4. Painting Over Quilting

It’s a nasty wet, slightly muggy day here in NC, but inside I’m making the world just a bit more beautiful.

free motion quilting | Leah Day

Yes, I meant that literally! I’ve taken my black wholecloth of Express Your Love and covered the earth with paint – Jacquard Lumiere Textile Paint to be exact.

free motion quilting | Leah Day
 
I know I shared a tutorial on quilt painting last year, but this time I wanted to go about it a bit more systematically. We had these beautiful rows of echo quilting through the earth and I just felt like it would look so much better if the thread could disappear under a layer of paint.
 
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of sampling. This Lumiere paint can be really tricky to mix and if it doesn’t end up being the color you want from the first, it will be many layers before you find that right effect. Take the time to make a sample so you know exactly what color you’re working with before throwing paint on the quilt.
Yes, in our next video, I’ll show you exactly what it’s like to quilt back over the painted section of blue water. The effect of both areas (paint over stitching and stitching over paint) is very different and it’s neat to combine both effects into one small space.

So that’s it for today! Paint or stitch something to make it a bit more beautiful!

Let’s go paint,

Leah

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

14 Responses

  1. Jessim says:

    Very pretty! I'm impressed at how well the color shows up on the black fabrics.

  2. Laceflower says:

    Leah, does the paint make the fabric stiff? Could I paint first and quilt over the paint?

  3. LAQuilts says:

    I love the look of the paint. I do not own any fabric paint so I am going to come up with another option for my earth.

  4. Sally says:

    I love the way you're always ready to try something new and different for you!

  5. Kay Lynne says:

    Thanks, Leah for think outside the box. It looks great!

  6. Anonymous says:

    Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. I really admire your work.

  7. Unknown says:

    HI,

    This is very good blog, good information i like to visit your blog again and again because of new updates.

    Regards
    Gokakmills

  8. That looks cool! We are having a wet, slightly muggy day here too – a typical Southland (New Zealand) summer's day!

  9. Anonymous says:

    What a great pop of color. I will try paint one of these days. Thank you for your tutorials on this.

    By coincidence, I started a colored pencil test piece a few days ago and just posted the first post on the topic on my blog. I decided to do this after starting the goddess quilt along and using colored pencils on that piece. A reference piece for pencils and paints on light and dark fabrics will be quite useful.

  10. Molly says:

    wow, that really looks gorgeous- love the effect!

  11. Janice says:

    As a Grandma I have heard of all kinds of rules for quilting but the bottom line is to have fun and enjoy what you do. I do enjoy reading your blog posts. I have learned a lot and look forward to the next newsletter. Painting here I come.
    Janice

  12. eddys says:

    After four years, how did the paint hold up?

  13. Leah Day says:

    Great! The Lumiere paints don't crack or dry out. They're really flexible and even after years, this quilt still looks as great as it did the day this was painted.

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