Sunday in the Studio - Design Wall Monday

 

Crosses II

37" by 24"

hand dyed cotton by the artist

machine pieced, machine quilted

So I managed to keep the promise I made to myself to be  more productive on Sunday.  Not only did I manage to get  4 - count them - 4 loads of laundry done (which means clean underwear for tomorrow - yay!) but I also spent hours and hours in the studio painting and quilting.

Yep - you read that right - painting!  If you've been paying attention you know that I'm not this big lover of the surface design end of art quilting.  I mean - yeah - I resent  understand  that I need to dye my own fabric and occasionally add some kind of design on it for my work - but I'm not this big fan.  It all seems a bit messy - a bit expensive and well - okay - a bit scary (even after a 5 day class with Jane Dunnewold!) So I don't often get out my paints.  That said, this week I got my order from C&T's publishing's warehouse sale.  Included was Mikey Lawler's  SkyQuilts book.  She makes it look so easy and reminded me that - Paint is my friend.

So after reading her book - twice - I pulled out the supplies - searched out some nice Kona Cotton pieces and mixed up some sunset colors.  Why sunsets?  Well, all summer, I've been meaning to play with the some small quilt ideas centered around the Lake Erie  and its gorgeous beaches.  Now here was my chance!

Really, it wasn't too hard either.  Basically, you just wet down the fabric (just damp  - not to wet where it puddles your hands when you pat it), use a natural bristle brush and do horizontal movements of the different colors.  I chose to mix up red, red orange, orange and purple using Setacolor transparent paints.  They worked fabulously well and were super easy.  I mixed half paint - half water testing out the colors to make sure they were the shades I wanted.  Then just painted them on  - Easy- Peasy!!

 

Then while they were drying, I spent the afternoon free motion quilting the second in my Cross series.  I finished the quilt top last summer but never got around to quilting it.  I swear - I think my hatred of basting a quilt made me put off the actual finishing of it!  Now with spray basting, I can get it done in a long afternoon.

So I can face this one as well as Fall for our Open Studio next month!  Gosh if I keep up this kind of work - I might just start getting things done around here!

See other great Design boards on Judy's Patchwork Times!