REVISITING COTTONS

I've been petting my pile of deconstructed screen printed fabrics since the Fiber Junkies's last dye day. 

Of course now I can't recall what I used to get all those squiggly lines, but I can see by a previous photo I took, that the screen was printed 4 times.  Actually, it really doesn't much matter what I used because with this method, it's nearly impossible to duplicate one's efforts...the surprises are half the fun!

 So....with these reds calling me, I cut them apart and stitched a background together.  Originally, the darker strip was to be placed vertically, but in the end,  it became the bottom.

Earlier this year, my good (and very generous) friend Helen sent me a large box of black and white prints.  I mean a BIG box....the prints read from mostly white all the way to mostly black and everything in between.  Here are some I selected for this wall quilt.

The theme of the piece will be leaves.....now that fall is nearly upon us, you may be asking why I wasn't thinking sparkling autumn colors??  Dah....I just didn't....but that'd be a good idea.

I often have trouble working with deconstructed screen printed fabric because they have so much energy.  Multiple prints and busy patchwork is successfully accomplished by others, but I'm not comfortable in that zone.  So instead, I'm going for a bolder graphic appearance that stands out from the background...yet that background provides texture and interest for the entire piece.

Auditioning shapes/sizes with paper can be a helpful method of avoiding wasting fabric.  Fussy cutting the leaves gives them more definition.  

Stay with me.....two more leaves to go, then hand applique is ahead before the next design step is taken.