Shortly after Comfort was listed as our next theme, my family went up to The Northeast Kingdom in Vermont where my husbands family have a summer house. The house is right on Lake Willouhby. It was a beautiful fall foliage trip. Every time we visit my daughters have to have the classic summer lunch of "oodles of noodles" soup and a grilled chesse. After fixing the lunch and putting it on the table my daughter took a picture of the lunch with the mountains in the background. I thought that is it- my daughter's comfort.
In starting the quilt I decided I had to make the noodles. I bought wiggly yarn but it needed to be dyed a little darker. I tea dyed the yarn for a different amounts of time using Alice's vanilla caramel tea from the goodie bag. I thought it would give a nice caramel color. I then used fabric stiffener to have the noodles hold their texture.
Next the grilled cheese.- How to make that? I tea dyed an old sponge, cut it in half and then used a brown marker to darken the sponge. The sponge had the texture of grilled bread.
Now onto the quilt. I created the background , sky, mountains, lake and the deck and quilted it.
Now for the interior- I purchased window screen to create the sliding screen door that we look thru. I sewed the screen on top of the background. I used fusible web to make the bowl of soup with silk dupioni for the broth. I sewed the noodles onto the bowl and hot glued the grilled cheese. I used shiva paint sticks to create the shading on the bowl. I definitely need more experience with the shiva paints. What a fun theme.
NEXT THEME- STRONG
I picked STRONG because of this past year in Boston. Boston embraced the "B STRONG" motto to help heal our city. The Red Sox team used every game to help the wounded and our community to heal. I also think the word strong can have different meanings for everyone. I look forward to seeing everyone's interpretation.
Tricia
Tricia, you are brilliant! Totally! My jaw dropped as I read about all the innovative techniques that you used to create this outstanding quilt! Many congratulations on a job superbly done! Dyeing sponges and yarn and even using "my" tea! Wonderful. I could go on and on but will stop there--wonderful!
ReplyDeleteLove the theme, too! Thanks!
DeleteWhat fun this quilt is! I really admire your ability to look beyond fabric to represent what you wanted to depict. I will never look at a sponge in quit the same way again! Very, very clever.
ReplyDeleteTricia, What a perfect solution! The sponges worked out great as toast! Love your out of the box thinking on this, and the noodles are perfect! And the lake house has been a place of warm family memories for years - Can just see you all there eating your soup!!!! The next theme is great! So many different ways to show it. Fun solution!
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh, how creative! I admire your step by step problem solving, thinking outside the box and following your initial vision. Kudos! It's fabulous. PS> I refrained from reading other comments until I made my own, and I still ended up repeating previous views. :D
ReplyDeleteWell you were so clever and industrious! I think the noodles and grilled cheese are brilliantly executed and the screen is perfect too!! Love your interpretation. Yes the B Strong motto was so important to the victims of the marathon bombing, the people of Boston AND the Red Sox and I would love to honor that idea. However I have another great idea already in mind that I am ruminating on. Can't wait to see what everyone does.
ReplyDeleteI took a similar foliage trip to NH and the lakes, and when I was not thinking fabric, I was thinking comforting food. So neat to get your inspiration from the girls and their ritual...and what a beautiful quilt you made...perfection. The railing, the screen ...just all.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love the strong idea...I can't get my first thought out of my mind so I know we are looking at great variety again.
This is really wonderful! Clever use of materials and I do find grilled cheese very comforting!!
ReplyDeleteFABULOUS ! As you were describing all the materials you used to create the noodles, the sandwich, the netting, etc. I was thinking to myself, "Of Course !" How could I not have ever thought of using yarn, tea, sponges, netting, etc. as art materials. Your descriptions of how you did everything was wonderful - thanks for helping us all to think outside the box !
ReplyDeleteSTRONG ! Endless possibilities... Thanks !
This is wonderful! I agree with everyone about your amazing use of 'non quilting' materials to achieve the look you wanted. This is so 3 dimensional and looks as if the grilled cheese could be picked up and nibbled. I love it!!
ReplyDeleteComfort food never crossed my mind. You created a gem of a quilt! Your creative uses of materials were wonderful to read about and I kept going back and forth to the pictures as I read another thing you worked on. I too have difficulty making the shiva paint sticks work the way I want them to. It turns out a bit better when I swirl some paint off to the side and then put it on a brush to apply to fabric. Haven't mastered the dry brush work and I believe that's what it takes to work with these.
ReplyDeleteHi Tricia, I'm commenting late because I have been way too busy - as everyone is this time of year! What a wonderful quilt. You are too clever!!! I love all the embellishments and techniques that you used in this quilt. How true that food does indeed bring us comfort! This is a GEM of a quilt!!!
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