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Fish scales and being tagged
I just discovered that Larkin Van Horn, beader and quilter extraordinaire, has just tagged me to play in the Seven Random Facts game and so did my bestest friend Marie… but I already answered that a while back (May 7th I think it was?), so I’m going to count that as having answered and in turn tagged seven others LOL! Here’s a link to Larkin’s blog which I have just added to my series of links over on the right…., and Marie is here: Marie’s blog.
Now, fish scales. Sure hope you guys agree, cuz I’m NOT picking out all that stitching! But first things first. Initially I was going to make some of the fish mottled / splotchy (that yellow/gray hand-dyed), including by using white and black NeoColor II artsticks (sort of a combo of crayon and pastel and OK to use on fabric…Jane Davila used them in an article in Quilting Arts Mag. a few issues ago). First I decided the yellow didn’t work (see photo of design wall in the previous post)…too distracting, and wanted the quilt to be orange/turquoise (complementary colors). That also meant a “nope” for the black. Here’s my test strip:
Making the koi multicolored, as so many are, was just too jarring. BUT, the washes of sparkly paints worked. In looking at techniques, and my box of paints, I spied the Setacolor “Nacre” or pearlescent paint (a white) and a Stewart Gill Alchemy paint in a color called something like AfterGlow (they used to be for sale at eQuilter, Friends Fabric Art has some of them now– they are expensive, but probably worth splurging for a bottle or two as a special treat, and this site I’ve never seen before has the entire line: Puffinalia.com ) The test strip has the Pearl in the center (between the two stronger white dots) and the AfterGlow above the black blotch.
The photo at the top of this post shows all three fish (plus the head and tail that will be coming into and going out of the quilt) batted and ready to stitch… if you click on the photo you should be able to see it larger, and then see what is painted and what isn’t). I REALLY thinned the paint so that it was just an irridescent wash, which seemed perfect for fish scales. Here’s a closer view of the head / tail:
I couldn’t decide which I preferred: the simplicity of a single line of stitching or a double line:
I tested on the edge, and tried out several colors of orange, a variegated (nice on the orange, but wouldn’t work for controlling the appearance of the scales), and even better when I combined two colors of thread.
The emphasis and subtle color variation by adding a second line of stitching in a slightly lighter shade of the same color, inside the original fish scales worked for me. Here is the fish head in progress (please note the color on these photos is a bit off…)
Well, I decided I liked the doubles…..the singles look good, until I get them up on the wall and step back, at which point I MUCH prefer the double-thread look. Am I insane? Here’s a close-up of one of the big fish, with the two colors of thread used. I quilted first in the slightly darker one, then went back and echoed with the lighter one, on the right.
As for construction, you might wonder what the he
ck I’m doing quilting fish, and not a quilt. I’m saving time! I’m quilting the tops of the fishies separately, (meaning I don’t have to bury all those thread tails, or have that distracting line of “carried” thread along the sides) and they will then be appliqued to the surface of the quilt and the fins and tails added there….. More anon.