Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Alice's Time in a Bottle


I’ve always loved Jim Croce’s song “If I Could Save Time in a Bottle.”  Since we lost our oldest child, our daughter Kathy, in February 2012, the song has new and even more poignant meaning for me. (I have quoted and printed a portion of these lyrics and fused this quotation to the back, in case you’re not familiar with the words.)  It seemed a natural for me to use that song as inspiration for my quilt.

To portray “time in a bottle,” I used three of my old watches, all of which have sentimental value to me.  In the large bottle I suspended an antique man’s pocket watch that my mother gave me years ago, one she had found while browsing in an antique shop.  In the smaller bottles I suspended the watch my parents gave me when I graduated from high school and, then, one that daughter Susan gave me about 20 years ago.  None of these watches work anymore, but I can’t part with any of them!

I arranged a still life of these three bottles on the dining room sideboard, with some red fabric beneath them, against a red wall.  After photographing the three “time [pieces] in bottles,” I printed the image onto Jacquard Inkjet Fabric Sheets.  I applied Wonder Under to the back of the printed image.

For the background, I was eager to try the weaving technique that Rita used for her background in that lovely bird quilt for our Neighbor theme, but I tweaked this somewhat.   On You Tube I watched a tutorial on how to weave curved strips.  For the two fabrics to weave together, I chose two different red batiks.  Before cutting the curves and weaving them, I fused Steam a Seam 2 onto the fabrics, a product recommended in the video (because of its repositionable nature). After the weaving was done and the background was cut to size, I quilted the background with a small zigzag stitch, following along the curves.


Then I fused the bottles image onto the background.  As an afterthought, I fused a strip of the same fabric I’d used under the bottles for the photograph onto the background, as I didn’t like the look of a “floating still life” and I hoped this would make the bottles look as if they were sitting on a table!


13 comments:

  1. very clever. You melded the bottles perfectly onto the background.

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  2. I love that song! Alice it's a lovely quilt and your concept was spot on! :)

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  3. Love this Alice! You did a great job and the story is so wonderful to read. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Alice I am blown away by this piece!! Your interpretation and execution are phenominal. I love how you cleverly suspended the watches, photographed them and then printed. I thought of this song but had no clue how to achieve capturing it!! The poignancy of it brings tears to my eyes. Bravo!!

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  5. This is beautiful Alice. I love this interpretation of the song and every detail of how you composed this piece. Awesome!

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  6. This is truly a stunning quilt! I love the watches in the bottles and the gorgeous background. It is just beautiful. The interpretation of the song is touching!

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  7. Alice your work and techniques are exceptional. I admire your adventurous spirit alive in your quilts! That is a very beautiful song and a perfect tribute to your Kathy. Great heartfelt work of art. Someday I want to watch you manipulate thes pieces in Photoshop or whatever app you use. Thank you for all the work you do for this group. It is very much appreciated.

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    1. Gail, I do often use Photoshop, but in this quilt I didn't do any manipulating on Photoshop. I simply took the photos, looked at them on the computer, chose the one where the focus and colors etc. were the best, and then I printed it off on the Jacquard product.

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  8. Hi Alice ..... Love the song ("To save every day like a treasure and then...") and the song's significance to the loss of your precious daughter. I'm intrigued by the techniques you used, and especially how you were able to capture the translucency of the glass vessels that hold your time pieces. Stunning !

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  9. Alice, this is so beautiful and so meaningful. I am sure all of us would like to capture some moments of our lives and keep them forever. I love everything about this quilt!

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  10. Alice, I too love this quilt, and concur with the other comments you friends have made. It certainly is one of my favorites.
    NM

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  11. I love the translucency you achieved here. Setting the bottles on the "tablecloth" fabric was a great decision. I sure do appreciate the sentiment. I really understand how solitary seconds change lives and how we experience time as never wavering vector. I always liked to imagine being like superman and being able to spin the world backwards to reverse events.

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  12. So clever, well executed and heart wrenching. Your woven background greatly complements the bottles.

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