Thursday, June 2, 2011

Doodle done

I finished my practice piece today. It measures 14 inches across at the widest part and 11 inches up and down at the center. The colors here are not quite right on but it is pretty true except for the blue which is  more blue green and it shows here. Everything is fused except for the flowers. I found these felt buttons at Joann's. I went looking for something to  use instead of cutting them from fabric.  Circles and petals were not easy in this small  size. I  had intended to use a lot more small circles/dots all over as fill ins but after cutting a few I changed my mind.
After I stitched some of the  elements  down I covered the whole thing with tulle and quilted it.  This is the first time I have covered a piece  with tulle and because it was inexpensive I found 5 different  colors to experiment. I ended up using  navy tulle. I  used the tulle because of the small fused pieces that were too small  to stitch around. The tulle doesn't change the color but it did darken everything a little. I think maybe I won't use it when I make the bigger piece.
I used a facing instead of a binding and finished it on the back  by hand. After everything else was finished I added the felt  buttons/flowers. I suppose they are buttons because there are button holes in them but I don't know that they would make very practical buttons.
The flowers were probably the hardest to sew. I sewed them on by hand with lime green perle cotton. I sewed through the button holes and then one stitch at the end  of each petal. I did it so the perle cotton did not show on the back and it was difficult to pull the needle through.
All in all it was a good learning experience. I think it looks a lot like the same technique as my blog banner quilt. It some ways doing the drawing was similar. It was easier doing the doodling as the zen tangle shapes are repetitive. For me this was different than using printed fabric because that is where my inspiration has always originated.
In July a  group of us a going to get together and just have a play day with this. It will be fun to see what everyone does.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is so beautiful in person. What a great project. K