Sneed

Oh, you guys are all great!! Thanks for all of the super comments.
Now, I'll try to explain the process that I ended doing after many, many false and ugly starts that did end up in the trash.
I used Moda's Grunge fabric for the background water. Then I cut the cattail spears and fused them with Misty Fuse, which does NOT make your needle gum up at all. Love the stuff!! I had to stitch the cattails down to keep them from coming loose while working on the rest. Then, I cut out the shapes of the geese out of a plain white fabric and laid them out on the background and marked their location so I could paint in the shading of the water with Derwent Inktense pens/pencils to get the right effect. These are interesting. You shade lightly with them and then moisten with a bit of water on your paintbrush which then causes the colors to become more intense. Practice with this on a sample first because you can get carried away easily and end up with very dark coloring. Then it was time to fuse the geese to the background...again Misty Fuse. When I was satisfied with the background I layered with Hobb's 80/20 batting and the backing. The threads I used were just some polyester threads used in embroidery machines that I got at a local shop. I used about six different shades of greys and seemed to be changing thread constantly. If I had been willing to wait I would have ordered polyester thread from Marathon. I have used that thread often in my quilting and it seems to really work well. Bobbin, I use Superior Bottom Line. All of the shading on the geese is done with the thread. After all of the stitching on the geese the whole thing looked kind of like a big belly button...the geese looked nice, but the background poofed up all around and I thought, "oh dear, all of this work and it will never ever lay flat. So, using Bottom Line I began the monotonous back and forth to flatten it out. That part was not a whole lot of fun, but it worked. That's pretty much how I did it. Hope this helps.

feline fanatic

Oh thank you Sneed for posting such a detailed explanation. VERY impressive and the results are beautiful! I actually loved that background quilting of back and forth lines. It perfectly receded the background to make the geese really stand out. You really should enter this in some shows. Your thread painting is exquisite.

Edited to ask if you would share a picture of the back? I bet it is almost as pretty as the front.

EmiliasNana

WOW.................
I am so impressed with your artistic talent. I have a bunny quilt that is supposed to be thread painted and I just keep moving it to the back of the pile. I'm afraid my bunny fur may come out looking like it was drug backwards out of a brush pile. Your ducks are gorgeous and so lifelike. You have a real talent!

catsden

Beautiful job. Your talent is amazing!

pewa88

Just beautiful. I admire these works of art.

Innov8R

Amazing. Was this really your first effort at thread painting? It looks very professional.

Sneed

Actually, it was done as a block challenge which was using black, white and one other color. I got a little crazy with the challenge part. It will be auctioned off for a scholarship fund. I'll get a pic of the back before it goes away.[

QUOTE=feline fanatic;7795274]Oh thank you Sneed for posting such a detailed explanation. VERY impressive and the results are beautiful! I actually loved that background quilting of back and forth lines. It perfectly receded the background to make the geese really stand out. You really should enter this in some shows. Your thread painting is exquisite.

Edited to ask if you would share a picture of the back? I bet it is almost as pretty as the front.[/QUOTE]

GreatStarter

Beautiful!

twinkie

You did fantastic.

ccthomas

Beautiful thread painted quilt.