Design your own Stencil/When the words *I Love you* are not enough


*Ethnic Heart*
stenciled, hand-embroidered and machine quilted


If you have read my previous posts you will know that I been making my own stencils in a Silhoutte Cameo machine. In this case, I combined and modified two of their designs to achieve this particular one, which I called *Ethnic Heart*.
After the stencil was cut, I decided to do a monochromatic quiltlet and chose two shiva paint sticks to colored in on a white piece of satin fabric.
With the help of the sewing machine I sewed with thick Aurifil 12w thread all around the shapes. Once finished, I chose a 28w thread from the same color family to embellish with hand-embroidery.
This was an excellent project to do while watching the Winter Olympic Games...pausing my work when the ice skating performers were on, since it is my favorite part!
 I never chose white thread to sew on white fabric. I love to choose a light colored thread to give the piece a lightly colored background. Especially good are 28w Aurifil thread, which gives you just enough coverage that it plays beautifully with the light and adds interest to your piece.
Started sewing freely around the heart.
This is the finished quiltlet. It is for one of my dearest friends, to let her know how I feel about her because the words *I Love you* are sometimes not enough!
Happy Valentines Day!


Design your Own Stencil/ Free Motion Practice.

"Funky Bird"
Playing around with the designer edition of the Silhoutte Cameo machine I came up with this bird design. Instead of making my own drawing and scanning it, I used the free form tools that come with the program. I call it Funky Bird and made a stencil out of it.
Took out a piece of fabric, silk screened it with the word *Happiness* in different languages, let it dry, put the stencil on top and colored it with paint sticks.
I enjoy working with this kind of paint since you can easily control the amount of color you want. In this case I put just enough color not to obliterate the words, which are an important part of the design. If you have been reading my blog you must know by now how much I love to work with lettering.
Next, I ironed the fabric to set the paint, sandwiched  it with batting and a backing and started to do free motion quilting.  I used some of Leah's quilting designs http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com. This piece has been quilted with different kind of threads, we all can relate on how many yummy threads are on the market and...ahem...how many we have collected. I used 12 weight Aurifil around the bird, 40 weight for the flowers and 30 weight for the lower part.
This piece was hung beside a window where the sun was shining to show off the texture that complements this quilting design.