Hit and Miss Quilting

Father Christmas' beard needs to be quilted/look different than anything else that is white.... so I decided to barely quilt limited areas by securing with a few stitches here and there.. locking threads by machine at the beginning and end of each stitching segment.  I'll clip threads later. This will allow his beard to really puff and look smoother as ofcourse  Fathers Christmas' beard does look. ;-)

Quilting Begins

Since I am not heavily quilting this piece, I will quilt the body of the coat before the "fur"... were this to be heavily quilted... I would work from the inside(center) outward so I'd at least quilt the front vertical section of fur first.. then the body of the coat.. then the remainder of the fur. Hope that makes sense... but here goes.  I decided I would use a simple teardrop filler on the coat  because this filler is both graceful and flexible.

One side done... It seems amazing to me still how important even simple quilting is to enhancing a quilt top.

Now to finish the left side.  Notice the central fur area is a bit lumpy... no problem as it is mild and the quilting there will be open and fairly loose.

Prepping To Quilt

I managed to darken  to my satisfaction the background from the previous post. While much of my work excludes the addition of a border, this piece begs for one.  I have 2 fabrics I'm using... a 2" cotton/metallic gold print as a stopper... then an elaborate "non quilting" fabric for a border.  I long ago picked up this elegant satin/gold metallic holiday fabric for just this piece I knew I would eventually do. Don't you love it when what you need is already in your stash?!

The backing fabric on the outer edges gets turned to the front and pinned so I needn't worry about accidental "turned under backing" getting stitched during the quilting process.  You only need to have made the mistake of not securely keeping the backing fabric edges AWAY from the quilting needle once to start religiously pinning this way.  

This quilting project will be very different from most of my pieces in that 1) I want the painting to tell the story mostly on it's own, and 2) I don't plan to do very dense quilting even in plain areas.  You'll see why as we go on... but bottom line... I've chosen in advance most of the thread I plan to use.
I plan to use monofilament first to secure major areas.  I considered both smoke and clear but ended up using clear only.  I am using a clean bright white (40wt.) on snow and coat background, a dark teal (i.e. matching background) thread as I don't really want the thread to show much, and a Superior Thread "Highlights" Gold (#728) I often use as a forgiving/friendly metallic alternative.

 First effort is with monofilament to simply free motion outline major elements.  You may note I still  pin my quilts as I'm not a big fan of basting glue but for areas when pins don't work as well.. example... the satin/gold border fabric. There I did use basting spray for fear of screwing up the luscious border fabric with pin holes.

I'm not quilting in the added memory drawings so I have simply secured the perimeters around each design. Here I'm merely stitching the edges of the 'coat.'

 After all is 'secured'... all pins are removed allowing much easier quilting with planned decorative threads.

Darks Push Light Forward

The background was always to be a dark cold night. I'm laying in a Tsukineko ink color called Blue Bayou... a dark blue with a slight teal hint.  I first lay in a dark mid value ,, getting lighter as Father Christmas emerges from darkness into white snow.

I will layer in greater value as I move along.... but note in the closeup below where I have placed really dark value behind Father Christmas' head and shoulders...how profoundly white the whites are and how much more important the central figure becomes when showcased this way.  He's coming along well I think.

One last thing on the background.... once I got the entire background layer in including coverage over the snowflakes seen in the first photo above, I came back to place my snowflake rubbing sources again under the fabric, in the same locations as the original blue rubbings I could still barely see from the front view.  I then used a white dry brush fantastix rubbing of the snowflakes.  I liked this look. ( fuzzy photo.. sorry).

Soon to begin the quilting process....

Adding Memories

In addition to adding the kinds of enhanced rubbings that were shown as experiments last post... I added more than one line drawing.. then a little color here and there.  The one below is  of a RED  vintage  English postal box.

A bit of keystoning here ( looks like a small head on Father Christmas) as the painting is placed flat on a table.  I think I am happy with the added 'coat' images...  Next I will attack the background.

Play, Pray, and then Dive In!!!

I am choosing to place several images atop Father Christmas' coat... some relating to sewing, others more personal to the intended recipient.  I love doing rubbings on fabric... and am playing on scrap fabric here using a rubber stamp placed  rubber side up under fabric and then rubbing across the stamp from top side using ink on a dry brush fantastix. You'll notice the image is reversed to the stamp top. This worked well...and I can see with a little playing with markers, that I can enhance values where desired.

I've used wooden ornament blanks as rubbing sources too...again under the fabric.. rubbed on the top in the same manor. This  idea will work too.

I've done a bunch of little tests.. most I like... some not so much... but it was well worth the time.  I've also planned some simple line drawings of country scenes.  I think I can set up the real thing to get going now.

Begin at the Heart of Things

I almost always begin with the heart of an image... in this case the face of Father Christmas. White sheer PFD fabric atop the drawing... and here we go. I'm using Hoffman's PFD No 1377 fabric... I can see through it... Yeah!
 My gosh this guy has a large nose... but he is a chubby dude anyway and I think he looks 'friendly.

Steps... I first used a light flesh colored marker to outline the face, the eyes, the edges of nostrils. The eyes usually go in before much else... in this case,,,
1.    for iris...using blue fabric markers,
2.    when  iris is  dried, a black fabric marker for pupil, and when that dried
3.    eye highlights in white using a fine tip art brush. When that is dried,
4.    I usually darken the upper edges of the eyelash area with a darker color
       in this case a darker brown fabric marker was used.

The drying between steps addressed is to be certain things don't BLEED where they shouldn't.  Use a hair dryer or the like... or protect with a pressing paper atop the painted image and iron on a dry cotton setting.  I use a Marvy Embossing dryer (a very hot heat focused artists version of a hair dryer available anywhere scrap booking or card making supplies are found.) Be careful not to scorch fabric by blowing heat too close to fabric for too long.

Now for the face area:
A.a flesh toned  skin BASE ( I used Tsukineko All Purpose Craft Ink No. 95 ( Tuscan Beige)

B. atop a dried skin tone base, a very dry brush fantastix application of Tsukineko All Purpose Craft Ink No. 52- (Sand) to create simple contour around eye, nose, cheek edges.

C.   a very dry brush transparent fantastix application of Tsukineko All Purpose Craft Ink No. 33- (Rose Pink)in his pudgy cheeks



  
Now the step by step process of adding the fun elements...