My goals for last week were simple: Bind the baby quilt, glue foil on Easter piece and mail off any entry forms. Wednesday saw completion of that last one (read saga here), and Thursday saw completion of the other two. Today was a bonus as I found a little time to couch the threads on the Easter piece, as you can see above.
I think I'm going to call this "Easter in America." I'm not sure if other countries put so much emphasis like we do on the Easter bunny and chocolates and all the pastel colors that seem to represent the season more so than the religious symbols. While I certainly think about Easter Lilies and the cross, not to mention the black many churches are shrouded in through Good Friday, I also think about brightly colored Easter outfits so refreshing after a long cold and dark winter, dyeing eggs in a variety of pinks, blues, yellows & greens, and spatter painting a stencil design of a bunny on pink construction paper. That's why the background fabric in "Easter" just says "Easter" to me. (For more information on this fabric click here.) The fact that in recent years the candy companies started packaging my favorite - Reece's Peanut Butter Cups - in these pastel foils reinforces the idea that this color scheme says "Easter" in the same way that red and green say "Christmas."
A little technical info: When I applied Beacon Gem-Tac to the back of the foil, I used a small stencil brush to get good coverage. When I was doing my samples, I was squeezing the glue directly from the bottle onto the foil and trying to spread it around with the tip. Then when I glued the larger pieces to the journal size version (which is still unquilted, incidentally), it occurred to me that I could use a brush once the glue was squeezed onto the foil. The brush I chose, though, had soft bristles so it didn't work all that well. In one of those "Duh" moments when I was assessing my collection of brushes for fabric painting, one of the stiffer bristled brushes presented itself as the solution to spreading the glue. I dipped the stencil brush directing into the glue, then used a combination of stroking and pouncing to get glue on the entire surface of the foil. Worked great.
The chenille thread is couched on with monofilament clear thread with a zigzag stitch set at 2.0 length & 3.0 width and newsprint pinned underneath as a stabilizer to prevent draw up.
Next step will be to quilt it, and I'm wondering what batting to use. I want the thread and foil squares to be puffed up - I especially want the thread to look like it is floating. I'm not sure that Hobbs Thermore (a fairly thin polyester) will give the amount of relief I'm looking for, yet I'm afraid that if I use Hobbs Wool (very springy and is sometimes used for pseudo trapunto work), it will be too puffy. I'm also thinking that I'd like the batt to provide more stiffness than drape to be support under that foil. If the piece needs to be rolled or folded, I don't want the foil to crease or conform to a shape other than flat. Guess I need to try a few samples.
I think I'm going to call this "Easter in America." I'm not sure if other countries put so much emphasis like we do on the Easter bunny and chocolates and all the pastel colors that seem to represent the season more so than the religious symbols. While I certainly think about Easter Lilies and the cross, not to mention the black many churches are shrouded in through Good Friday, I also think about brightly colored Easter outfits so refreshing after a long cold and dark winter, dyeing eggs in a variety of pinks, blues, yellows & greens, and spatter painting a stencil design of a bunny on pink construction paper. That's why the background fabric in "Easter" just says "Easter" to me. (For more information on this fabric click here.) The fact that in recent years the candy companies started packaging my favorite - Reece's Peanut Butter Cups - in these pastel foils reinforces the idea that this color scheme says "Easter" in the same way that red and green say "Christmas."
A little technical info: When I applied Beacon Gem-Tac to the back of the foil, I used a small stencil brush to get good coverage. When I was doing my samples, I was squeezing the glue directly from the bottle onto the foil and trying to spread it around with the tip. Then when I glued the larger pieces to the journal size version (which is still unquilted, incidentally), it occurred to me that I could use a brush once the glue was squeezed onto the foil. The brush I chose, though, had soft bristles so it didn't work all that well. In one of those "Duh" moments when I was assessing my collection of brushes for fabric painting, one of the stiffer bristled brushes presented itself as the solution to spreading the glue. I dipped the stencil brush directing into the glue, then used a combination of stroking and pouncing to get glue on the entire surface of the foil. Worked great.
The chenille thread is couched on with monofilament clear thread with a zigzag stitch set at 2.0 length & 3.0 width and newsprint pinned underneath as a stabilizer to prevent draw up.
Next step will be to quilt it, and I'm wondering what batting to use. I want the thread and foil squares to be puffed up - I especially want the thread to look like it is floating. I'm not sure that Hobbs Thermore (a fairly thin polyester) will give the amount of relief I'm looking for, yet I'm afraid that if I use Hobbs Wool (very springy and is sometimes used for pseudo trapunto work), it will be too puffy. I'm also thinking that I'd like the batt to provide more stiffness than drape to be support under that foil. If the piece needs to be rolled or folded, I don't want the foil to crease or conform to a shape other than flat. Guess I need to try a few samples.
1 comment:
That's very very easter-y -- the colours and the glimmer of foil really evoke Easter for me. The piece is calm (the gridded structure) and yet exciting (the shiny stuff!).
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