Judy W's "Interwoven: Through the Ages"

"Interwoven: Through the Ages" 

by Judy Wedemeyer

My reference to 'through the ages' is an interweaving of past, present and future  projects and memories.  (Past) is highlighted by recycling vintage black wire beaded earrings.  The flower was one of many I made a few years ago while experimenting with melting black plastic fruit tray dividers into flower bases. I was planning on incorporating them into weatherproof yard art somehow.  Batik fabric in aqua and orange tropical colors are inspired by my daughters beach themed, Hawaiian destination wedding scheduled for April 2014. (Future)  And of course (Present) is the creation of this current challenge piece.

A foundation of mixed ephemera and threads from various art quilt projects were laid on dyed cheesecloth, interwoven and then sandwiched between two sheets of Water Soluble Solvy foundation.  Included materials are painted Ludura, upholstery threads, plastic netting, dyed silk cocoon pieces and dyed cheesecloth.

I bobbin stitched a variegated metallic thread while machine quilting with a clear mono-filament top thread in a wavy grid pattern.  Once stabilized, I cold water rinsed the Solvy away, towel pressed the 'fabric' and iron dried it between parchment paper.  The tissue paper and gold foil candy wrapper pieces were embedded after the wash and dry cycle.  Unfortunately I got heavy handed with the iron and melted the green netting pretty much into oblivion. : /

Quilt Basting Spray adhered the interwoven section to the orange batik background fabric.  I ironed fusible fleece batting (Thermolam) to the backside of the batik before bobbin quilting a diagonal wavy grid in metallic thread. After quilting, I sandwiched top and back right sides together, cut a small slit in the backing to pull right side out, and then fused my quilt label over the opening.  Final step was gluing and thread tacking the embellishments to the quilt top and beading the edges.  This quilt exemplifies what I enjoy most about art quilting ~ small experiment projects which incorporate recycling, hand beading, embellishments and surface design.