Adventurous Applique with Geometrica

Have you been following the wonderful blog hop with Island Batik Ambassadors, featuring applique and Aurifil 40wt thread?  

There have been many inspiring quilts, and today is my day to share.  

The bundle is finally opened!

I sorted by color and lights and darks. 

Island Batik sent their Ambassadors a 1/2 yard bundle of fabric, plus 2 yards each of a light and dark, and asked us to do an applique project featuring the Edge Painting technique created for Barbara Pershing's Full Bloom quilt.  My collection is Geometrica by Jerry Khiev.  The collection is filled with shapes of circles, dots and squares, plus triangles.  The colors include shades of Ravine blue, aqua, gold, terracotta, teal and dusty pinks.  My light was Egg White, one of the Neutrals always avaliable.  It's almost white with a swirled dot pattern in pastel greens, yellows and aquas.  Althought I also got Pomegranate, but I used Ravine for the outer border instead.  

So, how does one do Thread Painted applique?  Please watch the video for more information, but the basic idea is to use a glue or fusible to adhere the shapes on the background, back it with a stabilizer, and just have fun running the needle over the edges of the shapes, using a color of thread that adds to the design.  Aurifil sent us 5 small spools that coordinated with the collection, all 40wt.  I started with a new Schmetz non-stick needle in size 12.  Everything was pressed with my Oliso Pro iron.  

I have a good selection of Aurifil 40wt Mako thread, so I didn't open the navy, and used a larger spool I already had.  I love 40wt for my embroidery machine, so I have a suitcase that has over 40 colors, and I have others that I purchased or got in Ambassador boxes.  I love Aurifil thread!  

Anyway, after watching the Thread Painting video, and looking at the flowers (Stunning!!) I wanted to do something similar, but when I saw the fabric collection, I couldn't figure out how to best use the colors.  Flowers were out.  The colors were more muted, almost Southwestern, and I didn't want to do a quilt with cacti or Native American symbols.  I was pondering this dilemma when my friend Karen called and said "My husband is going out tonight, so do you want to come for pizza?"  Karen has worked with me on a few designs over the last few years, and she was an Art teacher.  I was happy to have time to pick her brain!  Her first thought was maybe Christmas.  Nope, not really a Christmas tree, it's a triangle.  And she agreed it's not a good selection for flowers.  She mentioned Mayan and then brought out a book of Egyptian symbols, including a Cartouche.  I said, "Hmmmm".  This is something that works, with the tjaps (chops, the wax resist stamps) and most Egyptian symbols are fairly easy to reproduce, and I had the Accuquilt GO! Cleopatra's Fan die, so I could use that, too.  So, after dessert, I went home and did more research.  Cleopatra's Fan Die makes a 12" square.  The quilt needs to be lap size and use as many of the SKUs as possible.  How can I accomplish all those ideas?  EQ8 was used for some basic planning, and I did lots of research on Egyptian symbols.  A Cartouche is actually a name plate, so the symbols on it are Ancient Alphabet symbols.  I couldn't think of words or names I wanted to put on the quilt, but then I saw the Ankh, Eye of Horus, and the cat shape.  I found a blog with 40 symbols and also searched Coloring Pages.  That's what I decided to use.  I had to play with adjusting the size of the printouts, to make sure they would fit an 8 by 12" rectangle, since I wanted to use 6.  (The math works for the rows).  

So, first was Eye of Horus, and I cut a rectangle of fabric from the collection, after cutting 6 background rectangles that were oversized (Embroidery and Applique usually cause the fabric to shrink, so make the background oversized to trim down later).  I didn't have paper backed fusible web, and an old bottle of Roxanne's Glue Baste It was too thick to use.  I won it and a large roll of cotton based stabilizer in a guild give-away (most items were donated by people who were no longer quilting, so I don't know how old it was.)  I did have Elmer's School Glue in a stick, and that was used on some of the pieces, but I did find a package of Misty Fuse, and my Silicone pressing mat.  Freezer paper worked as the perfect way to transfer the design and use it for cutting out the shapes.  It's great because you apply to the right side of the fabric, no need to worry about reversing the designs.

I placed my print-out under the freezer paper, used a Micron pen to trace the edges, put Misty Fuse on the back of the fabric, and then ironed the shiny side of freezer paper on the better side of the fabric.  

My note:  Batiks are hand done, so there is a side that gets the wax, and the way it's dried in the sun can also impact the design.  I pick my favorite, since it's actually hard to tell, but I like the little extra swirls and bubbles.  But if I forget, you can't tell.  

Anyway, time to take the background fabric, and press it in half and half again to find the center lines.  Find the center of the cut out shapes, and align them.  Iron the shapes to the background, and pick thread and the stitching design, and get a piece of tear-away stabilizer for the back.  For this one, I tried an applique stitch on my Janome Horizon 9450 that looks similar to thread painting.  It's a zig-zag, but with random looking edges.  I did test it out on a scrap with stabilizer and the number of layers, and actual thread so I could decide if the size worked.  Then I worked on getting the edges done.  Not bad.  Let's try something different on the next.  

Another design I found was a Column of different colors with gold lines across.  I opted to use similar colors of the Geometrica collection, and the gold colored thread for the lines.  

So, I cut strips about 1" wide of the fabrics, added some Misty Fuse to the back,  and taped the background fabric to the printout.  I figured I would just attempt to make the shapes free hand.  I tried the Thread Painting for the sides of the Column.  It was fun!  I used the clear foot on my machine and centered the needle, put the length of stitch to 1.8 and just stitched a few, hit the reverse, went back and forth along the edges of the Column.  This was fun! 

You really do need to try it.  I didn't worry if I went into the background or too far into the shape, but just had fun.  After that, I changed the blue 50wt bobbin to gold, and changed to the golden yellow spool.  I again tested out the zig zag size for the satin stitch, to mimic the lines on the colored Column I had found.  I did not go for perfection in any of these, just wanted to try a new technique and play.  I figured the actual Egyptian symbols are old and worn, and carved in stone, so they're not perfect, so I don't have to be, either.  

The Ankh was similar, but only one fabric needed.  I used a satin stitch to accent a design that was on the printout I used, and didn't want to add the feather parts, but the edge is thread painting. 

Next up was the cat and dog.  For the cat, the image had a scarf around the neck, and shading in the forward ear.  I again traced the small eye ball, the scarf/collar and the ear on freezer paper, and the cat body.  I picked some fabrics from the collection to make the cat, added Misty Fuse (except for the eyeball, that was just a dab of Elmer's glue stick, since it was sooooo tiny).  

This one was Thread Painting for the edges, in colors that worked with the fabrics (4 thread changes) and then I added an embroidery stitch that looked like the ball fringe on the scarf's edge.  I made sure to stitch the accent lines for the paws and ears.  And I used a Micron pen to add the Egyptian details to the eye area.  

What color fabric to use for the dog?  I have to go with gold, like my Heather.  

Again, the edge threadwork was fun!  A little Micron pen work on the eye, after stitching down the small triangle shape.  

Finally I picked a Lotus design that I loved. I added Misty Fuse to the fabrics, traced the design on freezer paper and then tried to get them lined up where I wanted before pressing.  (Not perfect, but again, doesn't have to be.)

For this one, I wanted the edges to have a little more oomph, so I used a satin stitch in 2 different thread colors.  

After the Cleopatra's Fan blocks were done, I cut 6 1/2" strips of all the remaining fabrics, and cut 3-4 60* triangles out of them.  What's an Egypt theme quilt without Pyramids??  Plus, that means I used all 20 SKUs in this top!  

After adding a small border of Egg White, I added a 4" border of Ravine to finish off the top.  I used Hobb's Heirloom 80/20 Bleached batting, and a grey wide back I had, and loaded the quilt on my Handi-Quilter Amara with Pro-Stitcher (Vanna the long arm) and used Aurifil Dove 40-3 to quilt it.  I picked the African Storm panto from Urban Elementz.  Egypt is on the African continent, right?? 

For the binding, I opted to use scraps from the blue/Ravine toned collection fabrics.  I cut enough sections to go around the quilt, then cut them in half, so they could look more scrappy.  

It's done!  

It measures about 58 by 61" and I'm happy that the applique part is soft and not stiff, even with the layers of fabric in some areas.  I'm really happy I decided to "walk like an Egyptian".  You sang that, right?? lol

So today is the last day of the hop, and your last chance to win fabric from Island Batik.  Go here to enter and to find the link to the last 3 weeks of quilts.  Also, please check out Pamela and Renee's posts.    And remember to look for your favorite new collections in shops.  Leave a comment below to enter to win fabric from me.  US only, please unless you want to help cover shipping.  Thanks for stopping by! 

• Pamela Boatright, PamelaQuilts
• Renee Atkinson, Pink Tulip Quilting

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

A final note!  As a Missouri Star Affiliate, you can use the link on the left to make your purchases.  This weekend is the 16th Anniversary Bash, and there are wonderful deals.  You won't get the additional 20% discount because the prices are so good, but I will still get a commission.  Thanks for shopping with me! 

Maryellen