In The Pink ~

 After printing through the stencil onto fabric, I ironed to set the dye, fused the entire piece of fabric, and then cut the flowers out; fusing them onto the quilt top, and then appliqueing them free motion style, to the quilt sandwich.  Free motion applique is quick!  Easy!  and … more FUN.  Of course, you could also choose a decorative stitch to accent the edges of those cute flowers…

I added extra motifs, painting them directly to the fabric, with Jacquard Lumiere paints, such as the leaves and berries you see that are painted on.

 This time it’s Basic Grey’s pink grunge fabric instead of aqua…

 After quilting, and adding the binding, each flower was beaded with at trio of silver beads.  I like to trim and square up my pieces after quilting, and add the binding because if I bead them first, it’s nearly impossible to get an accurate cut, as the beads get in the way of being able to lay the ruler flat against the edges by that time.  So all my quilting, and even the binding, is added and finished when I start my beading {by machine} process.

 This quilt also features words in a soft variegated pink thread: “plant your hope… nurture faith…  in Christ… sprout… renew.  Perfect for Easter, too.

It’s 7.5″ wide x 33.25″ long, and for sale in my Etsy shop. 

I chose a variegated thread, in pretty colors of brighter pinks, blue, and greens to accent the flowers, and ‘bring them to life.’  This is a 40 weight tri-lobal polyester on top, and 50 weight Masterpiece 100% ELS cotton  on the bottom.  Here’s a picture of the back of this piece, which  shows the thread tension, and also how it looks after beading, which I do by machine, {without a foot}.

These are tips I share when I teach class {and often here on the blog}.  I own a Bernina sewing machine, and these two threads just play super well together! Want to know more? SEE MORE about thread play, tension, and needles, in a post I wrote: Learning the Thread Tango!  Just a little fun I had with a “dancing with the stars” theme… I hope you’ll take a few minutes, to … well, take it in!

I try to be really particular about {always} tying off, neatly; clipping threads.  That way, there won’t nasty ‘thread nests” on the back.   If you look closely at the thread tension in the picture, you can see that the top thread shows a little bit on the back ~ that is exactly how it should be.  I do NOT want to see the thread from the bobbin on the TOP of my quilt.  {no no no!}