I have been panicking a bit about getting the April quilt finished in time for the deadline but I'm delighted to say that I finished it this afternoon! Yay!
~
For this month's quilt I decided I would continue with the Sashiko theme that I had done at the workshop earlier this month. I have to admit that I didn't stretch my design skills too far and used the same arrangement within the frane of the quilt as the Sashiko wallhanging (which I still have to finish). Because of the background fabric I had decided to use, fish were an obvious choice for the main element. When I worked out the design below I used a template given to me by the workshop tutor but I then found a more suitable image, which did not need resizing, in a mosaic design book. You should be able to see that I traced and cut the template from a document wallet. Very useful!
~
~
As I described in my earlier post I cut the fish shapes from some batik squares that I already had. I moved the templates around until they were over areas that reminded me of the patterns on fishes. The fabric was originally meant to be used on the reverse side where I had used oilbars to make rubbings from my shoe soles and then painted with silk paints but I liked this aspect which looked watery.
~
~
The fish were bonded onto the base fabric and then handstitched around the edge in buttonhole/blanket stitch with silk noil which only frayed on me a couple of times.
~
~
I scanned the fabric with the fish bondawebbed on and then tried out a few possible stitch arrangements in various felt tips. I decided that I would go with the bubbles and suggestion of movement lines.
~
~
Ta dah! The finished quilt! I think the scale of the fish and the cropping has gone a little awry but I am so delighted to have put a proper binding on this with the help of this tutorial. :o)) The whole quilt is handsewn as I don't have anywhere to set up my machine at the moment. I also sewed in a little organza for the tails and a few beads crept in too.
~
I think I have floated (pardon the pun!) a little away from the Sashiko theme so will probably revisit that in the future but I have enjoyed making this little quilt.
~
Now for the next four months!
11 comments:
This is lovely Julie and the bubbles are great.
Your journal quilts get better and better and the binding looks perfect!
Your quilts are really lovely - the fish look so good against your background fabric. All that hand sewing deserves a gold star!! I'm looking forward to seeing the next one.
Lovely little quilt - the fish look great against the background.
This is lovely! Must show Dilly these 'phwish'!
What a great idea to scan and use a felt tip to try out stitches and design. I always go straight to stitch, which usually works for me, but when at a bit of a loss where to start your tips will be invaluable!!
The quilt is lovely and I look forward to following your progress on next quilt, Julie
It's lovely Julie and what a good job on the binding.
Fantastic, Julie, what a lovely colourful lively piece.
Maggi, thank you :o) The bubbles are French Knots, just one twist on the needle and I held onto the loop as I pulled the thread through.
Helena and Sharne, thank you both for your lovely comments :o)
Carolyn - I often just start stitching too but I really wasn't sure what to do for this piece so I had the scan idea. Your blogpost today on the St Ives collage gave me an idea but I will experiment with something like that later. I have an idea for next month and can't wait to start that. Hope I can keep on target for the rest of the challenge.
what a lovely result. I think scanning and trying out stitches with marker is a very clever way to think the process through...
I love the koi fish and the batik has worked a treat...beautiful work.
Post a Comment