Happy Blues

Happy Blues started with a scrap pile, and a determination to use up some of these smaller pieces of fabric. I've often said I'm not a piecer but this is easy, not super precise and great fun.

I tried to arrange the fabrics so they were going from dark to light, bottom to top. They are mostly cottons, some of my hand dyes and probably some silk. I was going for color and not necessarily fabric. I like the effect of the mix.

 I was adding daisies on top using a "sky" fabric microwave dyed and very pale with patches of white. I wanted to give it a little pop and started adding Lumiere paint to highlight it.

 It's a very dense paint with a high metallic content. It also dries quickly.

 Well I really didn't like it....just too strong. So I quickly ran it under water and using an old toothbrush, scrubbed the paint away. I would have just started over, but this was all the fabric I had on hand.

 I decided I really liked the white in there. Sometimes it's just better to live with something a while which I should have done here.

I went back and added some discharge paste to different areas of the petals and really liked it so much better.

 I also added this cute little spikey flowers to give it more movement....

 and did a buttonhole stitch around the edge using my BERNINA. I really love that stitch and find myself using it more and more. It's decorative but subtle.

I used a dark denter in the daisies to give it contrast.

And now it's ready to quilt. I have a busy week so I don't know if I'll get to it for a while but I'm hoping to have it done for our Arboretum show in July.
Til next time..