Quilting with Shadows

On November 24, 2020October 14, 2023 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Batik, Family, QuiltingLeave a comment

Earlier this year, I wrote about a wall quilt I made that depicted the skylines of Minneapolis and St. Paul. This quilt was made as a retirement gift for a friend who spends a lot of her time volunteering with various organizations, serving on foundations and helping her friends and family members within the Twin Cities. She truly has a heart of giving and I was hoping this quilt would show her that the people around her appreciate all that she has done.

After completing the quilt, I decided to make a few more wall quilts before giving it away. Being in a study club with five members, I realized that if I were to give her a wall quilt for retirement, the others in the group would know what to expect when they retire. Thus, four more wall quilts were completed over the summer and fall. And, while she retired at the end of 2019, I was recently able to gift this wall quilt to her.

One of the other wall quilts I created was for a friend who will be retiring at the end of 2020. When thinking about a theme for her quilt, I kept coming back to how often she posts pictures of her family, especially her children, and the great ways the all interact together.

Her family represents several heritages and she loves to travel. So, the quilt design I selected was a piecework pattern called “Trip Around the World”. This classic piecework pattern involves using uniform squares, radiating out from a center. While this pattern looks time consuming with all the squares, using strip quilting makes this pattern super easy!

The colors of the quilt were based upon colors in a fused glass plate that she purchased from me a few years ago. At the time, she said the colors matched her home.

I also wanted to depict her family in the quilt, but without detracting from the beauty of the piecing. To do this, I decided to use the quilting to show her family.

The entire quilt was first quilted with a rather simple swirl design.

After that was completed, I quilted a shadow of a family. To design the quilting of the family, I used a photo of a family of five jumping and expressing joy. Each person of the “family” were quilted with a different color of thread.

A sixth member of their family is also included in the quilting. Eighteen years ago, at just under the age of three, one of my friend’s daughters passed away from childhood cancer.

I know that she is still in the minds of her family, so I wanted to include her as well. In the shadow quilting, I stitched a girl on a swing. She is seen swinging on each side of the family, thus, creating somewhat of a circle around the rest of the family members.

This was an enjoyable quilt to make and even more enjoyable to recently gift it to my friend. I wish her a wonderful retirement!

Apple Table Runner (& Checkerboard)

On September 27, 2020October 14, 2023 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn 3D printing, Applique, Fall Colors, Quilting, Scrap QuiltLeave a comment

With fall weather settling, a week ago, I decided to make a new table runner for my kitchen. This runner was made with apples to depict the bounty of the fall harvest. The runner turned out really nice.

After it was done, I realized that the center section could be used as a checkerboard. All I needed was some checkers.

Originally I thought about purchasing some apple shaped wooden pieces that could be painted. However, when I looked at the options available at the local craft stores, I thought I would need to do some carving of a crown on one side. This, to me, seemed like a lot of work. Then I thought about engraving a crown. This also seemed like a lot of work.

One day, while I was at work, I had a great idea – I could print checkers on my 3D printer. Using Tinkercad, I designed some apples that could be printed. I did try to make the checkers interlock so that they could be stacked for designating a King. This, however, did not turn out well. So, I went back to Tinkercad and designed an indent on one side of the checker that showed a crown. Problem solved.

Having extra fabric, I decided to make a second table runner/checkerboard. This one, I have posted on Etsy. Hopefully someone will like this item.

Small Shibori Quilt

On July 28, 2020October 14, 2023 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Dye Resist, Fabric Dyeing, Flowers, Low water immersion dyeing, Quilting, Shibori1 Comment

I originally published this post on Sunday. However, for some reason the article disappeared from my blog. I know it was originally there, but someone asked about why I took it down. When I went to check, it was gone. Luckily, I had saved a copy on my computer so I am able to repost today.

For those who already read this article, I apologize for your having to receive it twice. For those who did not receive the original, please enjoy.

Pam

Home

On March 28, 2020 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Applique, Batik, Family, Life, Quilting4 Comments

Over the past days, the governor of Minnesota has issued numerous executive orders that have impacted my life, the latest of which is Emergency Executive Order 20-20. This order directs Minnesotans to “Stay at Home” for the next two weeks. Since my dental office is shut down and my son returned from NYC, I have already been staying home.

With some of my unexpected free time, I have finally finished a quilting project that I started a while ago. The inspiration of this quilt came from my sister-in-law. Last summer, she asked me to design a wall quilt of the Paris skyline for her to make.

ParisPattern — Brief directions to make the background of a skyline quilt.

After I designed her quilt, I thought I would make something similar – a wall quilt of the twin cities – Minneapolis and St. Paul. For the background of the wall quilt, I followed the instructions I had written for my sister-in law, except I used blue batik fabrics from my stash, rather than purple.

The background was loaded onto my quilting frame and quilted with evenly spaced horizontal lines.

For the skyline, I found several images on-line. By combining ideas and removing most of the white areas, I had a nice skyline of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

After importing these images into my Cameo software, I cut the pattern of the skyline out of starched black cotton fabric that was sandwiched between Heat-N-Bond Lite and freezer paper.

These silhouettes were then ironed onto the background. Using several different quilting fill patterns, I then quilted detail to differentiate each of the individual buildings.

Because the Twin Cities are known for the numerous parks and parkways, I added green fabric along the bottom edge to depict the landscaping of the cities.

The wall quilt was then bound and ready to hang.

Over the past week while looking at the wall quilt, I felt it needed something more. Last night I augment the design with some “bling”.

Elatan'sStarmap

With the help of one of my sons, I found a Star Constellation Chart. Using 3 mm heat transfer rhinestones, I replicated the constellations that would be visible over the Twin Cities. I also added some rhinestone on a few of the towers.

Hometown wall quilt complete!

As I went for my walk this morning, I was reminded that this may be my “hometown” for now. And, my home may be impacted by the events of today. But I need to look past today’s news and worries about tomorrow, and take comfort in the fact that my hope is not bound to the circumstances of this world. In short – this world is not my home – my home is indeed in Heaven.

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

On November 13, 2019 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Life, Quilting, Scrap Quilt, Volunteer3 Comments

As most of my friends and family know, I like to try new ideas for quilts. Many of these are made and then given away to charities. Last winter I learned that the charity I had been donating to changed their donation policy. In order to donate an item, I needed to donate one for ever person living at their housing location. That meant I needed to make 24 quilts before I could donate them. That would be a difficult task for me to accomplish.

Fortunately, last December while watching the evening news, I saw a news article about an organization that made beds for children who do not have a bed and are usually sleeping on the floor. When I learned I needed to find a new place to donate quilts to, this organization came to mind.

SHP Sleep in Heavenly Peace (shpbeds.org) is a national organization “dedicated to building, assembling and delivering top-notch bunk beds to children and families in need”. I went on-line to learn more about the organization. What I learned was when the beds are delivered, the children are also given a mattress, pillow and bedding (including a comforter or quilt).

This, I thought might be a good place to make quilts for. And, since the beds are for children, I could make all kinds of fun kids quilts! After contacting them, I started setting aside quilts to drop off. A few days ago, I delivered the twelve quilts that I have made this year. Hopefully there will be a dozen kids who enjoy these quilts.

Many of the quilts I have already written about in previous blog posts. But, here are a few photos of the ones I have not already posted about.

A flannel quilt (front and back):

Another flannel quilt (front and back):

An airplane quilt: Twin

Diamonds: Blue Baby Quilt

Patriotic Bargello: Attachment-185880

If any of my friends have quilt tops that they would like to donate, I will gladly quilt them on my long-arm machine and donate them to SHP for you. Just contact me.

Quilt from old Denim Jeans

On October 31, 2019 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Quilting, Scrap QuiltLeave a comment

Over the summer, we replaced the carpeting in our home. The original carpet was over 30 years old. And, while it had held up well, it was time for an update.

I realized, when preparing for the installers, that replacing carpeting is nearly as bad as moving to a new home. Everything needed to removed from the floors. This included all of the furniture in the rooms, as well as things on or near the floor in the closets. Logistically it was a bit overwhelming at times. However, now that the new carpet is installed, it is nice to have updated the look of the house.

Piles-of-jeans In the process of moving things, my husband had a pile of jeans to donate. Rather than taking them to Goodwill, I decided to make a denim quilt instead. This was something I had thought about doing for the past couple of years. And, now that I had some worn, but not holey, denim to work with I decided to give it a try.

To make the quilt, I settled on a quilt-as-you-go technique. My concern was that quilting such a heavy project would throw the timing of my long-arm machine off. So, this technique would completely avoid using my quilting machine

To make the quilt, I cut out 9″ denim circles. Out of each pair of jeans, I was able to cut 12 circles. Needing 154 circles, I used 13 pair of jeans. Next, I drew a 6″ square on the back of each piece of denim to help with lining up and sewing the pieces together.

After each row of 14 circles were sewn together, I added a six inch squares of quilt batting and flannel to the back side of the denim (the side that would have been inside the pair of jeans).

This was a great way to use up a lot of scrap pieces of batting. However, in retrospect, the quilt was really heavy and the batting was probably not necessary.

After pinning the flannel and batting in place, I used a zig-zag stitch to sew down the raw edges of two sides of the denim. A total of eleven rows were sewn.

Before sewing the rows together, I used a zig-zag stitch to sew down the raw edge of one side of two separate rows. These would become left and right side of the quilt.

Next, I sewed the rows together, zig-zagging the raw edges of each circle after they were sewn.

What I didn’t realize is how heavy the quilt would get by the time I was halfway done sewing it together! The next denim quilt I make will definitely be done using a different method.

I will be donating this quilt to a charity (Sleep in Heavenly Peace). It should provide a unique quilt for a young boy or girl to stay really warm this winter.

Blended Cultures

On September 26, 2019September 26, 2019 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Batik, Minnesota State Fair, QuiltingLeave a comment

Of the four quilts that I entered this year in the Minnesota State Fair, I have described three of them previously. Now that the busy summer schedule has settled down, it’s time I describe the fourth quilt I entered.

This quilt was made a the request of someone I know. He asked if I could make a quilt for his new grandson. My response was “sure – what kind of quilt was he thinking of”. Further conversations helped focus my design ideas. He said he wanted the quilt to be twin sized and to incorporate the cultures of his son, who is Swedish, and his daughter-in-law, who was adopted as an infant from India. This sounded like a fun quilt to work on.

design

First, I needed to figure out the main piecing theme of the quilt. After sending several ideas to him, he selected a large eight pointed star pattern. My design incorporated blue and yellow points for the Swedish half of the star and red, orange and green points for the India half of the star. At the top of the quilt, one of the blue points was adjacent to a red point to bring the two cultures together in an American section of the quilt.

After selecting several batik fabrics, I started piecing the quilt. While piecing, I was drawing out ideas for the quilting. I wanted to incorporate, with just thread, some images that reflected the heritage of the child. By using thread and not applique, the main design of the quilt would not overwhelmed by too much going on with the fabric. For inspiration, I sought some advise from several friends who are from India and Sweden.

For the Swedish heritage, I stitched out a moose, a fox and some rosemaling. For the India heritage, I stitched out an elephant, a peacock and some paisley patterns. For the American heritage, an eagle was stitched. Each of these designs were stitched out in the background sections between each point of the star with a thread color slightly darker than the fabric. In the other three sections, I put the child’s birth month, date and year. The designs were surrounded by a diagonal hatch fill in the same color as the fabric to help the images show better.

Around the star, several circles was sewn. Between the lines of the outer circles, I thought it would be nice to include the child’s name – so that was sewn in the bottom section of the circles. To fill the rest of the circle, I once again consulted my friends. I thought perhaps there would be a phase that was specific to each culture that I could stitch out. I asked my friends if they could give me a list of three phrases that might be said of or to a young child, or more specifically a young boy. When I compared the lists, I was surprised to find one of the phrases was on both the Swedish list and the India list. That phrase “May you live long, my son” was included in the quilting. The phrase, in English, was stitched at the top of the circles on the quilt. Then, on the Swedish side of the quilt, it was stitched in Swedish. And, on the India side of the quilt, it was stitched in Hindi. To fill in the space between the name and phrases, paisley patterns were stitched.

The rest of the background was filled with some stitching to replicate Scandinavian rosemaling. This was then highlighted with some straight hatch fill.

I had not intended to enter this quilt in the fair. However, while working on it, the design was coming together so nicely that I asked permission to enter it. My quilt entry was named “Blended Cultures – Swedish and Hindi heritage in an American Boy” and was enter in the Commemorative Quilt Category. The blue ribbon the quilt was given was a nice surprise for a “last minute” entry. This was such a last minute entry that I forgot to take some close up pictures of the finished quilt before dropping it off at the fair. And, the day I picked it up from the fair, I had promised to deliver it to the family that it was made for. So, some of my photos were taken rather poorly while in my car. But, alas it’s still a really fun quilt and I am glad I had a chance to make it.

Eagan Television Interview

On September 16, 2019 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Life, Minnesota State Fair, QuiltingLeave a comment

While the Minnesota State Fair was taking place, I received a phone call from the our local community television station asking for an interview.

Here is the resulting video that they posted on their Facebook page.

Nui Shibori Table Quilt

On September 3, 2019 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Dye Resist, Fabric Dyeing, Flowers, Gradation Dyeing, Low water immersion dyeing, Minnesota State Fair, Quilting, Shibori, Soda Ash dyeing1 Comment

Fabric Dyeing has been a fun, creative way to make unique fabrics for my quilting. This spring, I spent some time playing around with stitched shibori. I wanted to figure out how to create drawings in the dye. I also wanted to try hand painting before and after dyeing the fabric.

So, I set out to do a few experiments.

Experiment #1. Nui Shibori flower and over-dyeing painted fabric

Draw pattern on the fabric with a water soluble fabric marker
Stitch the drawn lines with polyester thread
Dissolve Dye in 1 ml Urea Water, Add 2 T Print Paste, 14 ml Urea Water, 1/8 tsp Mixed Alkali, Mix well

Dark Pink = ¼ tsp Mixing Red
Light Pink = 1/16 tsp Mixing Red
Dark Blue = ¼ tsp Mixing Blue
Light Blue = 1/16 tsp Mixing Blue
Green = 1/8 tsp Evergreen

Paint dye on fabric areas within the shibori stitching

Paint dye in sections for over-dyeing

Allow to dry for 4 hours
Pull center threads and tie off

Place in 1000 ml of 0.15 mg/ml Mixing Blue Dye (with Soda Ash)
Batch for 5 hours
Wash with Blue Dawn, Dry and Iron

Lessons Learned:

Shibori pattern turned out well
Dye painting turned out well, but the the color edges were too crisp – use less Print Paste next time
Over-dyeing does not change the underlying painted color very much

Experiment #2. Whole Cloth Pattern:

Design quilting using QuiltCAD program

Stitch section outlines on long arm with polyester thread for pattern placement when quilting
Draw shibori pattern by holding water soluble marker in the needle position and running pattern on trace

Hand stitch shibori sections

Dye Paint:

Mixed Alkali: ½ tsp mixed with 8 ml Urea water
Yellow: 1/8 tsp Golden Yellow in 10 ml Urea water; Combine 1 ml concentrate with 6 ml Print Paste, 3 ml Urea water and 0.6 ml Mixed Alkali
Green: 1/8 tsp Evergreen in 15 ml Urea Water. Combine 7.5 ml concentrate with 15 ml PP and 1.5 ml MA
Dark Pink: 1/8 tsp MR in 15 ml Urea water. Combine 7.5 ml concentrate with 15 ml PP and 1.5 ml MA
Light Pink: Combine 3 ml MR concentrate with 15 ml PP and 1.5 ml MA

Paint on Fabric sections of shibori stitching

Allow to dry for 4 hours
Pull center threads and tie off
Stitch Floss “Ties” to center of fabric to help with lifting in/out of water
Make Dye Concentrate: Mixing Blue 10 gm in 100 ml Urea Water (100 mg/ml)
Place in 4000 ml Soda Ash solution in bucket
Add dye concentrate at 5 minute intervals (10 ml, 10 ml, 10 ml, 10ml, 40 ml) = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 2.0 mg/ml to create an ombre effect
Lift fabric a small amount after each dye increment
Prop fabric up on support dripping into empty bucket, cover with plastic bag

Batch for 4 hours

Clip and remove all sewing lines
Wash with Blue Dawn, Dry and Iron

Quilt as planned

Lessons Learned:

Paint center dye before pulling tight the outer threads – easier than having to paint on a bubble
If you forget the first step – sealed air packs work well to fill the bubble for painting

Fabric will trap air, creating a bubble, in the middle – easy to keep the center section out of the dye bath.
Use a color of thread different from the color of dye – makes it easier to remove the threads.
The fabric dye paint did not turn out as well as I had hoped. So, after quilting, I repainted the fabric dye without Print Paste for a smoother look

I entered this quilt in the Minnesota State Fair on a whim to see what the judges comments would be regarding the shibori and hand painting technique. Boy was I surprised that it was awarding a blue ribbon!

Minnesota State Fair 2019

On August 26, 2019 By Erickson's HeirloomsIn Flowers, Minnesota State Fair, Quilting2 Comments

The weather has been absolutely beautiful the past couple of days, mid 70’s and sunny. Perfect weather for the start of the Minnesota State Fair. The first two days of the fair set attendance records for their respective days. After just three days, the attendance is over 500,000 – perhaps we may even surpass Texas this year!

On Friday, I went to the fair with a few friends. It was a fun day. Since my boys are grown, the past couple of years I have gone to the fair by myself, mainly to see the quilts and other crafts. Of course, even with friends, the first place I went was to see the quilts.

This year, I entered my “Fractured Tree” quilt hoping that it might do well at the fair. Unfortunately, I was disappointed to learn that the quilt did not ribbon this year. Fortunately, it was displayed in a spot where it was easy to see.

Interestingly, this was the only quilt this year that I originally planned to enter in the fair even before making it. The other quilts I made were not made with the fair in mind.

After making my son’s “Moonscape” quilt, I realized it was such a unique quilt that I thought I would enter it in the fair and see how well it might do. I did receive a ribbon and look forward to reading the comments after the fair is over.

When I was finalizing the registration of these two quilts for the fair, I decided to include two other quilts.

One of these was a shibori and hand painted wall quilt. I will describe the technique used for this quilt in another blog. I was pleasantly pleased to see that this quilt received a blue ribbon!

The other quilt was one that I was making for an acquaintance and finished sewing the binding on the day before I needed to drop it off at the fair. This quilt “Blended Cultures” was made to commemorate the birth of his first grandson. I was really surprised to learn that this quilt also received a blue ribbon. I am really glad I was able to complete it in time to enter it in the fair!

Sweepstakes Winner made by Mary Alsop. She has tremendous skill and is an award winner ever year. In fact, she was the sweepstakes winner last year as well.

I’d love to meet her some day.

Some other quilts that caught my eye: