I grew up on a farm in Missouri and love everything about
the country, especially taking walks in the woods. Discovering the tiny treasures
that are all around is so wonderful. I miss seeing the sweet little “May apples”.
I’m never home for a visit around that time of the year.
I would pick up treasures on my walks like milkweed pods,
acorns, and leaves to take home and make some little craft item. Several years I went out to the corn field
and picked the perfect cornhusks and silks to make cornhusks dolls. The silks
were carefully laid out on boards in the machine shed to dry and turn into
their beautiful reddish brown color for hair.
For this quilt I wanted to show a silhouette of a tree at
sunset or sunrise. Then I would overlay it with leaves. I used organza for the
leaves so that the background would show through and quilted the whole piece
adding detail to the tree and leaves. When I put it up on the design wall I
couldn’t stand it. It was just globs of color on fabric. There is no photo of
that stage because it really looked awful and there was no fixing it. I didn’t
think it would even be a component of my final quilt.
I never understood how an artist could throw away or paint
over something. This day I understood. I took it to the cutting table and just
sliced it up into pieces. Didn’t photograph that either since I just thought I
was cutting it up. Then I tossed the pieces into a pile.
Hmm, toss these onto a background fabric. The mystery is
trying to see the hidden pieces of nature in them. Once they were on the
background fabric I put a tiny smear of glue under each one to hold it
in
place. The quilting from the original one shows up well so, to make the
final quilt I only quilted around each individual piece. I kind of like
the batting and backing of the first quilt peeking out. The mystery of
nature,
art, and quilts all in one little 12x12 piece.
Judy, what a wonderful and marvelous "salvage job"! Never again, after reading this and viewing your striking quilt, will I EVER discard something that to my eyes is a failure or is ugly. And, yes, I confess, I have trashed such items in the past. And I love the batting "peeking out", too, as it tells a story without words. Great job!
ReplyDeleteJudy, you did it once again, and Rayna Gillman would LOVE you! I smiled and chuckled as I opened your "reveal." What surprises they all are. I love your solutions and resolutions. I enjoyed the backstory as well. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteJudy, I, too, am a lover of nature and spent many hours gathering its bounties to construct little treasures. This is so creative in that you took what you thought wasn't working and turned it into a fabulous art quilt. You've inspired all of us!!!
ReplyDeleteI love your re-working a failure into a success.
ReplyDeleteI love how you turned what you perceived as a failure into a great mystery quilt! I too will not through anything out again.
ReplyDeleteLove the end result of what you considered just globs of color on fabric...how brilliant of you to think of cutting up what you didn't like and turning it into such an intriguing, multi-layered quilt.
ReplyDeleteJudy, if you hadn't explained your construction process I would have thought this end result was exactly what you were going for. My first impression aside from loving the organic feel and colors was the texture and depth added by appliquing raw edged quilt sections to a background. Layers surfaced the more I examined this quilt. Also a big thank you for showing a close up which helped me to see these details. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteJudy, I thank you also for showing us that an ugly duckling can be recycled into a swan! I would have loved to have seen the original piece. This really portrays the mystery of nature!
ReplyDeleteJudy - I burst out laughing at your description of "taking your work to the cutting table and slicing it up into pieces." How many times have we all been tempted to do that ! Your absolute success in transforming a 'failure' into a marvelous story is inspirational. I'll take a another look at my collection of UFOs and see if any of them could be resurrected with a few slices here and there :-) Many thanks for sharing your story and your art with us !
ReplyDeleteSo take that, you naughty quilt! Judy, it is wonderful. VERY nice save.
ReplyDeleteInspired! This is a great example of 'upcycling'! Very clever!
ReplyDelete