Inspired By Elvis

On June 28, 2018, a new art quilt book celebrating Elvis will be made available for purchase and one of MY QUILTS is in that book!  Here is the book, INSPIRED BY ELVIS, if you are interested.

In 2016, the author, Donna Desoto, put out a call for entries.  Participating artists were encouraged to choose a song or other theme having to do with Elvis.  When I read the lyrics to the song MEMORIES, I knew that would be my choice!

The  reason?

One evening in 1975, I was driving home from work and passing by Graceland, as I did twice each day, when I was surprised to find the gates open and Elvis himself signing autographs for a small group of fans.  This was the one and only time I ever saw him in real life.  I wanted to represent that memory with my quilt.

MEMORIES by Patricia Smith   36" x 36"

I am fortunate that MY QUILT will be exhibited at the INTERNATIONAL QUILT FESTIVAL in Houston this fall, 2018!

The song I chose, MEMORIES, speaks of 'holding hands and red bouquets', which are depicted by the Elvis fans  My 'twilight sky' is 'trimmed with purple haze' while 'golden autumn leaves' fall to the ground.  The 'laughing eyes' of Elvis can be found in the grass in the foreground (bottom right).

The golden silk fabric in the sky represents the silk drapes that hang in the living room at Graceland, where Elvis entertained family and friends.  The digital camouflage fabric in the distant lawn (between trees) represents his service in the Army.  His face can be found on two areas of the lawn as can a guitar.  To represent his Western movies, there are cowboy hats and boots sparkling in the treetops.  There are palm trees and flowers to represent his beach movies.  Glittered felt musical notes remind us of his gift.  There are three Blackjack hands...and Ace and a Queen...scattered around the quilt to remind us of the decades he spent performing as a showman in Vegas. 

And last but not least, the back of the quilt is covered with money, to represent the income Elvis continues to provide for his family long after he has passed.

The working title of this quilt was ‘TINY GRACELAND’ because this house is TINY!  The west-facing windows are made with three layers of fabric...a silver lame’, a gold glittery organza and a purple-gold tulle...to give the impression of reflecting a setting sun as well as duplicate the diamond grid pattern of the windows at Graceland.  

The 'laughing eyes' of Elvis peer out from the grass, made of various fibers and fabrics.

Back in 1975, the road was still a highway and there was a grassy area between the fence and road...unlike today's concrete pads.

The golden silk fabric used to depict clouds reflecting the setting sun was actually torn from the drapes at my own home!

Tiny Elvis and his fans were made paper doll style...creating the overall form in fabric, then making clothing from separate fabric pieces.  I asked my friends to pose for me one day in a restaurant to provide models for the fans.

The fans depict the song lyrics,' holding hands' and 'red bouquets'.

'Golden autumn leaves' are scattered on the ground behind Elvis.

 Elvis continues to provide.

Perhaps you remember the song?

"Memories"

Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind

Memories, sweetened thru the ages just like wine

Quiet thought come floating down

And settle softly to the ground

Like golden autumn leaves around my feet

I touched them and they burst apart with sweet memories,

Sweet memories

Of holding hands and red bouquets

And twilight trimmed in purple haze

And laughing eyes and simple ways

And quiet nights and gentle days with you

Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind

Memories, sweetened thru the ages just like wine,

Memories, memories, sweet memories

My Brown-Eyed Girl Quilt

At the November, 2011, retreat of my quilt guild, I took a class from Susan Cleveland. She taught us her 'piped applique' technique that she used on her 'Eye of the Piper' quilt.

I bought her PIPING HOT BINDING tool, as I could see it would come in handy, both for quilts and clothing. It is a clear plastic unmarked ruler with grooves on the underside near each long edge...the groove on one side is 0.25" from the edge and on the other side it is 0.5"
from edge.

This means you can cut the strips slightly wider and not worry about keeping the edges perfectly aligned when you fold your strip over the filler cord to sew...because you will use the tool to trim the finished piping to have a flange of the exact width.

The covered filler cord rides in the groove of the tool and the rotary cutter is used to cut along the adjacent edge to trim the flange to, in this case, 0.25".

Once the piping for this project was made, it was time to make the blocks.

The pieces are cut using layered freezer paper templates. There was one A, B, C, and D template for each block. I wanted to make more than one block at a time, so I made duplicates of the templates, allowing me to make 4 clocks at once.

After choosing which fabric would go where, the templates were ironed to my fabrics.

I cut out each shape, leaving a generous 1/2" along the curved edge but cutting the other 3 sides according to the template.

Then I began adding the piping to the curved edge of each piece.

I chain-sewed these pieces (not cutting the piping between templates) and used a small wooden skewer to help hold the piping in place as I sewed. Susan had lots of helpful tips for sewing these blocks!

Once the piping was added, the blocks were cut apart and sorted according to template.

I then turned the seam allowance of the curved edge and piping to the backside and pressed carefully. This leaves a little 'gap' between the template and the piping...perfect!

Now to assemble the blocks...

I used a waxy paper for wrapping deli sandwiches, which I purchased from Sam's Club, as my foundation. I cut the fabric rectangle that was to be the 'eye' and pinned it to the paper.

Then I used masking tape to position the template (to avoid having to pin through the 3-layered freezer paper!).

Then I carefully stitched in the ditch along side of the piping to attach this piece.

Once stitched, only THEN can the freezer paper template be removed!

I carefully folded back this layer to trim the 'eye' (rectangle) close to the stitching to eliminate bulk.

Then I smoothed the fabric back in place and added the next piece.

I continued to build blocks in this way...starting with template A, then B, then C, then D, until the block was completed.

See the masking tape to hold the piece in place for sewing...and the wooden skewer which helps spread the ditch open to sew in it.

The last piece of this block is ready to be stitched.

With each addition, the underlayers are trimmed to reduce bulk. But after the first layer, it is easier to fold the paper back and trim from the backside.

Here I am playing with the various finished blocks, trying to decide how I will arrange these and how many more I will need.

This is the final design. But even though I like it, it seems like it is not enough by itself.

I decide to make some stacks of chinese coins to put on either side!

After selecting the fabrics to use and sewing them together, I layered the pieces on the quilting machine to quilt.

Speacking of quilting, although I have no pictures of this part, this piece had to be quilted on the sewing machine instead of the longarm. The quilting consists of stitching in those same ditches that were stitched in as the blocks were assembled. Susan warned us about doing too much additional stitching, which will draw up the quilt, as the filler in the piping will not shrink up like the rest of the fabric and you can end up with 'mountains'.

So I spent hours stitching in those ditches...again! I thought how ironic this was...I was a new longarm owner and here I was, quilting on the sewing machine instead! boo hiss.

Once the two panels of 'coins' were made, I decided this needed a panel across the top...something to put a hanging sleeve on! I wanted to join all the various panels together using beads...so there needed to be a way to hang this without having the rod show.

I auditioned fabric for the top panel...trying to decide whether to use a dark strip within a lighter field or a light strip within a darker field.

The darker strip in the lighter field won out. But instead of a strip, I wanted a zigzag.

I cut little 60 degree triangles from some of the leftover fabric strips and arranged them in a pleasing way. Then one by one, these were sewn together.

I decided to put the piping around each section, between the binding and the body of the quilt.

I was now toying with the idea of hanging some stuff from the bottom edge.

(the clips are just holding the binding in place until it is sewn by hand.)

You can see my body as I hold the camera out over the table, trying to gain perspective. I have no design wall, so photos are the way I decide what to do next!

I settled on the distance I would leave BETWEEN each of the sections, then shortened the top section to accomodate that.

The finished quilt: Here, you can see some of the quilting, which really doesn't show much in the photos taken straight on. The top section holds the others with large wooden beads. There are bead spacers at intervals between the center and side sections.

I used cotton batting for this, but added an additional layer of polyester in the top section to create a trapunto-like affect. I stippled in the light triangles above and below the dark zigzag.

For the bottom of the quilt, I created 3 triangles. Two are 60 degrees, like the ones in the top, and the center one is 90 degrees. I used a product called INNER FUSE by Dritz, a double-sided stiff fusible interfacing. After cutting the triangles, I cut and sewed fabric to enclose them, leaving the upper edge to close by hand when the spacer-beads were added. The triangles also hang from the main quilt with beads. There is a wooden circle hanging from the center triangle and wooden and brass beads on the side ones.

The side coin strips also have a wooden circle at the lower edge. These circles were left over from a 'challenge quilt' I did before.

Here is the back of the quilt. You can see the minimal quilting in the main piece...just the stitching in the ditch around the 'eyes' and also, between the blocks.

Also, notice, the hanging sleeve has been added...this is laying sideways--the top is at the left of your screen.

And here is the finished piece, MY BROWN-EYED GIRL, which was a birthday gift for MY brown-eyed girl, Kelly.

Square Peg, Round Hole, part 4

After washing the quilt, I was pleasantly surprised that the bleeding had indeed disappeared! But the quilt had shrunk a bit. So I had to stretch it out and block it into shape.


This quilt is slightly wider than my cutting table. I pulled out one of those cardboard cutting mats...the kind that you can buy in your local fabric store...and put this on top of my cutting table. I used clamps to firmly attach the mat to the table on one side. This way, I could pin my quilt to this mat to block it.

But the quilt was WIDER than this cardboard mat. So I pushed my ironing board up against the table and pinned the opposite side of the quilt into the ironing surface. Not high-tech, but it worked to allow me to pin this quilt into size/shape and keep it there until it dried.

At this point, I r.e.a.l.l.y wanted to be finished with this quilt but I knew I had to continue as planned and couch on this black sparkley thread that had been patiently waiting for its turn to shine.


Using a needle-threader and needle enabled me to bury the ends of this thread into the quilt before couching it. I cut long lengths and layed them approximately in place and used the needle to run both ends of the thread into the quilt surface, leaving long tails sticking out at each end. These were cut off after couching that thread.




Then I used a narrow zigzag stitch on my regular sewing machine to couch over the thread.


I covered every seam of the checkerboard with this couched thread...between each wedge and around each concentric circle. I also used it around the golden center circle (with the nipple).



It was hard to handle this heavy quilt on my sewing machine at first, but then I had an idea. I ran down to the garage and pulled out a pair of clean garden gloves that had a rubbery-grippy palmar surface.

These gloves worked GREAT for manipulating the quilt under the machine! I was better able to pull the surface taute so the decorative thread would lay in the seam...plus, the gloves helped me to assist the feeding of the quilt under the machine.

Yeah, I did have to pull them off each time I needed to cut with scissors or thread a new length of the decorative thread onto the needle, but even with the repeated on and off, the gloves were a big help!

So that is pretty much every single detail I can think of regarding the creation of this quilt! Too much info, maybe?

The end. Maybe. ;)

Square Peg, Round Hole, part 3

After adding the background to the checkerboard area, I also cut and added the borders. The challenge rules stated that there HAD to be an outer black border that measured 3" wide...then a 1.5" border that was one of your colors...then a 3/4" border that was also black. This way, ALL the quilts would have the same 'frame'.

I had already quilted the majority of my quilt, but had yet to decide how to quilt the borders. I removed the quilt from the frame and layed it on my cutting table to audition various designs. I folded paper and cut curves, then unfolded to see what it looked like. I decided this one would work.

So I unrolled some freezer paper to a length that was as long as my quilt and cut strips from it that were as wide as the outer border.

After drawing the design onto one strip of the freezer paper, I used the tip of the iron to stick two strips together, so that I could cut two at a time.

I only pressed the strips together in the areas OUTSIDE my design area...in the waste.

When all the sides were cut, I ironed the freezer paper templates to the quilt border all around.

Then I put the quilt back on the HandiQuilter frame to quilt the border area.



I stitched around the paper templates first, then tore them away a little at a time to do the stippling. I found I could stipple more easily once the paper was removed, and by then, it was no longer needed.

I have never used this method before, but it worked well, and if I am not too stupid to remember it, I will do this again!

I DO wish I had used double batting, though, to give a bit more of a 'trapunto' effect. Next time.

Now the quilting was done! But remember, ONE of my indigo fabrics had bled onto the adjacent goldenrod fabric, so I knew I had to wash this quilt to hopefully rescue it!

As you can see, the center had not yet been added to the checkerboard. I didn't want to add that until AFTER I had washed the quilt.

I put on the binding and prepared to toss this into the washer, not sure what it would look like when it came out!

Here you can see some of the quilting BEFORE it was washed. It was kinda lumpy.

Below is the back-side of the border area before washing. Remember? There are white pokies here, where the batting poked through the back fabric.

I knew I had to throw this in the wash, but I didn't want to add the center piece (the square peg) until AFTER washing it, so I just scabbed-on a lovely black and pink scrap to protect the exposed batting in this area.

This black/pink piece would be removed after washing and replaced with the golden nipple...I mean, 'square peg in the round hole'.

This is what it looked like as I prepared myself (mentally) to toss it into the washer, hoping the bleeding would not be made worse, and hoping the blue lines would come out.

Up close, you can see the blue lines that I had drawn on the fabric to direct me in my quilting...and if you look closely, you can see where the blue fabric has bled onto the yellow fabric in those two inner rings.

This is the back of the quilt, before washing but after the binding was put on.

Then I washed it...