Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Linda's Interwoven: Family Holiday


     When thinking of what is interwoven, I thought of my family since it was December.The mixing of traditions and family personalities kept leaping to mind. The simultaneous  reading of Middlemarch, with all its interwoven themes, just accentuated the chosen subject.


     I remembered Celtic designs with their intricately intertwining patterns, and researched them on the Internet and in books. Rather than quilting patterns, I was looking for something wilder but still a controlled image.Since there were no fabrics with such designs and appliqueing would take me a year, I decided to enlarge to our 12” x 12” using squares and then to paint the piece on muslin. Red and green Jacquard Textile holiday colors mixed lightly with water left soft the white piece of fabric on which I drew. When the paint was dry, I accentuated the lines of the image with a Sharpie Rub a Dub laundry marking pen that does not bleed but gives a consistent wide mark. I stitched over all the lines with invisible thread to quilt to the batting. I added a red and green backing fabric that came up and over the edge, mitered at the corners. Finally, almost, I attached cheap red carnival beads all around.

     Next, a friend suggested I mount my Family Holiday to a 12” x 12” pre-stretched canvas. I found canvas on sale at Michael’s and the shallowness was perfect for a quilt. I usually like deeper for a painting. I cut a 15” x 15” piece of the backing fabric and lightly centered the quilt and basted or hand-stitched all around the back edges of the art by hand. I put the quilt, attached to the new backing, face down and dabbed Aleene’s fast- drying tacky glue to the back edges of the 15” x 15” and secured those outer edges to the wood. The result was a painting ready to display...but one with the floating softness of a quilt.

9 comments:

  1. What a dramatic piece Linda! Interesting how you incorporated your family, reading and Celtic designs into this unique representation of something interwoven. Great job!!

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  2. The visual interweaving of the animal bodies is intriguing. I didn't know Sharpie Rub A Dub marking pens didn't bleed - thanks for that tip. Your finishing techniques of beading and mounting are a pleasant surprise as well. Nicely done.

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  3. Oh, Linda, this is so beautiful! Painting the design onto white fabric was a marvelous idea, and frankly, I am eager to try that myself. I love how you have tied this lovely design into both your family and that great, classic novel, which just happens to be one of my favorites. It would likely go into my Top Ten Favorite Book list, were I ever to compose such a list! And I am so glad that THIS is the one that you might possibly hang, because it is so striking! Using the canvas is a similar technique to what Rita does with her 12x12 quilts, and I know that it lends itself wonderfully well to hanging!

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  4. Wow! What a design! It would take all of us a long time to appliqué that and that is why we do what I call "Cut and Paste" with fusible web. But, I love how you used your talent with paint to give it such a dramatic effect. I don't know that you would have been able to get that strong of a look with commercial fabrics. That is great to know about the Sharpie pen. I steer clear of them since they do bleed, but now will go looking for the laundry pen.

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  5. As you might suspect, I love this quilt as well. These designs are so much fun.

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  6. Well done, Linda. You're artistic talent shines in this quiilt that will, appropriately, hang on your wall! You are an artist, and this design is stunning! How much fun is it that you, Rita and I all appreciate Celtic designs? Beautiful!

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    1. I, too, loved it that these 3 Celtic designs showed up. Now I am about to purchase a book, maybe the one Rita has, so that someday I can incorporate one in one of my quilts!

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  7. Fun, energetic, wonderfully executed with paint, pen & beads...unique!

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  8. Hi Linda - What an intriguing quilt ! I loved your narrative about your family and your detailed description of how you made this quilt happen. Paint, Sharpie Rub-a-Dubs, bead work, background mounting fabric, and finally, mounting your work to canvas. Brilliant, especially considering the complexity of your design. Bravo !

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