CELEBRATION TIME!

MY INSPIRATION FOR THIS WORK

I designed and created this work for the celebration of the thirtieth birthday celebration of the South African Quilters Guild in 2019. It was the national quilt festival, the SAQG organised an exhibition of a number of these entries and it was spectacular! As it was a celebration, the song, Celebration Time of Kool and the Gang, kept playing in my mind and the work received its name!

Celebrating SAQG’s Thirtieth Birthday (2019)

HOW I DESIGNED CELEBRATION TIME!

Thinking about celebrating something, one tends to think lots of colour. However, the challenge was to use the colours in the SAQG’s logo only. My thoughts went to fireworks immediately and I designed the work according to that. Five colours, red, blue, green, yellow and white were used to embroider the fireworks and these were done on the sixth colour, black.

An explosion of fireworks to celebrate SAQG’s 30th birthday in 2019.

TO CREATE YOUR CELEBRATION TIME! YOU WILL NEED

• • 35cm x35cm royal blue synthetic felt
  • 30cm x30cm black organza
  • 2 x 35cm X 35cm Loomtex batting
  • 30cm x30cm black backing fabric
  • Angelina fibres
  • Shiny organza confetti
  • Machine embroidery threads in black, blue, yellow, red, green and white
  • 2,5m blue metallic cord
  • A heat gun
  • Sewing machine of which feed dogs can drop

Threads, Angelina Fibres, and Metallic Cord.

CREATING THE WORK

Layer the Loomtex and blue felt.

Sprinkle the shiny organza confetti on top.

Spread the Angelina fibres over all the above and lastly, put the black organza on top.

Use the black machine embroidery thread and meander over everything to create the background fabric.

Thread the machine with any one of the machine embroidery threads, attach the Quilting Foot #29 and free motion embroider radiating straight lines from a centre point in different areas on the background fabric. Repeat this with the different colours and enhance with yellow and white to represent fireworks.

Quilting Foot #29

For topstitching quilts with thick and thin padding ✓  For contour quilting, thread painting and meander quilting ✓  Clear view of the quilting project ✓  For 5.5 mm and 9 mm machines ✓ 

Learn more

Use the heat gun to burn the edges of the felt.

Pin the false backing onto the wrong side, folding all raw edges in.

Machine couch the metallic cord in place on the right side with, catching the false backing in the border stitches.

Quilt a couple of lines in line with the fireworks.

Quilting Lines

Sew a hanging sleeve and label on the back of your work and enjoy your own quilted fireworks wall-hanging!

If you are passionate about textiles and want to learn more about how to incorporate my innovative techniques into your work, follow me on Instagram @tillydeharde and Facebook, Tilly de Harde Fibre Artist & Teacher and visit my website www.tillydeharde.com & subscribe to my mailing list. Please don’t forget to leave a comment in the comment box below!