artsy painted leaves ~

sooo… several weeks ago, i began painting on a beautiful plain white piece of prepared for dye cotton fabric, using those beautiful silk acrylic glaze paints by luminarte.  these are just sweet to paint with. they have such beautiful luminosity, color and rich, flowing, silky-smooth texture.

after letting the paint dry, and heat-setting with an iron, i began the quilting process.  i’d begun quilting the stems, and adding silver glitter thread as a highlight when the ‘nose storm’ hit:

 and all of the threads {from superiorthreads.com} seen below, went into the quilting of this piece:

 the first thing i did to begin quilting this piece, was to quilt the curving branches, and stems.  this left me with what i call a ‘road map’ on the back side.  that’s when i turned the quilt over to the back, and quilted those same branches and stems with a black and silver razzle dazzle.  {love love}.  why black?  it seems wintery to me.  and the silver?  well, that’s the frosted branches!

of course, i added variegated thread for each of the leaves, switching out multiple times to get the thread color combo i wanted.  and i chose to do that with something new to my studio, and to my quilting:  fantastico by superior.

 now, i’ve shared my secret {above!}.  but it’s really no secret.  do you read the information that superior makes available on their website, for each thread?  it’s great info, and they truly want you to have a good time, and of course, they want you to use their product, so it’s behooves them to tell you the ‘secret’ on how it can be successfully used! glitter thread is a bit of a glamor queen, and something of a delicate, high-maintenance diva!  but it’s truly as simple as the formula i’ve stated in the picture, as far as the thread action goes, that is.  you must use a  90/14 topstitch needle and quilt a bit slower.  this thread isn’t one for the speed zone, that’s for sure.  then ~ expect some glamorous, exciting results!  {and i have it in all the colors, and have used it this way successfully… for many years.

i used a bit of king tut {40 wt egyptian-grown cotton thread} below, for some shadows and emphasis on the wintery-looking branches, and just a bit on the leaves, here and there.  masterpiece was in my bobbin the whole time.

below:   the dynamic duo of quilting with metallic thread {of any type or kind!} in my experience:

 and below, a spool showing fantastico.  this is why i ordered a couple spools to try:

• Ideal for embroidery and quilting.
• High-sheen allows the thread to reflect color vividly and clearly.
• Precision-dyed one-inch color change.
• Unlike many other high-tenacity trilobal polyesters, Fantastico is ‘heat set’ in processing which eliminates shrinkage.
• Fantastico consists of 48 micro filaments x 4 ply (2 ply x 2 ply), for a total of 192 micro filaments resulting in spectacular sheen and strength.  
• and i was not disappointed.  this is definitely a brilliant thread, and i will keep on using it!

 this is the backside.  i used a yellow masterpiece {50 wt extra long staple, egyptian-grown cotton} which is the best in the market, in my opinion.  the white thread you see below, is the bobbin thread – superior’s “bottom line” by libby lehman, for the silver metallic glitter thread on the topside.

and finally, i quilted the soft white background with white magnifico. and i’m so pleased with the overall look of this piece.