LOVE BINDS Art Quilt

This piece was a bit of an experiment… I wanted to play with  my newly dyed fabric, and with my new Zenspirations embroidery designs (love the USB stick to plug n play!)  The embroidery design is the the framed box, and the “Big L” only. (check out my post on the “BLOOM” towel a few weeks ago here)
After I finished the embroidery, I added the letters: “ove” on my own, free motion style. Using the same black thread I embroidered with, which was an Isacord 40 weight polyester, I switched to a zig zag stitch, keeping my needle at a 45 degree angle.  I set my zig zag stitch to a width that I felt looked good in relation to the size of the big “L” – about 2.5 inches wide, (feed dogs are still dropped), and using the #29 clear free motion foot, (you want visibility for this!), I began free motion stitching the letters “ove” to finish…  extending a little “flair” shall we say… so the zig zag line curves, and flows it’s way all the way through the framed border, which I personally thought looked more attractive than if I was to just stop it at the inside border of the frame.

Why not add a sticker?! I found this clear sticker in my scrapbooking area (which is quite sadly neglected these days)… How I loved doing this!  Just “run right over it!” — using of course, a pretty thread in a pinky-green-mango color scheme!!!  There’s fibers under it… paint…. all added to lutradur; a kind of newer ‘space-age’ fabric (for lack of a better term!)  I’m not sure I know how to describe lutradur… a man-made polyester-type product that can be painted, stamped, cut, sewn, burned… you name it!

This is a shot of the three little squares of lutradur, and  further experimentation –I mean embellishment that I added!  …further ‘enhanced’ with a my free motion #43 couching foot using a hand-dyed yarn… just for kicks and giggles! Don’t forget to LAUGH!!!  (and for practice!)

I took design motif cues from the embroidery design, keeping it a very simple loopdee-loo free motion circles…in solid black, and then like a pitcher on a baseball field… CHANGE IT UP!  Bat 1000 when you grab a beautiful variegated thread – my personal favorite, which is Superior Threads “Rainbow threads — they are lovely tri-lobal polyesters that have shine and brilliant colors (love them!).  The tip is to use a 90/14 topstitch needle… drop your top tension a notch (or two!), and use a bobbin weight or lighter, 50 weight cotton thread on the bottom.

I added some stamping to one of the little squares… in a bit of white paint, right onto the lutradur.  It didn’t come out quite as bold as I was anticipating… but hey, that’s how you learn!  (and have fun!)

“…love  binds everything together in perfect harmony” — Colossians 3:14