Black and White

Here is one of my mock-ups for my "Forest Ferns" that will be in the "My World in  Black and White" exhibition that will be travelling next year.

I don't usually work with blacks and grays, so I had to paint up some, and even buy some. I did the sunprints of  the ferns this summer, with black Dye-Na-Flow paint from Jacquard. I really like how they turned out- the ferns are definitely the focus in this fabric. When I use my colors, the color combinations and patterns also grab attention.

The first photo is one of the first tries- I had some laces that I wanted to use- here a white one on the sides, but when I had it critiqued, the comments  were to keep the ferns as the focus and the lace distracted. I also played with something else here- I took photos of the sunprints and turned them negative in my photo program, the printed them onto cotton. The corners show a couple of these.

The second Photo shows the final mock-up that I decided on, just before construction. This piece was fully designed on the wall before construction began- a change from my usual way of starting and adding.

I decided against the corner negative ferns, went in the back yard, and found some nice small Maple leaves. I used these for leaf prints. I used black paint on the gray fabric, and a silver metallic mixed with pearlescent on the black fabric. The outer border fabric has a design of leaves that resemble Oaks to me.

This is the finished quilt- 28.5 X 36" in size- Big for what I usually do.

While doing the quilting on this, I had to make thread decisions, and I am always afraid of ruining a good piece, so I had to make up an "guinea pig" piece to play with.

I had printed more fabric than I needed for the larger piece, so I put this little one together- it is 10" x 12.5" in size. I knew I was going to use clear thread for the sunprints- anything else usually takes the attention away from the prints. For the leaf prints, I thought of accenting the veining with thread, and tried it here. Most every Maple leaf is quilted differently. I found on both the black and silver prints, I liked the smoke colored invisible thread best. The black and silver threads made the images more stark, and that is not what I wanted for the larger piece. This did make an interesting little quilt by itself, it was available for purchase at my Art Quilt shop at Etsy, but is now SOLD. Check out the shop for other art quilts available. More B&W's are in the works.

While working on these, I also had ideas floating around for another black and white piece.

I still have the laces I wanted to try using, and also found a lot of white silk flowers. A design popped into my head, and if all goes well another piece will be done. This will be all flowers and lace. I began with the back side of a black printed fabric for the center oval. the background is two different black & white prints.

You can see a bunch of the flowers pinned to the wall beside the piece on the wall.

After a little more playing on the wall, I have gotten to where the final photo of this post is. I think I will use the gray fabric for leaves, and will have the white flowers arranged, spilling over the edges of the oval. The center oval will be edged in a heavy black lace I have been wanting to find a use for, and the outer border is a black with gray print.

There will possibly be more lace, and some beading somewhere, just not sure how far it will go. I will post more as I continue. I guess I've always been more of a "girly" girl, loving ruffles, lace and flowers. Hhopefull they will come together in this.