Keep on the Sunny Side of Life with Project Quilting 12.1: Illuminating + Gray

Season 12 of Project Quilting kicked off with the theme of "Illuminating + Ultimate Gray," based on Pantone's Color of the Year 2021. These colors reminded me of one of my favorite songs to lead during campfires: Keep on the Sunny Side (which I discovered today was a more upbeat remake of the Carter Family's "Keep on the Sunny Side" with a few changes to the lyrics and corny Knock Knock jokes told in between each round of singing the chorus--which I will gladly incorporate throughout this post for your amusement!)

Keep on the sunny side,

Always on the sunny side,

Keep on the sunny side of life, yee haw!

You will feel no pain,

As we drive you all insane,

So keep on the sunny side of life!

For years I've been gathering prints that combine both colors that would have been perfect for this challenge...but that would have been too easy. Instead I opted to create my own yellow and gray prints using gelli printing!!

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Ether!

Ether Who?

The Ether Bunny!! Ha ha ha ha!

Friday night I pulled out my gelli plate, a variety of textured mats and stencils, Golden acrylic paints, and 7" squares of Kona Corn Yellow, Kona Steel, and Pimatex PFD white. 

Gelli printing is pretty addicting as you roll one layer of paint onto your gelli plate but can get 2 or 3 different prints. Here I am using an acrylic placemat that I laid onto the gelli plate which has already been coated with a layer of white acrylic paint. Once I lift up the placemat, I can:

• Lay the mat down paint side up and place a square of fabric on top of the painted surface to print the same positive print of texture/pattern.
• Place a square of fabric on top of the gelli plate to get all the paint that was left behind yielding he negative print. 

Here is foam mat I purchased from IKEA and its positive and negative prints.

Here I layered paint onto the gelli plate and then dragged a notched rubber squeegee across the paint to create wavy lines.

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Nutter!

Nutter who?

A Nutter Ether Bunny! Ha ha ha ha!

I was up past midnight printing away but check out all these amazing patterns and textures!?! 

The next morning I heat set all the printed squares by pressing them with a hot dry iron before backing each square with Pellon 805 Wonder Under fusible.

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Stella!

Stella who?

Stella Nutter Ether Bunny! Ha ha ha ha!

Below you will see my very rough sketch doodle with a curved horizon and radiating sun rays. The background was prepared with a simple top stitched curve overlapping Kona Charcoal over Corn Yellow. The background was rotated 90 degrees.  One of the prints from the red IKEA foam mat served as a place holder for a focal point. Wedges were cut from the various yellow and white prints to layer over the charcoal section in a radiating pattern. Large irregular pebbles were cut from the white and grey prints to fit into the yellow section. You can see the variety of experiments conducted with the focal point.

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Cargo!

Cargo who?

Cargo Beep Beep and ran over all the Ether Bunnies...awww!

Before pressing everything into place, I pressed the quilt backing (using one of the commercial gray and yellow prints). This break provided me with an opportunity to revisit the composition with fresh eyes to finetune the composition before fusing it all into place.

This project incorporates two of my 2021 goals: 

• Experiment with mark making (and incorporate fabrics into art quilts)
• Elevate skills on longarm as this features quite a bit of custom quilting stitched in a light grey thread (although I confess that the center square was mostly stitched on my Juki TL-2010)

Another commercial gray and yellow print was used to face the quilt, so the rays just float off the edges. 

Keep on the Sunny Side, Finishes 27" x 27"

Knock Knock!

Who's there?

Boo!

Boo who?

Don't cry. There will be a nutter Ether Bunny next year! YAY!!

It's been an emotionally challenging week here in America, so I thought y'all could use an uplifting song and some corny summer camp humor.

Be sure to check out all the Illuminating + Gray entries made this week for Project Quilting 12.1! Oh and for those that participated this week, be sure to hop over to Faith and Fabric to enter the Pantone 2021 Artisan Challenge which features the same two colors! All different art media are welcome to enter this challenge so be sure to enter before it closes on January 29th).

Knock Knock!

Just kidding...

Keep on the sunny side of life all!