Day 3 ~ more to show

Duh! Moment
I cant believe I have gotten this far with the panels and pondered over the whole heat setting process only to read in the instructions for the watercolour dyes that you have to wash them out right away and that once dry they are indeed permanent . . .lol
(me! the person who is always telling folk off for not reading instructions!)

Oh never mind I'm still having fun!

after dinner last night I decided to continue with the painting and managed to get the backgrounds on all four of them done.

 You can see the running and overlapping layers and attempted cover ups mainly in the two blue themed flower pieces but I like them.

I think the peach and yellow/green backgrounds turned out pretty well.
there are some lines from where they have been hung over the airer overnight I didnt want to hang them out on the line last night as the forcast wasn't good I woke up to horrible rain this morning so made the right decision there!

The little flower sample and 3 others...just to use up the leftover paint,
 it's always nice to have hand dyed fabric on hand for little projects.
I decided not to use batik wax on them in the end, the process involves ironing forever to get the wax out and I didn't want to spend too much time doing this. I'm aiming to have this quilt finished or at least at the binding stage by Saturday.

All ironed (to fix the crayon) and ready to go ......

it's time to sew !



Four painted panels

I don't have a frame large enough so have had to do each panel in 2 sections

 Panel No2 the paint has seeped quit a bit

 Panel No3 didn't run quite as much

Panel No4 did a little on the left side

That's enough painting for one day I think,

tomorrow I shall hopefully get all the backgrounds painted in.

Yx



Opening up the past

The 'challenge' this month has literally been to actually 'open' my sketchbook

First I opened a little A6 sketchbook from the past when I was at college all those years ago in the Borders when I made the 'Flower Quilt' The annotation beside the little watercolour flowers mentions applique as a proposed idea, I was reminded also that the six watercolour panels that I made were actually the second idea, the first being a single panel which I did make. I wasn't happy with it, mainly because I chose peach for the background fabric. I used a dip-dye method, I enjoyed the process but the end result didn't seem a good fit for the quilt so I didn't use it. I'm sure I must have this, probably in my portfolio with all the paintings and drawings, I will have to look it out.

 I remember now that worked on the six smaller panels during the summer break.

I have been working on the pieced border that I removed from the quilt
 separating all the squares, unpicking and removing all the stray threads.

I opened my sketchbook and again did some sketching then watercolour painting
 inspired again by the fabrics.

I'm thinking that it might be nice to make more panels for the back of the quilt using the same process I did back then after all I do have a lovely new set of the same watercolour dyes I used, actually this quilt was the reason I bought them the first time round.

Looks like my mend and reduce job is turning into another project.

My first quilt ~ makover

This is my first quilt.
I am only now getting around to photographing it.
(digital makes things like this so much easier now)

It was completed in 1996

(my initials back then)
 Although I had already started 2 other hand pieced quilts

 ( blogged  here)  but these were both far away from being finished quilts.

This quilt was a college project and was inspired by a sample book from the Fabric Guild, picked up for a couple of pounds from a fabric and curtain store near the college I attended in Hawick .

The sample fabric pieces were large squares each of which I cut into four smaller squares and used in the quilt around the edge, in total there are 14 of these large blocks of 4.

The six centre blocks are my own fabric designs inspired by the sample book.
I used batik method and watercolour dyes to paint each flower panel.

The whole quilt measures 67 x 81 inches.

Big enough to top a double size bed.

I used a simple tied method for a quick quilt using my own handmade buttons, always meaning at some point to quilt it, but that would have to be by hand
as its too big and heavy to attempt  with my machine.

It has seen a lot of occasional use and is in need of some repair

and a good clean.

The problem is its too big and heavy for my own washing machine.

There is quite a heavy blanket inside, great for warmth but not for keeping clean.

I have almost taken it to the cleaners a few times, but not keen to do this for a few reasons.

I decided to start on the repair work yesterday.

I'm now having ideas of changing the size of the quilt to make it slightly smaller,
 removing a line of blocks, perhaps adding them to the back of the quilt,
which at the moment is plain old green sheet.

I'm thinking something this size might be better.

This is just folded over to give an idea of how it would look, showing just one line of squares surrounding the centre blocks.

This would reduce it to a more manageable 45 x 60 inches, perhaps I could add a 4 inch border

the removed patches could go on the back around the edge or in the middle.

I'm also thinking I might replace the blanket for a fleece one to make it lighter and machine washable.

I might also try quilting it.

 I made a start by removing the buttons and the green backing.

 bit of a messy job !

 I just love all the colours in the fabrics

Now that have these strips of squares all washed and ironed,
I'm thinking I might cut them into smaller pieces and make a more interesting back to the quilt.
I still have some of the plain coloured pieces of fabric that came out of the sample book, I will have to have a look them out, I might be able to combine them in some way.

I'll have to think about it a bit more,
any suggestions /pattern ideas are most welcome.

A Painted Quilt WIP

I pulled out the larger quilt I made sometime ago
and first mentioned in this post back in May last year.

it has been sitting in my project drawer since, waiting to be painted.

I was enthused again when I bought the Markal Paintsiks which Linda and Laura Kemshall talk about and use in their wonderful book 'The Painted Quilt'

I began with a mix of blue and green watercolour fabric paint and did the surround

then mixed two shades of green to highlight the leaf shapes.

Next I worked with two different paint mixes in the large area, a pale pink and peach blend then a red and pink blend in the rest of the areas.

 Next I went in with highlighted using the Paintsiks

pictures to follow when can take some in the daylight. . . . .