I’m featured in Quilting Arts Magazine!

As you may remember, since I’ve had the loan of an embroidery machine from Husqvarna Viking, I’ve been experimenting with using both the built in designs and those in the library of My Sewnet. The rosebud design shown here provided a perfect opportunity to add fabric paint within the stitched outlines of the flower and its leaves. I worked this in a grey Madeira rayon thread onto hand dyed cotton fabric, layering the fabric with cotton batting and a cotton backing so the stitched design quilted the layers rather than just embroidering on a single layer of cloth.

Sometimes I’ve chosen filled designs instead of outlines. They showcase the lustre of the threads and create beautifully rich and detailed surfaces. I’ve extended the digital designs with more fabric painted rosehips, rosebuds and leaves.  Lots of my examples are stitched onto old quilts that I’ve recycled. Embroidering onto an existing pieced and quilted fabric adds interesting colour and texture don’t you think? Of course it does present some problems too but I’ve chosen to ignore the existing quilting and simply work over it with both stitch and paint.

Working onto a quilted surface does mean that my leaves and especially the pears in the final image have strange linear patterns but I rather like the serendipity of that layered effect. The additions are hand painted with either fabric paints or artists’ acrylic paints mixed with textile medium. I particularly like the gleam of metallic paints!

I haven’t heard of anyone taking commercially available digital designs and making them completely their own in this way but, you know me, the control freak rears its head again! If you are interested to see more the Summer Issue 2022 of Quilting Arts Magazine has a feature.

Bye for now,
Linda x