Journal Quilt Finally Finished!

On the Australian/New Zealand Art Quilters yahoo group that I participate in (spasmodically) there is a monthly art quilt challenge that I have mentioned before. Each month there is a theme or a technique we can use as an inspiration for an A4 sized journal quilt. Back in April the technique was "painted vliesofix (fusible webbing)" and, as I love that technique and the effects you can achieve, I jumped straight in and started. I painted the vliesofix with diluted Golden acrylic paints and then tore some pieces and ironed it to text patterned fabric that the wonderful Joanna in New York sent me as part of a trade. (I could do with metres of this fabric I love it so much!). This is what it looked like at that stage.

I cut out some flower shapes from some more of the painted vlieosfix and fused them to the other piece. Didn't work very well but I then made a big mistake and tried machine stitching around the flower shapes without using anything in between to protect the fragile paint surface. It is called "not thinking"! So it was disaster and made a mess of the whole thing. I rescued some of it by cutting out the better flower bits and zigzagging around the edges and I guess they will surface again one day on something else.

So then it was a case of practically starting again so this time I used just the bits of painted vlieosfix that remained from the piece that I had originally cut flower shapes from. I randomly fused them to a nicely coloured "Wet One" that I had used to mop up some paint and backed it with a bright fabric and batting. I then did FME in free form flower shapes over the top but again didn't think it through and used a bright orange thread that looked a bit too orange once I had finished (although it looks quite pale in the scan it really isn't!).


The wet one part also looked a bit too bulge-y on top so I through caution to the wind and put the whole thing through the embellisher. I really liked the effect although I am sure quilt purists would have apoplexy over the "damage" it does to fabric! What I didn't like however, was the fuzzy top that showed up from the batting being needled through. So then, in a continuing tale of adaptation and improvisation, I sprayed the quilt quite heavily with Moon Shadow Glimmer Mist which reduced the whiteness but also subdued the really bright original colours. I decided to back the quilt and to do a machine stitched edge.

Then I didn't like the edge so I hand sewed a nice bright fibre around the edge and also around the wet one section as it was looking a bit lost in the middle. It still needed something as the original orange thread on the flower shape was grating on me so I started beading the centre of the flower and intended to bead around the shapes of the flower. After doing the centre I realised I would never finish the quilt if I continued beading so I have "fake beaded" the rest using a lovely dimensional orange glitter fabric paint.

And I am not doing another single thing to this quilt! P.S .The quilt is not as wonky as it appears in the scan.