Showing posts with label Effervescent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Effervescent. Show all posts

Friday, 1 August 2025

Fizzy Drinks

 For many decades, I have lived on the Gulf Coast of Texas, where summers are steamy, and the best thing to do is to stay inside and pray for October to get here! But when I was a kid, our family lived in Wisconsin, and summers were actually enjoyable.  

We kids would stay out all day, coming in only to consume pitchers of Kool-aid.  And every now and then, as a special treat, we got Fizzies!

Fizzies were little tablets that you dropped in a glass of ordinary water, and then watched it transform into a flavorful bubbly beverage, that was almost as good as real root beer or soda! It was not just a taste treat; it was entertainment!

The theme of Effervescent brought back those memories, so I have captured them here in vintage and reproduction fabric, trims, and buttons.  One large button represents the fizzy tablet, and the resulting bubbles are shown with free-motion quilting and small buttons.

Fizzy Drinks

Strawberries and Citrus

Lemonade

I looked up Fizzies, and it seems they were tablets of sodium citrate, with flavorings and saccharine to cover up the salty taste.  Once saccharine was taken off the market, Fizzies sadly followed.  They have been brought back a few times with different artificial sweeteners, but they have not been successful and are not currently being produced.

This piece could use more quilting in the background, and I would love to add some textile paint for shadows and highlights, and finish up with embroidery stitches and beads. But I really loved working on this theme.  Working on this piece not only brought happy memories from childhood, but memories of where I got each piece of fabric and trim. 



A Study in Effervescence

 I had several ideas for this theme, and a few that I had in mind didn't look as good in fabric as they did in my mind. I made an attempt at making a face quilt showing a person with an effervescent personality. That was more difficult than I thought it might be. The face quilt may show up at another time, bits and pieces have been saved. So this little quilt is more of a study in effervescence than anything. 

I think of this as a thumbnail sketch of effervescence in a glass. I started with a print fabric that made me think of a glass of bubbly champagne. I added an inset of ombre fabric, then had a little fun seeing if I could add my own efferfescent bubbles through vraious methods. 


I started by printing some circles on the ombre fabric using a gray fabric marker. It worked better than I thought it would! 



They are difficult to see until you get close to the quilt, but I used different sizes of circles and just had fun placing them here and there. 

The addition of some vintage buttons and some hand stitching added a bit more effervescence. 



I even got brave and added some "bubbles" with free motion quilting. I decided to add some effervescence to the back of the quilt as well, using a dotted fabric, just for fun. 



The quilt measures 11 inches by 13 inces, and it is not as wonky as that photo makes it look! I thought I was taking the photo looking straight at the quilt, but apparently not! 

And here's the finish, once again. Not my best work, but I enjoyed the process, just the same. 



I look forward to the next challenge! 

Wendy

The Effervescent Baths

 


I doubt I was the only one who found Effervescent a tricky theme?

But after my Circus Horse, last time, several people mentioned the Cirque du Soleil. I hadn't heard of it before but, from my first glimpse on You Tube, I was enthralled and I eventually decided to take that as my inspiration for this sister quilt - The Effervescent Baths!



The bubbles were a challenge but, although they are not perfect, it was a fun quilt to sew and I'm really looking forward to seeing what everyone else has made this time :)


Sunday, 4 May 2025

Theme for August

Thank you, everyone, for the wonderful 'Circus' quilts. I loved all of them!

Now, we have four themes left:

1. Effervescent

2. Favourite Book

3. Motion

4. Sashiko



The Random Spinner has chosen 1. Effervescent and that sounds very tricky to me but I'm sure you will all come up with fantastic quilts.

The Reveal will be on August 1st 2025 at 10am.

In the meantime have a great Summer :D