"Oh Romeo" Mini Quilt

Hello Friends! I've been working on a secret project over the last little while and I'm pleased that it's finished and now to be able to share it.

Oh Romeo mini quilt by Anorina Morris

Introducing my new mini quilt, which I've called 'Oh Romeo' which is my March project for Island Batik.


Earlier this year, Island Batik ambassadors were sent an Aurifil Colour Builders to create their projects. The Aurifil colour builder sets which we received were all based on places in Italy. I received the Verona set which included 3 large spools of cotton 50wt.


Now thinking about Verona... I honestly didn't know much about it other than "Romeo & Juliet" was set in Verona, so I did what everyone does when they want to find something out... I googled. Verona looks like an absolutely stunning city with beautiful old buildings and some stunning vistas.

In my mind, I knew that I wanted to create something inspired by Romeo & Juliet and decided on Juliet's balcony. Back in high school, we studied this Shakespearean play and even all these years later, I still remember having to learn and recite sections of the play

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? 

Deny thy father and refuse thy name. 

Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love

And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

To make my mini quilt, I found the image that I wanted to create, resized it to fit an A4 size sheet of paper and then printed it. I then used a sharpie to outline the shapes which I wanted to transfer on to my fabric.

For the background, I used an Island Batik solid in white. Island Batik fabric is so lovely, soft and with a fine tight weave which made it perfect for this faux applique (with colour pencil) technique.

Using a mechanical pencil, I traced out the basic design to my fabric.


I layered a piece of batting behind the fabric and used the Aurifil threads to draw the outlines of my design. I used all three colours in the set but mainly the darker brown colour. I then added some greens from my own Aurifil stash to outline the greenery on the left.

The next step was to use my colouring pencils (I use Derwent Artist pencils) to colour in the design. The more colour pencil I added, the more vibrant the final colour on the fabric would look. 

 

After I had enough colour on my design (honestly, I had to stop myself as I wanted to keep colouring the fabric) I brushed textile medium over the top which made the coloured pencil appear like a watercolour. It's such a fun effect.

I pinned the whole thing to a board while it was drying (24 hours), trimmed the mini quilt and added a white binding.

The finished mini quilt size is 10" x 12".


 

I absolutely loved creating this project, even if it had me completely out of my comfort zone.

All of the Island Batik ambassadors will be creating projects through March with their Aurifil Color Builders, so go ahead and see what they've created.

Thanks to Island Batik, Schmetz Needles and Aurifil for supplying the materials I used to create my "Oh Romeo" mini quilt.


31 comments

  1. Hi Anorina wow your piece is fabulous and very pretty,well done on your beautiful work 💕

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can just see Juliet on that balcony. A lovely piece of art.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Karen. It was absolutely out of my comfort zone, but I'm pleased with it :)

      Delete
  3. that is beautiful work!! amazing and lovely

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anorina that turned out great! I used to make things with watercolor pencils too. I should try doing that again. I find it interesting that plain white fabric is referred to as batik because to me it is just a tighter woven fabric and batik refers to the wax and dye process.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Daryl. Yes, you absolutely should as it was a lot of fun.
      I referred to it as batik as it was provided to me by Island Batik and the white is a part of their solids range. The Island Batick solid is such a fine and tightly woven cotton fabric which was perfect for this colouring technique.

      Delete
  5. This is absolutely gorgeous, Anorina!! You did a fantastic job. I love those DeWent Pencils!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Brenda. I'm pleased with how it turned out. The Island Batik white solid cotton is just beautiful to work with. So fine and silky smooth.

      Delete
  6. That's amazing, so beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is gorgeous! I've played a bit with Derwent Inktense pencils (dry, with water, and with fabric medium) and it can definitely be a bit addicting. But you're absolutely right, stopping before you get carried away is a challenge. Love this. Thanks for linking up to TGIFF.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Becca, thanks for your comment. I've now splurged and ordered some Inktense pencils from amazon and will eagerly wait for my mailman to drop them off. Excited to play with this medium some more :)

      Delete
  8. You are amazingly talented! I wouldn't have known where to start. thank you for explaining your process. It is a beautiful piece of work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure how well I explained it, but it certainly was a lot of fun to work on. Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comment.

      Delete
  9. Wowwww
    Anorina, you are quite the arteeeest
    This is adorable

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much Rosemary. Not sure about artist, but gosh it was fun!
      Hope you're well x

      Delete
  10. Wow, that is just beautiful! Love the progress pictures showing how you made it.. xx

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's an adorable finish! What a unique design you've come up with, and I admire your ability to create something that's different. After visiting Australia, and seeing what quilters were doing with embroidery, I gave coloring a try too. I embroidered pieces first, then colored them with Derwent Coloursoft Pencils, and painted with the FolkArt Textile medium. It was a fun foray into something different. I still love the little quilt I made - saved to give to a future granddaughter. But alas, only boys have been born into the family. So, I keep it. Yours is a keeper too. Definitely well done, Anorina!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much Linda. It was certainly not something I have much practice with. I did a class about a thousand years ago to learn this technique and then promptly packed it all away. To be honest, I was surprised the textile medium still worked okay :)
      Fingers crossed for future grand daughter?

      Delete
  12. How awesome is that! Absolutely beautiful and soooo clever.

    ReplyDelete
  13. How exciting to be an ambassador and being gifted such lovely things to try out - you certainly did them all justice with such a stunning mini quilt! And thankyou for explaining the process - using the colours is certainly interesting

    ReplyDelete
  14. It looks fabulous - what a clever idea - Reminding me of high school days & Shakespeare!

    ReplyDelete
  15. How beautiful! I love the soft effect of the watercolor pencils. I'd like to try this technique sometime. Have a great day!

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a beautiful project! I love it :-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. An amazing art quilt! I love the soft subtle effect, very unique.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Very cool ideas! It looks like fun to make/colour/stitch/paint!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comment. I truly appreciate the time you've taken to leave me a message. I will attempt to answer comments via email.