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Art Quilt - 4 Horses Part 1

Yes! I've started my 4 horses art quilt. I've made some additional decisions since my last post so here they are.

I bought 4.5 yards of PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric. This fabric hasn't been treated with any stabilizers and I've not washed it. The fabric is supposed to hold onto paints/dyes really well. I didn't wash it but I did throw it into the dryer on the refresh cycle so a little steam was added but that was it.

I created my own image of four horses and projected it onto the fabric and made an outline of the horses. I decided to make the horses realistic in coloring and decorate each one with seasonal themes. So for example, I decided the Spring horse will be a palomino color with white mane/tail and then I'll decorate the horse with flowers, leaves, ribbons and whatever else I can come up with. I might applique them on or just quilt them. I'm not sure about that yet.

I'll probably take some scrap fabric and do some experimenting and see which one my art brain likes the best. There's no right or wrong way to do anything, it's just a matter of which way you prefer to do it. If you're really good at applique that way might be your preferred method if you're better at quilting and painting images then go with that. So I'll have to decided what to do. Might be a combo of both in the end. I'm also kicking around the idea of painting some kind of theme related scenes on the horses. For example, I've been thinking about Summer. How you draw summer? What reminds you that time of year? I think hot, dry weather. So I'm thinking about drawing a hot sun and desert scene on the rump or belly of the horse. I want the viewer to see "hot" when they look at the horse and trying to convey that is going to be a bit tricky. But you get the idea. Not sure if I'll do it or not but I want that to be subtle too so no applique. It would have to be painted image on the horse. But it's just an idea so I have to kick it around a bit.

If I do paint, I've decided on using Jacquard Textile paints. They're opaque, blend well and you can get the paint in bigger quantities than what I used the last time. So I better get to it!

Here's a few pictures of my horse sketches.


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