LOVE BINDS Art Quilt

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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 ThreadsRainbow 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!)

Leftover pieces cut deliberately into triangle shapes… and “doodled” over randomly!! Raw edge borders… no need to spend time hand stitching on this piece.  Also, I left the center commercial green batik (with the black circles) deliberately “off kilter” — one of my favorite ways to play!
And I ripped the fabrics, so I could get those fluffy edges… 
and don’t forget it’s
“love… binding it all together!”
and the finished piece looks like:
 “…love  binds everything together in perfect harmony” — Colossians 3:14

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