Anticipation!

Photos: Still adding beads. Chartreuse leaves, made with Lutrador.


I just can't wait for our Tuesday Play Day at Vera's. Today is the first day of spring break, I slept in late, walked to the coffee stand for a Sugar Free Mocha hazelnut, yumm! and came back and quilted. I went to Joann's Fabrics and got more plain white fabric for the painting, and also a light blue and a light peach. Vera has a bolt of Prepared For Dyeing fabric, but it is a muslin color, which is fine for dyeing, but I prefer the white when printing and some of the fabric shows through. Micheal's Crafts had bottles of acrylic on sale so I bought an assortment of new paints. I am trying to finish a few more of the "Gelli Prints" I made, but the hand work to embellish them has slowed me down, my hands hurt too much, so I just sew a few beads everyday, or stitch the sleeves down or hand print label patches. I tried to find one to work on that did not need beads, so I machine quilted a pale yellow leaf print, with a bark textured background. Then I painted and melted holes in some "Lutrador" and stitched leaf outlines and veins on it. After cutting them out I stitched them down 3-D, and added a twisted fabric branch to tie them together.

Purple Bellflower, and Orange Sherbet Leaves

Oh, what fun it was to play with the Gelli Plates. I love the fabric I made, I immediately wanted to make something with several of the pieces. I really like making "Journal Page" size pieces, they go together quickly, and can be finished, I have a problem finishing things. So the 8" x 10" Gelli size was perfect. I guess I could've added borders, that would have made it more "quilty" but not as "arty" It is strange how our perceptions work like that. I added a raw edge applique of a purple bellflower to the teal print, with the silver lattice. A few beads in the center of the flower helped, and I am still thinking of doing a thread painted dragonfly on it. The second piece had subtle orange sherbet colored oak leaves masked out, with a medium green overlay. It quilted beautifully with a delicate orange rayon thread to outline and add veins to the leaves. I echo quilted the background with a light green rayon, but it did not differentiate between the leaf and the background. A small stipple in the background would have made the leaves pop out more, and create a textural difference. So it needed something else. I had a collection of leaves I had made with painted Tyvek and Lutrador, that had been melted with holes and bubbles, and then free motion stitched into leaves. They made a very 3-D addition to the page, I thought I had a closer color match, but the redder leaves are now the focus, not the subtle background. But that is ok, the background should BE the background. I can't wait to do a few more pieces of "Gellied" fabric!