too. That came in the form of a visit to the USS Pampanito.

This is a real military submarine that you can tour, walk through, and imagine that you got to sail on. It was pretty neat. I found out that if you're a 5 yr old boy or a 36 yr old man...the same 'cool' appeal applies.

We also visited the Heath store in the San Francisco Ferry Building. They have very minimalistic plates and other ceramics for the kitchen. Very nice stuff...their shop in the Ferry Building was a little small and I found myself slightly sorry that I didn't go to their factory in Sausalito. Next time.

Oh yeah, and we went apple and strawberry picking in Watsonville. It was so hot! We did grab some fruit and run though. Can you say strawberry applesauce?

One more link - check out my sister's baby's 2 yr old signature quilt block . It's really cute to see all the signatures on it. Her calligraphy is beautiful.

Oops I Did it Again: Handsewn Book

Handmade books have crept into my heart lately so I made one for my mom's birthday gift.

The cover is hand marbled paper that I purchased.  Someday I would love to try to make some myself.  I think all I need a this point is two seconds to rub together.  Interesting how difficult that is to find sometimes.

I hope she gets some use out of it.  I did some calligraphy for her on the inside cover to personalize it and attached some Japanese index label stickers by Midori to the back inside cover using a couple pieces of washi tape.  The sticker tabs can be use to divide up sections of the book for different topics.

When I was in Kinokuniya recently I picked up a book that of course is in Japanese so I cannot even read you the title.  it is an adorable 'stick figure' -ish style that looks super Japanese.  It's pretty cute.  I'm not quite able to draw everything  but some things are so simple that even a kid could replicate them.  Picture of the book cover here.

On other fronts, we are starting to attend Christmas Tree lighting ceremonies, holiday school band concerts, and think about where our own decorations are hiding in storage.

And the other night I unfortunately watched the first disk of Game of Thrones.  Oh my goodness, too intense for me...off to remove the rest of the disks from my queue, pronto!  Who has a stomach to watch such things!?  Wowza, not me.  Do you guys watch this?