Camera Quilt - A New Project For An Almost New Year

There was a plan. I was going to finish up my holiday sewing and then slow down with the quilt making for the first couple of months of the year. My sewing room is in an upstairs bonus room so I am away from the core activity of the household. I planned to sit by the fire and read and cross stitch and crochet and just relax and be more visible and available.

While this plan was being made other conversations happened and I found myself committed to five quilting projects for the upcoming year. I did not over commit at all. The first is not even on the horizon until late spring. But the seeds had been planted and I could not stop thinking about these new quilts just waiting to be born. The design for one had been set in my brain so why not pull some fabric for it?

And why not make a test block to see if the mind and the quilt were in alignment? After looking at this block for a day or two, I decided that more lens and less camera would look better, and I lengthened the rectangle on the top left just a little. I also narrowed the side and bottom borders to match the top border.

After all of that, I just had to make a few more blocks to get a better idea of how these blocks were going to look all together. The color of this quilt is supposed to come across as teal and in the beginning I was staying very true to that. It made for a boring quilt. There needed to be pops of other colors throughout to keep it interesting.

The camera lens is what brings life to these blocks. They are quite boring to me without it. At some point, I am going to have to do something about securing the lenses. They are fused on for now. I will probably zigzag or blanket stitch around them by machine. Still thinking about that.

I went back through my stash again to pull a wider range of colors. Then I grouped them. Each camera needs a body, lens, and background. I think I have about 50 fabric sets ready to go.

I am cutting them in groups, then piecing them three at a time. I can stitch together three blocks each morning before leaving for work.

As of this morning, I have 20 blocks pieced. The original plan was to do eight blocks across and ten blocks down, but I did not like eight across. Six seems better, so we will go with that for a while. Each block will finish at 10 inches x 7 1/2 inches.

What I thought was going to be a project for the spring, and one that was going to be worked on over time with a few blocks here and a few blocks there, seems to have taken on a life of its own. I'm okay with that. The new year isn't even here yet. There will be lots of time for fires and reading and relaxation, just as soon as I stitch up a few more camera blocks.

Tutorial - Put A Letter On It

Anytime I share a project that includes words or letters, the first question I am asked is, "Where did you get those letters?"
 

There are lots of great sources for fonts and letters, but often, the answer is even easier than that. For the sewing machine cover I recently made,

I knew I wanted clean, simple letters. Basic word processing software often has the answer. I use Microsoft Word and have a decent number of fonts to choose from within that program. I chose the Arial font for the letters s-e-w. To experiment with the size of the letters, choose different font sizes. This example page shows the Arial font in 12, 36, 72, 150, and 300. The pull down menu in Microsoft Word for the font size only goes up to 72, but you can also enter a number bigger than that to make them even larger. Once there are some good test sizes on the page, print it.

And it's okay to go so big that only one letter fits on a page. They are going to be cut apart anyway. Now, it's time to play. You can cut the letters apart and pin or lay them on your project. Once you're happy with the size of the letters, then it's time to transfer them to your fabric.

What if you want something a little fancier than the fonts available on your word processor? Then it's time to go exploring. My favorite site for fonts is dafont.com. It offers a huge selection of fonts and most of them are free. I also like that it tells you what you are allowed to do with the font once it is downloaded. Most of them are free for personal use, which is perfect for anything you are making for yourself or as a gift. If you are making something that might later be sold or developed into a commercial pattern, make sure that the font is free for commercial use. I am a strong believer in respecting the copyright of all creative things, including fonts.

Not all fonts translate well to fabric so make sure that the letters are thick enough to hold up on fabric, like this

or this

This next one is too fine and would be a huge challenge to cut out of fabric. It would be great to trace in pen or paint, but would not work for fabric on fabric.

With a little interpretation, this one could be really cute...

Can you tell I have Valentine's Day on the brain? Plenty of love for all, even fonts.

Once the font is selected and the size is chosen, it's time to put it on fabric.

To do this, you need two-sided fusible webbing. There are many different brands out there, some good, some not so good. Your local quilt shop can help you make a good choice. In my experience, whatever product you use to learn this technique, it is the one that becomes a favorite. My favorite product is Steam-A-Seam 2. It comes in two weights, and while both work just fine for this application, I prefer the Light version. It comes in packages and by the yard from a roll.

Because the fusible goes on the back of the fabric, the letters must be traced in reverse. To do that, turn the printed page of letters over and use a sharpie to trace the letters. This makes them easier to see when they are traced onto the fusible web. I only traced around one of the letter Os because I can reuse the first one as I'm tracing.

Next, decide which side of the fusible web to write on. To do this, pull apart a corner of your fusible. One paper will pull away clean and one will pull away with sticky stuff on it. Don't pull the paper all the way off yet. This is just a way to figure out which side to write on. Write on the paper that has the sticky stuff.

Now, trace your letters. I use a mechanical pencil for this. The lead is fine and it's easy to correct any mistakes. The letters can be traced close together. They don't have to be spaced as they will be on your project.

Once everything is traced, pull the papers apart. The blank page should pull away clean and can be thrown away. Place the sticky part on the wrong side of your fabric and press it according to the manufacturers instructions for your product.

Since this is a two layered font, I also need to trace, fuse, and cut out hearts.

Before committing to ironing everything down on your project, it's a good idea to do a dry run. In this example I left the paper on the back of each piece, but if I had lots of little pieces, I would pull the paper off and position it on the background. It isn't going to permanently stick until it is ironed.

Once it all looks good, press it down, again following the instructions that come with your fusible product.

At this point, there are several options for finishing. Some of that decision depends on how the finished product will be used. Here are some choices:

• Stitch around all the edges using a zig-zag, blanket, or other decorative stitch. This choice will keep your raw edges from getting ragged, especially if the project will be washed regularly
• Straight stitch just inside the raw edge of each fused piece. This option will hold everything in place for projects that will be washed but may result in the edges getting a little ragged over time. Sometimes that is the desired result.
• Let the quilting serve as the stitches to anchor the pieces. If the pieces are going to be quilted over anyway, this can be enough to secure the letters
• Do not add any stitching. This works for projects that are decorative and won't be handled or washed.

This project is going to become a decorative pillow in my studio so no additional stitching will be added to the fused pieces. Of course, the two-sided fusible web can be used for anything you want to raw edge applique on a project. Just keep in mind...if your project needs to say something, put a letter on it!

Faith, Family, and Friends

Recently, I started a quilt that had lots of raw edge fusible applique (see that work in progress here). At first, I thought that the scraps from that project would just go in the trash. They couldn't go back in my regular stash since there was sticky fusible on the back side of each piece. But as the scraps piled up, I decided there must be something I could do with the leftovers. And that's how this project started.

I had seen a sign on Pinterest that said, "Faith Family Friends". I liked the sentiment and the reminder of what is important in life. The project was added to my wish list of new projects for 2013. Using these scraps for this project was the perfect combination of making something new out of something that *almost* went in the trash.

The first step was to decide on a font. My daughter, Erica, helped me with that, since she has a "thing" about fonts and collects copyright free fonts. This font is called "return to sender". Do fonts get named by the same folks that name paint colors? We blew it up to a good size, printed it, and then traced the letters onto two-sided fusible, which, as a reminder, should always be traced in reverse. Not that I forgot that...again...ahem.

Using a water soluble marker, a rectangle was drawn on the background to frame the letters. A second rectangle was drawn two-inches outside the first one. This formed a boundary, or frame, for the scraps.

I used a method often called "snippets". The paper from the fusible is peeled off the back of the fabric scraps and small pieces are cut at random and scattered within the borders of the frame.

I tried to relax and let the pieces fall where they may, but there was some manipulation needed to make them line up around the borders correctly. I did not iron the letters down until after the frame was complete.

Once the frame was filled with fabric, the whole piece went to the ironing board to get it all fused down.

Here's a close up of all those little scraps. It makes it look like a whole new fabric.

To quilt this, I sewed around the letters using a straight stitch with matching thread. Then, with cream thread, I outlined the frame with a quarter-inch inside and outside the frame. For the last quilting step, with a variegated thread, I used a free motion back and forth stitch, covering all of the frame, just to make sure none of those scraps decide to loosen up and escape over time.

When I first showed these to my family, the first comment was, "Don't let anyone see the back!".

Which means that I absolutely have to show you. These are some Martha Negley prints that were in my stash. I knew I wasn't likely to use them in a project, and they do make cute backs...even if they are sideways. Who's gonna know? The back will be up against the wall, so I'm okay with crazy backs...and crazy family members who worry about such things.

The wall these will go on has always been kind of bare, with just a small project or clock hanging in its center. It was screaming for something more.

And now, this wall makes a great statement. This was such a fun project to make, and I'm happy for another finish for the year.