This week's Project Quilting Season 7 Challenge theme was...
Seasons! I selected leaves for my inspiration and pulled out my bin of fused fabrics. There were several fused (and totally gorgeous) hand dyed scraps and leftovers from my workshops with
Frieda Anderson and
Laura Wasilowski. They were sorted into the four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. I then cut out several strips approximately 1" wide and had fun laying them out to create an individual leaf to represent each season.
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| Spring Leaf has Sprung |
Once the fused fun commenced, it was fun watching each seasonal leaf emerge--along with a tornado of a mess from all the trimmings!
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| Four Festive Leaves Emerge From the Tornado of Fused Fun! |
I auditioned several fabrics for my backgrounds, including solids/patterns in blue, gray and black, before doing the unthinkable...pulling out brown fabrics! A recent class assignment required me to use neutral browns, which necessitated some fabric purchases, as I am not a fan of working with brown fabrics! But once I laid them out...I was pleasantly surprised at how my fused leaves popped! A bright, digitally printed fabric was used for the border and binding!
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| Doing the UnbeLEAFable--Using Brown Fabrics in My Quilt!!! |
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| Quilted Textures Top Left to Bottom Right: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall |
Solid Aurifil threads were used to stitch each leaf's spines and veins, while a brown variegated Aurifil thread was used to add subtle seasonal quilted texture into each background: energetic spiky meander for the Spring, Sunny Spirals for the Summer, Swirling Spirals for the Fall and Snowflake Meander for Winter.
An emerald green KONA solid was used for the backing, so my quilting could pop on the reverse side!
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| The UnbeLEAFable Whole Cloth Quilt Backing |
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| "Seasonal ReLEAF" finished at 20"x41" |
With less than 24 hours until the deadline, I am linking it up to to Persimmon Dreams Project Quilting Season 7 Page. I encourage you to check out all the other seasonal entries made for this week's challenge, and you can
vote online for your favorites starting Sunday, January 23rd through the 29th!!
This is just gorgeous! I am always drawn to leaf motifs and these are some especially lovely leaves. Fabulous quilting too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Lisa Marie--they were lots of fun to make using fusible...although I foresee some pieced leaves in my future!!
DeleteLooks great
ReplyDeleteWhat more to say
Marvelous
http://shilpachandrasekheran.blogspot.in/?m=1
Thanks Shilpa...super fun to make!!
DeleteHi Mel! This is great! I LOVE leaves and these are beautiful. Great way to interpret the Seasons Challenge. I always enjoy visiting your blog - maybe because I love color, too. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks Laney--great to find a fellow fan of bright, happy colors too!!
DeleteSuch a clever way to use 1" strips. I'm with you on using brown, but it really works on this project. Thanks for showing how to "build" the leaves. Love the quilting too!
ReplyDeleteThanks Carla! Yes--now I am saving smaller and smaller scraps!! I can't remember the exact source or quote, but our quilts need a little 'mud' to help all the other colors sparkle and shine...very true for this quilt!!
DeleteThis is one of my favorites...love all of it! I'm quite envious of your quilting:)
ReplyDeleteThanks Vicki--I am glad you enjoyed it. Believe it or not, I used to hate the quilting phase...but now I find that step very enjoyable and almost meditative!
DeleteThis quilt makes me happy. So much great color! And impeccable quilting. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks!! It is a happy quilt--brown included! And fun to quilt too!
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