What a great day of making fabric landscapes with my "manager" Mary, who was actually my right foot today and with Louise, Linda, Lecko, Holly, Jeanine and Fran. It was an honour to have such great students to work with. Below I posted just a few of the landscapes in their early stages that these artistic gals were producing.. I was too busy as everyone finished to remember to snap pictures but I know that Mary got some that I can post later.
Quilting tips:
Just about everyone got to the quilting stage today. Here are some tips as you finish up your work.
1) Stitch length should be about 3.5
2) Use cotton thread and have some variegated thread or shiny thread in a variety of colours on hand to add to the overall look
3) Keep bobbin thread a constant colour
4) Change thread as you change fabric colour. For example, blue sky looks great with a blue variegated thread but when the blue changes to purple, change the top thread to purple too. Sometimes contrasting threads be great. Sometimes if I have a sunset landscape, I use thread to make the reflection in the blue water. For example, if there if yellow in the sky, I will do some quilted lines in he water with yellow too.
5) Quilting gives the landscape a lot of texture and motion. Consider sewing a variety of different lines, some wavy (water looks great wavy) and some straight. Be creative. For example, waves in the foreground are big but they get much smaller in the background. Grass blows in the wind so make the quilting lines very wavy. Sky can be made to look windy with your quilting lines.
6) Keep your quilting lines nice and close together. This builds nice texture. I think one quarter inch between lines is a maximum. Try not to cross your lines.
7) Don't quilt over any appliqued details, but rather sew these down with a thread the colour of the applique, inside the appliqued shape, to hold it down should the glue fail
6) Switch the side you start your quilted lines from
7) Consider leaving some small parts of the landscape unquilted. For example, I have left clouds in the sky with no quilting lines. Details you want to stand out can be effective if left unquilted but make sure this is only a very small part of the landscape.
Hope this helps as you embark on quilting your landscape.
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