Art quilt loaded ready to quilt

Having done the two urgent customer quilts I can load up my art quilt. It is getting the same backing as the wholecloth I’ve been working on, a black floral from Moda. The wadding is the thickest 100% cotton from the dream company, it is really thick and hangs really well as a wall quilt.
The floral batik you can see pinned on to the quilt is just there to protect th applique as I work. I float my tops (and even if I didn’t normally I would for these) and I don’t want to brush against the pieces as I am quilting.
I was thinking I would start right away with the hair as I am happy with that part of the quilt, but then I remembered the other problem with working in purple, threads. There just aren’t enough shades of blue purple thread. Lots of red purples but those don’t match the fabrics I’ve got. The group of four cones are the quilting weight purples I’ve got that might work on the quilt. I’m a bit lacking in the mid ranges with them. The set of three are threads I mostly use in the bobbin. I used to use them as top threads a lot then they suddenly stopped working for me. There is a much better range of colours with them, so I think I will have to have another go and see if I can get them to run again, otherwise I think my best option would be shades of grey which do tend to pick up the colours around them so might work in a pinch.
Tonight though is a night off, I’m off to see a band with some friends. Maybe inspiration will strike overnight.

That’s the top.

 This post should have gone up yesterday but blogger could tell I was using the browser on my phone and wouldn’t let me long on to the site it wanted me to email or text in the post, but that often puts the pictures out of order so I decided it was better to wait till today and do it properly. I did enjoy celebrating the World Quilt Show win with sushi last night sorry So just pretend it’s yesterday. Don’t forget you can click on the images for a bigger picture. I just make the thumbnails a bit smaller when there are this many images in a post. The darker of the fist two images is the closest to the right colour, but the brighter one is easier to see so you got both.

I got some time to work on the art quilt today. The first job was to finish the leg, it was only a couple of pieces but I think they make quite a difference. Then I needed to get on with her shoes. Maybe having a few days break had it’s advantages, I’ve had time  to think about the colour of them. I’ve ended up going much more subtle than I had been planning. I finally went with blue, see quite restrained.

 After putting on the first piece I did wonder if I had made the right choice. I started with the darkest shade again. This made sure that any of the purple would be covered and hopefully the blue would be as intense as possible. I don’t know that the photos really show how loud it was, but it really did make me wonder.

I decided to press on. The colours looked good off the quilt so I thought it was worth getting a good look at the effect. If I had to redo this section it wouldn’t be too bad. Just adding one shade lighter started to give me hope. I wonder if part of the problem was just seeing such a large block of colour on a fairly complete image.

As each layer comes into place the shoes come to life. I love this part, where you can actually see the image appearing. After closing up the sewing room I realised that I had missed at least one piece on her shoes, but that can wait for another day. I will do another check over the whole image. I will look for any pieces that aren’t quite the right shade and any details I have missed, then it will be time to quilt it. Yes that’s right. My applique is not bonded or stitched until it is quilted. If the frame had been free I would have built to top in situ and quilted as soon as an area was laid in place. I find this method gives me the softest thinnest quilt, which for these is what matters to me.

Todays progress

I’ve got a lot of pictures for tonight so I’ve made the thumbnails a bit smaller than usual. You can always click on an image to get a better look, but I didn’t want to have to write such a huge amount to fill in the space around them all.

There was no great plan today when I went back to this quilt I just grabbed the first piece I saw. Turned out to be the lower leg. As with some of the other pieces this one doesn’t cover all the remaining space. There are areas left that don’t need this fabric. The top of the foot did need a bit of fabric which is why there the more detail at the end not just a curve. Hopefully that will become clear later.

I carried on with this piece as I had it in my hand now. So I now needed a lighter fabric. As a rule I work away from the shade of the background so for most large areas I will be working from dark to light on this quilt.

After the next lightest fabric I had a problem. I just don’t have a very pale lilac fabric. Moda don’t do another lighter one but even when I extended my search to other fabrics I couldn’t find what I wanted. I thought I might be able to just use white, quite often I can. As you can see from the picture in this case it’s too bright. I had another idea though. I could use the back of the last fabric. Good plan except that when it’s placed on itself, even face down it looks the same shade.

Never mind I already had the white in place and that wad bright enough to lighten the reverse of the pales lilac to the point where it worked. It does mean the applique is a little thicker than I would like but still it gets me the colour I need.  I guess I am going to have to stop saying you can’t blend fabric like paint.

I think you will agree the effect is much softer than the white fabric. The question is, will it be light enough? Well in the flesh it does look lighter but if I am not happy with it when I come to the quilting I can use a lighter thread which will brighten it up just enough.

That was all the leg I was up for right now. I really need to decide what I am doing with the shoes before I can finish the legs. So back up to the chest. Time for a confession. I missed a bit when I was making the pattern. Notably I missed a layer of colour on her breast, which we could describe as not flattering. Fortunately I spotted it and I thought I had better fix that sooner rather than later. It’s a simple fix, I just had to make a pattern for the missing layer and put it on. As I had noticed before I had done the piece that should have been on top of it there really wasn’t a problem. However as I don’t fuse my applique I can adjust things as I go along. It does mean the fabric frays a bit more but I really don’t mind that. I do tidy things up as I quilt and I try to minimise how much they get roughed up but  at the end of the day I accept the fraying. I feel this method gives me the softest possible edge and allows the shading to be as gentle as possible. If you watch closely you may spot some other things that get edited as I go along.

Next stop was the arm to the right of the quilt. I have been quite keen to get the shadow in here as it defines the armpit, which to me is quite important for getting the overall shape of the body. It’s hard to see but I’ve added three pieces of fabric there.

From there I went back to the front leg, and I think this is where the quilt really comes to life. It’s now got enough data in it for me to be able to read it. It was one of the most awkward pieces to put on. Bear in mind I am working in a tight space, and at the moment I am spraying in quite a small box so I have to baste a piece that size in several stages. Then you have to persuade this large sticky floppy thing into place on the quilt. On the other hand it would be even harder to get it into place if I were trying to bond it so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

The quilt to me now looks largely together, but it isn’t there are a lot more pieces to go on, although most of them are fairly small. The lightest colours on the upper leg are still quite big, but they are the exception not the rule. Hopefully I will get some of it done tomorrow.  The whole cloth has also been coming along. Not as much today as others, I’ve spent longer than usual on the art quilt today.