Process of new art work

I have been plodding along with my lime quilt.  I have spent quite a bit of time on it over the past week.  I love the transformation of a piece of white cloth into something beautiful and colourful.

After the crayoning is done it is time to paint.  I use a student grade textile paint.  I would love to use a better paint but trying to get them in NZ is very challenging and very expensive.  We are a bit more limited here with resources as we are are only a small country and a long way from the rest of the world. We have a lot of quilting stores well stock but not so many store to supply surface design.

The paint is too thick in the container so after mixing the colour I always thin it down to a thin yoghurt consistency.  Not too thin as I don't want the paint to bleed into the next area.  The crayon only helps a little to keep the paint on the area. 

I first mix up a range of colours.  The colours used are the same as the pencils and crayons I have chosen.  I use a porcelain palette.  Because it cleans up beautifully.  When painting I use a different paintbrush for each colour.  This save the risks of accidental mixing colour as textile paint is hard to get off.  Speaking from alot of experience. :)  I sometimes do all of one colour first and other times when I need to blend I work with a range of colours at a time.

This is the centre of my quilt finished.  I have gradiated the background of the segments to give the piece more contrast and interest.

The only colour I wasn't sure of was the orange.  I have decided to leave it and put oil sticks over it if it doesn't work once I have quilted it.

Now for the next exciting bit.  Quilting!