Shaded Flowers

I used the Prismacolor colored pencils on the three flowers too. I figured if I used them on the purple one I had better use them on the other two a little two or they might look funny. Here is what they look like now and the way they looked before. New photos with the shading done are on the right.  The pink and teal don't have much change but in person they look a little more shaded on the tips. The lighting was a little different on the photos too so it really isn't a very good comparison.  I used a light pencil and shaded a little to the inside of the petals too.  As you can see the purple one has the biggest change.  Not sure this is the final look but sure is better than the way they were at first.

Now on to the binding.
Happy Quilting,
Lynn

Uh, Oh...Designs Don't Show!

What I was afraid of has come true...the vine and leaf designs do not show with the busy bubble quilting surrounding them. The threads are too close to the same value and the patterns I used are busy in the background and the stem and leaves so what I get is mush!

I decided to go over all the quilting lines with a heavier green thread and hoped that would help...not too much difference with it either.  The photo on the right is after I quilted with the new green thread...see it still looks like mush.

To save this quilt this called for a new technique... for me anyway. I got out my Prismacolor colored pencils and started shading the edges of the quilted leaves and stems....what a difference it has made.  I blended them with my finger and an eraser.

I used several shades of green and yellow plus a little red on the darker edge of the leaves and stems. They don't pop off the quilt but you can see them - kind of shadow like.

Since this quilt will not ever be washed I am not going to worry about setting the pencils with some kind of medium. Don't have anything on hand that would work anyway.

I really like the way it turned out.  Now I can see the quilted vine and leaves and the shading is just the right amount to make them show up.  Think I will try them on the flowers a bit too and maybe I can get that purple one to show up more. 

Happy Quilting,
Lynn

Machine Quilting Away

As you can see this is taking me a long time to finish.  I have quilted the bubbles up to the chalked vine and leaves and now have completed one side of the vine and leaves.  Since the fused leaves were cut with the deckle rotary cutter I decided to quilt the chalked leaves kind of squiggly too.  I used the variegated green Sulky rayon thread I used on the leaves and stems in the center of the quilt.  I sure hope they show up with all those bubbles around them.  Bubbles may have not been a good choice after all.

Happy Quilting,
Lynn

Marking the Vine

I want to quilt a vine/leaf shape on the two sides just like the fused ones on the opposite sides. Remember what the wall hanging looks like...fused vine and leaves on only two sides.

 After thinking over my options I came up with the following solution. I placed a large piece of thin paper over the fused vine and traced the shape. I darkened it with a softer lead pencil then pinned it in the position I wanted the quilted vines and leaves. I used a Hera marker to crease the lines...a Hera marker is just a piece of sharpened plastic. I you don't have one a dull table knife might do the same thing.

The Hera marker left creases were the design was. I then took a chalk marker and darkened the lines.  One thing I didn't mention above is that I had problems keeping a perfectly parallel second line with the Hera marker. I marked 1/2" dots with the chalk pencil using my ruler then connected them to mark the second line of the vine.

Here it is all ready to stitch. Notice I have the bubbles stitched up to the fused vine already.

Happy Quilting,
Lynn