SAQA Auction Donation 2016

I always enjoy creating a small art quilt to donate to the SAQA Auction. I usually take inspiration from a recent quilt I've completed. This year, I worked with the color palette, shapes and symbols in my quilt, Multitudes.

I began by gathering fabrics.

Eventually, I settled on this basic composition. (You'll notice I only used five fabrics from that big pile I'd considered.)

I have a 12x12 window cut from a piece of cardboard. Here I am testing to make sure the design fits comfortably within the required size. You can see I altered the fabric arrangement just a bit. One of my favorite things about the larger Multitudes quilt is the black and white striped square in the mid-left of the background. This smaller quilt needed a similar pop.

Next I outline the bowl with thin fused strips of brown.

Here I am sketching the flower shapes that will be painted onto the quilt using a freezer paper stencil. I'm carefully thinking about the placement of the flowers in relation to the bowl.

Cut out the freezer paper stencil.

Press the stencil to the surface of the quilt.

I love this sponge spouncer for applying paint.

Ta da! Fabric and paint layers done. Now it's time for stitching. (You see I also added the tan striped fabric in the brown section and a smaller repeat at the top.)

Gold-yellow-mustard hand stitched arch across the top along with black machine stitched lines.

Seed stitch in the bowl. A few free motion lines too.

I fused on a backing, then trimmed all the layers to 12x12. (My beloved Y stitches, too!)

Finished!

A few details.

Labeled and ready for auction in September. (I'll keep you posted.)