Puttin’ on the Glitz

I have been in the studio having amazing fun with the box of Kreinik threads that arrived last month.  After my first foray into trying the copper on my shoe quilt, I decided to start jazzing up the coral piece I had found in my UFO pile earlier this fall.

Here you can see a detail of the quilting I did using the Fashion Twist thread in color “Heather”.   The variegated metallic finish of this thread pops out with highlights and really adds sparkle to the piece.  It also sewed very well.

Here’s another detail, showing the octopus and coral.  I used Fine Twist iris in “Golden Brown” to highlight the lines on the octopus’ tentacles as well as to circle quilt on the coral.  I currently am sewing the suckers with Fine Twist Iris “Yellow”.

Detail of how I am planning on attaching the finished octopus to the bottom of the quilt.  First I have to finish quilting the tentacles and then edge beading the whole applique.  There is a thin layer of batting and the backing fabric is some of my hand-dyed twill, for even more stability.

Here you can see the circle quilting in the Kreinik Silver Gimp Thread in “Gold”.  I initially quilted both corals with Madeira thread in a shade of orange, and I really like how going over the quilting with the metallic thread added depth to the piece.

Circle quilting in “Golden” Brown” and you can see how plain the background was before quilting.

And what is a coral reef without some fish?  This applique was drawn onto a sheet of heavy duty (50 weight) Pellon interfacing, then sewn to the yellow fabric before being machine embroidered with Sulky and Kreinik threads.

Here is what an applique looks like in process.  You can see the bobbin threads outlining the form and showing me where to stitch.  This is on my hand-dyed fabric and supplemented with silk dupioni.

Here you can see how fine the metallic works, even in a free motion zigzag stitch

The finished clown fish, pinned in place.  I am not sure where the fish will end up yet, as I still have to make a few more. 

I also realized both fish are facing in the same direction, so the next fish will be facing the other way. 

The piece so far, on the design wall.  You can see some other work in process behind it, as well as the piece I did for the Lark book “The Artful Storybook” .  Sometimes it would be nice to have a larger design wall, but sometimes it is really cool to see the layers of quilts on the wall taking shape.