Nov 06 07

Fun Stuff!

I am just finishing up 3 glorious days filled mainly with sewing! I got a fair amount of work done on that pansy trio quilt. It is still just in a quilt top stage here, but I’ve added some butterflies and added borders after I had trapuntoed my 3 pansies:

pansy-trio-top-with-trapunt.jpg

This has been a fun exercise in re-learning about the power of thread to really transform your quilt top. Here’s a photo of the red pansy before I added any threadwork:

pansy-trio-red-pansy-before1.jpg

(BTW, can you see those “dots” that seem almost embossed in the fabric? They appeared because I used steam when I fused them down and they’re the steam vents on my iron! Notice that they’re gone on the next photo-you can just iron them away without steam). Now here’s the same pansy after I’ve trapuntoed it and done a bit of threadpainting-I think it looks so much better!

pansy-trio-trapuntoed-red-p.jpg

Similarly, here’s the magenta pansy:

pansy-trio-trapuntoed-magen.jpg

…and here’s the pink pansy:

pansy-trio-trapuntoed-pink.jpg

I also did some free motion embroidery with artsy fartsy leaves:

pansy-trio-artsy-fartsy-emb.jpg

And this is the fern variant of the artsy fartsy leaves (Both of these designs are on the next DVD):

pansy-trio-artsy-fartsy-fer.jpg

I want these to have more importance and texture on the quilt itself, so I embroidered them with a permanent polyester interfacing behind them and once it’s in a quilt top, I’ll stitch just outside the green thread with invisible thread to make them pop out a bit. Here’s what the backside looks like:

pansy-trio-back-of-artsy-fa.jpg

And here’s one of the butterflies before I decorated it with threadpainting:

pansy-trio-undecorated-butt.jpg

The pansies here are made of silk that I dyed. They have a wonderful reflective luster that really throws off great shadows once they’re quilted. I think I am falling in love with silk! I’ll post more once it’s quilted!

5 Comments

  1. Sally Bramald Says:

    Absolutely sumptuous! I love the intensity of colour in these.

  2. Jan M Says:

    You never cease to amaze me by your talent. I will be looking forward to the next dvd. My husband has likened you to heroin,(in the nicest possible way), I’m just chomping at the bit for my next fix. Keep up the beautiful work—-Jan

  3. Marjorie B. Says:

    Your work is wonderful and again, you have taken it to a higher level. I am so inspired to do more and try harder.

  4. patsy thompson Says:

    Sally and Marjorie,
    Thanks for your kind words of encouragement! I love the combination of blues, greens and reds and working with them together really gets me excited!
    Jan,
    I don’t think I’ve ever had a higher compliment than being likened to a highly addictive drug that causes severe withdrawl symptoms once it’s no longer available! My husband and I both got a good laugh out of that!
    Patsy

  5. karen Says:

    I love your pansys! Beautiful!