Festival of Quilts Visit

This is the wonderful ship my friend entered for the 3D competition at the Festival of Quilts.

Helen Dickson

'Release the Kraken'

Unfortunately, the background is a distraction so here is a close up of part of the ship.

These are some of the other random things I saw.

Makiko Aoki

'Cherry Blossoms at Night'

Lesley Brankin

'Big Brother'

Milena Zdravkova

'Some thoughts....'

Susan Gray

'Dancing with the Stars'

Robyn Fahy

'Purple Daisies' [part of the quilt, too many people around to take a photo of the whole of it]

2nd Prize Winner

Sue Nickson

'Grandmothers Flower Garden 2017'

Lucy Poland

'Cats Comparing Fish'

Sue Trevor

'Violin' [2nd Prize Winner]

Imagine Art Quilt

My quilt will be shown at The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, from tomorrow, 

6th -9th August.

The picture is a collection of my doodles and art work put together around a tree (with faces). The piece is called 'Imagine' as many of the quirky drawings are from my imagination. Follow the squirrels and vampire rabbit's tails to see what is at the end.

The fabric was printed by Spoonflower on cotton silk and was hand quilted with back stitch and running stitch. Beads have been added in places.

Click on the images to enlarge.

WIP and Dog Fabric

Work in progress Wednesdays - See Pintangle

My WIP is a quilt, all hand quilted. This is the back, I will show the front when I've done it. I started it for a competition but the deadline for registration with images is the 26th, tomorrow and it most definitely will not be finished. It may have been finished if I'd not gone away on holiday, I didn't know I was going away when I started the quilt, it was a last minute offer we couldn't resist.

I hope I don't lose interest in finishing it now though.

Also a new fabric swatch from Spoonflower, the design was for a beard and moustache contest. This one was printed on performance pique, a stretchy fabric that does not fray.

Evolon Samples

I've been experimenting with evolon for a possible art quilt.

Evolon is a non-woven microfilament fabric which you can paint, dye, distress, sew, cut, glue and embroider.

Top - I used heat transfer paints on paper and then transferred the image by ironing onto the evolon. The fabric will melt if it gets too hot but I didn't have any melting problems with this sample. I drew some of the decorative marks on afterwards with a fabric pen. 

I dismissed this option for the quilt as I find it very difficult to get an even colour, notice the lighter patches although it's probably my ironing technique and I'm not too sure about the look of it.

Below - Inkjet print. I ironed a piece to freezer paper and used it in the printer. The fabric had been folded and had creases which I tried ironing lightly to remove but as you can see they are still there. It has printed very well but the ink caught on the crease and left some black marks. These are only tiny but it has put me off using the printer in case I ruin it. I would need to print some larger pieces for the quilt so I have dismissed this method for the quilt. You can purchase evolon in sheets for an inkjet, but I purchased yardage.

Textured Landscape Art Quilt

A small A4 art quilt.

I first textured the fabric with Golden course molding paste and cut snippets from a page in a book which were glued along the hill line. It was painted with inktense blocks, apart from the sky. I used bamboo wadding to sandwich between the top and backing fabric. Stitching was applied around the main elements, then further stitching on the nearest meadow and the sky. I was a bit worried about the sewing machine stitching through the texture so more stitching was applied by hand on the hills. The binding was also textured and painted.

Little Landscape Quilts

My A4 art quilts are finished and have been sent off for the Little Landscapes Journal Quilts challenge. They will be judged then go on a tour at the Spring Quilt Festival.

I used inketense blocks to paint the background, the hare was an inkjet print [t-shirt type] and I've hand embroidered extensively. The other quilt is similar except it is a view through a camera lens. The camera and hand was also an inkjet print and the background as the previous quilt.

This is a digital version I was experimenting with originally. 

WIP - Textured Art Quilt

Another small A4 art quilt with a landscape them.

I textured the fabric with Golden course molding paste and bits from a page of a book. Colour was added with inktense blocks. I quilted it with bamboo wadding and backing fabric and stitched some basic lines on the hills and around the trees on a sewing machine. It needs a lot more quilting but will my sewing machine like going through the paste for any length of time.

WIP - Landscape Quilt

I've done lots more embroidery on the A4 landscape quilt and I've lightened the sky as it was a bit overpowering. 

I've not done any on it today - my finger is a bit sore, caught it a few times with the needle.

This is how it looked before

See other folks's WIP at Pintangle and join in the embroidery challenge on a Tuesday