Working with Thread Painting

I've talked about having my photos printed on fabric by Spoonflower and quilting the resulting panels with thread painting.  I showed some of the quilts I had made in this manner.  Recently I had some more photos printed.  As I work through them I will chronicle some of the steps.

Today I'm working on a panel with a picture of red maple leaves.  This is the photo that was uploaded to Spoonflower for this panel.



And this is a photo of the panel I received from Spoonflower.


I was truly astonished at how crisp and clear this print was.  (In fact, all the prints were amazing.)

The next step in quilting this panel is choosing the threads to work with.  I like to choose many different threads, to add texture and depth to the finished problem.  So I pulled out my bins of threads and started to see what I already had that would work.

I started with a reds.  They turned out to me more pinks, than reds, which I hadn't expected.  Fortunately I had a good number of pinks and maroons that would work on the panel.


The thread in the lower right hand corner is more brown than red or maroon and probably will be used sparingly or not at all.  But the rest of the colors work really well with the colors of the maple leaves.

After pulling the pinks that I had available, I went in search of greens.  I have a pretty good collection of green threads from previous panels, so a found a good number.


In this case, the thread in the lower right is a green/gold metallic that might work well for the veins of the maple leaves.  (It is by Superior Threads, and runs really well in my machines.)  

After finding my greens I looked at what else I had that might work on parts of the panel.  I found some yellow/orange/gold colors, another pink I hadn't included before and black to work the background areas.




I have many different varieties of thread to use, from many different manufacturers.  For this type of work I am more interested in color and finish than type of thread.   I will almost certainly find more different colors to use, either in the rest of my stash or in one of the area quilt stores.  But I've found enough to start working with.

So, next step, layer and pin baste.   I will use two layers of batting, Hobbs 80/20 and Hobbs wool.  The double layer will allow for great texture.  I will upload pictures as I work on this.

Enjoy! 





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