My mom and I usually like to try some new (to us) technique or small project over the holiday break. For one thing, it's fun for us to experiment together, and for another, it's always nice to have a small project to be working on that's no pressure and not for a deadline. This year we highlighted two things to try. The first was an Esterita Austin technique that we saw in Quilting Arts.
Basically you take a drawing and put it underneath parchment paper (so you can see your drawing), then paint the parchment paper.
Then you put organza backed with misty fuse on top of the paint and iron it. The paint transfers to the organza basically giving you a painted, fusible applique shape. Since mom and I have an upcoming SAQA New Mexico showcase requesting 16x16 "Seed Packet" quilts, we decided to do plants. She picked the lilies (below) and I did a teddy bear cholla (above).
Mom decided to do a confetti background for hers, but I decided to just quilt mine normally.
I don't have finished shots of Mom's, but here it was in progress:
And here are some final (sort of) shots of mine:
Both of us thought they were looking pretty flat. Mom stitched a bunch of stamens onto her flowers, beaded the centers, and then made some extra 3D flowers (out of white vinyl) to stitch on the front. It is about 100x more dimensional now, but alas I don't have a picture. It's in the upcoming Dallas quilt show so I'll try to get a picture. I didn't do anything nearly as cool with mine, but I did go ahead and add some beading to the centers which I think helps some (sorry for the crummy phone pictures, I had to snap them quickly before sending this off).
I actually think my favorite part of this quilt is that awesome background fabric coupled with the ombre piping and purple binding.
Two beautiful pieces! Good luck at the show.
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting effect. I think it would work best for backgrounds. I think you managed to make yours look less flat with your quilting, alone. It looks good. I like the shadows on the inset picture. Your mum's sounds very intersting with the vinyl flowers and all, I would be interested to see it finished.
ReplyDeleteThe quilting on the cactus really adds dimension/texture to the piece. Definitely makes me want to avoid touching it! I also really like the background you picked. Did you put any quilted dinosaur bones into the layers? :)
ReplyDeleteI've never seen this technique. I do a lot of painting on fiber and may have to try this technique. Your pieces are wonderful. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete