To Market, to Market

to buy a fat hog,

Home again, home again,

Jiggity jog

"Pinky"

31" X 28"

As I said here, this was created in response to a Creative Cue.

First I drew the pig on cotton sateen (I used sateen because I wanted a sheen to the finished piece.)  Then I sewed on the borders, planning to extend the quilting out into them.

I layered it with cotton batting and did all the stitching with cotton thread.  I outlined the pig first, then did the fence.  I followed with the mud and sky background.  I used threads that were slightly lighter in color than the colors I wanted to finish with.

When all the stitching was done, I colored the pig lightly with my watercolor crayons and went over it with Golden GAC 900 Fabric Painting Medium.  Why use this one?  Because it was the largest bottle I had (very scientific, I know).  I have been working on a test piece using all the textile mediums I have available to me, but I'm not done with it.  I'll put together a post with all my findings at some point.

Then, I decided that I wasn't happy with the quilting in the sky and decided to just go in between the lines I had already quilted.  I wanted the whole background to be very flat so that the pig would stand out.  That was the reason I chose a wool batt and quilted the background elements very densely.

Then I colored the trough and the mud.  I found that I had to allow enough time to finish "painting" each section, or there was a line where it dried. I also had to be careful not to use too much medium because if it got too wet, it bled.


After I finished the sky,  I let it dry overnight, heat set it, then added some little tufts of grass along the fence.

Of course, all this begs the question:  Why use the crayons at all?  Why not just use paint? Well, the short answer is: Because it's fun! These crayons rock!  And who doesn't like to color?

Actually, I like the look of the water color crayons after the liquid has been applied.  Also, it's fun to blend the colors.  I didn't like the mud when it was done (too golden), so I added some textile paint over it all to give it that "muddy" feel.  I may go over the fence with some white paint to give it a "whitewashed" effect.  I haven't quite decided.  But these crayons are just another tool in the color tool kit.  And a really fun one, I might add.