Thread Painting

On Thursday, Melinda Bula came to visit the local quilt guild. She is a quilt-artist extraordinaire, who has come into her own with her distinctive style of painting with fabric. She talked of being an artist, and encouraged us to "just make art for yourselves! Don't make projects simply to please others. Experiment, try new things. Do something just for the fun of it!"

Well, her words must have hit home, because in between sewing binding on baby quilts, I've been making "art." The project I began on Friday is halfway done. Perhaps I'll finish it this coming week. Today I found a picture that I'd printed on fabric last month. I'd wanted to do something with it, and now I have...

This is a card that my daughter made for me several years ago, for Mother's Day. She gave me permission to replicate it in fabric...I hope she remembers! ;)


Thread Painting seems to be all the rage, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. The results are okay, but wow. This piece is 5" x 7", and it took a couple of hours. I can't imagine doing this on a large quilt. I definitely have a better appreciation for those who do this on a large scale. It made my eyes go buggy.


This it the back. It's just batting. Maybe I should have put that third layer on after all. Or not. The back doesn't look half bad.


Here are the card and the unfinished quiltlet side by side. I suppose I could have waited until I had exactly the right colors of thread, but I didn't. I used what I had. yep. I do have a pretty big thread stash...(It's all Sulky and aurefil.)

Finally, here is the finished quiltlet. Doesn't that Ricky Tims hand-dye just set it off perfectly?


So. I've posted this just to let you know that I haven't been idle. My mind's been whirling and I've been playing. I wouldn't want any judges too look closely at my work, but all-in-all, it was a lot of fun. Thanks for the encouragement, Melinda!!