Saturday, March 15, 2014

Jane Hartfield's Quilt Translate


Here I Grow Again!

Jane Hartfield’s Quilt

Translate

I  have to say I found this word rather challenging. I don’t normally put text on my quilts, and all I could think about was language and foreign ones at that.

Finally I thought about symbols which have been used since ancient times to translate thoughts and ideas. My personal symbol is the spiral. It means growth. The spiral  frequently turns up in my quilting and everywhere else. So, I took a piece of overdyed fabric and needle felted many other pieces of fabric in my favorite color, orange, on top. Then I painted some wonder under with color and symbols. I included the spiral, a fish, a tree, water, cross, sun, moon, star, and a flower. They looked okay, so I applied them to the fabric. At that point, the symbols were rather lost in translation. They became quite obscure. So, I added a large spiral of hand dyed yarn and quilted the whole piece in spirals. I wish you could see more of the symbols…
 

 
 
 

 

11 comments:

  1. Lovely, It has the feel of ancient times, and I like the symbols being more faded as they would be in old manuscripts or on stone tablets. So nicely done.

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  2. Jane, how well Lois put it above! Your quilt does capture the look of an old manuscript. Your artistry in stitch and fabric comes through loud and clear in this quilt.

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  3. Hi Jane, I can't see the symbols as well as I would like, but I love the result! I agree that it does look like an old manuscript. Beautiful spiral stitching!

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  4. I just love the texture and the spiral.

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  5. I love spirals and am mesmerized by all of your spiral quilting. You definitely have achieved that "ancient"
    feeling with the colors and texture.

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  6. I think it is very nice - spirals are just so interesting.

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  7. This is a textural delight to my eyes!!!! Lovevthe rich earthy tones too!!

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  8. Great idea to use symbols for translate! I too wish I could see them a bit better, but they are still visible enough to get your story across.

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  9. Your little quilt certainly does have an ancient feel. Can you explain how you used wonder under to add the symbols?

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  10. Love using symbol translation. There appears to be a lot of depth here -on of those quilts I wish I could inspect in person close up

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  11. Thank you, everyone. I painted the wonder under with muted colors but used black to paint the symbols. I have painted wonder under a lot to knock back a "too bright" area. It usually transforms the area I fuse it to. I have been a bit hesitant to use paint on my quilts after quilting. Wonder under is less daunting.
    I made a quilt a while back inspired by the cave paintings in France. In the caves sometimes the paintings would only appear when the guide shone the light a certain way.

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