The White Album

As we are getting ready to put our Beatles Challenge pieces in the Sutherlin Library, an idea popped into my head. To stitch white on white, a picture of the four Beatles, and call it the white album. My supervisor at work, is a big Beatles fan and had several posters and pictures in her office. So I borrowed one that is a black and white silhouette style, traced it onto tracing paper and then onto white fabric. I used a red, heat disappearing pen to draw the pic, and free motion machine quilted it. I added lyrics and song titles around each head to add texture and fill in areas. It looked really strange with the red markings, and I was worried they would not come off. I wish I had taken a picture with the ink still on it. A quick hit with the hot iron and it instantly disappeared!! WOW, Magic!! I got the binding on and finished the sleeve, and had the whole thing finished in about 1 1/2 hours. The black and white picture is really good contrast and you can see how it really looks like them, not so much the outline only. It was difficult to photograph the white on white, I set it on my ironing board and put a small lamp, low so it was table level, casting as much shadow as possible. I had to lighten/whiten it up in photoshop cause it looked all creamy colored, like dark muslin.

We got quiet a few more pieces done for the challenge, so it will make a nice display at the library.

Beatles Song Challenge

I am working on the new challenge for Fyber Cafe. Our textile group is going to do a 12 x 12 block with a Beatles Song theme. I got an idea in my head for a strawberry design, then refined it into a diminishing spiral to signify the "Forever" part of the song title. I did a quick full size sketch to get the size and dimension of the spiral correct, then sketched in strawberries, getting smaller and smaller along the spiral.

Selecting an assortment of red Bali batiks, I immediately started freehand cutting strawberry shapes, then I had to choose a background. The complimentary color of green worked well, a bright lime for the spiral and a darker green with lime dots for the background. Adding green tops, and using a glue stick to glue it all down was the next step. My sewing machine is going to be in the shop, so if I get out my spare machine, I might get the quilting done too.