Gilded Quilt Edging as an Embellishment

Embellish

At some point it happens to all quilters- you finish a project and it isn’t as eye catching as you hoped it would be. Heather Thomas shows how adding a fun quilt embellishment like a gilded edge can take a project to the next level. Gilding is a process where gold, gold leaf or other gold colored substance is added to the edge of something. For the quilting project Heather is working on in this tutorial she is gilding fabric with a gold paint.

Paint

The gold paint Heather is using to gild her quilt is a lumiere fabric paint. This paint has a metallic gold color so it is not only adding color and stiffness to the work but some sparkle as well. Heather shows how to apply the paint to the fabric edges using a flat edge paint brush. She demonstrates how to apply the paint in small amounts at a time. While you can always go back and add more paint to the fabric it can be very difficult to wash it out, so it is important to take your time when using this technique.

Centerpieces and Edges

Heather demonstrate how the gilding technique can be used on both centerpieces of a work as well as on a quilt edging. Because the paint will dry slightly stiff, adding the paint to the edges of the flower embellishments in her quilt help give the flowers more body. However, she explains that because of this, it is important to make sure the petals are positioned how you like them before they are allowed to dry. Heather also shows how to gild a quilt edging to both add more interest to the piece, seal the fabric edges and tie the whole piece together by matching the edge color with a quilt embellishment color.