Louise Page

I am about a week late, but I have completed the latest challenge for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge group. This month the task was to create a piece in the Art Deco/Art Noveau style. I was excited about doing this as I had purchased some books from Dover dealing with this subject matter. I had perused them many times, but had not gotten around to using the designs for a project. That coupled with the fact that I am determined to use up some of my fabric stash, led me to creating a slightly Asian style Art Deco work.

I began by drawing my own Art Deco pattern after looking at some of the shapes used in that style of art. I then ironed fusible web to the back of the butterfly batik panel and cut out a circle shape. Then I drew the cutting lines on the piece and cut it into sections. I kept some of the sections and discarded the others. I cut out a black circle a couple of inches larger than the batik circle, layed the batik sections on the circle and fused them. I added a few of the discarded sections in order to create more interest in the piece. After this, I stitched the sections down, added some quilting around the flowers and leaves, and then quilted the black background. I used a varigated King Tut thread by Superior to stitch a decorative motif around each section to lift them of the background more. I finished the outside of the circle with the same thread, but a different motif. I then added piping around the edge to finish it off. I am disappointed because the circle is not perfect, but am not willing to pull the piping off at this point.

This is the first quilted piece which I have sewn on my Janome 7700, and must say that I am very impressed by this machine and the free motion quilting capability which it has. I loved my Viking Designer 1, but this machine is light years ahead of it in this area. A lot of improvements have been made in the last nine years (I bought the Designer 1 in 2002) and I am just beginning to experience some of the strides which have been made. What a blessing this machine is going to be!