Dinner at Eight Quilts - Part 1

My co-curator, Leslie Tucker Jenison and I are creating 3 quilt panels to be used in our exhibits at the International Quilt Festivals, that identifies our Dinner at Eight Artists name. It will hang with our exhibit as a sign, so to speak.  So, I made some notes for ideas about what I would create in fabric having to do with food, because the first panel is "d" for dinner.

The first piece I made was a giant orange carrot, and all of the fabrics have been pre-fused with Mistyfuse

Romaine lettuce and tomatoes

Looking at what I have made so far.  It is really colorful and fun.  Now to decide on the backgrounds, which are such an important part of quilt making.  Keep it interesting, look at color and contrast. What will make the focus point pop out?  What fabrics play well with the others in the piece? Do they have the same value?  These are all questions that I ask myself, when I am making every piece of art, whether it be a quilt, or a watercolor.

Now to decide on backgrounds.  I am auditioning these three fabrics to go behind the strawberries.  I texted them to Leslie, since she is a part of this major project.  We both liked the top one - the melon color. This is when I love technology, because I can ask her too look at it on her phone, and she can tell me honestly if it works. I love this!

A dozen strawberries on top with green and orange peppers doing a dance below

Auditioning fabrics for the broccoli - I want a blue tone, like turquoise, but this one is way to busy for my piece, and it isn't playing well with everything else.

The broccoli is made with one of my stencils "Zen Landscape" (I love the texture that it creates) by Stencil Girl Products

Oops!  The carrots are too big for the background.  Now for a little slice and dice!

Cut and put back together, to shorten the carrots.  You can take apart anything that has been Mistyfused, as long as its, fabric to fabric.

Trim and cut to make it look like a carrot again.  This has been a major fussy cutting project, and my favorite Havel's Scissors have really played a part in this project

Whoohoo!  Had a major a-ha moment when I finished this piece.  I had so much fun making it!  All it needs now is to have the letter "d" added.  

I bought a package of napkins, that I thought would be great to make the letter "d" with.  "D" is for Dinner.  They were 2-ply, so I took out the second layer and set it aside.  Amazingly enough, the second layer had a nice gray color.

I decided to cover the napkins with black tulle, to make them more like fabric.  Who knows what would happen to the paper over time, if it were to be left alone.  I thought that fusing it with the tulle over it, would add some stability to the letter.

This is what the tulle looks like with Mistyfuse on it.  Remember to use a Goddess Sheet (Mistyfuse product) to lay over the Mistyfuse and tulle, to protect your iron.  The Goddess Sheet really helps the Mistyfuse make a really tight bond to any fabric.

After the entire piece was Mistyfused, I cut the excess off the sides of the napkins

This is what it looks like, and frankly, I was pretty happy about it

Here is the "d" - all cut out.  I fused it to black wool blended felt and cut it out, leaving a small margin of felt around all of the edges.  You can see it in the picture below

The 'd' close up.  I think it makes quite a statement!

And here it is - ready for some free motion machine quilting!