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Whiplash Entry Week 5 - The Yarn Farm

May 13th, 2006 by Kathy

This week’s theme on Whip Up was Yarn. Thursday, as I finished up my Mom’s presents, I spun my wheels trying to think of an idea. I was determined to enter this week since I’d not ~~found~~ made the time since the first challenge. I could fill a book with my thoughts about the recent Whip Lash commentary. Let me just say Kathreen, your gracious, generous and passionate spirit are a true inspiration. Thank you.

Inspiration struck as I walked Caitlin to the bus stop. Our neighbor across the street has one of the few remaining active farms here on the Island. I love everything about the farm. The sounds, the smells, the donkey, the green pasture, the fresh eggs, absolutely everything. The girls and I like the sheep the best. Anne, the owner, recently purchased sheep especially for spinning wool. So, without further ado, I present: The Yarn Farm.

This is my first attempt at a free form quilt design (dare I say art quilt). The Spring 2006 issue of Quilting Arts magazine features an excellent article by Liz Berg entitled The Art of Abstraction. She steps through, in detail, her technique of creating an abstract quilt. I followed her steps to create this piece. She starts the process with a picture. I took the following photo of the farm as my starting point:

I enlarged the barn on my inkjet copier and then traced it to make a pattern. I free form pieced a base fabric (the sky and the pasture) that I secured to Peltex. I fused the individual pieces of the barn to a separate piece of fabric which I then backed with WonderUnder. I fused the trees, the entire barn and the sheep to the background. I free-motion quilted as I went.

In the article, Liz recommends using Timtex. I’m thinking the Peltex (which I purchased at JoAnns) is the same thing, maybe not? If anyone knows the difference please leave a comment. It was too stiff for my liking. I felt like I lost texture in the quilting since I had no batting and the thickness of it made it difficult for my needle to do its thing. I also realized at the end I couldn’t easily do hand embellishment with beads or embroidery because of the thick interfacing layer. All that being said, I couldn’t be happier with the final result. I have a million ideas swirling that I’d like to try next. I’d love to do a whole series of scenes in my neighborhood. I’m glad I finally took that step off the ledge. The landing was pretty soft.

Posted in Quilting | 21 Comments

21 Responses to “Whiplash Entry Week 5 - The Yarn Farm”

on 13 May 2006 at 11:09 pm1Tanya

This is sooooo adorable and very well made. I absolutely love it. The colors and the cute little sheep are simply charming!
on 14 May 2006 at 1:45 am2Tami

WOW! That’s an amazing first art quilt … I especially love all the little fluffy sheep at the Yarn Farm. Great title also. I think that Peltex is JoAnns’ version of Timtex, which is basically a super heavy weight interfacing. You could also try piecing these on a layer of flannel and then attaching it to the Peltex after you’ve done all your hand-stitching and embellishing. Then you’d have the heavy weight to support the quilt, but still have the look of “quilting”.
on 14 May 2006 at 2:40 am3mandy

very cool.
on 14 May 2006 at 3:38 am4Melissa

This is fabulous! I love the interpretation of the theme and the execution is great! I agree, Whiplash is a lot of fun and it’s all about making time to participate.
on 14 May 2006 at 4:07 am5Julie

Really lovely!
on 15 May 2006 at 3:30 am6Meg

Well done, it’s lovely.
on 15 May 2006 at 2:32 pm7soren

I think someone at JoAnn’s told me that Peltex is actually a little LESS stiff that Timtex - timtex is *really* hard!
your picture is GORGEOUS! wow. I adore your little sheepies! so you didn’t zigzag around all your raw-edged fused pieces, huh? just the barn, it looks like? I’m always afraid of thigns getting frayed edges!
on 15 May 2006 at 6:29 pm8janelle

i love this! super cute.
on 15 May 2006 at 7:54 pm9hannah

I love this, it is beautiful!!!
on 16 May 2006 at 1:29 am10Shiso Mama

fantastic quilt! i love how you managed to show depth in the landscape, and i particularly enjoy the simple, geometric trees.
on 16 May 2006 at 2:29 am11Regina

Excellent take on the theme! Gorgeous quilt!
on 16 May 2006 at 6:10 pm12Lisa D.

Just adorable! Great job!
on 16 May 2006 at 7:03 pm13ann wood

Beautiful !!! I love the idea of a series.
on 16 May 2006 at 7:25 pm14debra

This is an absolutely stunning art quilt!!! (Yes, that’s what it is!) Your interpretation/abstraction of the photo is wonderful. I read that article, too, wondering if I could do something like that but haven’t sat down to do it yet. I’m not a quilter, but I love working with fabrics. I am so excited about finding your blog. You have some beautiful things to gaze at and inspire!
on 17 May 2006 at 2:05 pm15Amanda

OMG, I just discovered your blog and I think this is my third comment. I am not psycho, I am just loving your work. I have all these art quilt type ideas in my head, but I have yet to take that leap. Yours is so awesome and you make it sound so easy, that I think I am even more inspired to try.
on 19 May 2006 at 9:14 pm16ann wood » acorn winner and horse #21

[…] The Winner of the whiplash acorn drawing is Kathy. Congratulations!! Kathy created the incredible art quilt for the whiplash yarn challenge. Thanks to everybody who participated, that was fun and I’ll probably do it again. […]
on 21 May 2006 at 11:04 am17Kathie

Saw your great little quilt on Whipup. It has great composition and impact. You did a great job! If you’re doing a lot of quilting and embellishment, you might find that working with just a thin batting would be adequate. The quilting and embellishment, not to mention the fusing medium, add a good deal of body to a piece.
on 27 May 2006 at 11:26 pm18weirdbunny

Now that is TRULY AMAZING. Hope you’ve goe it framed.
on 01 Jun 2006 at 3:39 pm19alexia

Wow, looks amazing!
on 03 Jun 2006 at 3:30 am20linda

This is truly beautiful. I don’t think I could do this on my first try, but you’ve inspired me to try this with paper - I guess it would be called a collage? Anyway, if I find success with paper - maybe fabric will follow…we’ll see. It all just came together so nicely - you have a great talent here!
on 05 Jun 2006 at 2:42 am21Liz Berg

What a great job you have done! Use Peltex, Timtex, batting, whatever you like, just make it yours and original! It is really exciting for me to see how someone has reacted to my article! Glad it was of help to you…you did such a wonderful piece. The color choices are great, the composition is great, I love the green fields.

Next time try abstrasting the barn some more. Don’t copy the picture…just free form it. Why now keep using this theme or idea and make several more pieces, breaking it down even further! See how abstract you can really go!

Thank you for sharing this…someone else let me know. If you do more, please send me an email to let me see what you have done! That is the best part of writing an article!

Many thanks,
Liz Berg