"From Summer to Autumn" - A 12"x12" Art Quilt

The inspiration for this 12"x12" quilt came from 4 small remnants of black and white fabric that I thought about using in a binding for the larger quilt, "Balancing Act".

I pieced four black and white patterned squares to create the central theme's background.  Lying next to the pieced square was another, larger batik remnant with glorious red, gold and chartreuse colors and it "screamed" to be included as a floral element and to be one of the borders to surround the black and white pieced square.

Free form Leaf Shapes Cut and Machine Appliqued to Suggest Summer Flower

Beaded Center of Floral Shape

In order to reflect the seasonal change from Summer to Fall, I cut two maple-type leaf shapes from some of my hand dyed fabric stash, machine appliqued and heavily free motion embroidered veining onto each leaf.

Autumn Leaf Shapes

Around each flower petal is dense echo quilting with gold thread and to set off the central them I framed it with close zigzag, buttonhole, gold stitching..

Dense Echo Quilting around Petals

To continue the floral theme, I free motion quilted leaf pairs into the yellow outside border and feather stitching on the larger, inside batik border.  Once I was satisfied that "enough was enough", I turned the piece over and set about making a hanging sleeve and label.

Back of Quilt ©Linda Friedman 2013

Recently I've decided to try to incorporate an initialized image as further identifier to each piece that I create.  For this I used  Sharpie "Stained" markers that become permanent when heat set.

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QUESTION OF THE DAY :-):  Do you save every little scrap of fabric and do each of these remnants offer an opportunity for creative exploration of an idea?  If you use remnants in your quilts, I'd love for you to post a link for me to enjoy how you use these fabric gems in your work.

 

All contents of this blog are copyrighted. Linda Friedman 2002-2013