Have I mentioned..... That I Love to Machine Quilt

Hello Again,

Yes, two entries in one day - I'm excited. And sometimes when I'm excited, I over do it.

Here is a new piece I'm working on as a sample for a class I teach called "The Painted Quilt". It's a technique where you quilt first then paint afterward.

I've been doodling the tree in one incarnation or another since I was about ten years old. I've made three quilts with it so far, each one very different, even though they share this similar tree. But I love it none the less and it's a great design element.

For this technique, I begin with Prepared for Dying, white, cotton fabric. It is layered with batting and a backing fabric. Once it is layered, using a ruler and Hera marker, I mark the inner design rectangle as well as the inner and outer border lines. Then with a very fine .5mm mechanical pencil I lightly sketched the skeleton of the tree trunk and it's major limbs.

I began the quilting with a heavy 30 wt. brown cotton thread and stitched the tree trunk, roots and limbs, adding in lots of fine limbs that were not previously sketched. I kept all of the limbs inside the marked lines of the design rectangle.

Next I switched threads and stitched the first line marking the foreground near the base of the tree. I also added some tall grasses in this area and along the tree base. I used a dark yellow green thread in 30 wt.

Next, I switched to a 3o wt dark teal thread and stitched the horizon line and added some textural stitches in that area. This was followed by mountains stitched in a 30 wt. dark violet with a different textural stitch inside.

I switched back to the yellow green thread and stitched the lines around the design rectangle and the inner border. I then switched to a dark blue 30 wt. thread and stithed the lines for the outer border.

The circles in the inner border came next, stitched in a 40 wt. violet followed by the wavy cross hatch in the outer border stitched in a 40 wt. dark blue.

The final quilting was all of the tiny leaves and stems that fill in the branches of the tree. They were stitched in a fine, 60 wt. yellow green.

Stay tuned for the painting of this piece - it's a fabulous way to make a pictorial quilt with no applique!

Till next time,

Heather