Monday, September 16, 2013

DESIGN WALL MONDAY

I finished my September BOM project from my guild - I chose to make the applique version, stitching the turned-edge appliques by machine.  I added some thread painting as accents to the flame and pointsettias, then did some simple quilting and added the binding.

It will be donated to the "Every Child Counts" group, to be sold to raise funds for the school the Bahamas.
 This is the start of a project that has been percolating in my brain for 3-4 years.
My son's new wife loves dragonflies.  He found some wonderful photos of them on the internet, and one spoke to me.  We expanded the picture, and printed it poster size to use as a pattern.  I got out my Golden Threads tracing paper, and made a line drawing of the dragonfly.  Then the problem was - how to transfer the image to the fabric.  Since I knew I wanted a dark background, and I also knew that I didn't want to spend time picking our all the tiny bits of tracing paper - I went back to the drawing board.  A while later, I discovered a package of wash-away "plastic" stabilizer.  I put it with the pattern and went on to other projects.  I had found the background fabric and some to make grass, and I also picked up some of the "Frixion" pens in pink, light blue and purple.  The pink was the perfect colour to trace my original drawing!  I used a close-up picture of grass as an inpiration for shapes and colours of the few foreground grasses.  I just have them temporarily glued into place, and still have to applique them to the background.  Of course, DH saw it and made a few suggestions for additional design, but I think I'll stitch it and let it percolate for a while before I decide on the next steps!

Check out all the wonderful design walls at Judy's blog, Patchwork Times.

3 comments:

  1. I like this! There are all different ways to get the design onto the fabric, aren't there? I'm experimenting with a pictorial piece right now, too.

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  2. Your dragonfly in progress is looking great. The grass looks so realistic. It looks like an art quilt at this stage. Going to be beautiful. What size will it be, Susan? And thanks for linking to Applique Tuesday - love this eye candy.

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