Sewing With Nancy

Did you ever think of yourself as an artist? Well, believe it or not all of us can be textile artists one step at a time. Please welcome Tammie Bowser, an international quilt winner who is here to share with us how to create art with fabric and using photos. Welcome back to Sewing With Nancy, Tammie. Nancy, it's really great to be back here at Sewing With Nancy. Often the first reaction to my stitched art is that that looks too difficult to make or I could never do that. What I'd like to show you is that starting with a great photo, choosing nine to 12 fabrics and then following my steps you too can make fabric art projects that you'll be proud to show. "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. Since we're going to learn how to sew art the best place to start is to appreciate this beautiful art. Tammie, we have and are going to show our viewers a gallery of some of your quilts. The quilt behind us is a trombone player. Yes, this is-- When I started doing this technique that you're going to learn today this was actually the very first one I did. This is when I knew I had something special. You certainly do. It looks difficult, but you'll see the process. The fabrics that I have on the table are what are used. We'll give you details of how to work with this. Just so you get an appreciation of where this started this is the fabric that Tammie started with to create this amazing photo. Yes, and I always start with batik fabrics because they look painted to start with so I don't have to do so much work. It makes it look like a painting right away. Now we have Duke Ellington. Yes. That has only seven fabrics, believe it or not. And the photos were taken by your uncle. Absolutely. My uncle, Jimmy, he was a photographer for Down Beat magazine in the '50s and he took some amazing pictures. It's easy to do great work when you start with something great. We're going to give you some hints a little bit later on how to choose photos but first you need some more inspiration. Doris Day is your next inspiration. Yeah, that's another picture taken by my uncle, Jimmy. That's quilt won Quilt National in 2007. You may want to explain to our viewers Quilt National. Quilt National is one of the biggest art quilt competitions. And I wasn't trying to win a competition. I'm going to show you exactly what I did. I just work until, you know I felt tickled by the work and that's what I entered. Now the next image follows kind of the theme of music and jazz. We have a bass player. Yeah, the bass player what I love about it is his face looks so joyful. That's why I called it "Joyful." It just amazes me how much emotion you can capture. I like the vertical, long look of this. Usually we do art quilts horizontally but it's kind of different. I think that our viewers are going to appreciate the stitching that's involved as well as the easy fusing techniques that you're going to share. Yeah, the techniques are amazing. The end results look very intimidating but you see that it really is and truly simple. Now changing from the musical theme to a theme of the heart. Here are two granddaughters. Yes. Yes, these are your girls. They are my girls, yes. What's lovely about this picture is that they are so happy in that picture and that comes out as well as the joyfulness in the previous one. So now you have a taste of what you're going to learn and it's going to be easier than you think. You start with an image, first of all. This is the image we're going to work with today and during the next program as well. It's a two-part series. Give our viewers a little hint into this photo. One of the great things about this picture-- First of all, it's my granddaddy and I love him so much.

laughter

But this picture has a light source coming from one side so it makes it nice and balanced. You can show where the light source is. Yeah, the light is coming from this direction and there's nice shadows coming from this side. That's a real clue on choosing a great picture. Now there's a lot of detail here. There's a lot of detail and a lot of background. And in doing it in fabric it gets a little complicated. So I'm going to show you how to erase some of it and add a beautiful background without having to deal with all those little details. Here's an image how you cropped the photo. You cropped it and you took out the car. You just see more of a portrait of your grandfather. Mm-hum, exactly. If you want to start-- I don't suggest you start doing a whole big picture. You can do that later, like I did with the long one with the bass player. But for what we're going to do today I'm going to show you how to crop it down zero in on the focal point and get rid of those extra details that aren't necessary. And make it quick and easy. Now you saw the granddaughters, the artwork. Here's the photo we started with or Tammie started with. She didn't have to do any cropping, you can see. It was a focal point image. But not all images are perfect for this sewing art. You know, I showed you where the light source was coming on my grandfather's picture. The problem with this one it's a perfectly good picture but the light source isn't coming from one side and it's kind of shining on the blanket and leaving a shadow on the baby's face. Yeah, so you wouldn't have the detail. This is just to kind of whet your appetite to peak your interest of how to sew art. Now we'll show you how to take that picture and make a pattern out of it. Generally on Sewing With Nancy we start with a sewing pattern or a quilting pattern but in how to sew art we're going to create our own pattern from the photo Tammie has chosen. You're going to do this with software. Yes. This is free software that you can download a free trial. You can make patterns from your own pictures just like I'm doing. So you can see howtosewart.com is where you can find this. This is how, then, you can get the pattern first. There's a lot of detail in this first program getting ready but then the second program, we'll do the sewing. Okay, that's where the magic happens. That's right. This is just the preparation, it's important, but it's easy. So you import your picture just a JPEG image. You can get it from your digital camera or if you have an old picture like I had you can scan it in and import it right in. It'll show up right here on the screen. There's only a couple of little options here for you. The first one is photo detail. I put it on 71, and you give it a higher number like that because the more pixels it squeezes into the picture the more clear your image is going to be. You can see on the right side of the computer image that it's pixilated, little squares. Yes, yes. Then the next thing you do is choose how many fabrics. And I know it's counter-intuitive but you go and you choose less fabrics than you would think of. Right here I have ten, but I want you to see what happens when I use even less. What we're going to see is that the picture is really good even with less. You can still see the image of your grandfather. Those eyes are sparkling and, you know, the smile is great. Yes, and less fabrics to work with means it's easier. We're going to show you how to choose these fabrics. Don't worry, we'll give you all those details. But first we've got to get the pattern. Yes. So the next step is this last option is to use the 'shape smoothing.' That's because, just because we have the pixels and just because we have a small number of fabrics we need it to smooth out the corners and merge them together. That's what this tool does. So you select the number and make sure this little box is used, this feature selected. That's in the lower left-hand corner. Yes, right over here. Than you just push 'process image' and when you print the pattern out they'll all be fused together. That's the way the image is going to look. The further you are away from the designs the more impressionistic they look. And fun. And then you print out patterns. So the first print shows that you have six fabrics. We're going to be detailing how to choose those. Then there will be numerous sheets which I'll get to. We'll be tiling these together in just a few minutes all these little numbers. This is where I-- When I did this first of all, I was intimidated. But you can see, after you put them together it's kind of like paint by number. It is just like paint by number. And you can see here on the screen there's a lot of, you know just background that just looks like noise. We're going to get rid of that. I'm going to show you how to do that in just a minute. It's not necessary, and look at all those stripes! There's no need to do the stripes on the shirt. Yeah, we're not going to put that detail in. This is how you create the pattern. You set your pixels at a pretty great number and then you'd choose oh, six to ten fabrics. And hit the third important area of contouring and then you print out your patterns. Now we'll go to the table show you how to put it together and create that pattern. We're pleased to show you the finished result of granddaddy's photo. You can see it behind us that Tammie has created all with just six fabrics. It's created with the pattern we're about to share with you. But I wanted you to see what you saw on the computer and the finished result. The pattern is tiled like you'd do for many online patterns but this is the pattern you make yourself. You can see the upper left-hand corner. There are little numbers that look like maybe little hash marks or polka dots. You put this together. As I bring it back down we'll show you how to tile it together. Tammie, this is what makes the pattern, right? It's not necessarily giving steps one, two, and three, but these color values. Yes. Those color values, and that's what the numbers are. Here's a number six and it relates to the number six and then there's three and four and five all on this little sheet. Yes. When you look at the pattern you'll also notice that at the top it says row and columns. That's important, because it shows you exactly how to tape this pattern together. You'll take them and put them in order. You'll cut the border because there's extra paper around. You'd cut the border off and you'll match it right up. You'll see it matches right up. Then you just tape it together. I like to do the columns first. Then I have the next one here. I've already cut the borders off of this one so I can show it to you really quickly. Again, I'm just matching up that next third one in this column. That's really simple. Then that makes it ready to go right on top of these other two columns that I've already put together for you. So that's really simple, right? It is. Then the pattern is ready. And you can kind of see the paint by number effect of the face image coming through. You can even kind of see the shapes. Sure. You certainly can. What we're going to do next is create the fusible web that you have on your side, to your right, Tammie with parchment paper, fusible web to place over the pattern. Yeah, and the reason we're doing this is because we want something to hold all those pieces together we're going to make. We have two layers of parchment paper sandwiching the fusible web. Not paperback fusible web, but just-- Here we go, here we got it. Here's the fusible web and then more parchment paper. Yeah, and the parchment paper you can just find at the grocery store. It's easy to find. Then I just cut a piece of the fusible web to match it. We're going to spray this with a basting spray that you have there, Nancy. Before you do, you just make sure the fusible web stays attached to the parchment paper. You could just use-- And this is virtual spraying.

spraying noise

You do it two or three times, you can do it outside. Yes, of course. You don't want to make your whole house sticky. Then you do it kind of close. If you do it up too high the wind will blow most of it away. Get a nice sticky coat. Then you put the top sheet right on top and that makes it ready to go. Our next step shows it already sprayed and adhered and now we're going to look at some of the contour lines. Now, let's take a look at granddaddy again the great photo from the 1970s. You can see the shoulder the collar and all the stripes from the shirt are gone. Yes, they are. And we're going to get rid of that. One of the first things you do after you position that pattern underneath the fusible web you can look for the edge. You know, the good thing about this one is that the background was fairly light and his hair and his jacket was dark so it makes it easy to see right where that line is. I'm just sectioning off. I'm going to go up and section his hair off because I can see it, and that makes this one whole piece of background a real big piece. So we're going to not pay attention to the detail in the background. No, because we didn't want that detail anyway. Now I'm going to do the same thing for the collar. I can see the edge. And look at all those pieces that represent stripes. We don't want to do that, do we? No, uh-uh. I don't want to do it. Again, I'm just drawing in those details. I have to admit when I first worked with this software I thought, oh, my goodness! All those little pieces! But this makes life so much easier. Yes, this is one, two, three, four pieces now instead of-- Because in this shirt collar, for example there were a lot of number ones and those stripes of number two. So we just got rid of that. And here on the jacket we have almost all number fives and got rid of the little sprinklings of-- Yeah, the little bits of-- But when it comes to the face then that's another story. Yes, we keep that. We keep that because I want to keep the sparkle in his eye. I don't want to edit that out. So when we look at the finished artwork and you look in the eye area there are many more pieces in this section than there are as we go to the side. You'll see, Tammie eliminated that portion. Yes, and another thing I want to pinpoint to simplify it even further. If you can look in really close there might be a little piece that says number four, and another little piece. Well, you can just merge those together. That becomes one bigger piece. That kind of simplifies things a lot. Because, you know, if it's not as important as the eyes you can simplify it and just merge it together a little bit further. So instead of one, two, three, four, five little pieces that's one piece here. And you can see on the quilt back here where you see there's big pieces where I did just that. Sure, we'll look back in here. This is all kind of merged as one. So it's really an interesting process. And we're not doing any sewing this time. We're just making the pattern we're choosing the fabric next. Yeah, if we prepare like we're preparing then it makes the process for adding fabric and sewing a lot easier. When you start with fabric you begin with an audition piece one that has lots of color. Yes. This is my favorite, because I pick something that just has lots of beautiful colors that makes me feel excited. That's what I start with. It gives me a color palette and shows me what colors I can use for the rest of the fabrics and that's what I do. Another thing I do is to put them in order from light to dark. That's crucial. Because if they're not in order the correct way then the picture won't show up. So I use my value isolation tool. It has two little holes in it and it makes it so I only focus in on one question. That question is, is this one darker than this one? My intention is to go from light to dark this way. If the answer is yes, then I continue on. Oh, uh-oh. Do you think that one right there? No, we've got to do some little switching here. Yeah, so then I'll-- It only can go this direction so I'll move it back this way. Now the answer again is-- I think I put it in the wrong place. I think you did. I think we can go in one-- I'm sure you're getting the idea though. So is this second one darker? Sure. Then let's continue on, how about that one? That's the greatest tool for finding value I've ever seen or just way of doing it. Yeah. It makes it real clear to see, easy to manage. So here are the fabrics that we chose Tammie chose and then she put samples of these along. And you know, these same fabrics could be used for a variety of images. The granddaughters, my granddaughters' picture which you see now, the finished one had almost these same fabrics. So you don't have to worry about color you just have to worry about value. Yeah, some people think that if you have a picture that's really light you need to pick all light fabrics but no, you don't. You could go in a different color family totally. Here's Tammie's image of Doris Day. You can see it's in the blue families maybe a little more darker blue in some areas. But it reads anyway you want it to feel. But even though it's blue, it could be in the plums. It's just six to 12 fabrics will do the trick. So we have made a pattern we have tiled it together from a picture chosen the fabrics. In the next episode we'll show you the magic how to put all these components together to create art. Today's Nancy's Corner guest is a storyteller who is drawn to small town life and has a penchant for quilting. When she combined those three interests she became a New York Times best-selling author. I'd like you to welcome Marie Bostwick to Sewing With Nancy a novelist who's going to share with you some of her stories and how she began. Welcome, Marie. Thanks. I'm so glad to be here, Nancy. You've been on my radar screen for a long time to be included in this interview section because I always find it fascinating how writers begin their career especially when they incorporate my love of sewing and quilting. Give our viewers a little preview. Well, people often ask what came first, the writing or quilting? The writing came fist. I was writing almost as soon as I could pick up a pen. You know, when I was a little girl that was my idea of fun was to hang out in the basement and write stories. Wow. So I didn't really know though where it would take me. And when I was, oh, you know kind of a grow up, in my 30's I went on a vacation where there was a writers' workshop and the teacher later pulled me aside and said, oh, well, you're a writer. What have you published? Which seemed crazy to me because at that point I was writing grocery lists, in my mind. I had little kids at home. But he encouraged me and I did start writing seriously and really it took about ten years before my first novel was published. Now you're on novel number 11. Yes, ma'am. So The Second Sister is what we're going to talk about today and how this story ties quilting into the mystery of it all. Mm-hmm. So there's Lucy and there's-- Alice. Yes. Lucy is kind of a hard-bitten ambitious but loving political operative who has to go home during a family tragedy. And there she discovers something very secret in the old family home a trunk full of quilts made by her sister, Alice. And they all have one inscription on the back "To Maeve." They are made over 18 years one quilt every year. But nobody knows exactly who Maeve is. And Alice passed away. And Alice passes away, very sadly. But during the story, you know, Lucy really finds out a lot about herself and what she wants out of life. But she also rediscovers her sister and the town she grew up in. And this character made a quilt every year for 18 years and her quilting kind of grew as her life changed. Yes, it's true. And you know, I think those of us who've been quilting for a long time I've been quilting for 25 years they're definitely better now than they were 25 years ago. I can attest to that as well. You're also drawn to small towns. I am. You don't necessarily live in one. I actually do live in a very small town in Connecticut but I travel a lot. Okay. But it is-- I love that a town is almost a character within itself. That's always the case in my books. So when you are writing-- You know, I write a lot, but it's how-to sewing books. I have definitely a plan. But when you're writing, how does the theme come to you? You know, I don't usually actually begin with a theme. I just write the story. But it is interesting that when the book is done themes have emerged. I don't even know what they are usually until about a month after I've finished writing. But clearly there were things on my mind once the book is finished. So you have characters you have thought of and then you kind of put in that small town flavor and you incorporate always a little quilting. Almost always. But you know, the books really aren't about quilting. The books are about the relationships between the characters. And really probably half of my readers can't even thread a needle. And that's fine, but what I think is fascinating is that it brings quilting to people who are not quilters. Oh, yes. So many people have written to me after they've read one of my books and said, I want to learn to quilt. And very often I will drop everything and find their nearest quilt shop and tell them that they should call and say I want to learn to quilt. And they will have nine new best friends. They certainly will. Isn't that something? You know, when we survey our readers there are two common hobbies number one, flower gardening, number two, reading. Absolutely. So this kind of combines, you know a combination of things in The Second Sister. You're working on a new book. I am, I am. I'm going back to Texas. I wrote a book called Between Heaven and Texas and I'm writing a sequel right now. I don't have a title for it but it's a beloved character of mine, Mary Dell Templeton who in fact, happens to have a quilting television show. Imagine that. Imagine that. Does she do interviews on her television show? She mostly does a lot of quilting-- She has her son. Her son, Howard helps pick the fabrics for her quilts. Because while Mary Dell is a wonderful quilter she has no taste whatsoever. I think she needs to use Tammie Bowser's value tool finder. What do you think? That would be a really good idea, yes. We just showed how that worked. Well, it's interesting, Marie, how you've incorporated your love of writing, your love of small towns and some of our hobbies and interests in that as well. Thank you for being our guest. Thanks so much for having me, Nancy. It's been fun. You're welcome. And than you for joining us during this first program of "How to Sew Art." Tammie Bowser will be back next time for our second episode. And we will working with the fabric and the pattern and then all the magic happens. You can watch this program again at nancyzieman.com and learn more all about Sewing With Nancy. 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

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