Quilting Quest

In my current endevours at quilting, I am progressing - slowly . Having owned a rotary cutter for a number of years, I have only ever used it on paper. It was only at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham last Summer that it dawned on me I should really be using it for fabric. Slow learner-that's me. So I invested in a replacement blade, and christened it this week by using it on fabric. Quite amazing how easy it is to cut curves. I was well impressed.

The sudden urge to embark on this cutting of unusual shapes in material was inspired by my earlier post about the Abstract Art project I have been doing with students. I like to work to music, and thought I would mirror what they had been doing with dry media,and give it a go, but I would use fabrics instead. So the music I chose was Roxette, Look Sharp, I also chose a yellow background fabric ( which is turban cotton) and cut up some scraps of coloured fabric into shapes, suggested by the music, using my rotary cutter freehand fashion. I held the bits down to the background fabric with 505 adhesive. Next decision was how to hold the rotary cut pieces of fabric down permanently onto the background. I decided to machine them with a fancy stitch. After much experimentation I decided on this pattern.

I also chose a varigated thread I had recently bought. This is one of the quilting patterns on my Bernina machine.

Here you can see the work in progress. Keeping to quilt traditions I put another layer of fabric over the top, a yellow glitzy synthetic. So have 3 layers if you include the stabilising fabric underneath which is calico.

Why am I always impressed by the wrong side of the work, when I have put all the effort into the other side? Hmmm.

Here is the finished piece, have taken the photo at an angle, hoping you can see a bit of the shimmer created by the glitzy synthetic on top. What do I do with it now.......have not got a clue! Enjoyed making it though.