Claire Sherman Art

Serging with silk

Posted on January 31, 2019 by admin

I gave up ironing the silk. I took it to HelloStitch and used their serger to hem it. The serger is a fancy sewing machine that cuts off the edge and sews sort of a blanket stitch around the edge. This is frequently used for sewing t-shirts or jersey cloth.

In other news, I’m teaching a Wonky Log Cabin class this Sunday, Feb. 3, at HelloStitch from 10 AM- 1 PM. There are 2 spots left in the class.

WONKY LOG CABIN

Whether or not you know how to make a traditional log cabin block, come join Claire and learn how to make a wonky/improvisational one! Learn a little about improvisational quilt design as we look at our log cabin blocks. It’s amazing what you can make with left over strips of fabric. This is a great way to use your scraps. The class is a process class. However, Claire will discuss how to turn these sample log cabin blocks into a quilt. This class is appropriate for beginners on up.

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Sewing with silk!

Posted on January 12, 2019 by admin

I’m attempting to hem this piece of silk, to make a tallit/prayer shawl for my Bat Mitzvah student, Hannah. She picked this sheer silk fabric. I got a suggestion from Taree to take it to HelloStitch, and use their serger. That’s what I’m going to do, because it’s very difficult to even iron it. I’m using a piece of parchment paper between the iron and the fabric, because the vines get sticky if the iron touches them directly.

Next month I’m taking Sue Fox’s silk class with EBHQ, but the talit will be finished and the Bat Mitzvah will be history by then.

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Strata for baby quilt

Posted on December 23, 2018 by admin

Here is the first set of strata sewn together for the baby quilt I’m working on. I would have made a wider piece, but I was limited by the bicycle fabric. I only have short lengths of it left, from a baby quilt for the older sibling of this baby.

I varied the widths of the layers, trying not to repeat myself. The light blue is the widest, at 10″. The narrowest is the yellow, which is only 1″ wide, i.e. half an inch, when sewn.

Here is a quilt with the same technique. I took the strata, and cut slices at various angles, and sewed them back together. I shifted the strips around before I sewed them back together.

Here is the baby quilt I made previously, using the bicycle fabric. Each time I cut a strip of it, I had to cut through the bicycles above and below it, so that there would be a little yellow margin above and below it. That’s why there isn’t much left of this fabric.

Posted in Improvisational piecing, modern quilts, Work In Progress | Comments Off

Baby quilt with stars and bicycles, WIP

Posted on December 20, 2018 by admin

I have a commission to do a baby quilt. Here are the fabrics that will go into it. I might add some light blue solid fabric as well. I’m planning to construct this quilt in strips of different widths, sew them together, then make diagonal slices through the strata, and sew them back together in an offset arrangement. I learned this technique from Pat Pauly when she taught for EBHQ. Pat calls this technique “slash and burn,” but the way I’ve adapted this technique is different from how she uses it.

Below is the fabric for the back of this quilt:

Posted in EBHQ, Improvisational piecing, Work In Progress | Tagged EBHQ Pat Pauly | Comments Off

Thinking about a baby quilt

Posted on December 18, 2018 by admin

Above is a baby quilt I did a few years ago. I’m thinking about making another baby quilt with an outer space theme, so I dug up a photo of this one for inspiration. This quilt has some of my early inserted strips- the thin blue ones in the red around his name. They are harder to do than you’d think they’d be.

Posted in Improvisational piecing, Machine applique | Comments Off

Circular Squares and Rectangles Class!

Posted on November 21, 2018 by admin

I taught a class recently at HelloStitch called Circular Squares and Rectangles. Here are some of my samples:

Slightly Sober Path 2012

And here is some of my students’ work:

A great time was had by all!

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Placemat and coasters

Posted on November 13, 2018 by admin

My first born, who is pursuing an MFA in sound design, requested a placemat and coasters, with relevant fabrics. I went to Stonemountain fabrics, and found radio frequency fabric! I also used music note, hand tool, electric/acoustic guitars, and piano fabric from my stash. I made a wonky log cabin, since I’m teaching that at HelloStitch in Feb.

I actually like the back better than the front. I think it shows off the different fabrics better.

Here are both sides of the coasters. They don’t really have a front and back. I didn’t do much piecing on these, since it didn’t seem to add anything.

Posted in Improvisational piecing, Work In Progress | Comments Off

PIQF and SJSA

Posted on October 15, 2018 by admin

Today I spent the day at the Pacific Int’l Quilt Festival (PIQF). Even though I was there from 10 AM till 4 PM when it closed, I’m not sure that I saw all the quilts. I did see most of them though. There was a special Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA) exhibit there this year. Three of those quilts I had helped make in some way. There was one that had a block that I embroidered, one that I found 6 other people to embroider the blocks, and one that I worked with a youngish artist to help her collage her quilt. In addition to the SJSA quilts I had one of my own quilts on exhibit, called Axis Mundi-Jacobs Ladder.

Above is Axis Mundi/Jacob’s Ladder.

Next is a quilt by 6 Lakota youth. I found 6 members of EBHQ to embroider the 6 blocks within a very short time span.

For the next one, I sat with Crystal for most of a day, helping her collage this quilt.

Posted in EBHQ, Quilt Shows, Uncategorized | Tagged PIQF, SJSA | Comments Off

Finally a finished quilt!

Posted on October 12, 2018 by admin

I just finished quilting and binding this quilt. I started it as a sample for the wonky stars class I taught ta HelloStitch. I wanted to see how many stars I could fit into each other. I stopped at three, because it would have gotten too large. I used a piece of ombre blue fabric for the largest star fabric. This will be one of my two quilts for the EBHQ show and tell in Nov. The other quilt will probably be the one from the previous post, which hasn’t been quilted yet.

Posted in EBHQ, Improvisational piecing, liberated stars | Comments Off

I took 2 classes with Maria Shell

Posted on September 27, 2018 by admin

I took two workshops with Maria Shell. Linear Blocks and Kitchen Sink Quilting. The finished top above is from Kitchen Sink Quilting. I took a pile of blocks I made in Sujata Shaw’s EBHQ class and/or from her book, and put them together in a medallion format. The finished top is above. The process is below:

I was going to put log cabin blocks in the corners, but changed my mind. Also, the blue blocks were supposed to be a zigzag, but you can see in the first photo that they didn’t end up that way. I decided not to resew it because it added another unexpected element. The two blocks with grey in them were a mistake that I turned into two new blocks.

This is from the other class, linear blocks.

Posted in Classes, EBHQ, Improvisational piecing | 1 Comment