New Beginnings...

I have blogged before. In my days of wearing my Teacher Librarian hat, I blogged about research skills, Internet 2.0, book reviews and other topics. Now I have a few new hats that I am enjoying and one of them has to do with the sewing computer I acquired a couple of years ago, a Bernina 750. I had no idea such technology existed and I had no idea how much fun its acquisition would release. Last year I took a series of classes from a local artist (and former fellow middle-school teacher) Phyllis Binkley. I learned about art quilts, fused fabric collages and thread painting. I have now finished three pieces. This is my latest.

Titled, "California Winter," this is composed of various fabrics cut into shapes as I built the picture and fused to a plain white background. Pebeo Setacolor acrylic fabric paint and Derwent Intense pencils were used for details and shading. The fused top was then sandwiched with wool batting and a backing fabric and stitched for emphasis and outline. I thread painted the grass and oranges on water soluble stabilizer (free motion using a hoop). I made a pencil sketch of the smudge pot, scanned it into my Bernina DesignWorks software and created a Cutwork file that I transferred to machine and used to cut out the copper and fabric smudge pots. I wanted to finish the piece to look more like a painting than a quilt, so I faced the edges and then mounted it on a painted canvas (Setacolor fabric paint again). I glued a label to the back of the canvas and added hanging hardware.

I like the way it turned out. The next time I may plan the size of my finished piece based on the size of a standard canvas so that the canvas shows equally around all sides.