Challenges
Life is full of challenges. Sometimes we choose to take on challenges. Other times they are thrust upon us. One challenge I opted to take is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The idea is to use up your scraps by creating work featuring the color of the month. Love the theory, but I tend to struggle with the actual practice. Most of what I save as scraps are far too small and/or there is too little of it to work with. So, I often resort to culling my stash for older fabric that I have less than an eighth of yard and calling that scrap.
Solutions
I am the master at adding challenges to my challenges. If something is simple or done, you can bet I will find a way to challenge myself further and extend the challenge with some complexity. So it is with How Does Your Garden? The more I worked on the top the more I realized it was missing something. My garden was too pristine. Where were the bugs? No surprise, I decided I had to add butterflies and the butterflies had to to be thread painted.
Yes, I do love to thread paint. I love the detail I can achieve doing it. However, it is very time consuming. Each of those butterflies takes approximately four hours to complete and finished they are approximately 3″ x 4″. Talk about challenging. I persevered and made six butterflies. One challenge I did enjoy was positioning them around the garden.
Execution
With the butterflies in position it was time to secure them to the quilt. I typically add my thread paintings after I have quilted the background. However, the quilts are small enough to do this with my domestic sewing machine. This way I can seal the edges of the thread painting with machine satin stitch. How Does Your Garden Grow? is not small. So, I new I would have to add them to the flimsy top. This presented yet another challenge. How to hold them in place so I didn’t loose tract of my “perfect” layout? Painters tape to the rescue. I cut thin strips of painters tape by the width of the roll and anchored all six butterflies. Why painters tape? Because it doesn’t leave behind sticky residue and I can easily remove and/or reposition it. Sure beats stabbing myself with pins. 🙂
Rainbow Scrap Challenge
Hurrah! I have an official finish. My How Does Your Garden Grow? top is done. Now it truly feels like a fanciful garden.
I’m linking up to the following posts:
