Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Jane's Strong Quilt

Strong
“Strong” is a wonderfully  inspiring theme for a quilt. My first inclination was to use the image of a tree. Trees are very strong. I could see the huge oak tree in my father’s yard, the windswept trees clinging to a cliff or canyon wall, or the willow tree that bends with the wind. However, while I was considering the tree, we had an ice storm. It wasn’t a horrible ice storm, but it coated the limbs and broke several. Three fell on the studio roof. Many trees around town fell over and quite a number of people were left without electricity. It made me think about water. Water created the Grand Canyon and many caves. The giant Mississippi River continues to be a force to be reckoned with each spring. The frozen water can break the trees.
I had an experimental piece on my design wall begging to be finished. I started with canvas as a backing. At the time I was interested in multidimensional work, so I used alpaca fibers and yarns for the batting. It was not real batting. On top I used scrim/cheesecloth. The stream is dyed cheesecloth. I machine quilted the background minimally to take advantage of the texture in the “batting”. Then I painted the background with the gold and purple. I added some hand stitches and beads. The beads can be drops of water or pebbles in the stream. After trimming the piece to 12 x 12, I tried finishing the edge with black zigzag stitching; but I didn’t like that. I put silk ribbon over the stitching that pleased me. The silk is that scrappy sari silk ribbon that is cream colored.

8 comments:

  1. Water is a wonderful image for Strong, Jane! Welcome to the group, and your quilt makes a wonderful addition to this month's batch. I'm not surprised, as I had seen your work at our workshop last March and also on that particular group's Yahoo group. You are an accomplished artist, and I am delighted you're now one of us.

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  2. Welcome Jane!! You will be a wonderful member of this creative group that I sooo enjoy. Yes, water has great strength and can topple the mighty trees. I love the fluidity in the water you've achieved with the dyed, curving cheesecloth. Lovely work!

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  3. Welcome to the group! What an amazing start!!!! Love your colors and design.

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  4. I love your use of different materials, cheese cloth and alpaca fibers. So interesting. You really feel the river flowing.

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  5. I do feel that water is alive, pushing the land. Definitely a subject for strong!

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  6. I can hear the water rushing by, and I love the various textures that you have used to create this very strong image!

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  7. Hi Jane .. Welcome to the Material Mavens ! Glad to have you on board :-D Thanks for the great narrative on your quilt, the thoughts that went into your decision to use water, and the descriptions of the materials and techniques you used. Here in Central Texas, we've had ourfair-share of sub-freezing temps and huge northern winds that have turned our streets, walkways, ponds (and bird-baths!) into ice rinks. Water into ice... truly a force to be reckoned with !

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  8. Welcome to MM Jane. I am awed by all the different and creative ideas that you incorporated into this, your first, MM quilt! Water is so very powerful and made a perfect theme for your portrayal of "strong". I look forward to more 12 x 12's from you!

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