Friday, November 15, 2013

Alice's Comfort Quilt: My Yellow Reading Chair



Take one comfortable easy chair, a mug of tea, a good book, and a quilted throw to cuddle under.  That spells comfort for me, and I’ve needed much comforting for the past 21 months.  After a day of quilting, you can find me around 4:00 PM in this yellow chair in our living room.



To construct the chair, I took a photo of it, posterized it on Photoshop, traced the printed image onto freezer paper for a template, and then cut it out from a pale yellow batik.  I added the details and shadows with Fabric Fun Pastel Dye Sticks by Pentel*. I made a mini “quilt” from fabric printed with squares to place on one of the arms of the chair. I tried trapunto for the first time to make the chair look as comfy as it is.



For the mug I chose a print from my blue and white collection that best mimicked my Spode mugs.  I scanned the fabric, reduced the image on Photoshop, and printed it onto white fabric, and then sketched onto the white fabric the inside of the mug and its handle.

For the stack of books, I took a photograph of a little ceramic box that sits beside my reading chair.  I re-sized the photo and printed it onto some freezer-paper-backed fabric.  I confess that for some reason, portraying the  books was the biggest challenge for me in this quilt!  I tried several ways to handle the books, but each had problems.   The next to last method was to take a photo of a book written by my aunt. This photo printed onto fabric looked great, but it somehow didn’t work in the composition.   

All elements of the quilt were fused and then appliquéd to the red background, which I had first free-motion quilted in a random pattern before adding any appliqués.  Because of the trapunto, I included Timtex between the batting and backing of this quilt, to give it more stability.  The mini quilt is simply tacked on, also for dimensionality. 

The quilt’s backing is a commercial book print that I love. I fused onto the back the image of my aunt’s book and I also included a little mock mini quilt that turned out to be too big to work on the front. I bound the 12x12 quilt by fusing on strips of the red background batik.

*the product whose name I was trying to remember in Houston, when discussing my other chair quilt—“Vincent’s Chair”!
I tried, rather unsuccessfully, to capture the dimensionality of the chair
and the mini quilt in this close-up. Too, I wanted to show my rather inexpert
free-motion quilting, which done with red thread on the
red background thankfully doesn't show up very much
in the image of the entire quilt!

The back of my Yellow Chair quilt.  The name of my aunt's (Martha Cheavens) book is SPUN BY AN ANGEL,
set in the Mexico of her childhood (my father's parents were missionaries),
and it recounts the story of the death of one of the sisters.  The little boy in the book
is based on my father.  Needless to say, I treasure this now out-of-print book.






16 comments:

  1. I can see myself on a cold New England evening "hunkered" down in this very cozy and comfortable yellow chair with a good British mystery, Agatha Christie perhaps? Looks like you had great fun making all of these elements which so nicely represents comfort to you, especially the little 3 dimensional quilt.
    Too bad that your aunts' book is now out-of-print, as it sounds like a wonderful story.

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    1. Amazingly, it can be bought second-hand at Amazon and other places! It is a lovely book, and anyone interested in art will like seeing the beautiful illustrations!

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    2. Great...I will try to get a copy, thank you!

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  2. Another very personal and heartwarming interpretation of the theme by you Alice!! Your yellow chair is so inviting! I too love to snuggle with a quilt and a good book. The techniques you used to personalize and make your quilt so realistic are impressive! Well done!

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  3. Love your final solution! The composition works really well. The shapes balance each other so nicely, and the mini quilt adds just the right amount of color! So personal, and fun! Great finally meeting you!

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  4. The blue and the yellow are comforting. And of course you have illustrated all the elements of your 4 p.m. placement. We can all identify with that! Nice to know about the book!

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  5. Alice, I'm so glad you followed through on which ironically was my first idea for this theme. You creatively took the same things I personally find the most comforting and gave them life via 3 dimensional approaches. I need to try the pastel sticks you spoke of. Thanks for your play by play process. Your pictorial quilts seem to shine the most!

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  6. Alice what a wonderful quilt! I love the quilt and the books. I tried trapunto once and it was so much work. Your chair is so inviting. I wish I could see it in person.

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  7. Oh Alice... Having spent a small bit of time in your beautiful home, I can visualize you in your yellow chair, sipping your tea while snuggled in your quilt, and reading a good book. What a delightful and comforting journey you're created for all of us to share with you. Beautiful job ! Love to you, Kathy

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  8. Alice, This is wonderful. I do believe that even if your name had not been attached to the posting, I would have known it was yours. My evening comfort is also an overstuffed chair but I have my counted cross stitch in my lap instead of a book. I think I must add a quilt for my lap even if I am not cold just for the symbolism of my passion. Beautiful!!

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  9. Alice, I love your collage of things that comfort you. The chair looks so natural and soft and comfy! Great details of how you constructed this lovely comforting piece.

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  10. Absolutely perfect! Talk about comfort, this is it! How incredible to have a book written by a relative. I'm so glad you told us all the things you did in this quilt. The colors and composition are wonderful and the back is just as interesting as the front. This is my favorite of all that you've made so far!

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    1. Thanks, Judy! I means a lot for you to name this one your favorite! For a brief time there I was sort of disappointed in it. But now I am seeing it through others' eyes, I'm happier with it!

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  11. Alice, this is my favorite of all of your MM quilts! Love the story, your beautiful colors and especially the comfort expressed in your living room setting. Beautiful!!!

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    1. So this is the second Maven who likes this one best! Interesting! Certainly this one was very "close to my heart!"

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  12. Hi Alice!!

    I love this wonderful story quilt about how you spend a blissful part of your day and enjoyed reading about how you created it! Well done!

    Thanks for including a link to this site in the church newsletter!!

    Hugs from Virginia!

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