Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Funky Flower--Thread Painting with Aurifil & Island Batik

October's Island Batik challenge is Thread Painting with Aurifil. I always think of thread painting as closely related to free motion quilting, and FMQ is a skill I do not possess, so I'd been worried about this challenge. My inspiration came from a sentence in the prompt: "Imagine that fabric is your canvas and Aurifil thread your paint!" After mulling it over for weeks, I decided my "painting" would be in the form of the decorative stitches from my machine. 

 

I've been wanting to do a large, bold, single flower for a while and I had the perfect fabrics--a 10" stack of Floralicious. 

I rarely do scrappy backgrounds but I decided it would be the perfect look for the bold, funky look I was going for. I pulled the turquoise fabrics from the stack and then got out a stash builder roll that was in most recent ambassador box--I had gotten a pack that was all turquoise strips, so I used those to add to the pretty prints in Floralicious. I wanted the thread painting to also be quilting, so I layered my scrappy turquoise pieced back with Hobbs 80/20 Bleached batting and Island Batik solid white for the back. I quilted in organic wavy lines, hoping the quilting would look like a gentle breeze blowing.


Once I had the background done, it was time to start on the flower. I worked backwards: I knew I wanted the stem to go under the petals and I wanted the leaves under the stem. I had all the pieces made so I laid them out to get a feel for placement, then I started on the leaves. There were no true greens in Floralicious so I used other greens I had in my scrap pile. I picked out a fun leaf-like stitch and just got started!

After the leaves were in place, I moved on to the stem. I recently went to a meeting of the Triad Modern Quilt Guild as a guest when Latifah Saafir was the speaker. She did a demonstration of how she makes bias binding and I was glad to be able to use it so soon after her presentation. I did a total of 3 rows of stitching on the stem.

Now on to the petals! I was really excited about these bright colors. The petals are 2 layers sewn and turned inside out. At one point I was considering only partially stitching them to add a 3D element but I decided that would detract from the decorative thread work so I ditched that idea, but had already prepared all the petals. I also didn't really want the look of raw edge applique for this project. Here is the back after the first 6 petals have been stitched.


For each petal, I picked stitches and thread color when I got to it, I did not have an overall plan. I just played! And it was grand! I used Aurifil 2000 in the bobbin for most of it, though there two places where I felt I needed a darker bobbin thread to keep the light thread from showing on the top. When I did the wavy line quilting before adding any of the flower on top, I used 1148. I used a total of 16 different Aurifil colors in the decorative stitching, for a total of 18 different threads used. All were 50 weight except for one 28 weight, because that's what I had, and monofilament in smoke which I used to attach the flower center before adding the bright yellow flower stitch on top. Ready for that list of threads? 2605, 2884, 1231, 2735, 2783, 2810, 2245, 1243, 2520, 5006, 2530, 2260, 1104, 2130 (28 wt), 2134. 

 


I used a Schmetx Microtex Chrome needle for most of the stitching, though I did use a Schmetz top-stitch needle for some of the decorative stitching. 


Materials in this project were provided to me by Island Batik, Aurifil, Schmetz, and Hobbs.


Our prompt specified that finished projects were to be larger than 24" x 24". Twenty-four inches square is 576 square inches. After finishing the flower, I trimmed the edges to make more of a rectangle than a square. My finished project is 21" x 34" which is 714 square inches. I'm hoping that qualifies!


I was torn on what to use for binding. I tried several things, including the green of the stem and some of the background fabric. I didn't like them. In the end, I used a 10" strip from each of the 12 fabrics used in the petals. And the binding came out exact. Seriously. Exact. I did use a straight join instead of the typical diagonal join, partly because I only had 10" of each fabric and partly because I knew this would be a seasonal wall hanging that would not get much wear and tear. I've been close on binding before but never been exact like that!



I enjoyed using
Island Batik Floralicious as my canvas and Aurifil thread as my paints! I like the decorative stitches, and I like that you can see some from a distance and others you need to be standing in front of it. I like to hang seasonal quilts on my door and I am very excited to use this next summer. I started calling it Funky Flower and the name has stuck. My Funky Flower makes me smile every time I see it.

 


 


 

23 comments:

  1. It sure made me smile, I love it!!

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  2. Love it, and it looks great on your door!

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  3. Wonderful job! It is a happy greeting at your door and a sign that a quilter lives here. Love it.

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  4. I am glad you are keeping this 1. I like it a lot.

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  5. It is lovely and looks great on the door. No one seems to take advantage of all those fancy stitches on their machine and I'm glad that you used them for your painting on fabric.

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  6. Oh, this is a beauty! I love your creative style and how you used the fancy stitches to give depth to the flower. My front door needs one of these!

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  7. It is perfect for your door. The 3D idea would have looked so cool but I understand why you ditched that idea. I love this flower and bias stems are the bomb.

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  8. Emily, I LOVE ❤️ your whimsical Funky Flower!!! Thank you for sharing the steps on how you made it! AND ... I think it looks fabulous on your front door!!!

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  9. Oh my. This quilt is beautiful!! I love it. It looks perfect hanging on you front door.

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  10. So pretty! I love the front door pic. Your quilt would make anyone feel welcome. I like how you quilted the background before you did the flower. I didn't think to do that for my quilt and now I'm going to have to quilt my background around the flowers for my project. Have a fabulous day!

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  11. Great project. I love that you played and had fun.

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  12. Oh, the single flower quilt complements your door nicely! And the quilting using the deco stitches looks great!

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  13. Absolutely gorgeous! Those reds and purples in the petals go really nicely with your door. Congrats a fun and funky finish!

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  14. What a fun idea to make a front door quilt. Your colors and designs just make me happy!

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  15. WONDERFUL...Congrats on your great job!!

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  16. I love this quilt so much! The colors are perfection, and the decorative stitch quilting really adds a special touch for a door hanging.

    I also struggle with scrappy backgrounds. I really like them, but it can be tough to get the contrast right. You really nailed it on this quilt! The scrappy background adds so much interest. And the batiks mean it's not so busy that it takes away from the flower.

    I zoomed in on your final picture to see how you were hanging it. The magnet clips are pure brilliance! I'm guessing that using them on both the top and the bottom really helps with the wind this time of year? And they let you avoid the hanging sleeve!

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  17. What a fun piece, Emily, and it looks great on your front door, welcoming visitors! I love the pieced background idea and busting out the decorative machine stitches was a great idea. They look beautiful stitched in the matte Aurifil thread rather than the hyper shiny rayon or trilobal polyester embroidery threads I'm used to seeing for decorative machine stitches and machine embroidery. The cotton thread really melds into the cotton fabrics and marries well, if that makes sense. Love it! Now you're making ME feel guilty about neglecting those fancy-schmancy machine stitches for so long... :-)

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  18. This is so pretty! Your background is perfect and I like the variety of stitches. Like most people, I never use mine - this is a fun way to try them out. Though going around the circular shape in the center must have been challenging. Really nice finish.

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  19. Wow, Emily, this turned out so beautiful. Love it. Who wouldn't want to knock on that door but don't be too quick to open it - I just want to stand there for a few admiring all your stitches :-)

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  20. The scrappy background really adds to this beautiful piece. What a fun front door greeting!

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  21. Wow Emily I was smiling when I started reading your post and the process but a huge grin broke out when I saw just where your gorgeous flower wallhanging got hung up! I absolutely love it, and using the decorative stitches to quilt, appliqué, and add detail to the flower was ingenious! I also have always loved a pieced background for appliqué; I have a coneflower done this very way. :-)

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