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Thursday 18 December 2014

Work on the Leaf Art Quilt Has Begun

As most of my Christmas projects are complete (a week before Christmas) I can finally put some attention to my next project. It has been percolating in my head for about a month as I make decisions on how it will be done, which fabrics to use, how large it will be etc.

As you know I did various paintings of curled up Fall leaves so I chose one of them to make into an art quilt. I traced the original painting and then enlarged it on my photocopier. I have decided to make it about 24"X 24" so it wasn't a big deal to enlarge that way. If I had planned to make it larger, I would have gone to Staples and had them print a copy off on their large format printer.

Tracing and design enlarged

I've decided to put together this quilt with applique, which is a different method than I normally use for my art quilts. Applique is when pieces of fabric are put on top of a background fabric. These pieces of fabric can be sewn on by hand or machine or, as I have decided to do, ironed on with a special adhesive. I am using Heat N Bond and ironing it onto the back of my fabric before cutting out the pieces. Once the pieces are cut out, I remove the backing paper and iron the piece onto my background fabric.

So once I have my enlarged pattern, I tape several pieces of tracing paper together and retrace the enlarged pattern onto it.

Tracing paper on top of original enlargement

I chose my background fabric knowing I wanted it to look somewhat like the ground but not so dark as to lose the leaves on it. I ended up with an ecru fabric with spatters on it. It looks like a sun-drenched sandy ground. I cut the background fabric to size and placed the enlarged tracing on it.

marked each leaf with a different colour so I could see which leaf had to be completed first.

The code letters and symbols in each shape indicate the colour of fabric to use for that shape.

Using my original painting I chose the colours of fabric I wanted to use.

Enlarged tracing is placed on top of the background fabric so I can determine where each piece needs to be placed.

Then I use more tracing paper and trace each piece separately. I then cut that piece out and place it on the corresponding fabric and cut that shape out of fabric.

Tracing paper patterns

Once the piece is cut out of fabric, I place it under the large pattern tracing and position it on the background fabric and then iron it on. I started with the shadows because the are the farthest part of the leaf away from me and everything else overlaps them.

I use sharp nail scissors to cut the pieces out.

This shows you how I use the tracing to help me position my pieces.

This is as far as I got today. With the shadows in place, it will help me to position the rest of the leaves properly.

I'm hoping I'll have more time over the Christmas holidays to work on it, so stay tuned for updates.
To all my blog friends, I wish you a Wonderful Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!

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