Peacock Galore with Island Batik – Part 1

This month the Island Batik Ambassadors thread painting with Aurifil. I was presented with 5 beautiful spools of thread from Aurifil. I’m so excited to get to that part, but before I can, I have to piece my top. Want to see my inspiration?

The Challenge

I’m working with Peacock Galore by Claudia Pfeil this month. This is my second Claudia Pfeil collection, and I’m a fan for life. (You can see my project using her Cascadia collection here.)

The Inspiration

I took the obvious inspiration of a peacock feather for this collection. I’ve recently “met” Dana Batho of Peacock and Fig in a course were were taking. She is an amazing artist, and one of her cross stitch patterns was just perfect for my project. I decided to convert her Peacock Feather cross stitch pattern into a quilt pattern! It’s easy to do, it just takes a little bit of patience.

The Plan

When choosing a pattern to convert, make sure it is relatively small. The one I chose is 70 x 90 squares, so it can make a reasonable size quilt. It would be pretty big with 1″ finished squares – I don’t need a twin size quilt. So, I decided to make my version smaller. That’s right. I’m using 1″ strips to make 1/2″ finished squares. Tiny piecing!

The first step in this process is to get a pattern. The pattern I ordered is $10.99, and comes with a thread color chart (which I used to translate to fabrics) and several different cross stitch pattern formats. I’m working from the color one, because it’s the easiest for me to see.

The Tools

The next step is to set it up in Electric Quilter. I use EQ8 for a lot of my design work. This step is a little tedious, but I used to do a lot of counted cross stitch. I spent a few hours importing fabric swatches and filling in the pattern. Looks good, right? The bonus here is that it gives me fabric yardage requirements, so I know I have what I need before I start cutting. I would absolutely not recommend just winging it on something like this. The color placement is what makes the pattern, and if you run out of a color, you risk serious frustration.

Okay. Speaking of cutting. I am going to be cutting 6,300 – 1″ squares for this project. Sigh. (Stupid Jennifer, always wanting to show off.) I called on my friends at AccuQuilt and convinced them to hook me up with the 1″ strip cutter die. Let’s hear it for efficiency!

I got started piecing my quilt last week. I sat with my list of fabrics, my cutting instructions from EQ8, and a calculator. Then I figured out how many strips of each fabric I needed to get the correct number of squares.

Preparation

After I had my chart filled in, it was time to get down to business. I cut 1″ strips with the AccuQuilt, then crosscut the 1″ squares with my rotary cutter. I don’t trust myself to fold everything right and run it through the Accuquilt again.

There are 15 colors in the design, so I have 15 Ziploc bags with a note on the front reminding me which color it matches to in the pattern.

I did consider not piecing the entire background. It’s a ton more work, but I worry that the design will look weird if the background has inconsistent seam lines. With it all being pieced, it should look more like Aida cloth. Cross your fingers for me!

I’ll be sharing updates as I work more on this project this week on Instagram. I’ve finally got my studio in a functional state. I still need to get the longarm working – the frame is together, but the computer needs to be set back up. I’ll be accepting client work starting on Thursday.

Have you tried thread painting before? I’ll admit, it feels like that part is a long way off, but I’m excited.