Weekend finish – 2014.03.23

Quilting Arts magazine announces a reader challenge in every issue.  The current challenge is called ‘Art in the Park’ and is to make an 8″ x 8″ art quilt with the theme of ‘enjoying the park’.   My immediate thought was kids on swings in a playground.

I created my two kids on swings first (sorry, no photos of that part) then started thinking about the background.  I wanted a background that looked park-like and that contrasted well with the kids.  None of my fabrics seemed suitable – they were too dull, or too dark or too bright.  It occurred to me to use black and white prints – they would contrast well with the colorful kids.  Then I remembered I recently bought some wax crayons with the intention of using them to color fabrics.  (I’ve used colored pencils to add shadows or highlights, but hadn’t used wax crayons.)

I picked some fun black & white prints, and applied fusible web to the back.  I added some details with a black permanent marker (such as the tops of the picket fence), then colored with the crayons.  To set the color, I put a couple of layers of paper towel over the colored fabric, then applied heat with the iron.  Then I did it again, to make sure no further color came off on the paper towel.

Then I fused the background pieces to a piece of batting 8.5″ x 8.5″.  The kids were positioned on the background and fused.  I added a backing fabric, then quilted with black thread.  I’m thrilled with how well it turned out.  I think I’ll be using crayons again in the future.

Thanks for stopping by.  I’m linking up to these blogs, where you can see many other creative projects: