Photo Manipulation

A couple of people have asked about how I do photo manipulation. My techniques are fairly low-tech, because although I have a photoshop program, it's very complicated and if I have to read a manual, I'd rather leave the task for later.

I stumbled on this method quite by accident, but it gives you a nice menu of options if you have Microsoft Word. Start with a photo: I've chosen for this demonstration a cute one of my daughter Allie and one of our cats, Bunny. (Her "real" name: Audrey Hepburn, is on her name tag.)

Paste your photo into a blank Word document.

After you do this, pull down your "View" menu and in "Toolbars" select "Picture." Yes, these are directions for Mac. I hope those of you on PCs will be able to translate. What you're looking for is the special picture toolbar.

Once you select the Picture toolbar, it will appear on your screen:

Click the button that says "Effects."

A menu of photo effects will appear. Click on your photo and then on the desired effect button. Click on the "Apply" button at the bottom of the "Effects" box and see if you like the looks of it. If not, go to "Edit" and undo the effect and apply a new one. Use the scroll bar to see the full menu of effects. There are other manipulations you can make by using the other adjustments in the box.
These are three versions of my photo that I liked:


You can print these photos on paper, on transfer media, or on pre-treated (commercially available or DIY) fabric sheets. I think I'm going to use one of these for my next Journal Quilt. I plan to embellish Allie's lips and perhaps to bead her glasses and the cat's eyes.

Let me know how this works for you if you try it. If you have a PC, let me know how these instructions translate. Have fun!

Design Wall Tour

Recently I saw a quilter on t.v. who had a design wall with multiple sliding panels. She had several layers of projects on these panels and she could shift them around and work on several at a time. I like to keep a number of projects going at the same time. I'm not good at what knitters call Project Monogamy.

I've got an entire wall that I use for my design wall, yet I never seem to have enough space. I've got several projects up on the wall right now. Debra had a block swap on the about forum that I didn't join, but I really liked the block, so I'm making a small table-sized version for myself.


Here is a link to the Quilter's Cache site, which is the source for the pattern, called "All Those Squares." I'm using (of all things) some of the triangles that get cut off when I make binding. I save these bits in a jar, I'm not sure quite why. I've got a ton of them in red, and they work perfectly in this pattern.


I've also got up on the wall some blocks made from the leftover pieces that got cut off of the Pineapple Blossom blocks I made from the pattern on the Quiltville site.


I've got my Winter Madonna up, but you can see that on the Madonna site.

I've also fiddled around with some vintage fabric I've set aside from the huge thrift store score I made a couple of years ago. These orange and brown fabrics give me 70s flashbacks. The little figures remind me of Holly Hobby.



I hope you enjoyed my design wall tour. Please make sure and take all your valuables as you exit the bus, and show me what's up on your wall.

Fashion Show

Debra showed her new duds on her blog, so I decided to follow suit. I buy the bulk of my clothes at the beginning of the year when they clear out the fall and winter things. In my neck of the woods we wear long sleeves and sweaters all year, so it's the best time to buy.

I bought this outfit to go to my college friend Bernadette's wedding next month in Portland. I love the sparkly things, which are cleverly on the front of the skirt only. I don't know what they're called, those disk-shaped shiny things,(they're not sequins) but they used them recently on Project Runway, and I learned their name, which I promptly forgot.



And here is my weird weather photo: my poor front yard covered with ice. On Friday we had snow down to sea level, which happens here occasionally. My poor azalea had bloomed so nicely, and then got completely frost-bitten.

Expect more regular posts this week since I'm on vacation. Also, I will post a tutorial on photo manipulation.

February Journal Quilt

I went for the obvious and did a Valentine for my February journal quilt. In my continuing play with photos I altered a photo Michael took of us kissing. He held the camera in one hand at arm's length and caught me by surprise both with the kiss and the photo.

I printed two black and white versions of the photo and some lyrics from the Beatle's song "In My Life." I love this song because it speaks to the experience of falling in love when you're older. I threw in some black and white squares I had floating around on my design wall.



I actually made the back side first. I trapped some cotton hearts behind the white lace and free-motion quilted the whole thing. I like the looks of the white against the red background. I added the three blue hearts on the top--they represent new love, and the hearts behind the lace are love in the past.

Daffodils

What do you know, we had sun over the weekend. And Allison was right, the daffodils are budding. These are growing in a pot in my very own front yard, so they cheer my up as I come and go.

Sunday was a beautiful day. I had brunch with a group of women I get together with once a month. We're all teachers, three of us teach college, and two are elementary school teachers. We've all got kids who are high school and college age. Three of us are married and two of us are divorced. Although we don't all stay in touch with each other in between get-togethers, we are always glad to see each other and to catch up. We were trying to remember how long we've been doing this, and we think it's been five years, but no one can quite remember. It's become a very pleasant routine, to sit and eat and talk and to see who's grappling with what challenges or triumphs at the moment. We all know that whatever it is, we have either been there, or will likely be there some day.

Here's a photo taken last October. That's me with the glasses, and from left to right there's Susan, Stephanie and Catherine. Nancy didn't make it that time. We usually meet in each other's homes, but this one time we met in a restaurant.

I feel very fortunate to be a part of this circle of smart and compasionate friends. Like the daffodils, they are a great source of joy and optimism.

A Quilt of My Very Own

I told the story a few posts ago about how I'd made a king-sized quilt, had it professionally quilted, and then it languished, unbound, in the sewing room as a cat mattress. Well, the cats are still napping on it, but now it's bound and it's on my bed.

I really love this quilt. It's made in part from a ton of 3" squares that I found in a thrift store. It has all kinds of oddball fabrics in it from the 60s and 70s that keep cropping up in my quilts. I used all the red ones in this quilt, as well as some of the others.

This quilt is very warm and cozy, and the cat hair hardly shows up at all. Incidentally, I run my quilts through the dryer with no heat for 20-30 minutes about once a week, which very successfully removes the cat hair.

I'm glad to have my finished quilt because, given the weather, I need the extra comfort. These days I'm ready to grow gills. I can't count the number of straight days of rain we've had. Tonight I drove home past a pasture which has become a large pond. The symphony of frogs was so loud that even with the windows up it drowned out the radio.

January Journal

The journal quilt project has been challenging and fun. I felt free to try new things, since, if it didn't work out, I wasn't going to ruin a large major piece. Here's the front side of my finished page:

Here's the flip side:

Each side features a photo of my hand, which I manipulated by pasting it into a Word file. When you do that, a menu of effects appears, and I tried different ones until I found two that I liked. The manipulated images were printed onto transfer paper and then ironed on to fabric. The one on the back didn't transfer very clearly, so I machine quilted around it. I also framed that one with jute rick-rack.


The front side was foundation pieced and then heavily quilted. The idea of this image came to me in a yoga class.


I composed the words I wanted to use, and then tried writing and stamping them on strips of fabric and ribbon with gel pens and fabric paint. I settled on using my alphabet stamps and acrylic pain.

I also added gold buttons.

The foundation for the back side came out of my stash of itty bitty scraps.


I picked browns, and spread them end to end on a scrap of denim. I covered the whole thing with tulle and then quilted the heck out of it. I added the photo and trimmed it. At the last minute, I got daring and stamped some copper colored leaves on the top part. I think it came out nicely.

My major experiment with this piece was the photo manipulation. I intend to do more of this as the year goes on. I also intend to reflect on my dreams and visions.

Muses

I've been impressed lately with the number of cats that appear in sewing room photos. They are really drawn to piles of fiber--just like us--and bring with them that calm meditative air that induces creativity. My #2 cat Fatty has made it her business to claim the best spot in my sewing room: the desk top near the window. I conveniently put my king-sized quilt there after getting it back from the long arm quilter, and then covered it with a towel to keep the cats from getting it dirty. Of course, it became the cat bed of choice, and my #3 cat Bunny kept trying to lay claims to the professionally quilted cat bed.



Fatty is nothing to be trifled with, so she has kept her claim until yesterday, when I was making my bed and looking for a decent quilt to put on it, I suddenly remembered that I have a perfectly quilted king sized quilt in the sewing room cushioning a very cushioned cat body. Much to Fatty's confusion, I have moved the quilt to the chair in front of the sewing machine so I can put on the binding and then put the quilt on my bed. To cinch the deal I bought a new bed skirt and new pillow cases. Fatty is not happy, but she will get over it. To appease the Cat Muse, I may assign her her own cat quilt for the desk.



I've finished a new knitted purse. Awhile back I started using up my odds and ends of yarn to make purses in a totally improvisational way. This one is wool and is one of the most successful so far. I think I'll save it for a gift.


I've put some quilt blocks on the wall that I started to make some time ago with a totally different project in mind. Now I'm playing with the different values in the white fabric, just to get a sense of how it works. Working with white is a warm up for the winter Madonna quilt. I'm challenging myself to use white, a color which I usually avoid. Interestingly, I picked up the Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Somerset Studio, which has the most wonderful projects in white. I think I'm starting to get some ideas. If you're interested in using transferred images, meggiecat is posting a gold mine of links to antique images in her wonderful blog. It's definitely a must-see.



Here is my finished Pineapple Blossom quilt top. It's a quick and fun pattern. I've also recently completed the top below, which I was adding to in rows over the last year. Guess what? My scrap drawers are still full. Maybe it's the cats' doing. They do, you know, have those claws.

Dark Days of Winter

We were hit by a chain of windy storms over the weekend, and so we spent two days without power. When the lights came on last night, I sent many blessings to the dedicated Pacific Gas and Electric crews that brought us back to the 21st century. Practically our whole county went dark, and some people, including Michael, still have no power. At his house this is a big deal since he has a well that runs on electricity--so no power means no water as well as no lights at his house.

There are downed trees all over, and this morning we saw a number of downed power lines. I've been meaning to take my camera out to get a picture of an uprooted tree right near the freeway on-ramp. It's huge, and yet it was yanked up roots and all.

So we played cards and board games and played our walkmans and ipods through some tiny speakers that the kids use on their computer. On Saturday Allie went to visit at a friend's who has a generator at his house. Folks in the more rural areas are more prone to power outages in the winter, so they often have them. Everything was closed, including the gas stations, and we were all caught with low gas tanks, which was only a problem because we are feeding the cats of a friend who's out of town. Michael and I were invited for a New Year's Eve dinner party at my friend Susan's, but this has been postponed until next Saturday. I guess it's not so bad to have the holidays extend another week. All in all, we survived and have kissed the t.v., computers, refrigerator, and washing machine many times.

Here are some pictures of what I was doing before the power went out. I finished this black and white quilt for Alex, my 15 year old. I think he likes it, it's even on his bed face-up.



Last week I also made a dent in my scrap drawers by making this pattern from quiltville called Pineapple Blossom. I'm going to add another row to mine at the top before I put on the borders.

And look at this fabulous fabric I found at Joann's. I saw a cut of it that one of the employees has set aside, and then immediately bought 2 yards, without a clue as to what I will do with it. It was just too beautiful to pass up. I seldom do this, maybe once or twice a year, but this fabric spoke to me.


Blessings to all for a healthy and creative new year. Join us at the Quilter's Lounge (follow the link in the index) for a head start on the healthy part.

Happy Christmas to All

Many Blessings of the season to you and yours.

Full House

I love it when my kids have their friends over. The bustle and joking are contagious, and young people have an appealing energy. Last night my son Alex (in the white t-shirt) had his bandmates and another friend over. They played music in the garage, ate an enormous amount of food, then went to hang out at another friend's for awhile. When they came back, they were hungry AGAIN.

This is my daughter Allie and her new boyfriend Roger. Aren't they cute? She had just gotten out of the shower, so she thinks she looks terrible in this photo. I think they're both adorable. Later in the evening two of Allie's girlfriends came over and spent the night and Roger went home.


I had seven teenagers here overnight. The boys slept in the garage, which they thought was a big adventure. When they wake up they're going to want to eat again.

Freaking Cold

We're heading toward the Dead of Winter here, which means that it's pitch dark when I get up in the morning, and this last week it was also foggy and freezing. I actually heard a new term on the radio weather forecast: freezing fog. Lord, I live in a climate with Freezing Fog! What next? Today it resumed the normal Raining All the Time mode, so it shouldn't be so cold. I'm so looking forward to the kids being on school vacation this week, it just seems cruel to get them up in the cold dark mornings.

I'm trying to wrap up the semester's work, so far unsuccessfully. I have to turn in grades by midnight on Tuesday, which means that I'll have 4 whole days to get ready for Christmas. It wasn't always so inhumane. At one time we turned in Fall grades after New Years, but somehow, in spite of the fact that everything is done on the computer, the deadlines have been moved up. This means that I still have no Christmas tree, but I hope to get one tomorrow.

I've also celebrated my birthday since my last post. My kids paid for me to get a second piercing in each earlobe, so now I can wear two pairs of earrings at the same time. I must've been one of the last women in California with only one hole in each ear, but now I'm one of the crowd. And Michael surprised me with an unexpected gift: a scanner. Can you believe it? I never would've thought to even ask for one, and now my brain is spinning with the possible projects. What a guy!

(More) Recycled Work

Allison (sorry I couldn't get the link to work, but there's a link in the index to the right) posted about finding a 19th century unfinished crazy quilt that she wants to use as a foundation for her own work. I replied about a similar project of my own, a set of Dresden Plates that I washed, mended and appliqued down onto blocks, which I then made into a quilt. Here are some photos of the finished quilt.

This is a shot of the whole quilt. I've had it hanging in my bedroom for a couple of months. I've got to take it down soon, as I've noticed that it's started to get wavy. I didn't use the sleeve, which would probably be a better choice.

My theory about this quilt is that the blocks were made by two quilters. This first photo shows an example of the blocks which were made by the more proficient quilter. The stitches were incredibly regular, the fabric looks like 30s feedsack, and the blocks are uniform in their construction.

The other blocks have looser, less regular stitching. The Plates have random numbers of sections, so the sizes are different than the other blocks. These blocks also have repeated fabrics, (which the others don't) and some of the fabrics are of looser weave. I think perhaps these were cut from clothing, or were made from clothing fabrics. These blocks may have been made later than the first, since they don't adhere strictly to a 30's feedsack palette.

The story I tell myself about these blocks is that the less proficient quilter was the daughter or other relative of the expert quilter, and that she wanted, for sentimental reasons, to finish the unfinished project of the expert quilter. I tell myself that she chose the poorer quality fabrics perhaps not only because she was inexperienced, but also because these fabrics were sentimental--perhaps they were from the clothing of the other woman.

I was so moved by the story I "read" in these blocks that I wanted to put them together. I decided to hand quilt this quilt since the blocks were constructed by hand. Since I was going to hand quilt, I wanted my work to show, so I used embroidery floss in those 30's colors. This was my artistic contribution to this collaboration.


I have an strong attraction to these kinds of projects. I'll post soon about the 1930s quilt kit with one block made that I've got stashed away. Maybe I like the idea that all those UFOs are not destined to some eternal limbo. Someone will come along who understands the investment of love and time that is in these works. These projects speak to those of us who start them, but they can also be understood by others who also appreciate their allure. That's my theory anyway.

Oh, and here's my new haircut. Gosh, but this is a great angle for a photo--absolutely no neck sag or jowls in the picture.