‘Autumn Leaves’ is the theme of the current Quilting Arts Magazine reader challenge. I love the colors of fall foliage, and I often take photos of leaves and trees with the idea I will someday use them as inspiration for a quilt.
I reviewed my collection of leaf images and found this one taken several years ago. The colors are fabulous – the Sumac leaves are a glowing fiery red-orange color, which contrasts really well with the blue-green foliage in the background. Using Picasa, I boosted the color and contrast, and cropped the photo. Then I printed the image on fabric.
I used a dark pink thread to outline the edges and thread-sketch the veins of the foreground leaves.
Then I layered the quilt, and free-motion quilted the background with a teal thread. The foreground leaves, stitched before layering, are slightly raised from the background, giving the quilt some dimension. The quilt is only 8 x 10 inches and I thought a 1/4 inch binding would overwhelm it. So I decided to see how narrow a binding I could make. I used a single fold binding and stitched it so that only 3/16 inch shows on the front. I’m very pleased with the effect.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many creative and inspirational projects.
Wow – beautiful!
You were so right to put a very narrow binding on this lovely piece. Too often the bindings on small pieces overwhelm them.
This turned out wonderfully! Hope to see it tomorrow
This is gorgeous Terry. Thanks for sharing your process.