Starting a new art quilt – 2019.11.29

SAQA has a call for entry specifically for Canadian members, called Colour with a U. I’ve been thinking about possible entries, and I finally decided on very large (bigger than real life) Maple leaves.

I printed a collage of leaf photos I have taken over the past couple of years, then traced the leaves into an arrangement inspired by a recent photo I took.

I’m making each leaf separately, fusing fabrics to a background of boiled wool. I had originally planned to use felt, but I couldn’t find any felt in the olive-green color I wanted. After searching several stores for the felt, I found the boiled wool – a slightly lighter shade than I wanted, and a slightly darker shade. I bought some of each, and I’m optimistic that using the 2 shades will add even more interest to the leaves.

Each leaf will be a different color. Here’s the first, which is a variety of yellow and light green fabrics – many from my scrap bags.

Here’s the second leaf, in various shades of green. You can see that I’m drawing each leaf on freezer paper, then drawing the main veins and cutting along those lines to create sections. I’m tracing each section onto fusible web, then positioning the sections slightly apart so the wool shows between them as the veins.

In the photo below, you can see the quilting on the yellow-green leaf. I quilted around each section, then added more quilting lines to denote the thinner veins. After completing the quilting, I trimmed the wool to about 1/4″ from the edges of the fabrics. The green leaf is fused but not yet quilted or trimmed. I’m auditioning background fabrics, but won’t finalize that part until the leaves are completed.

Next I’m going to make an red-orange leaf, an orange-gold leaf, and a red-purple leaf. Or maybe I’ll change my mind about colors as I proceed.

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Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with Can I get a Whoop Whoop? by Confessions of a Fabric Addict.