Two finishes!

Well, kinda two finishes, more like wrapping up what was about 90% done previously. But hey, I’ll take it as a finish!

I did ultimately decide to go with the “back” of the organza sheer SAQA Auction Donation quilt:

If its purchaser prefers it the other way it will be easy to move the tiny sleeve and show the “front”. I was perplexed on how best to hang it and I like my solution:

I cut a hollow plastic tube to size whose previous purpose was to hold a small American flag. The flag had faded and I kept the tube. I sanded the ends and wrote the pertinent information with a permanent Sharpie. I created a tiny, unobtrusive sleeve from a leftover piece of the hand-painted silk organza and added the wire. It is extremely light weight! I’m pleased with the outcome.

I also finished the “redo” of my long Turtle Hand Batik panel by using Inktense to change the color of the leaves and rebinding in a fabric more suited to the new colors.

The bundled thin green silk on the right was the previous binding which no longer worked with the “new” green. The new binding is a silk stripe you see at the bottom of the photo. I’ve had it for ages and it was the perfect color! I love stripes in a binding.

Here you can see why that binding had to change: the leaf on the left has been Inktensed, the one on the right is the original color.

It was pretty simple to add the Inktense (on the right leaf). I wet the surface of the quilt with my brush, penciled in the Inktense to my liking and blended it all with a q-tip. This may seem like such an easy thing, because it was, but it has taken me years to feel comfortable just picking up a pencil and adding color. I am over that hump now, finally, and it feels good!

I think this shot really shows how much the color change affected the quilt; new green on the bottom, old green on the top.

Rookie move:

When I first started coloring the leaves, I was spare with the water and it was a little tedious. I thought, I’ll just use more water. Really, I knew better. This is not a competition quilt and it will hang with its back to the wall so the bleed through is no big deal. I did feel pretty stupid though!

A few detail shots from the back:

And here it is in situ:

I am so pleased! It was the perfect piece for that long spot and with the previous green, it just wasn’t quite right. Now the greens talk to each other and it is a pleasant scene. That is Hubby’s bar; I don’t drink but maybe 2 times a year so the bar is his. He was picky about what went there, couldn’t be too quilty and could not take away from the exiting piece. That piece by the way, the one on the left, I LOVE. I had to work on Hubby to get a “like” from him on an abstract piece and now he loves it too. It was a production piece from a fairly inexpensive store, a real find.

And yes, I’m still playing with my Applipops. I’ve been using Kona for my experiments and it’s on the thicker end of what the Applipops were designed for. Just for grins, I took my experiments and plopped them down on a piece of silk – kinda like the result:

The Applipops are of varying degrees of perfection. I don’t know that I will actually make this piece or do anything with my starter Applipops, but it’s been fun to play with them and see those “perfect” little circles. I have been working on getting my lecture and some of my workshops virtual and didn’t have time to write about my experience with them yet. They’re pretty slick!

I’ll post on Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday. Newsletter coming on Saturday. If you haven’t already, sign up on the form at the bottom of the page. It’s not all about me so I think you’ll enjoy it!