Music

For the month of May, my assignment for Small Wonders was to create a 12x12 with the theme of Music.
I have recently read The Painted Quilt and decided to try a technique that I read about within its pages. I drew/traced a guitar onto freezer paper, then cut out the shape with an exacto knife. I was careful to cut precisely so that I can use the resulting stencil or the mask.

 




Next I tried my hand at improvisational piecing for the first time. 





I was so surprised at how flat it ended up after pressing! I expected to have to quilt quite a bit of lumpiness out. Steam is really a miracle worker!! Love my Reliant iron for that! Check your local quilt shop!
The technique was to use Shiva paintstiks or oil sticks around the paper edge of the shape and then brush the color into the hole. I decided to try a test piece first. Thank God for putting that thought in my head!!! My paintstiks were all dried out and didn't spread well. And the color I thought would be perfect looked black and yucky!!! I couldn't find my oil sticks (studio is still a mess...won't be able to use the 'just moved in' excuse for much longer) so I went for the acrylics and just painted in the stencil. 

  After quilting, I used fusible thread and foil to add guitar strings, but I messed up a little...it goobered up in spots.

Caution: goobers ahead

I think I needed to leave the iron on longer to get the foil to stay better...
Overall, I really like how the piece turned out. I do wish the acrylic paint had kept more of the color variation it had when wet. I will have to dig for my oil sticks and try again on another little quilt!

Thanks for stopping in!