Monday, March 1, 2010

Stacked Blueware


What a fantastic color palette Francoise challenged us with this round. As soon as I pulled out my scrap fabric stash in these colors, I saw a lovely combination of color.

Because blue comes in many different shades and tones, I thought it would be fun to play with more than one. My scrap baskets tend to be overflowing most of the time and I think that I could easily create several 12” x 12” quilts just in this color palette.

I only made one and this is it. I’d had an idea rolling around in my head for a while on a way to use up scraps of fabric. I love the look of collage and remembered as a child how we would tear up papers and glue them all down to form a design or cover an object. This technique, also known as decoupage, has a very scrappy look and I wondered how I could recreate that in fabric. So with some small pieces of fabric, Mistyfuse, and batting, I made the attempt and came up with my Stacked Blueware quilt. I was thrilled with the results and have continued to play with the technique since and have plans for many more.


I love the mosaic feeling it gives and it’s fun to scrounge for the perfect fabric color to achieve the right bit of lightness or shadow. I also used some black and white textile paints to further play up the shading and highlighting.

I free-motion stitched over the entire piece. I also added a couched novelty yarn around the outer edge.

21 comments:

Dale Anne said...

GREAT JOB Terri!
I LOVE the collage idea, will have to try it as my scrap tote is overflowing as well.

Kristin L said...

Ooooh! I actually squealed when i refreshed my page and this appeared! It needs to hang right next to mine. :-) It has a lovely mix of reality and wonkiness, and I love all the different fabrics. This may be my favorite Terri quilt.

Gerrie said...

Love this, Teri!! Love how you collaged the fabrics and the stack of wonky cups. The way you have collaged the fabrics and highlighted with paint gives a lovely reflective value to the cups which I love. Value has done its job in this piece.

Diane Perin said...

The technique worked so well for this -- wonderful images, and your use of fabrics and shading and light are masterful. As always, I marvel at your totally wonderful use of commercial prints.

Anonymous said...

LOVE this, Terri. Great use of all the fabrics.

JB said...

I like this sophisticated treatment of the challenge and the use of collage, which several of the group have mentioned is a technique on my to do list. Nice job!!

Terry Grant said...

I love, love, love this piece! Now you all know why I was so taken with Terri's collage technique! The combination of blue printed fabrics really sparkles and the composition of stacked cups makes me smile.

Linda Zimmerman said...

this is beautiful. the shadowing makes me feel as though i could reach out and pick up a cup. blue is not a color i usually work with but I love the combination of all the blues. it is charming!

Mandi said...

It's really beautiful. I love the cups against the background.

Tami @ Lemon Tree Tales said...

I love the way this looks! I'm designing a race car quilt for my husband and was wondering whether I should piece or fuse. After seeing your success with this I'm sure that fusing is the answer. Thanks!

Karen said...

This is one of my favorites, it is just wonderful. I love the piecing of the cups and the background. I want to try this technique myself.

SewCalGal said...

I love the teacups. Great sense of depth and shape. I also love the color and quilting. Inspirational!

SewCalGal
www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

Brenda said...

Terri, you have captured both the fragility and the richness of blueware and created wonderful reflections in fabric and stitch. I look forward to getting together for a cuppa sometime (I don't drink tea or coffee but herbal teas or hot chocolate work too!).

Françoise said...

This is great. All these blue fabric scraps! Yummy.
I need one of these cups for drinking my favourite green tea. I think I pick the top one.

Jamie Fingal said...

I love your piece. Nothing like a soothing cup of tea. You could just reach out and touch one. Love, love, love the blues.

Nikki said...

I absolutely love it! I would love to have this hanging in my blue and white house. The collage works perfectly.

I would also love to have some real cups just like these. Any way to decoupage fabric onto some mugs and then seal them to be washable?

Deborah Boschert said...

Me too! I love it. All the details are just delightful. The fabrics, the stitching, the paint, the edge treatment... all most excellent. Great job.

PaMdora said...

Really lovely, Teri!

Sylvia said...

I just love your quilt and would be very proud if it was mine!!!! Just the color of my cups! And the way they just sit one inside the other. I really like it vey much.

Terri Stegmiller said...

Thank you all very much for your wonderful comments.

Corryna said...

Wonderful!