Thursday, December 19, 2013

The Beginnings of an Art Quilt...

Hi, Linda Kittmer here...today I'm going to show you how I used Margaret Applin's Heart Swirl stencil and some water soluble media to start an art quilt. 

I began with a piece of muslin that was treated with PVA glue (you can read about that here), which gives it a lovely texture.  



Using Neocolor II water soluble crayons, I coloured inside the stencil with three different colours. These crayons have a wonderful texture and they go on 'like butta')!  I then used a paintbrush, dipped in water, to activate the Neocolor II.  The colour is bright, blends beautifully, and is permanent once dry.


Although it looks great as is, I decided to add more water to blend the colour further so that the white stencil pattern would have a fainter tone of the same colours.  Once that had dried, I added some Inktense pencil to outline the shapes within the stencil pattern and then activated that, again using the wet brush.  As with the Neocolor II, Inktense is also permanent once it dries, and it works beautifully on fabric.

You'll notice that I also brought the softer shade of the colours out slightly beyond the actual stencil design.  You'll see why I did that later.

Using a couple of different blues (Neocolor II again), I lightly coloured the background around the heart.  Because of the wonderful texture of these crayons, this literally took me seconds to do!  

This photo really shows just how vibrant the colour is when the water is added!






I love to doodle with my sewing machine, so being impatient to get started, I decided to grab my heat gun to speed up the drying process.












And here I am at the sewing machine :o)

I'm using an off-white thread to 'thread doodle' tiny circles to create sort of a lace effect.  I added this stitching to all of those lighter areas, both around the outside of the heart, and within the pattern of the Heart Swirl stencil.

For those of you who have never done free motion stitching or thread doodling, I've made a little video while stitching.  It's not exciting, but it will show you how I sew these little circles by creating a series of connected little figure 8s.  Keep in mind, I'm making the video with my iPhone in one hand while sewing one handed with the other...
While 'thread doodling', I got a better idea for how I want to use this heart in the art quilt I'm planning, so I ended up cutting out most of the background.  The blue from the background will still be used, but in smaller strips.  To see how the little art quilt turns out, please drop by my blog next week (or sooner if you want to see what else I'm up to ;o) ). I plan to work on the art quilt over the next few days, so I'll post about the finished piece over on my blog next Wednesday.  

Until then, thanks so much for visiting StencilGirl Talk today.  I hope I've been able to inspire you to pull out your art supplies and have some creative fun!


Update:  You can click here to see how I've used this piece is a small art quilt.



15 comments:

  1. Nice Linda! I can't wait to see how you use this! Great colors!

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  2. Thank you so much for showing this! I have just started painting fabric for my quilts and love to see what others are doing! I also LOVE Stencil Girl stencils. I think I have bought almost all that I could ever need. But that doesn't stop me for buying others.

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    1. Thanks Nancy...you have all that you need until new ones come out...LOL

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  3. Stunning piece!!! Beautiful colors and the doodle stitching is amazing. You've inspired me to play with my sewing machine so I can actually do something neat with it! Cannot wait to see the quilt. I've just treated myself for an early Christmas to the Neocolours II and got them last week...yay! The colors you used are gorgeous on the muslin. Thanks for sharing your quilt project with us!

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    1. Thanks Caroline. I love applying art journalling techniques to fabric...fun experiments!

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  4. Oh the possibilities... This heart is gorgeous. Your how-to makes me want to play with fabric, stencils, crayons and thread. Stitching Bliss...

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  5. Oh my gosh, Linda, you never fail to amaze me. This is so gorgeous, I love those stitches, precise yet playful. What a great result.

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    1. Thanks Mary Beth. I do love me some machine doodling. ;o)

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  6. Absolutely gorgeous, Linda!
    What an amazing combination of media!! :)

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    1. Thank you Mary. I must say I do love the NeoColor II on fabric.

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