"New from Old"...A Warm-Up Study

While I am still waiting for the wonderful image to arrive that will be the central focus of my "New from Old" contest entry to benefit The Alliance for American Quilts, I decided to do a small study incorporating some of the elements I will be using.

Vintage quilt blocks are showing up in my work these days, as in the portraits I've done recently of my nieces Elle and Amaleah.

This is Amaleah....it was my Point Bonita project. This measures 17 1/2" X 17 1/2".

For my "New from Old" quilt I have some lovely 1930's Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks that I want to incorporate, so I spent the last few days playing with them.
Plus, as always happens, I got totally distracted by the new flowers opening up in the yard, even in the midst of all this cold rain! I had to add them, too.

So I laid out some blocks and flowers together on a gold silk dupioni background and took their picture.

The idea was to print this image on fabric and then embellish it.

And this is what I did. I love using the EQ Printables prepared fabric sheets. They give the sharpest print!

However, even after I had already started embellishing this, I decided I didn't like the way the gold background looked.

So off it came. I had already interfaced my print here with fusible knit interfacing to keep everything nice and stable.
I decided on a rich purple/blue background instead.

I put the purple silk on a muslin foundation with my ink jet print appliqued by machine over it. Notice I am using a very fine needle here, the size 60 Microtex Sharp. This is to leave as small a hole in the printed EQ fabric as possible, because holes unfortunately are permanent. Using clear monofilament thread in a narrow zigzag with this fine needle worked very nicely.

Then just for the fun of it I added a little trapunto to the back of the pieced star that is printed in the center of the design.

This is about 8 1/2" X 8 1/2".
I'm just getting in gear with the embellishments here. Those little four-petaled orange flowers with the beads in their centers are from cut-out painted Tyvek. Easier than Angelina!

Because this little project is for a friend of mine, I put her initial in the center.


All in all, this was a fun little exersize, familiarizing myself with the elements I'll be working with in the 16" X 16" New from Old quilt. I'll be using the actual Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks in that one, though.
I can't wait until my cousin Tracy's watercolor sketch arrives for the central image and I can get started!