Noriko Endo's Painting with Needles - Possibilities of Free-Motion Quilting class at AQS Show in Phx, AZ Feb 2014

The second class that I took with Noriko Endo was her Painting with Needles: Possibilities of Free-Motion Quilting. I had no idea what to expect from this class, but her sample on the AQS website looked interesting, so I signed up for the class. I also figured I could always use more practice with my free-motion quilting.

These are the samples Noriko showed us for the class:

Thread painted portrait enhanced with paint by Noriko Endo. Approx 30" x 45". 

Maple leaves by Noriko Endo. Approx. 35" x 20". 

Feathers and Doodles by Norido Endo. Approx 20" x 16". 

Feather motif by Noriko Endo. Approx. 20" x 16". 

 

Noriko Endo in duster length vest thread-painted  with a feather variation, enhanced
with paint. Noriko painted the fabric for the vest and then quilted it and filled in the
quilted motifs with more paint to help the motifs stand out. 

Noriko had us pick a motif and quilt it in various sizes on our quilt sandwich. She encouraged us to use a variegated polyester thread. Depending on the motif, she had us either echo it, fill the motif, and/or go over the stitching 2-4 times to emphasize the outlining. After stitching the motifs, we then picked areas to paint with acrylic paints. Noriko doesn't use any special fabric paints on her quilts, just acrylics. She said sometimes we'll want to paint the quilt first and then quilt and other times, we'll quilt first and then paint, or a combination of the two. When we get home, we will finish painting the motifs and then fill in the background with more free-motion quilting.

I chose a pink batik for my background fabric. It is a fabric that I hand-dyed. I don't use pink much and wanted to do something different for this class. Choosing the motif(s) was about the hardest part of this class, followed by how to lay out the motifs to get a pleasing composition. Once I started stitching, things just seemed to flow. I had never done so many layers of feathers within one feather design or stitched such a small pebble design. It was challenging, but fun, too. I was surprised when I saw my piece after getting to a point where I was ready for painting. I couldn't believe that I did this sample!

My sample, approx 18" x 16". I decided to stitch feathers and swirls with pebbles, 

similar to one of Noriko's samples. Noriko had me fill in the feathers with more two 

more sets of feathers inside my original ones, in a different color variegated thread. 

I loved the way they turned out. Then I filled in the one set of feathers and some

of the pebbles with blue acrylic paint.  When I have time to finish this at home, I

plan to fill in the other set of feathers and more pebbles with another color of paint.

Then I will fill in the background with more free-motion quilting. 

Following are a couple samples from a couple other students in the class. I didn't get too many photos of others' work, as by the time I finished, most of the other students had already left.

A fish motif in the process of being painted.  She was pleased with how it was turning out, as she

had never done any fabric painting before. She was very tickled with the paint on the fish lips. 

Done painting the fish! 

A seascape quilted and painted by another student. She had done a similar seascape for 

her very first quilt some 20 years previously. She was planning to compare the two once

she finished this one to see how much she has progressed since she started quilting.

Quilt designs copyrighted by Noriko Endo or the student creating the quilt.