Living This Creative Life

I have two favorite quotes. The first one is by Emile Zola, "If you asked me what I came into this world to do, I would tell you that I came to live out loud". I don't know who the second one is by, but it goes like this, "If you're not living on the edge then you might as well jump". Both of these sentiments sum up my personal philosophy of this experience we call life on earth. Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The Cover Quilt for my new Color Book - AT LAST!
















Good Morning All,

My apologies for being away for so long. Isn't it amazing how the days fly by? I've been so busy that Thanksgiving just snuck up on me. I'll have to do my shopping today after work!

Here, finally, is the quilt that I will use on the cover of my upcoming color book. I'm very pleased with the results. It was worth doing it over.I love the lines and shapes but especially the color.

It began with a piece of white cloth. I marked the long vertical lines as well as the circles but that's all.

Then I layered it with two layers of silk batting and a colorful backing fabric. I stitched around the marked circles and the long, wavy lines. Then I went back in to each circle adding all of the detail free style (no marking), just stitching whatever came to mind. All of this was done with a 40 wt. black cotton thread.

Then I stitched a different design, in a different color, in each of the background sections using a thinner, 50 weight thread.

Then I colored each of the circles using Promarkers and Fabrico Markers. I tried to make them as colorful as possible using a mixture of pure hues, slight tints and slight shades. Then I colored in the background areas. Each was done in a color slightly lighter than the thread used in that section. For this I used the Promarkers and Tsukinenko Inks.

One of the things that can happen with this technique is the ink or markers can bleed into an adjoining area. When this happens, I simply thicken up the stitch lines using various widths of satin stitch and viola, problem fixed!

I love, love, love doing this technique. My two favorite things; free style machine quilting and coloring - it's a little like being a kid again!

Have a glorious Thanksgiving!

Till next time,
Heather

2 comments:

me said...

Heather, this is absolutely STUNNING. I love the black stitching, it looks like stained glass- and I love the coloured stitching, it looks soft and pretty. The colours are beautiful, the stitching is beautiful, and the bead embellishments are beautiful. I think you really outdid yourself on this one!

I hope you have a relaxing and wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones! xo

Unknown said...

I'm curious to know if you've tried using Copic markers? My Fabrico markers dried up on me and rather than replace them, I started using the Copics (before THEY dry up!). They worked nicely on my project and because they're alcohol based, bled very little. I don't know the lasting effects - fading? fabric deterioration? I've used them successfully on Carol Wiebe style Cracked Paper quilts, but the base on those is paper, a medium that the markers are designed for. Guess I'll have to shoot off an email to the Copic folks.