Sewing With Nancy

Today on Sewing With Nancy we continue with the mini series of "How to Sew Art" starting with a photo, choosing fabric and then following steps to turn a common digital image into great wall art. Welcome back Tammie Bowser who is really an innovator in this industry. She'll show us how to transform basic, ordinary batik fabric into fine art. Tammie, it's treat to have you here. Nancy, during the first episode we detailed how to use a digital image from your camera to create a pattern. In this second episode the magic happens cutting and adding the fabric, plus stitching the design. "How to Sew Art" That's what's coming next on Sewing with Nancy. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest-airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman is made possible by Baby Lock, a complete line of sewing, quilting and embroidery machines and sergers. Baby Lock, for the love of sewing. Madeira, specializing in embroidery, quilting and special-effect threads because creativity is never black and white. Koala Studios fine sewing furniture custom-built in America. Clover, making a difference in sewing, quilting, crafting, and needle arts for over 30 years. Amazing Designs and Klass needles. During the first episode of "How to Sew Art" Tammie and I showed how to create the pattern. The pattern we created is going to make the picture of her granddaddy. Now, we don't expect our viewers to do your granddaddy, right? Of course not. We have a free trial for them of my software they can download and do their own pictures. So you can put in your own picture. We're going to give you a review of how we got to where we are today but before that let's show you some others of the great works of art that you've created. The Trombone is one of my favorites. It is, it was actually the first one when I came up with this technique. That's when I knew I had something magical. And there are only how many fabrics in that quilt? It says 12. 12 fabrics, it looks like 90, don't you think? But it's not. And then The Trumpet is not a person. Most of your designs include people. This is an inanimate object, and it's striking. Yes, and what I like about this one is that I had a lot of background space which I usually don't have so I start playing around with the stitching and texture. So that's really awesome. The bass player, the name of that piece is "Joyful." Yes, it's "Joyful" because you can see the joy in his face. And it's really awesome that you can capture that emotion in the fabric. It's amazing. So to work with any art design with the batik fabrics you're going to start with an image. The granddaddy image was one of his press shots when he was an actor. Yes. And what a fun shot. Let me get the glare off of there. But it's a big image. Yes, it is a big image. We learned how to crop the image and just take the most important part which is his face and his shoulders and make a nice portrait. Here you can see how it's been cropped. This is what Tammie was talking about. At howtosewart.com you can get the software to play around with and then you adjust it to make a pattern. Yes, you adjust it by first of all you can crop to whatever portion of the picture you want and you can decide how many fabrics you want to use. For this technique we use somewhere between six and 12. And on the left side of the software there's a little nob and you can-- There's a little slider that will let you choose. And then you also smooth those pixels out with the shape smoothing slider. That will take away all those little pieces and merge them into bigger pieces. It's really fascinating. And then you hit 'print'. For this instance there were nine 8-1/2" by 11" sheets of paper printed out. I'm just going to show you where this falls on the picture it's in the upper left-hand corner. I think you can kind of see how the hair continues and the background is there. And all those little dots are numbers they're numbers one through six because you chose to have six fabrics. You'll see that in a minute. Then you tile this together. Yes, and you'll notice it says rows and columns. It has a little numbers for the rows and columns right on top. That's to help you put it in order tape it back together the right way. Doesn't it look fun? Like a cross-stitch but it's going to be a lot faster. And then, if you watch the first program at nancyzieman.com, if you missed it you'll see how to create a fusible web and parchment paper. And then, Tammie, you've kind of smoothed-- Excuse me, smoothed out some of the lines. Yes. We were able to determine, since we're going to simplify that background, we found the edge of his hair and his shoulder so that we can make this one big piece and simplify and make it simple. Then the fabrics, Tammie has a great way of auditioning fabrics so that you get six fabrics, light to dark and they aren't going to be all mediums and all lights. They're going to be light to dark. And we auditioned and we used this value isolation tool. You can see clearly if the fabrics are lighter or darker by just comparing them when you-- It's like going to the optometrist and saying do you like A or B? B or C? Exactly. So we're giving you the little condensed version of how we got to where we are right now but this is where we ended up in our first episode. Now we'll set up the table to start making new magic. In addition to printing out the tile pattern the computer program will also print out this value chart of one through six light to dark. You can see that Tammie has attached the six fabrics that coincide with the numbers. That's what's going to work with the pattern. So you're going to work with fabric number five I'm going to work with fabric number one. First of all, let Tammie show you how this works. This is quite phenomenal. Remember, we found in the first episode I showed you how to put together this sandwich of fusible web. It starts with a layer of parchment paper and then we have a layer of fusible web that has been sprayed with basting spray. So it's sticky. That's important, because it holds the fabric in place and we'll never cut this. Then there's the pattern underneath. You can see right through the parchment paper and right through the web to see the pattern right through it. So you're going to start from the outer edge and trace a piece around your-- Yes. You start from the edge. I'm using a red pen so that you can see what I'm doing. You just trace the first piece. And this is fabric number five. Then you peel the paper back. Remember, you never, ever cut this web. It's what's going to hold all the pieces together. I'm cutting the-- I'm pulling back the paper. It'll be easier to do when you're not doing it upside down, right? Yeah. It's easy to do. I'll move over here a little bit. And you don't have to be super exact. I mean, you follow the numbers but if you go off the line a little bit-- I'll do it up this way so I can see. Just cut it off and it'll be fine. What if we tilted it this way? Yeah, looking at it backwards too works. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, perfect. And since this piece is a little bit big I put it on, this is fabric number five. You can see that it's fabric number five there. I use a couple of straight pins to pin it right to the paper. This paper becomes my pattern piece. I'm just putting in a few pins so it doesn't move. This becomes really important when you have a piece that's-- This one is a pretty easy shape, kind of a rectangle. But if it's a really weird shape you just put more pins to keep it from moving around. Yeah, so you can get the curves and the contours that are there. If it's a really strange shape you want to make sure you maintain that shape. Then you just cut around the edge leaving 1/8" or 1/16", just slightly bigger. Again, you don't have to stress out or be too worried about getting it wrong. There's almost no way to get it wrong. We've done all the prep already so it's pretty guaranteed to be right. And you know, Tammie's a really laid back person and she takes it one step at a time. I saw this whole thing and I thought how am I going to get it all done? Well, you just take it a little bit at a time and really you can accomplish a lot. After she gets this cut out then it will stick to the tacky part of the fusible web. We're almost there. It's one big chunk of fabric that's done. There we go. That's the piece. We take the pins out. You have right sides up. Yup, right-side up. You don't have to remember to do some turning of something upside down. And then the paper becomes trash. Then you put the fabric right in that spot. You know exactly where it goes because-- And it sticks. It sticks. Now in this opposite corner I've traced out one section. They were almost all number ones. This is of his collar. Then I can place that right here. And you're not having it exact. An 1/8", 1/16" of an inch or whatever we can lift this up a little bit so we get it on the webbing. But you can see how that positions into place. Then you could do a big section of his shirt collar over here and just keep cutting and marking. Let's go to the other one and show them how to cut a small piece. Because, you know, you might guess, we have a sample. Of course. We kept going, didn't want to make you wait. So you can see how the magic is happening piece by piece by piece. But when you get into the face you keep a lot of the detail. You don't make big collars or whatever. Yeah, you keep all the detail and another thing, if there's a bunch of little pieces that are the same number and they're lined up next to each other you can group them together, make it one bigger piece. Let me see if I can show you. See, right here it might look like there's a bunch of little pieces but really it's one big piece. So you just make that one piece cut it out. Here's a number five that's been cut out. You'd stick it on the fabric as Tammie's going to do. There you really don't even have to-- It's small, so you can just hold it with your finger. With the big one I wanted to show you how to do a big one and use the pins. Or if it's small, like this one you could just hold it with your fingers. Okay. And I'm just cutting it slightly bigger. And work on it a little bit at a time. You don't have to do it all in one sitting. Nope. This is something that you do while you're relaxing. If you're normally a little high-strung and stress yourself out this is a time when you learn to take it easy and relax and follow the plan. Just add piece by piece. I hope you can see how the process is done on this quilt. The next thing we do after filling in all the images is to do the stitching. After all the pieces have been positioned on the fusible web it's time to separate the fusible web from the paper backing. Now, I know, we didn't get this all completed. But I know Tammie will finish that after the taping of the program. Here you can see that we can just peel away the paper backing. Or excuse me, the web from the pattern. Then, Tammie, on the design that you're going to do the stitching you've already backed it with batting and backing fabric. Yes. After peeling off that pattern off the back I just put the whole webbing and the fabric that's attached right on top of the batting and iron it down. You fuse it in place so it doesn't move. Now the stitching is going to be free-motion stitching so you're going to lower the feed dogs drop them or cover them depending upon your machine. Place a quilting, a free motion foot on you machine, and then choose threads. These are variegated threads much like the batik fabrics we worked with. Choose variegated threads in light, medium and dark and do a little auditioning before you do the stitching. Let me peel this back to show you. In this corner we have a medium color. Just unwind some of the threads lay it on the fabric to see if it blends. You don't want to change the value of the fabric you just want to enhance it. So use the variegated thread. Cotton works really well for this instance. Then you're going to let some of the magic happen to liven up the fabric that hasn't been stitched. Okay. When you start stitching I have a medium here so I'm going to stitch on this medium fabric. I'll pick an area and just surround it. That's how, in the quilt of the granddaughters you see the girl's face in the back because I followed the shapes. That made the picture show up in the thread too. I'll start off by encircling the outside and then I kind of scribble or do some sort of repeating shape on the inside of that outlined area. I also like doing little circles too. I'll show you that in just a second. After you keep each section you might even do a different design. At the end it looks like you did a whole lot of fancy things but really it feels like you're doodling. There's nothing wrong with doodling. No, I like doodling, myself. So I did that whole little section just that quick. My suggestion, if you're nervous about free motion just practice for a little while and get comfortable with your machine. Make yourself comfortable and whatever you do just do a lot of it. If you have a little crooked line and you just have one crooked line it's just going to look like a crooked line but if you have 100 of them it's going to look like you're a genius.

laughter

And that you are. Now Tammie mentioned the granddaughters art quilt. Here you can see it again. The image of Avery and Luella cute little girls, of course. Then I'd like to show you how she followed when doing the stitching the image itself. Now here's a close-up. You get the whole image further away but as you get closer up you can see the detail of how she stippled around the edges and then used different colors of thread. And as we turn to the wrong side you can see the face come alive again. So not only do you have an image on the right side but you have an image on the wrong side. So you can see, you just follow the fabric that has been cut out. Now if we look at the image of Duke Ellington this is really a pretty amazing scene. There it is on the right side and then, Tammie you did some changes with the bobbin thread. Yes, I changed the bobbin thread with the top thread and I was surprised to turn it over and figure out that the picture showed up in the thread on the back. Not that you're going to see this but this is just kind of a surprise image. It's sort of a little special surprise. But there's more than just stippling that you have embellished with your quilts. Yes. Sometimes I like to add a little bit of sparkle. Here's some-- Metallic fibers. Yeah, metallic fibers are really beautiful and they come in lots of colors. I picked this nice dark one to go with the flower. The way I use it is just break off a little bit and just sprinkle it wherever I want the sparkle. I'll do that. And then I'll just do the free motion right on top and let the stitching catch it. I'm going to do some little spirals. The stitching just holds it down. Here's a finished image of B.B. King. You're uncle was a professional photographer and did this image. Here I have the image, or the actual quilt and you can see that the metallic fibers have been added in this area just a little glitz, a touch of sparkle. It adds such interest to this area. But you have to have a little concern about that when pressing, correct? Yes. It kind of melts, so you don't iron on it. That's the very, very last step before you do the binding. It adds a lot of interest and brings focus if you want something to be the center of attention. Sure, of course. Now speaking of binding, you have about the simplest binding technique I have ever seen. Yes. It's okay not to bind. To bind or not to bind. Who needs all those rules? You could just not bind it. So on the granddaughters quilt the edges have just been cut and stitched. You could secure stitch around the edge but that's it. Then you could add a sleeve to the back so it could be hung in a very traditional way. So that's one way of really not finishing it. This is a raw edge appliqu. It's okay to do this very untraditionally. Then on the Duke Ellington quilt you just stitched a binding to the fabric and brought it to the wrong side and hand stitched it into place. So that you do not have a traditional binding like we put on, cut a strip 2-1/2" and do all fancy stitching. This just brings it to the back stitch it, and Wow. That's it. It makes it clean-- like a painting with no edge at all. Tammie, I want to thank you for your inspiration. I am going to create one of these. You gave me the ways of doing it. I know our audience will be encouraged to do it too. Thanks for being with us. Thank you. I'm pleased to have been able to teach you today. And you too can make art with all these step by steps and enjoy the process. When you think of sewing or quilting I'm sure some of the first thoughts, of course are fabric, needle and thread that come to mind. Well, how about adding the noun 'song.' With me today is folk artist, performer, songwriter, Lil' Rev who has a special song in his heart for those of us who sew and quilt. Welcome back to Sewing With Nancy, Rev. Yeah, it's good to be back. You know, we had great comments the last time you were on. It was fun being serenaded. So here you are, back again to sing some more of your historical songs that include quilting. I'm going to start out with one called "The Quilter's Shanty." If you can image, oh, about 100 ladies at a quilting guild singing along your viewers can join us. Their part will be to say "these hand are made for quilting." Okay, sing with me so I'm not the only one. Okay, here we go. Here we go. Oh, hand me down My needle and thread These hands are made For quilting I got crazy patterns In my head These hands are made For quilting This string of cloth Just makes me sing These hands are made For quilting Leftover scraps Are a precious thing These hands are made For quilting Take 25 yards Of a muslin cloth These hand are made For quilting Cost so much more Than I've got These hands are made For quilting Way back in 1933 These hands are made For quilting Squares and strips Were all you'd see These hands are made For quilting So tell your friends To think of me These hand are made For quilting Before they toss Those old blue jeans These hands are made For quilting Well, Rev, this is fun to sing along. This is the end of our 33rd season on Sewing With Nancy and I've never sung on Sewing With Nancy before. What a great way to end the season. You have another song with your acoustic guitar. That's right. I'm going to do one called "They'll Reap what you Sew" S-E-W. Okay, got it. It goes a little something like this. The bees Outside were buzzin' Like a needle Turning thread The sweet caress of fiddles Dance inside my head The acres stood There stoic Like a patchwork quilt So fine The harvest Brought a rainbow 'Twas a crazy Quilt design Plant your seeds On the ground You could hang 'em On the wall Pass it on And they'll grow up strong Build things That won't fall When we go out Reapin' These seeds We have sown Don't think of Just tomorrow For tomorrow It's come and gone Don't think of Just tomorrow For tomorrow It's but a song Well, Nancy, if anything this song should also be dedicated to you for all the years you've inspired us and had the long vision. Well, you're sweet. That makes me feel special. You give presentations to guilds around the country. Tell our viewers the name of your song and dance routine. Songs like this one-- You're not dancing, I know. I'm not dancing this time, not this time. Okay. The show is called "Scraps of Quilting Music." It's a one-man show of history, song, lore, humor and poetry on half a dozen instruments or so. Mostly for museums, quilting guilds and performing art centers. What a great way, I mean to put our craft and art to combine your historical view with music. I really enjoy hearing you and being part of your sing-along. Thank you. Sing a long with Nancy! Well, thanks again, Mark. As we take out the show why don't you strum a little along. You've got it. Okay. Well, if you enjoyed this program of Sewing With Nancy you can watch more online at nancyzieman.com. Or you can watch the first episode and the second episode and a whole bunch of other episodes of Sewing With Nancy but "How to Sew Art" with Tammie. Also, if you click on Nancy's Corner you can connect with Rev and all of our other Nancy's Corner guests. Thanks for joining us on Sewing With Nancy. Thank you, Rev, for being with us. And as I end all of my programs Bye for now. Tammie Bowser has written the book "How to Sew Art" which is the reference for this two-part series. The book includes core concepts for making sewing art easy using the contoured pixel technique. Each book come with a free online video course to guide you. It's $21.99, plus shipping and handling. To order the book, call 1-800-336-8373

or visit our website at

sewingwithnancy.com/2825. Order Item Number BK2825 To pay by check or money order call the number on the screen for details. Visit Nancy's website at nancyzieman.com to see additional episodes, Nancy's blog, and more. Sewing with Nancy TV's longest airing sewing and quilting program with Nancy Zieman has been brought to you by Baby Lock; Madeira Threads; Koala Studios; Clover; Amazing Designs and Klass Needles. Closed captioning funding provided by Pellon. Sewing with Nancy is a co-production of Nancy Zieman Productions and Wisconsin Public Television.