Andrà Tutto Bene || Fabric Markers with Wendy & Gwen

Last week, we shared a brand new pattern in partner with Aurifil Artisan Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill of Whole Circle Studio. The mini quilt was inspired by the children of Italy who use their own remarkable creativity as an outlet for human connection in these crazy times.

Andrà Tutto Bene… simple words made powerful when accompanied by a rainbow and displayed on posters and banners throughout the country. They hang in windows, on fences, & above doors– anywhere to be seen by passersby on the street, walking dogs, making trips to the grocery, commuting to jobs deemed essential. The artwork became a way to maintain that human connection. To instill a sense of calm… that we are all in this together and that yes, while times are tough… everything will be okay.

Today, we’re pleased to share another Aurifil Designer mini inspired by Sheri’s stunning pattern. We are incredibly touched by the pure love and care that went into the creation of this quilt. A remarkable mother & daughter effort — certainly something to cherish now as a symbol of hope and renewal and for many years to come as a reminder of the fact that love is always the most important.

Huge thanks to Wendy & Gwen Sheppard for taking this idea and running with it!

---

Hello Friends, it’s lovely to be back to chat with you. I hope you are still staying well, and keeping your spirits up. I am sure you have seen the cheerful Andrà Tutto Bene quilts shared by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill and Pat Sloan, with each project featuring a different technique for typography.

Today I am happy to share with you my version of the Andrà Tutto Bene mini which combines the techniques of fabric marking and free-motion quilting. It is a fun way to preserve a child’s artwork on fabric.

Inspired by the artwork done by the children of Italy, I wanted to capture the “kid” aspect in my Andrà Tutto Bene quilt. I enlisted my daughter’s help in using fabric markers to draw stylized letters that spelled out Andrà Tutto Bene. Fortunately, my only child is mostly gung-ho about my hare-brained ideas.

So here is my initial concept.

Brief summary of process:

Gwen used artwork around the letters to convey her idea of the carefree-ness of life for a kid after we get through this staying at home period. How she stylized the letters gave me glimpses of her thoughts.

A: Skiing on the Alps (for the Italian children)

N: Looking at the night sky
D: Nature Walk (That’s a leaf)

R: Playing on the slide at the playground
A: Dreaming of big dreams like going somewhere in a rocket ship

T: Reading a favorite book under a tree in the woods
U: Keeping a goldfish

T: Wearing one’s favorite earrings
T: Feeling special like stars

O: Just being happy

B: Going to celebration parties

E: Visit friends at their house
N: The feeling of love and security

E: Playing the drums and music in general

I used a mix of 40wt and 50wt to quilt my mini quilt. The colors that I didn’t have in 40wt were represented in 50wt.The 40wt generally gives better definition to quilting, especially in a contrasting color scheme. The 50wt works as well, if I repeat quilting on previous stitches to emphasize certain motifs.

I started quilting the letters first, by just outlining them.

Then I quilted the cloud outline – many times over as you can see. The reason I love quilting with Aurifil 40 and 50wt is because I never get unsightly thread buildup when I quilt around a shape over, and over, and over again! I was able to give my clouds a bit of a dimensional look with quilting the outline over and over again.

Gwen requested the use of gray for the first puff of cloud to go with the saying “every cloud has a silver lining.” And the silver lining on the other side is that it would be clear sky again, as represented by the blue I used for the smaller puff of cloud.

After the clouds were anchored in place, I quilted the rainbow with different filler motifs for each color. It’s a fun way to practice Zentangle, quilting edition. The motifs don’t have to be complicated — the basic ones work just as well, like I have done here.

And after that was done, I quilted background fillers with a tone on tone color to finish out the quilting.

Keeping the rainbow theme, I finished with a scrappy binding with rainbow colors.

While we wait for things to go back to normal, children remain a priority.  Despite the challenges of it all, I have used this time to hug and cuddle with my child a little more than usual – affirming to her that she is the sunshine, and rainbow of my life!

Thank you for stopping by – till next time!

---

ABOUT WENDY
Website — Instagram
Originally from Southeast Asia, Wendy came to the US for her tertiary education.  After her degrees in Chemical Engineering, she worked in research in a wind tunnel for a spell.  Nowadays, she is a stay/work-at-home Mom to a 7 year old.  Wendy’s designs have been featured in major quilting publications, both home and abroad.  She is also an author for Landauer Publishing, as well as an online quilting instructor.  She is passionate about encouraging quilters to enjoy their quilting journey.  During her free time, she loves to read history, and indulges in hand needlework.

ABOUT GWEN
Gwen is the daughter of Aurifil Designer Wendy Sheppard of Ivory Spring. She started stitching with her mom 5 years ago and is already an incredibly skilled cross-stitcher. She stitched a magnificent sampler using threads from her AuriKids collection, a piece that we were honored to showcase in our booth Fall International Quilt Market in 2017. Gwen is just getting started on her creative journey and is turning her attention to quilting.