With the river, the bamboo, and the hexies well under way, and work progressing on sewing all the elements together into a quilt top, it was time to think about the backing. Ordinarily, as my work is meant to be displayed on a wall, the backing is not seen, but I am particular about it nonetheless. It needs to be the right weight to support the quilt, yet still be easy to stitch through. And it needs to look good! I spend many hours with it as I am doing the quilting, and I want it to please and/or amuse me.
My procedure in the past has been to hand paint the backs on my driveway, and let it dry in the sun with the cracks in the driveway providing textural lines. For this first effort in my new house, I wasn't quite ready to paint up the driveway (what will the neighbors think!) and there wasn't much in the way of sun, so I retreated to the back deck with a tarp and a good deal of optimism.
The picture above is from the first dripping of the paint. I let that sit a while. Without sun it was not spreading very rapidly, so I got in there with a clean broom and moved some paint around.
While I was waiting on all of that, I used up the bits of paint left in the cups for some improvisational faux-shibori dyeing. I like having a stash of random handpainted fabrics I can pull from for future projects.
The big panel dried enough by sunset that I was able to bring it in and drape it on a table to finish up overnight. After rinsing, drying, and ironing, I had this beauty ready for layering up the quilt.
Big reveal to come! Stay tuned.
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