Birth by Geri
At long last – a Birth. I started out with so many ideas for Birth. I had an idea for a seed – a bean seed sprouting much the same as when I was in kindergarten. A seed in dark rich soil, up against a glass so that you could see the roots form and the primary leaves appear from the seed and push up through the soil toward the light. Didn’t happen – started but it just didn’t make it to the end – guess the seed died.
Oh now what to do – Birth – birth of what – a child, an egg hatching – oh birth of an idea – I could use a light bulb – Birth – Birth of – Birth of the BLUES yes that was it. Blue notes, pushing through a horn till it was born – yes, yes and the song rattled through my brain for days. Thus Birth was born.
Oh now what to do – Birth – birth of what – a child, an egg hatching – oh birth of an idea – I could use a light bulb – Birth – Birth of – Birth of the BLUES yes that was it. Blue notes, pushing through a horn till it was born – yes, yes and the song rattled through my brain for days. Thus Birth was born.
Birth by Kathy
Upon hearing of our first theme 'birth' I could think of only one thing. My son Josh is a musician and had written a song about Fetal Alcohol Syndrom. It has always stayed with me as a powerful comparison between a tree and a life. This is my interpretation of his song. The chorus is as follows:
Poisoning the seeds of future trees
she sips from the bottle inconsiderately,
with no voice to scream a child is harmed helplessly,
raising tainted leaves with no harmony.
Poisoning the seeds of future trees
she sips from the bottle inconsiderately,
with no voice to scream a child is harmed helplessly,
raising tainted leaves with no harmony.
Birth by Norma
For the first project, BIRTH, I conceived this idea; parallel the birth of a quilt to that of a child.
1st Try-mester - planning, choosing a pattern, shopping for fabric, washing the fabric, ironing, cutting.
2nd Try-mester - piecing, unpicking, sewing, pressing, trimming, arranging
3rd Try-mester - sandwiching, quilting, binding, sewing ends in, attaching a label
Births can range from easy to difficult.
Labour can be short or prolonged. (U.F.O.)
At the end we have the joy, pride, and satisfaction of seeing our creation.
We show our ‘child’ to others so they can ‘ooh and aah’ in admiration.
For this quilt I used parenting skills.
Paper pieced log cabins
Accuracy of seam allowances
Rotary cutter
Exact measurements, to result in a 12 inch square
Notions, to add details to the quilt
Trimming, tying in ends
Ironing, or should I say ‘pressing’ ?
Needles
Geese Flying; the 10 geese represent the members of the group.
1st Try-mester - planning, choosing a pattern, shopping for fabric, washing the fabric, ironing, cutting.
2nd Try-mester - piecing, unpicking, sewing, pressing, trimming, arranging
3rd Try-mester - sandwiching, quilting, binding, sewing ends in, attaching a label
Births can range from easy to difficult.
Labour can be short or prolonged. (U.F.O.)
At the end we have the joy, pride, and satisfaction of seeing our creation.
We show our ‘child’ to others so they can ‘ooh and aah’ in admiration.
For this quilt I used parenting skills.
Paper pieced log cabins
Accuracy of seam allowances
Rotary cutter
Exact measurements, to result in a 12 inch square
Notions, to add details to the quilt
Trimming, tying in ends
Ironing, or should I say ‘pressing’ ?
Needles
Geese Flying; the 10 geese represent the members of the group.
Birth by Linda
“Birth.” Rolling the word around in my mind while showering (Why is the shower such a good place to percolate ideas?) and a lot of images presented themselves – from the more subtle “birth” of a school for girls in Afghanistan, to the more evocative, enduring picture of a child at birth. However nothing stuck.. Time passed. (This is when all old movies would show a calendar flipping thru the days of the month…quickly.)
Inspiration FINALLY came while waiting for my Husband, sitting in a warm sunny car. I pulled out a slip of paper and sketched a tree. The sketch was very organic and definitely a female form. Her arms uplifted and stretching out to reach for the tenderness of spring.
Like a novel unfolding I (of course) put this sketch aside, waiting for MORE time to pass and other sketches to be made and dumped, before being re-introduced to my original little tree. Valiantly, she came out of hiding and dominated the spotlight.
The human form- and particularly the female shape - have always held my interest. “She” is such a natural to describe the nature and the Birth of spring.
I took the tiny sketch and expanded its size on my photocopier. Applied the larger image of the basic tree form to Steam a Seam lite and cut this out and attached to green background. Then it just became a matter of playing with cut pieces to form limbs and roots. Fused and or glued until the flow seemed right. Found she had a crablike feel at one point and had to add more “tree” to cover some of her roots.
Next to be done was a light scattering of embroidery over the limbs. Most of this is covered by the beadwork and probably wasn’t necessary!
Beadwork was spontaneous and brought her to life. The pink beads emphasized (hopefully) the opening/budding of spring. Like all quilters I love to touch things and decided that the hair and grass provided that tactile need and gave the block a bit of dimension.
Inspiration FINALLY came while waiting for my Husband, sitting in a warm sunny car. I pulled out a slip of paper and sketched a tree. The sketch was very organic and definitely a female form. Her arms uplifted and stretching out to reach for the tenderness of spring.
Like a novel unfolding I (of course) put this sketch aside, waiting for MORE time to pass and other sketches to be made and dumped, before being re-introduced to my original little tree. Valiantly, she came out of hiding and dominated the spotlight.
The human form- and particularly the female shape - have always held my interest. “She” is such a natural to describe the nature and the Birth of spring.
I took the tiny sketch and expanded its size on my photocopier. Applied the larger image of the basic tree form to Steam a Seam lite and cut this out and attached to green background. Then it just became a matter of playing with cut pieces to form limbs and roots. Fused and or glued until the flow seemed right. Found she had a crablike feel at one point and had to add more “tree” to cover some of her roots.
Next to be done was a light scattering of embroidery over the limbs. Most of this is covered by the beadwork and probably wasn’t necessary!
Beadwork was spontaneous and brought her to life. The pink beads emphasized (hopefully) the opening/budding of spring. Like all quilters I love to touch things and decided that the hair and grass provided that tactile need and gave the block a bit of dimension.
Birth by Val
As I pondered how to begin this Tenfold venture, I looked for a symbol that would be appropriate to signify a “beginning”, a fresh look at techniques and products, and to fulfill the theme of “birth”.
Strangely, I chose to recreate the image on a postage stamp that I had purchased in 2008 to celebrate The Year of the Rat. Now, you may cringe at the idea of a rat (not my favorite critter either), but as I researched further I found out some very intriguing information :
- The most recent Chinese Year of the Rat began on Feb. 7, 2008 and that just happened to be the date of my father’s birthday. He passed away a long time ago but would have been 118 on that day.
- The rat symbol is the first in a cycle of 12 animal signs and signifies a time of hard work, activity and renewal. One horoscope reading states, “Ventures begun now may not yield fast returns but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The best way to succeed is to be patient, let things develop slowly and make the most of every opening you can find”. (I can be patient)
- In China, people born under the Rat symbol are respected and considered courageous and enterprising. They are clever, sociable, fair-minded, have broad interests and strong ability to adapt to new environments and are able to react adequately to any changes. (I’ll try to live up to that)
-It is considered to be a privilege to be associated with a “Rat person”. Rat knows exactly where to find solutions. They are lively and need a lot of mental and physical stimulation. They can be calm and perceptive but sometimes their brain can cause a mental restlessness tempting them to take on to take on too much only to discover they are unable to meet their commitments. (oops)
- The Gemini Rat is blessed with the gift of conversation, is keen, easily bored, thrives on variety and is happiest with their hand in many pies. (amen to that).
Now, friends - I think the Rat makes a sterling symbol for this new beginning, don’t you? Alas - I was born in the year of the Rabbit, however I take heart from this little rabbit gem - “Whatever they do, they start well and end well”.
So- what did I do to create my “Miss Rat” ? ( * denotes a new technique)
1. Enlarge image, reverse it and adjust inner motifs to suit myself.
2. Copy pattern pieces onto paper side of Heat and Bond Lite.
3. Fuse Heat and Bond Lite onto back of dark purple fabric and cut out pattern pieces.
4. Fuse the purple pieces onto gold taffeta fabric (*never used taffeta before).
5. Transfer tiny scrolls, flowers, etc. with white transfer paper onto purple pieces.
6. Paint designs with a mixture of Lumiere Metallic and Dyena Flow Paints and Pearl Ex Pigments (*never used any of these before - love the lustre)
7. Cut purse shape from Sewable metallic sheet, machine stitch design onto purse (*never used metallic sheets before, let alone stitch on them. Needle makes rather large holes in metallic shape so had to go back and hand stitch some more threads through the holes to fill them up, then later I added some beads.) I‘m not pleased with this purse - it sticks out too much but I did learn a bit about dealing with a metallic sheet.
8. Apply Heat and Bond Lite to the back of the taffeta fabric. Cut out around outline of image, leaving about ¼” of the gold fabric framing the image.
9. Using some grey goopy glue I bought at a Victoria Sewing Show about 5 years ago, apply with tiny tip applicator to provide the base for foiling tiny gold accents to add glitz to Miss Rat’s attire and parasol. (*first time using goop, the applicator and the foil - what fun opening all those packages, searching for lost directions - and then, yawn, having to wait for hours for the goop to dry before applying the foil). I do love the tiny applicator tips.
10. Remove paper from Heat and Bond.
11. Fuse Miss Rat onto lighter gold background fabric.
12. Layer with flat batting and quilt words through the two layers.
13. Hand sew beads to Miss Rat’s hairdo, parasol and lower edge of garment. Attach purse and add more beads.
14. Add a second layer of flat batting and the backing (I wanted to hide the beading threads). Finish the quilting through all three layers. Add binding. Voila!
Strangely, I chose to recreate the image on a postage stamp that I had purchased in 2008 to celebrate The Year of the Rat. Now, you may cringe at the idea of a rat (not my favorite critter either), but as I researched further I found out some very intriguing information :
- The most recent Chinese Year of the Rat began on Feb. 7, 2008 and that just happened to be the date of my father’s birthday. He passed away a long time ago but would have been 118 on that day.
- The rat symbol is the first in a cycle of 12 animal signs and signifies a time of hard work, activity and renewal. One horoscope reading states, “Ventures begun now may not yield fast returns but opportunities will come for people who are well prepared and resourceful. The best way to succeed is to be patient, let things develop slowly and make the most of every opening you can find”. (I can be patient)
- In China, people born under the Rat symbol are respected and considered courageous and enterprising. They are clever, sociable, fair-minded, have broad interests and strong ability to adapt to new environments and are able to react adequately to any changes. (I’ll try to live up to that)
-It is considered to be a privilege to be associated with a “Rat person”. Rat knows exactly where to find solutions. They are lively and need a lot of mental and physical stimulation. They can be calm and perceptive but sometimes their brain can cause a mental restlessness tempting them to take on to take on too much only to discover they are unable to meet their commitments. (oops)
- The Gemini Rat is blessed with the gift of conversation, is keen, easily bored, thrives on variety and is happiest with their hand in many pies. (amen to that).
Now, friends - I think the Rat makes a sterling symbol for this new beginning, don’t you? Alas - I was born in the year of the Rabbit, however I take heart from this little rabbit gem - “Whatever they do, they start well and end well”.
So- what did I do to create my “Miss Rat” ? ( * denotes a new technique)
1. Enlarge image, reverse it and adjust inner motifs to suit myself.
2. Copy pattern pieces onto paper side of Heat and Bond Lite.
3. Fuse Heat and Bond Lite onto back of dark purple fabric and cut out pattern pieces.
4. Fuse the purple pieces onto gold taffeta fabric (*never used taffeta before).
5. Transfer tiny scrolls, flowers, etc. with white transfer paper onto purple pieces.
6. Paint designs with a mixture of Lumiere Metallic and Dyena Flow Paints and Pearl Ex Pigments (*never used any of these before - love the lustre)
7. Cut purse shape from Sewable metallic sheet, machine stitch design onto purse (*never used metallic sheets before, let alone stitch on them. Needle makes rather large holes in metallic shape so had to go back and hand stitch some more threads through the holes to fill them up, then later I added some beads.) I‘m not pleased with this purse - it sticks out too much but I did learn a bit about dealing with a metallic sheet.
8. Apply Heat and Bond Lite to the back of the taffeta fabric. Cut out around outline of image, leaving about ¼” of the gold fabric framing the image.
9. Using some grey goopy glue I bought at a Victoria Sewing Show about 5 years ago, apply with tiny tip applicator to provide the base for foiling tiny gold accents to add glitz to Miss Rat’s attire and parasol. (*first time using goop, the applicator and the foil - what fun opening all those packages, searching for lost directions - and then, yawn, having to wait for hours for the goop to dry before applying the foil). I do love the tiny applicator tips.
10. Remove paper from Heat and Bond.
11. Fuse Miss Rat onto lighter gold background fabric.
12. Layer with flat batting and quilt words through the two layers.
13. Hand sew beads to Miss Rat’s hairdo, parasol and lower edge of garment. Attach purse and add more beads.
14. Add a second layer of flat batting and the backing (I wanted to hide the beading threads). Finish the quilting through all three layers. Add binding. Voila!
Birth by Colleen
I have no idea where the word “birth” came from when I said it. Maybe I was thinking about our new group, new beginnings or …
Anyway, it didn’t take long and I was thinking about atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cycles, life and all sorts of things.
I settled on the light blue background for atmosphere, the darker blue circle for hydrosphere, and the green circles for biosphere.
With that done, I realized that nothing happens, in my opinion, without the Spirit or the hand of God.
The white circle represents the spirit loosely formed in a circle emitting itself into the spheres. Of course, holding and helping are the quilted hands of God who designs all.
When I joined Ten Fold I did so to have fun and to try new things. I thought a 12 x 12 piece would be easier to try new things because I wouldn’t end up wasting material, embellishments or time.
For this block I put razzle dazzle thread in the bobbin and stitched water waves (dark blue circle) and plant shapes (green circles). I had never made circles with the interfacing sort of “stuff”; they were fun. I enjoyed working with the angelina fibers and wispy white material representing the spirit.
I am pleased with this Birth Block because I had fun putting it together, tried three new things and met some awesome women willingly share their ideas and knowledge. How lucky am I?
Anyway, it didn’t take long and I was thinking about atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, cycles, life and all sorts of things.
I settled on the light blue background for atmosphere, the darker blue circle for hydrosphere, and the green circles for biosphere.
With that done, I realized that nothing happens, in my opinion, without the Spirit or the hand of God.
The white circle represents the spirit loosely formed in a circle emitting itself into the spheres. Of course, holding and helping are the quilted hands of God who designs all.
When I joined Ten Fold I did so to have fun and to try new things. I thought a 12 x 12 piece would be easier to try new things because I wouldn’t end up wasting material, embellishments or time.
For this block I put razzle dazzle thread in the bobbin and stitched water waves (dark blue circle) and plant shapes (green circles). I had never made circles with the interfacing sort of “stuff”; they were fun. I enjoyed working with the angelina fibers and wispy white material representing the spirit.
I am pleased with this Birth Block because I had fun putting it together, tried three new things and met some awesome women willingly share their ideas and knowledge. How lucky am I?
Birth by Judy
When I began to plan for my interpretation of “birth”, I considered a few alternatives – i.e. a robin’s nest, a packet of seeds, baby chicks, Canada’s confederation to name a few. But no matter how I tried to change my focus I continued to come back to my own experience with birth – that being the birth of my son and 26 years later, the birth of my grandson. I knew with certainty during my pregnancy that I would raise this child alone at some stage, although I was married at the time. I vividly remember a host of emotions I felt.I also believed that I could better manage the raising of a son as a single mother and I’ve tried to represent this wish on my project.
I am embarrassed that my project has such an amateur appearance, but I enjoyed reliving my experience much more than creating a depiction of my feelings. I did use the creation to learn to produce lettering on my new sewing machine and to practice free motion writing as well as a bit of beading. The circles are intended to depict the circle of life generally and, in this instance, to represent my privilege in being with my son at the birth of his son.
I apologize for being a bit maudlin about this topic, but have always felt that motherhood was my best and most enjoyable work, so this first 12 x 12 really struck a note with me.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
I am embarrassed that my project has such an amateur appearance, but I enjoyed reliving my experience much more than creating a depiction of my feelings. I did use the creation to learn to produce lettering on my new sewing machine and to practice free motion writing as well as a bit of beading. The circles are intended to depict the circle of life generally and, in this instance, to represent my privilege in being with my son at the birth of his son.
I apologize for being a bit maudlin about this topic, but have always felt that motherhood was my best and most enjoyable work, so this first 12 x 12 really struck a note with me.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Birth by Lois
My thoughts immediately turned to my garden when I heard the theme. My line of thought was birth – rebirth –spring.
My first idea was more along the lines of a seedling reaching towards the sun. I couldn’t quite figure out what to do in the background that would represent earth, other foliage and the sky in a small area and still have the seedling big enough to see. I decided at some point in the process to use a technique I’d seen in a book (no recollection of whose book) using raw edge mosaic with a graduation of colours. I have never done this before and was quite pleased with the result.
So with the background done my seedling morphed somehow into a bulb.
I have come to the realization I don’t see life in squares, I see life in rectangles. So one bulb in the middle of a square looked a bit off to me so I had to add a couple more bulbs.
I have done some hand-dyeing and fabric painting in the last year. I love doing this, I would be perfectly happy experimenting and filling my room with lovely little pieces of perfect sunset fabric. So as an additional challenge to myself I am going to make myself use some in each of my 10-fold projects. This one the narrow border, the tulip flower and the backing are all hand-dyes.
My first idea was more along the lines of a seedling reaching towards the sun. I couldn’t quite figure out what to do in the background that would represent earth, other foliage and the sky in a small area and still have the seedling big enough to see. I decided at some point in the process to use a technique I’d seen in a book (no recollection of whose book) using raw edge mosaic with a graduation of colours. I have never done this before and was quite pleased with the result.
So with the background done my seedling morphed somehow into a bulb.
I have come to the realization I don’t see life in squares, I see life in rectangles. So one bulb in the middle of a square looked a bit off to me so I had to add a couple more bulbs.
I have done some hand-dyeing and fabric painting in the last year. I love doing this, I would be perfectly happy experimenting and filling my room with lovely little pieces of perfect sunset fabric. So as an additional challenge to myself I am going to make myself use some in each of my 10-fold projects. This one the narrow border, the tulip flower and the backing are all hand-dyes.