The theme I have chosen to work with for the year is “Fruits
and Seeds”. It would have been so easy to simply incorporate a bit of green
foliage for this challenge, but I wanted to do a bit more than that. I took
photographs of pears and, after much experimentation, created this image using
digital manipulation in PaintShop Photo Pro X3. I needed the image to be clean
and simple so that it would work with the repetition. I then generated several
colour gradients which all moved from green to another colour e.g. green –
yellow, green – magenta, etc. I coloured each pear in from a different
gradient. It was printed out using an inkjet printer on white cotton poplin
coated with inkAID. The design enabled me to work within the limitations of an
A4 printer – no awkward joins to deal with. The backing is felt and
interfacing. The quilting is a straightforward free machine meander stitch
using a variety of Isacord 40 threads. I chose to edge the piece with a machined
blanket stitch.
