Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

The Wayward Jungle Crow

The Wayward Jungle Crow
2015
23 x 27
Hand dyed fabric and thread, commercial fabric, vintage linens, old wool shirt, machine pieced, hand appliqued, hand embroidered, hand and machine quilted.
Inspired by A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.

I've posted lots of closeups so you can see the stitching.  My hand embroidery includes a lot of backstitching.  I did fly stitch on the tail.  

The bird includes and is surrounded by spirals.  The spirals represent the Pacific gyres that are talked about quite a bit in the book, plus they are fun to do!

The fabrics include several vintage linens, including the edge of a fine linen tablecloth (above) that was overdyed in indigo and walnut.  I laid the whole piece over the darker blue you can see below, and tacked the whole edge down.  I employed Jude Hill's invisible basting stitch quite a bit on this piece, so occasionally you'll see tiny stitches that show through.  On the right is the piece of a heavy linen table cloth that was overdyed in indigo.  I left the fringe hanging down.

The top piece is from an old Pendleton wool shirt gifted to me by a friend.  I machine quilted spirals and stars into it, then went over the stars with some embroidery thread and a backstitch to create the white star outlines.

The stars in the middle are created with liberated piecing.  I tried a lot of stitching here that I learned from Jude Hill.  The satin stitched points, satin stitched star and black and white star tails are all ideas from Jude.  

This piece was really fun to do.  I decided to bite the bullet and machine quilt it last weekend.  Good choice, actually, cause I had no idea I'd have the flu by Tuesday.  I've been very sick all week.  Both of the guys caught it too, so we've laid low all week and I haven't done any sewing at all.  I am resting a lot and trying to get healthy before I leave for QuiltCon on Wednesday.  I'm a whole lot better, but still get pretty tired.  I am glad this one is done though.  I have a few more finishes to show (small things), but don't know if I'll get to them before I leave.  In the meantime, I have started something for another challenge.  You can see photos of that in my Instagram feed.

If you are also traveling to QuiltCon say hello!  I will be Instagramming while I'm in Austin, but won't do blog posts until I get back.  I am taking my big camera though, so I hope to get some great photos to share!

Celia's Raven

Celia's Raven
2015
43 x 46
Inspired by The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Celia's Raven is done over 6 months early!  I am so excited about that.  No more sweating the summer over a book quilt.  Anyway, I love how the raven came out though it's hard to see the stitching unless you are in the right light.

I chose to keep the machine quilting fairly simple.  I added some lines of stitch to represent the face, but didn't try to add anything for an eye, for instance.The other quilting really doesn't show too much with so much pattern going on.  

The back is also simple, but I followed my rule about making the back fun and indicative of what's on the front.  I bought that circus tent fabric just especially for the back of this quilt and I was pleasantly surprised to find the raven fabric in the stash.  

I don't normally show my labels, but I did here because I wanted to show the book quote that inspired this quilt.  "In the blink of an eye folds of silk are glossy black feathers, and it is impossible to pinpoint the moment when it is fully raven and no longer cloth".

Stitching a Raven

My Night Circus quilt is coming right along (previously blogged here).  I have never had such an easy time with a book quilt.  I will have this done over 6 months ahead of time!  I think it's because I decided not to obsess about it and add a million details. It's actually pretty simple, and except for the hand applique, is all done by machine.  I am posting these photos to show my hand applique technique.  The raven is done with black silk.  It's a fairly substantial silk, so it's pretty stable, but it is slippery.  I didn't use any kind of stabilizer here.  Most of the time with cotton I don't bother with thread basting unless the pieces are unusually large.  The raven is large and also has those annoying points and is slippery.  

I draw the design out onto freezer paper.  Then iron the freezer paper to the applique fabric right side up.  I draw around the pattern on the fabric with a Sewline pencil (my favorite for white and black lines).  I cut out the applique (adding a scant 1/4" for the seam allowance) and remove the freezer paper.  The applique is laid on the quilt top in place and pinned in a few places. I then thread baste about 1/2" in from the line that I drew.  I use a blind applique stitch with lightweight thread and clip corners as I go. I use a combination of hand and needle turning. and usually just do a bit at a time.  I like to turn a few inches or a small section and pin in place, then stitch.  

I spent the weekend working on the raven and was so happy when it was done.  I also remembered that I needed some tent flags, so I did those.  I got the quilt layers basted on Sunday night and started machine quilting yesterday.  

Yesterday I started with the big tent, then did the background around it.  I followed up with the smaller tents this morning and just did the raven.  One thing I hate is marking.  I don't mark when I hand quilt and I sure don't want to mark when I'm machine quilting.  I think there would be no way I could stick to the line and the thought of having to later remove the lines gives me the willies!  So, with the raven I did one section at a time, deciding how I wanted the long wing feathers to look, then deciding what to do with the top part of the wing, etc.

I am so pleased with how it came out!  Do I sound surprised?  I am, I really, really am.  For many years I struggled to machine quilt and thought that I'd never be pleased with my own effort, but I think I've improved a lot in the past few years.

In other news,tomorrow night, Wednesday, January 28, I will be doing the program at the Sisters quilt guild (aka East of the Cascades Quilters).  It takes place at the Stitchin' Post in the classroom at 6:30 pm.  I will be doing a Trunk Show (aka glorified show and tell) with some of the quilts from the last few years.  I'll also have my newest pieces, including this one!  Hope to see some locals there.

Studio buddies

The Wayward Jungle Crow

This small quilt is for the Novel Idea book A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki.  I am a bit enamored with corvids, so they are showing up in my quilts lately.  This one is in the middle of the hand embroidery stage.  I worked on the wing last night, but realized afterwards the purple is not going to show up, except up close. I'll be adding more and different colors.  I also need to define the bird's face and will add more embroidery and stitching in the background.  This one needs to be done by April 1. 

Night Circus Quilt

For our 6th year of making quilts inspired by books, The Undercover Quilters have chosen The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  This book is amazing!  It's so visual and  even if you've only seen the cover you'll know why the predominant colors are black, white and red.  This book is so visually rich that I had a bit of a time coming up with a design.  Fabrics are lusciously described and for a while I thought I might do something relating to one of the main character's dress.  Anyway, I did a sketch a little while ago of the tents and couldn't get it out of my mind.

I wish I'd gotten a photo before adding the circus tents.  Anyway, for the background of my piece I started with an improv/liberated hourglass block in the center. I added various strips randomly around the center until I decided a little bit of red would be nice.  I used my skinny strip method to add the 1/4" red strips, then added another round of black and white prints.  This year we have set a minimum size of 36" x36", to conform to the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show rules.  I added enough so that it's well over and I won't have to worry about shrinkage during quilting.  This is about 45" x 47" right now.  For fabrics I used a bunch of the black and white prints I've been collecting for no apparent reason (handy here though!), some red prints and solids and some silk that is to die for!  It doesn't show up that well in photos, but in person it really shines.  It's the red on the largest tent, red on the top right roof and the white in the top left tent.

I do have a plan for that blank space and I'll show you that next time.  Don't want to give away too many secrets now!  I hand appliqued the tents and have more hand applique to do before it's done.  The main parts of the tent are created with gentle improv curves.  I created the tents somewhat randomly as far as size and shape.  I knew I wanted one to be larger.  The top left tent was changed because I originally made it with just black and white stripes, but it really blended in when I laid it on the background.  I added the red on either side and that helped tremendously.

I am also in the middle of starting my next Novel Idea quilt, so I'll post about that soon.  I guess when I said I'd be working in solids this year, I should have said that's what I'll do for my improv work.  For the book quilts anything goes!

Sneak Peek

The fabric is flying, but this is all I can show until after my meeting tonight.  Gotta let my peeps get the first look!

A Handmade Christmas :: 2014 Edition

This Christmas was filled with handmade gifts as usual around here, but maybe not the sort you'd expect.  Above are Chloe's new earrings handmade by my sister-in-law Anna (they match her hair!).  Below is the tiny bit of sewing I did this year- a hooded scarf for Chloe.Chloe's 2014 edition hand carved Santa for me does not disappoint!  This one is so sweet, about 4 inches high.  His beard goes down and curls around the base along with the fur on the edge of his coat.  Chloe's previous hand carved Santas can be seen here.

I had Cheryl's family this year so they got several handmade's including the painted ornament above, a knitted Bandana Cowl for Cheryl, a knitted Turn-a-Square hat for her husband Mark, and a quilted zipper bag for Mark's mom, Marge.  I also made two other hats for my Mark and for Ryan.These next few things were not really handmade by me, but include handmade effort.  I got one of Ryan's old paintings custom framed for him.  He was happy to see this one again!My biggest project this Christmas was making photo books.  I used two services to create the books.  Blurb is my go-to for a fantastic family photo album.  I started with a photo album of our trip to Ecuador last Christmas.  I spent hours and hours (and hours!) organizing and editing thousands of photos.  Over 1300 photos went into this book for Mark along with text from my journal.  I used every single one of the allowed 240 pages too!  Whew!  While I worked on that I thought it would be neat to do a much smaller, simpler book for Ryan.  His is called Ryan's Galapagos and includes his favorite part of the trip, lots of animals.  Shown below is the back cover.  I use Adobe Lightroom to make the Blurb books which always requires a bit of relearning since I don't use it that often.

As if that wasn't enough, while I worked on the Blurb books I discovered another service called Artifact Uprising and wanted to try it.  They offer smaller, more intimate soft cover books that have a great price.  I decided at the last minute to make one for my sister and her husband.  Below is that result.   

First I had to get the photos, so I searched their Facebook accounts and saved the best photos of them and their animals to my computer.  I used Photoshop Elements to square the photos, then used Lightroom to change the color to sepia to unite all these different photos.  This little book is called an Instagram book.  While these photos are not all from Instagram, some of them were and were already square, but some needed to be formatted to fit the square templates in this book.  I think it came out really great and I think they were very touched to see photos of their current 2 dogs and 2 cats as well as some of their previous pets that have since passed.

Well, our family is a pretty creative one and many of you may know that my sister is a fused glass artist.  She had my brother and his family though and I haven't seen any of those gifts yet.  I'm sure they are wonderful.  So, did you have a handmade Christmas?  Tell us about it! 

My Weekend :: Journal Covers

Last week QuiltWorks put out a call for mini class ideas.  It took me a few days to come up with an idea, but I think these are so much fun and quick to do that they'll work perfectly.  These mini classes are intended to be small projects that can be done perhaps as holiday gifts.  

These three are made to fit a standard US composition book, which means they'd be perfect for any age of student, journaler or artist.  I started with a tutorial I found online, but made my own changes, such as adding interfacing so they are a little sturdier than they would be otherwise.  These three are made with an oatmeal colored cotton/linen blend as a base, then scraps of commercial and hand dyed fabrics are used for the applique.

I also had fun with the sketchbook approach. I love the sketchy black lines.  In the case of the horse and owl, I used actual sketches from my journals to make the designs.  The bird I drew out free hand and it's definitely more stylized.  I happen to really love the more quirky designs myself.

Also, I've been trying out writing words when I do my machine quilting on some projects and thought it would be fun to add here.  The secret is to go over your lines multiple times.  Once or twice just doesn't look as good in my opinion. 

I added pockets to one of the covers, but they all have a ribbon book marker.

This last one is done on a smaller journal and uses Osnaburg fabric for the base.  I've figured out how to measure and fit any size of journal.  It's also a less ambitious cover design which might appeal to some.  I'll let you know when the class gets scheduled.

The Undercover Quilters :: 5th Anniversary Celebration

Glass Beads by Jane Davis, inspired by The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato.  Jane made some wonderful blown glass beads and placed them on velvet for an elegant quilt. 

The Undercover Quilters is a quilting book club based in Bend, OR.  We have 12 members, and the only rule is You Must Not Quit!.  We read and discuss a book each month.  Every year we choose one book from the past year to inspire quilts.  Some past books have been:

• 2010: The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery  
• 2011: On the Divinity of Second Chances by Kaya McLaren 
• 2012: Love to Water My Soul by Jane Kirkpatrick 
• 2013: The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh 

Members don't have to read the book or even make a quilt.  This year we sifted through all of the books we've read since the beginning of the group, leaving out those that had already been done or none of us liked.  We still had about 30 choices so everyone got something they liked.  Only 8 of us made quilts this year mostly due to life changes for the others.  This group of quilts is as varied as the makers themselves.  Enjoy!

**Click the photos to enlarge

The Zookeeper's Wife by Sally Black, inspired by The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman.  Sally has been doing some fabulous work with portraits.  Her leaves are 3 dimensional, bringing the viewer right into the scene.

The Help by Susan Mondry, inspired by The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  Susan's piece has some important symbolism that needs an explanation. Susan writes, "I wanted to integrate the friendships that developed in the book with all of the women of various color.  I used hand dyed skin tone fabrics and wanted to represent the women growing closer as they worked on the book together, thus the size of the pieces getting smaller as they move to the center.  The friendships in the book were so unique and special, as are the friendships of the women of The Undercover Quilters."  Pretty special, isn't it?

Benny & Shrimp:: Like Chalk and Cheese by Kristin Shields, inspired by Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti.  This title needs a little explanation.  The story is about Farmer Benny and City Girl Shrimp.  As it says in the book, they are as alike as "chalk and cheese", meaning NOT AT ALL!  My quilt depicts the Swedish winter, the deliniation between rural and city life, and the sense of time passing.  Throughout the book, they both consider their biological clocks and how they are ticking away in their mid-thirties.  

Heartbeats by Betty Gientke, inspired by The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker.  Betty's quilt is made with sumptuous silk fabrics and depicts many hearts beating.

Wild by Wanda Barkhurst, inspired by Wild by Cheryl Strayed.  Wanda has created many different paper pieced animals and other sights that the author saw on her trek on the Pacific Crest Trail.  

The Empress by Cindy O'Neal, inspired by The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan.  Cindy has developed a real talent for faces.  On this piece she writes, "I struggled initially with deciding on a color for the face and finally decided to use all of them, focusing more on value rather than color.  I love the results!"

The River by the Bay by Martha Sanders, inspired by Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.  Martha has become well known for her 3 dimensional quilts and this is no exception!  Martha writes, "In the last story, Olive and Jack find friendship and a new beginning.  Here, Olive and Jack sit at the river by the bay.  It's a cloudy, windy day, somewhat like their lives have been."  Martha used watercolor pencils to draw the image of the figures.  Then she took it a step further and copied the image onto fabric.  The print is on the front of the quilt (enhanced with thread painting) and the original is on the back and serves as the quilt label.

 This 5th anniversary finds The Undercover Quilters in a stage of development that is much farther along than we might have been without this group.  We have all tried countless new techniques, developed lasting friendships and created some wonderful exhibits.  It's been a fantastic 5 years, with many more to come!  This last photo was taken at our group quilt reveal in early August.  Susan's quilt was the perfect opportunity for a group photo of a different kind.  If any of my readers is curious about starting a book/quilt group or is part of one, I'd love to hear from you in the comments.  

PS: I discovered while writing this post that many of the other quilt exhibits have never been posted about here on the blog.  That's something I plan to remedy.  I will take care of that in the coming weeks.  It's going to be a very busy early fall, but I will try to post at least every week about all that's going on.

Benny & Shrimp :: Like Chalk and Cheese

Last night was the quilt reveal for The Undercover Quilters Book Club.  Our August meeting is always fun.  Even though we see each other's quilts in progress throughout the year, the final reveal is always a surprise.  This year, our 5th Anniversary year, we decided to change things up and each do a different book from the past 5 years.  We got to choose our favorite from about 30 possible titles.  My book is Benny & Shrimp by Katarina Mazetti.  The story is about farmer Benny and recent widow and city girl Shrimp, who are about as alike as "chalk and cheese", meaning, not at all!  My quilt depicts the Swedish winter, the deliniation between rural and city life, and the sense of time passing.  Throughout the book, they both consider their biological clocks and how they are ticking away in their mid-thirties.  

I enjoyed the making of this piece.  It's created on crinoline and has acrylic paint to soften the edges of the randomly sewn background patches.  I experimented with metallic thread (and love it now!) and did a lot of the stitching with the top just on batting.  Then I added a backing and did a few quilting lines to stitch it together.  The final hurdle was the black machine stitched trees, which I was so afraid to do.  In the end, about a week ago, I just got out a bit of sample cloth and practiced a bit, held my breath and did it on the quilt.  It was not so difficult, but every time I try something new I break a little more out of the box.  That's something I hope everyone tries!

All of the quilts from our books will be on exhibit at this Saturday's Mt Bachelor Quilters' Guild show in Pioneer Park, 10-4.  Hope to see you there!  If not, I'll be posting photos next week.