DRANGON FLY POND: REDO UPDATE

All of the leaves have been glued down ready to iron into place.

Hello 

Well I've gotten a lot more done since the last posting about the Dragon Fly Pond redo of an old project.  The above photo shows all of the Water Nasturtium leaves put into place on the quilt top and ready to be ironed down. I used glue stick to hold them on long enough to get the iron on each one of them. The fish all have fins now and there is one additional fish.

Here are the leaves just after they have finished drying on my paint table. I spritzed the leaves with water and then, I applied the Dyna-Flo paints.  I poured each color into a small plate, rather than working from the jars. The leaves looked a lot darker than this when they were first painted.

Painted and dry leaves

 

After getting all the leaves fused onto the quilt, I quilted them into place.  I then starting adding in  painted shading.  I used acrylic paints mixed with Golden Fabric Medium that I bought at Michael's  Arts and Crafts Store in Lexington.  The quilting doesn't show up real good in this photo. It's just a center circle with lines coming from the circle. The edges were free motion stitched in wavy lines that were repeated around the edge a few times. I used a variegated tri-lobal thread from Superior Threads.

Leaves quilted onto the top and in the process of being shaded in with paint.

 I made the fins out of a shiny organza layered with silk interfacing. I used the new "Steam a Seam Two" between each of the layers. That has proven to be problem with stitching through it with metallic thread. I have gold metallic that I purchased from Superior Threads many years ago that always works great for me.  I couldn't get it to work for more than a few stitches when trying to quilt through all of the layers that were either fused or painted or both. If I do this kind of layering again, I'll use "Misty Fuse".

I finally gave up on it and went with a FS #20 metallic from Madeira Threads (http://www.madeiramart.com/thread) . It's darker than what I first wanted but I am loving the way it sews and the look of it on the fish. I"m using a bright copper color.

Fish with quilted scales and fins. The left fin still has the gold metallic thread.

 I still need to quilt in some detail on the head of the fish. I'm going to use a white polyester thread for the head.  I'll also be adding in more detail around the leaves and, of course, the rock needs attention.

A word about some of the supplies that I'm using. The Dyna-Flo paints can be purchased from:
http://www.dharmatrading.com/

The threads can be purchased at: 
 http://www.superiorthreads.com
I use a lot of their polyester threads.  

Q-First in Quilting, located in Lexington, KY does carry some Superior Threads. 

The Evolon can be purchased at:
http://www.meinketoy.com/item_680/Evolon-Soft.htm  
Warning! This is a very fun site to visit.     

I love using Evolon for certain things.  It never has raggedy edges because it is a non-woven man made fiber. It is soft and velvety and easy to cut and quilt. It's expensive but it's worth it when nothing else will do quite the same thing.

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Joyfully Creating in Nonesuch, 

Karen