Friday, August 19, 2016

Crush With Eyeliner - Quilt Finish

My local Modern Quilt Guild, the Greenville MQG, recently had a challenge to create a mini quilt (no more than 36" on a side) using white, gray, and black fabrics (solid or print) along with a pop of just one color. The reveal was last weekend and I would love to show you the mini and take you through my process of making it.



I have been in sort of a minimalist kick recently, wanted to play with the petal shape, and wanted a chance to try out Lara from BuzzinBumble's Crafted Applique technique (that she teaches in her Crafted Applique book).

With those parameters, I started with some Kona black and some petal shapes I cut out of construction paper. I cut a bunch of different sizes of petals to play with them and decide on number, size, and orientation before cutting into actual fabric. I was originally going to cut the petals using a template, but I really liked how my slightly imperfect paper petals looks so I decided to cut the fabric petals freehand too.

To make sure that there would be no black shadowing through the petals I used two layers of white fabric (each treated with the crafted applique technique). The petals were really stiff so I would not do this on a lap or bed quilt, but for my small wall hanging it was perfect and no black showed through the white.

Now for the pop of color - I had some Timeless Treasures white and black striped fabric and loved how it looked with the white petals and black background. I needed a pop of color and tried a bunch of other prints and solids, but kept coming back to the striped fabric.

Just for fun, I decided to paint the fabric to color the white part of the fabric a color using my children's Crayola washable water color paints. I had a great time "creating" new fabrics and tried out a bunch of colors until I settled on a dark teal/blue color. I will admit that I was not thinking about longevity of the colors (more on that later in the story).


So I painted a bunch of the striped fabric with the teal/blue paint, let it dry, applied the crafted applique technique, and then cut out some petal shapes.

I attached all of the petals onto the back fabric by machine stitching along the outer edge of the petal, then layered the quilt top to prepare for quilting. I outlined the petals and then filled in all of the negative space with pebbles. Because the quilt was so small (18" x 22") the quilting went pretty quickly.  I used a black Aurifil 40 wt (number) for the background quilting to match the Kona black. The 40 wt is just a little thicker than my usual 50 wt and helps the quilting show up more.




I was originally going to face the quilt, but when I had basted it and saw the batting behind the quilt top, I really liked how the quilt top looked framed so I bound the quilt using white fabric.

After the quilt was bound, I noticed that the petals were getting pretty wavy due to the fact that the background was heavily quilted and the petals were not quilted at all. So after the quilt was already bound I went back and added the extra quilting in the petals using white Aurifil 50 wt (2024). I used the 50 wt because I did not want the quilting to overshadow the petals.



At this point, I was way ahead of schedule and then quilt sat for about a month. The day before the quilt meeting (and challenge reveal), I noticed that my pop of color no longer had the same amount of pop as it once had, the blue had faded to a much lighter blue. So I sat in my kitchen and recolored in all of the blue parts with paint again.

If I were to remake this quilt I would have quilted the entire background before applying the applique and would definitely have looked into more permanent coloring options designed for fabric to add the color.

We had a great turnout for the challenge with 10 mini quilts being submitted and I got 3rd place for my quilt.


I love that challenges, they are a great reason to try something new (design, technique, etc) and for someone who is not an applique lover, Lara's Crafted Applique technique is awesome and makes applique much quicker and easier!










21 comments:

  1. love it! Sounds like so much fun coloring your fabric too!

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  2. Oh, this is beautiful, Cheryl! Great blog post. Good idea to quilt before applique. I always forget about that. Either way, those orange peels can always be quilted down!

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  3. It turned out to be an eye catching little piece! The painted petal is very cleaver and adds a nice touch. Just the right amount of color to bring in even more interest! Love the quilting too!

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  4. I really like how you used solids for the black and white and just a touch of pattern with the pop of color to add a bit more interest. The white binding frames it really nicely, too. What a bummer that the color faded so much; but at least you caught it before you were on the way to the meeting. Fast finishes can be so fun and satisfying. :)

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  5. I love the result of your challenge mini, and it was fun to read about your design and technique choices. Great way to use the challenge to try something new!

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  6. This project has a great minimalistic look and I like that you decided to play with the black and white print to make it your own. That little bit of color really works well. I keep hearing about this book by Lara but since I'm not a huge fan of appliqué I'm not sure that it will be worth it for me. I've usually just used the technique of painting liquid spray starch on my pieces with the help of freezer paper and that's worked well for me.

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  7. What a fun project! Thanks for sharing your creative process on this, and the repainting was well worth it as the blue really pops

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  8. I love how you coloured your own fabric, and the quilting compliments design really well. What a wonderful finish!

    -Soma

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  9. Thank you so much for your detailed description of your mini quilt. I have an idea percolating for some simple window treatments, and I want to incorporate Lara's technique. Your post will help me make some decisions. I do wonder though, whether the quilt would look as striking if you had done the quilting all over before applying the petals. I like the contrast between the background and your quilting on the petals.

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  10. What a great design, Cheryl! The quilting with black does show well with the 40 wt. And what an innovative pop of color! Congrats on 3rd place!

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  11. What a great piece. I love that your guild does challenges - I love challenges! I have yet to start a modern quilt guild in my small town - it just seems like another thing to do and my life is so darn busy. But thinking that we could have the guild the way we want it to be sounds really fun. AnywayI bought Lara's book and have wanted to try something with it too. This is really great and motivates me to start designing my own appliqué piece.

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  12. This is such fun! A mini is often just right for trying new things! Loved hearing all about this one!!

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  13. A fabulous finish!

    I appreciate the play-by-play account of creating your mini. I've had Lara's book on my sewing table for a while now -- it's time to give her technique a try myself!

    Quick question: If you had used just one layer for the petals, do you think the treated fabric would still be too stiff for a throw quilt?

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  14. This is fabulous Cheryl; I love it! I think the fact that you added all the quilting to the petals will be fine; my potholders are much the same and they've been washed and have come out just fine. :-)

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  16. What a beautiful quilt! What makes it special to me though is reading your process. Thank you so much for sharing that!

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  17. Very dramatic wall hanging. Beautifully done!

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  18. I love the minimalist look of this quilt. It's a great process story as well.

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  19. Great fun - very dramatic and eye catching!

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  20. It sounds like such a fun challenge! You met it and then some Cheryl! A beautiful, artistic piece!

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  21. That is gorgeous - love the minimalist look. Experimentation is always good!

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Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!