Lady Day Art Quilt

It's been awhile since I made a larger art quilt, and now that the feelings of pride and satisfaction are running through me, I'm eager to get started on my next one.

I've already told the story behind the inspiration for this Billie Holiday quilt here, and I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

I used fusible applique when collaging the hand dyed and batik fabrics to my silicone sheet with the outline of Billie Holiday's face underneath. 

While I do use my own shortcuts and "make-it-work" methods, this is really a pretty simple method and you can learn the basics from Susan Carlson's wonderful books and workshops OR Esterita Austin.

I used Misty Fuse fusible web for all of the quilt collage. I wouldn't say it's my favorite fusible web product (Wonder Under is), but 2 things: I have a boatload of it to use up, and I wasn't sure how much hand-stitching I would be doing in the finishing of this quilt.

Close-up of her hair (black music note fabric)

For me, the biggest benefit of Misty Fuse is that, of all the fusible webs out there, it tends to keep the softest hand to the fabric after fusing. But for reals, it can be a royal pain in the you-know-what to work with, especially if you aren't sure how much fabric you need to use and you may end up with a lot of pre-fused fabric left over. This is fine if, like me, you do fusible applique a lot. If not, you may need to find a quick and scrappy project to use it all up.

Close-up of dress straps, also music note fabric.

Some of the personal touches I added to this quilt were the use of the music note fabric in her hair and dress. I also applied a little blush on her cheeks (yes, real makeup blush) and a light amount of acrylic paint to even out some of the variations in the neck fabric. So I guess technically I could call this a mixed media quilt!

It looks great in my bedroom sitting area and like I said, I'm already planning my next one in my Jazz Art Quilt series: either Duke Ellington or Dizzy Gillepsie...she's gotta have some musical accompaniment, right?

Thanks for stopping by!

CGM