Art quilts - Iris

This is my first Art piece for 2012. My holiday project which didn't take very long.  Throughout this blog I will give you a tour on the various stages of this quilt's construction.  Enjoy.

The outline of the Iris and pupil is drawn with a chalk pencil.  The Iris is made up of small snippets of fabric - mixture of cotton and silks.  Each piece is glued with PVA to secure into place. The silk pieces must be covered completely with glue otherwise the silk colour will distort when dry giving a "wet" appearance.

Ive added additional chalk lines to use a guide for addition of other fabric colourways.

 I always have my colour range of fabric pieces close at hand.  The big thing is to make sure glue is not spilt onto the background fabric.

I take progress photos on my phone / camera so I can view my piece from a distance.  This is important as sometimes you don't pick up a mistake when working close up to your piece.

 The pupil is fused using fusable webbing. By cutting the circle exactly the same size ensures there is no overhang.  Overhangs will create a ridge which will be very noticable.

 I have hand appliqued the eye surround.  Getting the colour right was important.  I wanted to use a bright colour but it couldn't clash with the Iris.

 The shadow of the eye surround has been fused on and secured with machine stitching.  This wasn't in my orginal plan but I felt that the eye surround needed something else.

To create a shadow effect on the Iris, I have layered a shaped piece of black chiffon over the Iris and pupil then added a lighter piece of purple chiffon to the pupil to create a light effect.  

To secure the rest of the Iris I have layered a large piece of black chiffon over the top and then stitched it to the outside of the Iris to secure it.  Trimmed the excess.

The top is now layered onto batting and backing fabric to begin quilting.  I have used various colours of thread to enhance the Iris colours.  

I never plan my quilting in advance therefore I never know what the final appearance will be until I have quilted the different areas of the quilt. 

Completed piece.

I will be designing a course later this year using the various techniques used in this blog so start collecting all your tiny scraps - nothing is to small.  Grab off cuts from your friends when they are trimming their blocks.  Separate them into colour bags.  This will become your colour pallet.

Its loads of fun and can be made by any level of quilting experience.

Shirls