If you’ve picked up your copy of the Quilting Arts Gifts issue, you’ve probably seen our ad featuring a Wreath quilt. (Our ad is right inside the back cover – very easy to find!) I wanted to give a gift to each you this holiday season, so I’ve posted the instructions for the Wreath Quilt on our Learning Center page. The pattern is listed under Downloadable Lessons and is also posted on the DesignMagic Resources Page.

I used the new Iridescent Lime Green to paint the wreath design on a dark background. After allowing the paint to dry overnight, I layered the top with the batting and did some free-form embroidery ala Laura Wasilowski with some of Laura’s lovely variegated embroidery thread. The red glass beads were tucked away in my stash of quilt show impulse purchases – and we all have those, right?

Be sure to go back to the last post (Design Magic Wreath Stencils: Full Images or Outlines?) to see how to make the wreath “float” in the center of the quilt. As I worked with the Wreath design, I liked it better turned on point, so I drew the registration lines from corner-to-corner instead of top-to-bottom and side-to-side. It’s a simple change, but gives a very different look.

The Wreath pattern download includes a drawing of the Wreath design if you want to make your own stencils from freezer paper. (Compelete instructions are available in the Design Magic for Paintstiks on Fabric book.) The Wreath design is also available in pre-cut mylar stencils. Please ask for them at your favorite paintstik source  or your favorite online resource. You can always contact Dawn’s Quilt Shop (my home-town shop) for our newest releases. Dawn and her staff are more than happy to take care of your orders.

I hope you enjoy making the Wreath quilt. It’s a fast and fun project for the holidays to dress up your home or to make as a gift. Thank you so much for supporting us here at Cedar Canyon. We are so grateful for each and every one of you!

I’m having lots of fun designing some new Design Magic Stencils. I worked on a design earlier this summer that started off as a goofy squiggle shape. I was playing around in the Illustrator program, which is definitely not my strong suit, but I decided to turn the shape into a repeating pattern to see if it had any possibilities at all. After some editing, I came up with a shape that looks like this.

The shape doesn’t look like much by itself, but it makes a pretty neat repeating pattern.

Using the full image

After making up a pair of freezer paper stencils, I painted up a quick test block using Iridescent Gold paintstik color on black fabric.

I liked the circular nature of the repeating pattern, and the image reminded me of a wreath.

Painting just the outlines

While I was playing that afternoon, I wondered what would happen if I didn’t paint the entire image. I was curious to see if I could minimize the checkerboard effect of the Design Magic format.

I pulled out another piece of fabric to see what would happen – and I really liked it. Here are the same 4 images, with just the outline of the curved shape painted.

Here’s another look at the Wreath design, one with the full images painted and one with the outlines:

The design is the same, but the effect is totally different.

Scroll design – full images v. outlines

Next, I decided to see if I liked this effect with another set of stencils. Here are two pieces that I made with the Scroll stencils.

This is the Scrollwork Quilt from the Design Magic book. when I painted the blocks for this quilt, I painted from edge to edge on the Scroll stencils, using the entire design.

Here is another project I made with the Scroll stencils. (This is the Lunch Tote from a new pattern I’ll be introducing in October.) As you can see, I only painted the outlines of the 2 curved images rather than filling in the entire image. Again, same design, two different looks. Fun!

So, the next time you are playing with Design Magic stencils, give this technique a try. Add paint just around the edges of the images rather than filling in the entire design. You may be pleasantly surprised!

And just in case you are wondering about the Wreath stencils… Yes, this is a new set of stencils from Cedar Canyon Textiles. The final packaging on the stencils is going on as I type, so they have literally just made it in the door here at the warehouse.

Stay tuned – my next post will include a free project using the Wreath stencils and the outlining technique.