Monochromatic Challenge

 I can finally post my finished my piece for the Art Quilters Around the World blog challenge.  I finished it the end of August but I was not able to post until now!

This did turn out to be a fun piece to do...even though I'm not found of working only with one color.  Just to make something different, I thought I'd use the technique shared by Laura Kemshall (DesignMatters TV).

I started off with a piece of hand dyed lime green fabric, which I free motion quilted...you can see somewhat of a plant/floral design in the quilting.   Look hard!  It's there...ha  I also use a darker shade of green so it will stand out.

Next, I took a gallery canvas (from JoAnn's) and painted Gesso over the entire front. This is just a precaution...as you'll see later on the process.  Let the Gesso dry then we're onto the next step!

Now, cut to size your quilted piece keeping in mind you need to keep at least an inch border of the canvas.  You need this space to be able to sew through to the other side to attach your quilt.

Glue the cut quilted piece onto the canvas and then stitch through the edges to attach.  I used 12wt Sulky thread to attach, just because that was the color of green I wanted.

Next up, and this can be the scary part!!....you take acrylic paint and using a brayer, roll paint over the entire quilted piece...even onto your sewn edge thread.
Once your piece is dry then the real fun begins...you start paiinting in areas with the original color of your piece.  In my case, the original piece was more of a dark lime green.  I just happened to have on hand some lime paint.  I actually love this part...it's very relaxing to just paint!!

You can see the part(s) that I'm now painting.

Next, I want some of the leaves to fall onto the canvas so I take a pencil and draw the placement I want.  This does take some time and I find myself erasing a lot until I get what I want.

If you find your pencil marks are  causing some dark spots, just paint over those areas with Gesso.  And...if you find your painted marks aren't excact you can use Gesso to cover your painted area or to  clean up an area.  Gotta love Gesso!!!

Just another picture of the edge...actually, this picture should be turned!  This is the lower left edge on my piece!

So that's the process...that's my challenge piece!!!  I do love attaching pieces of quilts to canvas.







I have made several of these and enjoy the process...here are a few more that I've made.

This was for a fiber group challenge.  

This was a wedding gift for my great niece.
It was a picture I traced from
her wedding invitation.

This was the very first one I did.  Lots of fun!!!

Hope you get to try this!  It quite a lot of fun...scary at times...but heck...you can always start over!!!

"Frosting"

No, this isn't about food!  Although, a nice key lime cake with cream cheese frosting sounds really good about now!!!  But...instead....I love DMTV (Design Matters TV), which is created by Laura and Linda Kemshall.  My followers know how much I've been inspired by them in the past and I know I'll continue to be in the future!!
One of Laura's current episodes is called 'Frosting'...which is about painting over your quilted pieces with acrylic paint!  I saw Laura do this a few years ago and I still use the technique on my projects.  Thought I'd show just a few that I've done.  

This is my 'Art Diary' book I  made...I free motion quilted this piece, sewed on some metal washers then, using Laura's technique, I used a brayer and rolled over the entire piece with white acrylic paint!

These next pieces are showing the front of my quilted work and instead of painting over the quilting on the front, I painted over the back of my work!  This way they became 'pages' in my Art Diary book!  Make sense!  Well, it did for me!

  This is the front of a 'page' in my diary...

And this is the back...this time I used green paint.  It actually looks like suede in person.  Even I forgot what fabric I used for the backing and had to touch it!

Front of another piece...you can see on the left side where it's attached to the previous 'page'.  I have four pages, each approximately 18" x 18".

And again, the back of the piece above is painted!

This time I used white paint, as does Laura most of the time.


This technique is so much fun!  So if you're curious and want to see more...sign up for DMTV!!!  There are so many video's to watch and learn from...I don't subscribe to magazines anymore...DMTV is the way to go for me!

Now off to make dinner!  The word 'frosting' made me hungry!  Yea, like I need an excuse to eat!