Ex Libris Thread Painting

I knew when I found out who was going to be teaching at Glamp Stitchalot that I wanted to make a thread painting for each teacher. I soon realized that making six thread paintings was probably no going to happen in time for Glamp, so I started with Alison Glass and Tula Pink.

I researched which print would work best for Alison and settled on the butterfly from her Ex Libris collection in the warm colorway.

I thread painted the butterfly using Aurifil thread on a light lavender solid fabric. I started thread painting with the white thread and put down a base layer. I then moved on to the citron green color in the wings. Next I thread painted the plum and raspberry colors of the dots, body and outlines.

Since the thread painting wasn’t very large I wanted to make the piecing and borders detailed to make up for it. I decided I want to piece the borders using Alison’s quilt patterns. I shrunk down the feather blocks for the first border and I shrunk down a few of her tessellations blocks for the second border. For the final border I chose to use the bookplate petal fabric to give a comparison to the thread painting and to tie the whole mini together. I used Handcrafted and other AG fabrics that coordinated with the Ex Libris bookplate petal fabric for the piecing.

For the quilting I did matchstick quilting on the feather and tessellations and left a few sections un-quilted to add dimension. I quilted in micro stippling around the thread painted butterfly. For the final border I quilted in a hydrangea floral pattern to compliment the fabric.

I love how this mini quilt came together. I think I like the piecing just as much or if not more than the thread painting. I was sad to give this one away but I know it has a great home!

Happy Quilting!

Xx Casey