Wearable Art

 I have a lot to show today! 

I can finally share a commissioned project that I finished. It is not a quilt per se but does involve quilting. My Music teacher/colleague asked if I could make a banjo for the back of her jean jacket. I showed her this quilt I found on Pinterest and she loved the idea! So the design process started! I didn't want to applique the banjo (as the quilt inspiration) but wanted to piece it. She plays a 5 string bluegrass banjo which has a longer, thinner neck. We decided to let the arm just run off the top instead of trying to fit the whole banjo on the back. I also needed the head to be big enough to stitch the chorus of a song she chose.

Once the design was finished, I shopped for 14 different rainbow colors of fabric.

 I stitched the bottom right first.

After I made the bottom left but I didn't want a seam in the larger white piece because I would be FMQ words on it. So I figured out how to keep the white intact while still piecing the rainbow head. I was happy that it worked out! I continued with the top right and then added the rainbow strip to the right of the white for the remainder of the neck. The piecing was a bit tricky but it all worked out!

Next I added the chorus to the white head section. I used a fusible woven interfacing to stabilize the block before FMQing. I wrote the chorus in water erasable ink and I stitched using 40wt navy blue Aurifil thread. On the left side, I stitched the same chorus in larger font twice to fill the space. 

I stitched the piece onto the back section of the jacket and between the colors. I stitched 2 rows with white between the chorus on the left to keep the large sections secure. 

It was fun to create this wearable art piece! My friend was thrilled with it as she stated "Even better than I imagined."

Linking to Off the Wall Fridays @Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever and TGIFF @Tamarinis