From Graphics to Fibers – Karlee Porter

Some of you may remember

this post

about fabric design.

Well,

I printed one of those designs onto fabric and quilted it…

PRETTY MUCH ASAP.

ha.

But seriously.

Here is the design that I had printed:

This is one of my favorite designs that I have done.

I have the actual design sized at 36 x 56 inches

but I decided to just have this printed

at 16 x 22

so that I could experiment and play with it.

*sidenote*

if anyone is interested in purchasing some of this fabric for themselves,

you can find it here.

(and other sizes are available upon request)

*end sidenote*

And here are progression pictures of the quilting…

The first thing I did was just outlined the hexagon with

snow white thread.

I didn’t really use

rhyme or reason

(what else is new?)

on the best path to take to get

the minimal amount of overlap in thread,

which really wasn’t that big of a deal to me.

When I first got into the quilting industry,

one of the rules that I learned was that it

wasn’t very good to quilt over the same line

more than once.

But just like rhyme and reason,

I am not a huge fan of rules

when it comes to being creative.

My only real rule is that there are no rules.

I never limit myself…

or at least I try really hard not to.

I always try to keep myself

OUT

of the creative box.

Anyways, back to the pictures…

This is the back of the quilt:

I outlined all hexagons

not just the ones that were touching others.

Those were pretty easy.

After I outlined all the hexagons,

I really really liked how they kind of puffed up

and the fabric as a whole started to gain texture

that matched the fabric’s design.

Oh, by the way I should mention

I used 2 layers

of 80/20 batting

(which I THINK is cotton and polyester)

I really like using that batting combo because the batting is thin,

but dense.

It allows me to quilt the crap out of my fabric

without it getting all wrinkly and bunchy.

It will still hang nice and flat when it is all finished.

I like that.

So,

After I outlined all the hexagons,

I decided that I would quilt all the white space

with VERY dense quilting.

I wanted those hexagons to really

POP!

Especially the lone hexies

hanging out on their own.

Flying solo.

Floating through space.

I am really happy with those cute little tornadoes.

I tried really hard to just do one tornado

for each little spot

where a hexagon would have been.

It did get a little tough to keep things aligned

where the hexies started to spread out.

But I just had to make sure

to check myself

before I wrecked myself.

And I think in the end it turned out pretty good.

Sometimes,

it feels like the practice pieces are the most fun.

I try to keep myself

on my toes each time I do something new.

But at the same time,

it is rewarding to start a project

and finish it in the same sitting.

It is nice to just come up with one design

and repeat it over and over.

*ahem*cough*goodsourceofpractice*cough*cough*

So, even though this is only the size of a placemat,

it was quite fun to see my work go

from concept

to fiber

to quilting machine

BOOM! DONE!

…well, after I bind it

it will be done.

But still.

You get what I mean.

(…and I will post a full picture when that part has been done

but I was too excited to withhold the whole project

just because of some silly binding.)

Not every beautiful piece of art

is huge and eccentric

and super intricate.

Sometimes it’s the simplest things

that are simultaneously

the most beautiful.

And beauty is so subjective.

Luckily your work only needs to be beautiful to you.

That is really what matters.

Promise.

Be great to each other.

-Karlee

One thought on “From Graphics to Fibers”