WIP Wednesday: Quilt backing & basting!

I've been on a piecing run lately exploring log cabin blocks and piecing quilt tops.  The to be quilted pile has gotten a bit big, so I thought I'd better crack on and get a quilt top basted.  My donation quilt has been sitting there for a few weeks looking at me and I have backing on hand for it so it's top of the pile!  This is one of my Library projects (actually make something from the books and magazines we buy!) that I first wrote about here.

Of course first it meant making the backing.  As the quilt top is over 60" square, I needed to cut and piece this sleepy owl design.  It has a repeating pattern which needed a bit of alignment first.  To match up the pieces, I ironed a seam along the length and used this edge to match up right sides together.  I had to move the pieces along until I found the correct repeat and lost about 6" in length not overlapping at both ends.

Pinning along the whole length of the seam, I sewed along the ironed line.  This worked pretty well for me most the of the way along the backing fabric.

Following advice from Crazy Mom Quilts I snipped away all loose threads so the dark colours wouldn't show up through the white (this happened to me on my Halloween quilt - black threads showing through the cream sashing!).

Then it was kick the dogs out, move the sofa, hoover (that's vacuuming on our side of the pond!), wash the floor, hoover again and then layout to make sure its wide enough!

While Charly was doing her hop from one side of the patio window to the other, for some reason  looking at the kitchen door, (Hello Charly, right here in front of you!) I taped the backing to the floor and laid out the wadding (this is Warm & Natural from Hobbs).

I trimmed it all around and laid down the quilt top.  Then I turned on the TV to watch Thor as pinning safety pins through all the layers takes a bit of time!  I'm hoping to try table basting and need to buy clamps to secure to the table, plus I'd like to try the board method where you wrap the quilt over some wooden boards too.  Have any of you guys tried these methods?  Getting down on the floor doesn't bother me, though I do feel it in the glutes afterwards!  Trying to baste anything bigger than this would be a problem as I don't have the floor space for it.

I hour and 23 minutes later...  I might have been a bit distracted watching the movie!

I love using curved safety pins and pin about a hands width across the quilt.  I probably pin more than I have to but after the last quilt puckering on me, I wasn't taking any chances.  So much so, I ran out of curved pins and had to rummage the first aid kit for some straight ones!  There is something very satisfying about finishing up basting!

While Charly was doing her door dance,  I thought Wilbur was chewing on a rawhide bone.  I forgot that Wilbur likes to dig in the garden and bury the odd rawhide bone or two.  It's very comical watching him sussing out a spot and making sure no-one is watching him.  Of course, this time no-one was watching him and instead of burying his bone, he must have decided it wasn't safe where he first put it.  While I was basting away, he was busy buring his bone in my Stash box of backing fabric!

This isn't Wilbur but it's what I imagine he looked like when he was nose deep in Ikea Britten nummer!  Mucky pup!

Image from Facebook Doggie of the Day!

So backing fabric is getting a wash, Wilbur is getting a walk and Charly and I are getting ready to quilt!  To check out what everyone else is up to I'm linking up to:

Blog update & HST downloads

In advance of my turn on Plum & June's Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop, I've been tidying up the blog a bit and have put up two new downloads available here.  I'm exploring ways to make Half Square Triangles for a post for the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland page and made up 2 cheat sheets, that I thought would be helpful.

The first is for calculating the starting square you need for a given size of HST to make 4 at a time.  I've put HST unfinished sizes 1 1/2" to 8 1/2" (1" to 8" finished!) and the starting square you will need to create these using the speedy method shown by Missouri Star Quilt Company.  The formula is there to calculate other sizes.  I normally round up to allow a little wiggle room and trim my HST's afterwards!

The second is for the more traditional drawn line method showing how to make 2 at a time and 8 at a time.

I've also updated the Gallery page and added a Photo Friday page, linking to the Tips & Techniques on photography, that I've written about during this blog hop.

We have been critiquing each others blogs and if there is anything you don't like or any improvements you think I could make please let me know.

I am open to all suggestions and want to make this space a place to share links, tips, process of making a quilt and current projects as accessible as I can.

I hope you enjoy the downloads and find them useful!

Photo Friday - 5 ways to use Depth of Field and Selective Focus

This is part 4 of a photo series I'm writing while the Let's Get Acquainted Blog Hop for new Bloggers is running, through June and July.  For parts 1-3 see Photo Friday tab above!

Depth of field in photography, refers to the zone of sharpness you capture with your camera settings.  When taking landscape photos we want all the scenery in front of us in focus from the grass a few feet away to the hills in the distance.  This requires a deep or wide depth of field (zone of sharpness) throughout the image.  

A shallow depth of field has a very narrow focus or sharp plane but a wide area of no sharpness or blurred area.  It can result in very pleasing photos, as it emphasises the subject in the sharp zone and de-emphasises anything in the blurred zone.  This can eliminate distracting elements in the background that otherwise would draw your eye away from  the subject. 
  
Control of depth of field is a useful technique to have when taking craft photos.  It can help make your images more appealing.   It’s not just useful to show off fabric bundles (though we love those photos!),  it can also make your images more informative by emphasising an area you wish to concentrate on.

 

When thinking about depth of field in your craft photos there are a number of ways it can be used.

1. Wide depth large area of sharpness
2. Very shallow with main subject sharp and all else out of focus
3. Not so shallow with main subject sharp and a hint of the background  
4. Selective focus to deliberately highlight an area, very useful when writing tutorials
5. Give visual interest to something that might not be too exciting in and of itself, as in these photos of scraps!

 

So how to you control depth of field in your images?  There are a number of factors that affect depth of field but one of the most important is aperture.

Aperture is one of the settings the camera uses to control the amount of light that reaches the sensor.  Simply put, it is the amount the lens opens and is calibrated in f stops.  On older lenses, the aperture was controlled by a ring on the lens that allowed you to open the lens to let in more light for a given shutter speed.  (The aperture controls the lens opening and the shutter speed controls how long the light coming through this lens opening is allowed to hit the sensor.) If you don't have a control ring you can change the aperture in the menus or use aperture priority on your camera.

If you open the lens up wide, you will be using a small aperture number.  It seems counter-intuitive but like thread numbers, the smaller the number the thicker the thread, you get used to it pretty quickly.  The smaller the number, the larger the opening!

This is very useful for when there is not a lot of light and wide aperture lenses are often used for low light photography.

The numbers themselves are based on the square root of 2 which is 1.414 (has to do with the geometry of a circle).  They increase in multiples of 1 and 1.414 and each jump lets in twice the amount of light.  The values are 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32 etc.

As the numbers increase, the opening decreases and you will need to allow the shutter to stay open for longer, for the same exposure at each aperture.

In terms of depth of field and the perceived zone of sharpness, the aperture has a huge influence on this.  The wider the aperture (lower the number) the shallower the depth of field.  In f/2.0 the aurifil threads behind the blue are really blurred, less so at f/5.6 and it's not until we get to f/16 that the second thread is sharp.  So, if you want a shallow depth of field with a large background blur, you need to open up your aperture and use the lower numbers for your photos.

After aperture the next thing to think about is the distance to the subject.  Getting closer to your subject will reduce the depth of field and create a shallow zone of acceptable sharpness.   If you change nothing else but change your field of view and use the zoom end of your lens (or a longer focal length lens) you create more background blur!  Zooming in will give you a narrower field of view and make the subject in the lens bigger without you moving towards it.  This will give the appearance of a shallower depth of field in your photos.  So if you are not getting the shallow depth of field you want try getting closer or zooming in!

The other thing you can do is to increase the distance between your subject and your background.  It is easier to blur the background if the subject and background have some distance between them.  Lens optics will blur the background in a different way (called bokeh).  Some lenses are known for an appealing bokeh and can be quite expensive!  If you have a dSRL a 50mm lens is an inexpensive option.  Canon's 50mm lens comes in a version with a maximum aperture f/1.8 for about $110.

The camera you chose to shoot with, will also affect the depth of field.  The larger the sensor in your camera, the shallower the depth of field will be at a given aperture.  A full-frame dSLR camera produces a much shallower depth of field than an APS-C sized sensor dSLR and in turn both produce more than a compact camera (at equivalent focal lengths and apertures).  In order to have the subject the same size in your image, you will need to move closer to the subject or use a longer lens in a full frame camera than you would in a compact camera.

If you shoot with a compact camera with no aperture adjustment available, you can usually find a portrait mode in the menus.  When taking portraits, we often want to concentrate on just the subject, emphasise the person in the photo and reduce or eliminate any distractions in the background.  If you  chose the portrait setting this is what the camera will try and do.

When taking portraits the eyes are key.  If they are not in focus the image will not look sharp.  With shallow depth of field if you focus in the wrong place, critical parts of the image will fall outside the sharp zone as in this photo of mum and my cousin.

The camera autofocus has focused on mum’s sleeve and it and the ball are in the sharp zone.  Mum not so much!  Shallow depth of field can require careful focusing and you may need to override the autofocus or chose a focus point you want the camera to use.

Both these images of Charly & Wilbur use very shallow depth of field (I was down on the floor on their eye levels and very close to them with the camera to get these shots) but because the eyes are in the sharp zone the images look correct even if their ears and noses aren’t!

Similarly in our craft photos, the area in the image that we see as sharp will be affected by where you chose to focus.  Typically 1/3 distance in front of the focus point and 2/3rs behind will be sharp (increases to a more 50/50 with longer focal lengths!)

The wider the aperture you use,  the closer you are to the subject and the narrower the field of view (zoom in or use a lens with a long focal length) the more blur is created, and the shallower the acceptable sharpness zone will appear.   With a very shallow zone of sharpness the focus point becomes very important!

If you've made it this far thanks for sticking with me!  Hope these tips and explanations help you use depth of field in your images!  More next time and don't forget to check out the new bloggers on the hop for both quilting tips and blogging tips.

Let's Get Acquainted Week 2

It's the second week of Plum and June's blog hop for new bloggers!  If you would like to get acquainted with some new blogs and see what lovely projects are being made see the links below.

There are blogging tips and quilting tips on every post as well as introductions and a bit about the bloggers themselves.  Beth is running a fabric giveaway on her blog to support and promote the blog hop. 

It will be my turn in July and I've been writing a series of photo posts to do my best to promote the hop.  I've updated the blog today and put them in the tab Photo Friday above.

Please check out the blogs on the hop today and don't forget to visit Beth at Plum and June to enter the giveaway!

Chelsea @ Patch the Giraffe

Elizabeth @ And Pins

Daisy @ Ants To Sugar

Rachael @ The Floral Suitcase

Jennifer @ Never Just Jennifer

Alice @ Blossom Quilts

Jill @ Pie Lady Quilts

Kelsey @ Lovely And Enough

Megan @ Sew Stitching Cute

Stephanie @ Late Night Quilter

Carole @ Fresh Off The Frame

Camelia @ Camelia Elliott

Nurdan @ Hug a Bit Quilts

Paula @ Mud Pies and Pins

Lori @ Sew Psychd

Kitty @ Night Quilter

Christina @ Wips and Tuts

Diana @ Sew Crafty Chick

Marcia @ Cozy Capatiller

Judy @ Quilt Paradigm

Jasmine @ Quilt Kisses

Beth @ Cooking Up Quilts

WIP: Scrappy Swoon update

It's been a busy week in our neck of the woods but I managed to get some time last Sunday morning to get cracking with my Scrappy Swoon mini-quilt that I am making for Schnitzel & Boo's swap.

When making half square triangles, I normally make 2 at a time using the drawn line method and cut them apart afterwards.  This time around to get my colours moving in the rainbow, colour wheel effect that I wanted, I had to play with the layout a bit.  So I cut my 4" squares in half exposing the bias edges.  This allowed me to move them around easily.

I'm not great with bias edges so I starched them (tip we learned on the Sassy Quilter's Triangle Quilt-A-Long).  Plus it smells really nice!  I took a few photos and for some reason kept fiddling with the greens and eventually had to stop and just get on with it!

My swap partner loves bright colours on a white background so I used Kona Snow for the background fabric.  The  pattern for this block is Swoon by Camille Roskelly (It's a secret swap but my swap partner gave some hints on her sign up form and loves Camille's designs!)

I'm using an orange background fabric and as it is only 24" square I've spray basted the three layers together.  Now ready for quilting!  I have a number of quilting projects ready and hope to practice some Free motion Quilting and share how I get on.  This one I'm thinking squiggle!  It's really quite busy already so a meandering all over is probably where I'm going to go with it.

As the weekend was so busy I missed out on a Design Wall update - this is how it's looking today!  Bee blocks have been arriving, getting excited to put my summer flowers and scrappy stars quilts together!  My design wall (aka flannel sheet!) is looking so colourful, it really brightens up this end of the kitchen!

Linking up to

Photo Friday - Adjusting for exposure in your craft photos

So far on Photo Friday, we have looked at white balance for correct colour and looked at understanding the histogram to evaluate exposure.  Last time, we used this information to correct underexposed images and today we will look at overexposure i.e. too much light.

For the best colour accuracy and most pleasing images, it is best to shoot your images in natural daylight.  Common advice is to take your photos near a window and use the directional light from outside to light up your shots.   

The camera isn't as good as the human eye at seeing a wide range of tones from light to dark in one image and tries to average out the scene.  Sometimes, when you have an image that has a lot of variation from light to dark or the light is very bright you can get areas of overexposure in your images.

In this photo of a fabric bundle, the top material is way overexposed.  In the histogram (representation of tones in your image from dark to light) you can see this as the spike on the far right.  We don't have a clean rise and fall of the curve at the white end but a sharp peak showing that the highlights have been clipped.  We have lost information in this part of the image and detail has blown out to pure white.

Reducing the brightness in photo processing software will tone down the brightness of the image but can't put detail back in the top fabric.  Once that information is gone you can't get it back.

Viewing the image in Camera Raw, we can see the over exposed areas covered by a red mask.  Many cameras will show you these areas by hitting the playback button and reviewing your image.  If you toggle through the display modes, most cameras will show you blinking white or red areas on your image.  (Checking the image on the back of the camera is called chimping and checking for highlight clipping is called watching the blinkies!)

If you shoot with RAW files, Camera Raw can help recover some of this detail.  If you shoot in JPEG'S, Camera RAW can't help as much but can help a little.  (Remember Lightroom automatically uses Camera Raw and Photoshop and Photoshop Elements will allow you to process JPEG images in Camera Raw with the Open As command in the file menu).

Reducing the highlights down quite a bit makes a big difference  in the image and brings in some detail.  It is better but still not a great image.  The most important thing to remember here is to try not to clip your highlights if they contain important information in your image.  Once they are gone they are next to near impossible to recover.

So what can we do instead?

One of the things we can do is deliberately reduce the exposure and sacrifice some of the shadow detail to black.  We can also change the angle we shoot at.  This is still quite contrasty but a much better image now showing detail in the blue fabric.

If the light is very bright, we can diffuse it by placing a sheer material between the light source and our subject.  Photographers often use a circular pop-up diffuser to soften the light and reduce contrast.  These can be very handy if you take outdoor photographs of flowers on bright sunny days!

In our house we have a blind that lets in a lot of light through but I can use it to soften the light if it is very bright.  Lightweight tissue paper would work too.  The downside to this blind though is that at nightime, all my neighbours passing by, walking their dogs, can see me sewing away at the kitchen table!

Perhaps the best thing to do is to wait for the light to change e.g. sun moving behind a cloud (which in Limerick won't be too long a wait) or shoot at a different time of day.  There is a lovely quality to early morning and late evening light that landscape photographers love and we can make use of too in our craft photos.

The sun moves around our house with this window in shade in the mornings and full on sun in the evenings.  The best time of day for me to use this window as my light source is early morning.  If I need to take photos later on in the day I move towards the back of the house!

So if you are having trouble with too much light you might have fun trying out what window to shoot at, shooting at different times of the day,  playing with diffusing materials and watching the blinkies to protect highlights in important areas.  I hope these tips on handling overexposure in your photos help!

I'll be writing a few more of these Photo Friday tips while the Plum & June Blog hop for new bloggers is going on through June and July.  More next time!