At the beginning of the Summer members of the Cranwell Group were all asked to submit ideas for future quilt challenges. Although not exactly in sync with the current season, the theme to be drawn out the hat for our latest challenge was “Summer Garden” and for this quilt we were asked to create a quilt with fabric scraps no larger than 3″.

I recently discovered Wendy Dolan’s book Layer, Paint and Stitch and particularly liked the heavily textured project that features on the front cover. I decided to use a similar method to create my Summer Garden quilt.

Layer Paint and Stitch by Wendy Dolan

I sketched out a rough design for the foreground on tracing paper before making a start on the base layer.

The base layer consists of forty eight 3″ squares of cotton fabric which I pinned to a thin vilene ground and roughly machined in place.

Next I added small pieces of different natural fabrics and some flower heads cut from lace and free machined these in place.

The scraps of fabric that make up the background of the quilt.

More texture was built up by adding flower stems, using a thick thread such as crochet cotton in the bobbin and sewing from the reverse side of the fabric.  I found this a particularly useful tip as in the past if I have needed thick stitching I’ve either hand sewn or couched……this method is so much quicker and easier!

I began colouring the fabric with blue acrylic paint but wasn’t happy with the result so changed to procion dye for the grass and gave the sky a once over with the green to dull it down.  When it had dried I began building up the foreground using sheers for the flower heads and wool for the stems.

I’ve done a lot more work to it since this last photo so will post an update within a couple of days once it’s completely finished.