Monday 9 June 2008

Art quilt preparation

I am in the process of creating an art quilt for my Egyptian project and it will be piece number 64.

I began with this image which is the profile of one of Nefertiti's stone busts.



I created a line drawing from it.














I created a pattern fill and using the bucket fill, filled the profile.
This was to be the working design. I needed to make a pattern A3 size. I did this in Photoshop. I put a new layer over the design and using the pencil tool drew all the lines of the design - making adjustments where the bands were too close together. The background layer was deleted leaving the lined pattern. This was then sized to A3 and printed.

Once I had the pattern I taped it down and laid a piece of white sateen over it - taping that down too - and using a soft pencil, carefully traced the design onto the fabric. The fabric was then stretched onto a frame ready for painting.

I matched up the colours with acrylic paints and silk dyes as best I could with the colours I had and mixed some too. I had to use clear gutta along the outer edges to prevent bleeding. (Remember to do this on the front and back to get a good seal. Unfortunately I did get a tiny bit of bleeding - this fabric isn't really good for silk painting but I wanted to use it. Hope I can mask it.). I painted the acrylic bands first as they acted as a resist for the silk paints. I made lots of serendipity paper and silk while painting this piece. Nothing wasted.

The painted fabric was removed from the frame and pinned over batting and backing fabric ready to be quilted.

I have matched up the threads with the paint colours and will begin the stitching later tonight. It actually looks better than the photo shows. Always difficult photographing metallics and in a hurry!!

How much stitching will be decided as I go.

Will post the finished piece when it is finished.

Cheers everyone.

1 comment:

Genie said...

Looks good so far cant wait to see it finished