Art Show with Nest Quilts and Summer Breeze Part One

I'm so excited to have been accepted into an art gallery for a show in September 2016.  When I started my journey with the nest art quilt series, I had the intention to make 15-20 nest art quilts and get them into a show as either a special exhibit at a quilt show, or as a solo show in an art gallery.  In late November, I got a call from Second Story Gallery in Camas, Washington.  They let me know they have scheduled my show in conjunction with an acrylic artist who is an avid birder.  This will be a perfect combination, and we both will be showing about 15 of our works.  I'm so pumped now to look at my collection of art quilt in the series and fill in some gaps with new quilts.

The next one in the series is called, "Summer Breeze".  Here's my sketch ideas.  I picked the 15" x 18" one that says, "YES". This little quilt reminds me of summer flowers and birds coming back into the yard.  That's a good thing since we had a record amount of rainfall this month.

I added a cut away stiffener to the back of the quilt to support all the stitching and weight I plan to add to the front.  It is a product from Sulky, called Cut Away Plus.  I only put it where it's needed, and after stitching, it gets trimmed.

After I stitched down the pole, I free form stitched some stems and leaves.  These will be the first layer in the background.

I colored these in with Derwent Inktense pencils.  Then using a small fabric paint brush, I brushed on some Textile Medium.  Once the green parts were dry, I stitched on the flowers, painted them in with both colored pencil and Inktense pencils, and repeated the fabric medium to set the colors, and let this dry overnight.

Textile medium

For the flowers, I remembered a technique recommended by one of my art quilt friends.  I used two layers of fabric, back to back, and sandwiched the fabric between layers of Solvy Wash Away Stabilizer.  I traced the flowers from my drawings right onto the Solvy, then sewed on the lines with a straight stitch. Then I zig-zag stitched a couple of times.  The Solvy dissolves easily in water, and if you want a little stiffener in the fabric, you can take the pieces out and blot them lightly, letting them dry and stiffen overnight.  Otherwise, you would rinse thoroughly.

Flowers showing zig zag stitching

Flowers with extra fabric trimmed away

Flowers showing extra Solvy trimmed away

How do you like the concept so far?

I'll continue the blog next week with the second half of this little quilt, called "Summer Breeze".