Bright Hearts - Batik Style

Confession time - I LOVE brights.  No really - I know you are shocked (cough cough) by this, but I truly love brights.  So I am over the moon about my new Elementz fabric collection for Island Batik.  It is chock full of lovely, shade wearing brights!  And next week you get to see the entire collection in all it's glory AND what other designers did with the fabrics as well.  Woot woot!

But I wanted to give you a peek at a project that didn't make it to the blog hop - mainly because I am still working on the instructions (but that's another story......).  It is, however, done in my Elementz fabrics - in the pinks from the collection.  Now, I have to admit, of all the bright colors, pink is not my go-to.  So this wasn't intentional....but when I started pulling from the group to stitch up this project, look what I discovered I had created (I know, I know - you would think this is all intentional....goes to show!).

Pinks!  Lots of pinks!  A beautiful, bubble gum, sugary sweetness assortment of pinks.  Perfect for my Primitive Stitch Sampler.  This project is also a two-for!  Awesome colors and felted wool appliqué.  I have a secret weakness for appliqué in wool.  The dimension and texture it adds to projects is phenomenal.  And, as shown in the first close up picture, I was able to use some of my favorite thread, Aurifil, to do the hand stitching AND the machine quilting.  

I did 8 different hand stitches around the wool hearts in six strands of the Aurifil cotton floss (awesome, smooth, rich), and then did some straight line machine quilting in the Aurifil's varigated wool thread.  I love how it creates some sparkle and movement in those simple straight lines!  Hint: when working with the wool thread, I use a 50wt matching thread in my bobbin, use a slightly larger needle (90/14) and loosen the thread tension just a bit.  Lengthen your stitch length just a bit to take full advantage of the texture and varigation of color, and stitch at a slow, steady pace - and you'll have no problems at all!  More to come on this pattern soon (promise!).

In the meantime, and a teaser to the blog hop next week - how do you know when you have a go-to color palate?  When your new fabric line matches PERFECTLY with your old thread collection.

Isn't that amazing?  The fabric is, of course, the new Elementz line.  The thread collection is my Florida Oranges collection from Aurifil that I introduced a few years ago.  Don't despair - you can still get it!  But how awesome is that?  All those bright, wonderful colors just play so well together.  And you can see a peek of how great the 40wt threads look when quilting on those bright colors.  

And there's a bonus project download available next week during the blog hop - using, of course, the Elementz fabrics and bright threads.  So come back and visit!

Thanks for sharing the quilting passion with me. Happy stitching!

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