Friday, November 15, 2013

Rita's Comfort


Rita’s Comfort
What brings me comfort?  My family is the core of my comfort. My family is Randy, my husband of 52 years, son Daniel and wife, Ocea, daughter Lisa and husband Clayton, and our new precious 3 month old grandson, Ethan Daniel.
 My church, St. Paul’s Episcopal brings me comfort.  The idea of beauty and order brings comfort.  I recently read a quote from William Morris (1834 – 1896) “If you want a golden rule that will fit everything, this is it:  Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” I am already anticipating the 2014 spring crop of blue bonnets and the comfort they will bring.
So for this challenge I chose to do a representation of another of nature’s beauty, a tiger lily.  And flowers, of course, are often given to bring comfort to the recipient.  Flowers have a special language that can say, “I truly love you”; “I am thinking of you”; “I am so happy for you.”
The technique used for my 12 x 12 was inspired by the book Bold and Beautiful, Artful Quilts from just one Fabric, by Judi Dains. Judi suggests choosing a batik fabric with large splashes of color, placing it on your design wall and then standing back to get a good perspective. Look for the flowers (or butterflies or vases or leaves) that pop out in the fabric.  This fabric reminded me of tiger lilies that my Mother planted as I was growing up, a memory that brings comfort.
After locating the tiger lilies, I marked the outside boundaries for this composition and placed the fabric under transparent plastic.  Using a marker, the flower outlines were sketched onto the plastic looking at photographs of tiger lilies as a guide.  (Judi does this right on the fabric.  I decided that was NOT a good idea for my skill set).    Pleased with the drawing, I placed the plastic on the light box, fabric on top, and traced the drawing on to the fabric using a black permanent fabric marker.
The next step is to outline the drawing with thread.  I layered the fabric and a piece of batting and stitched on each drawn line.  I used a decorative stitch on the sewing machine that goes back and forth multiple times for maximum definition.  The feathers were done on the longarm machine.  Judi then uses inks to further define the drawings. Instead I used a set of permanent fabric markers (Tulip) that were fun to use and did much the same thing as inks. They are transparent and let the shadings of the fabric shine through. A bit of glitz was added using a gold Artist’s Paintstik on the feathers.  The final steps were to embroider the stamens using black perle cotton and to attach black seed beads for the spots on the petals of the tiger lilies.

14 comments:

  1. Lovely and such amazing workmanship! I enjoyed reading your piece and I agree with you. Flowers are a comfort to us all. Great job as always, It was lovely meeting you in Houston.

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  2. Absolutely stunning & most comforting to look at. I am very intrigued by the concept of putting a piece of fabric up on a wall and then looking for images, and will give it a try.

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  3. Like Andrea, I love that concept of looking at fabric from afar to find images! As usual, I learn from my fellow Mavens! And also as usual, I will end up buying books mentioned by them. This quilt is stunning.

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  4. Spectacular Rita and I love the concept of finding the images in the fabric design too- something I hope to try in the future as it sure worked!! the feathers stitching and beading are exquisite!

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  5. Your flowers are prettier than the daylillies that keep taking over my neighborhood...give me the bulbs. As for William Morris, there is more to life than beauty or utility...thus my house! But I love your detailed and informative piece! Thanks.

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  6. Beautifully done Rita, I would love to see this one in person

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  7. Oh Rita - Absolutely stunning ! Your descriptive words of comfort made my sigh as I read them. Your workmanship is beyond perfect, and your descriptions of the techniques and processes you use are wonderful. I presume you've "gallery wrapped" this quilt like the others - what incredible gifts these are to your church !

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    1. Yes, it is gallery wrapped. Randy is now charged with making more frames because the original 12 he made are covered. Thank you for your kind comments!

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  8. As usual this is beautiful. Rita was kind enough to drive all the way to my house to let me meet her new grandson. What a treat to get to hold him for a while, best pain medication I have ever had. Like your quilts, he is also just beautiful.

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    1. Yes, babies are truely comforting.................Thank you for being you.

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  9. Before I even read your post I drag and dropped the photos onto my desktop which I will then transport to iPhoto. From there I will choose it as my desktop photo to view even closer and marvel longer. I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE this art quilt! My favorite flower in mom's garden was her Enchantment Asiatic Tiger Lily which I now grow also. This was also the bridal flower of choice in both mine and my youngest daughter's wedding! Your details are truly stunning and the embroidery work is awesome. Stranger yet is the William Morris quote, which I posted in my house last winter to help me decide which things to keep and what to let go. I'll definitely look for the book you recommended and try the one fabric inspiration idea. Thanks for sharing.

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  10. This morning I went back over all our MM quilts and re-read the comments and saw some I'd not seen before. I have to add another to this quilt, Rita! ALL of your quilts are beyond beautiful, and I'd hate to have to pick my favorite, but right now, I am thinking that this wins the Alice Prize! I've now got to order that book! Every time you mention a book, it promptly causes to to support Amazon with my business once again! I am most eager to see this in person!

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  11. Rita, it's amazing that you could find those beautiful lilies in batik fabric. I will have to try that. Thanks for the details of your techniques. This is just stunning and the feather quilting just adds to the texture and design.

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  12. I've always loved the tiger lily. You created the perfect quilt with this fun flower. The use of a decorative stitch to outline the design is perfect and of course the beading and quilting are superb!

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