Thursday, April 14, 2016

Andrea's Doodle


May 1943

Doodle: hmmm, my first thought was to NOT rely on a screen-printed doodle/drawing.  This left me with the possibility of trying a thread doodle.  I am not a machine quilter and have never really tried free-motion quilting, so these machine-stitched doodled hearts are a stretch for me.  I wanted to experiment with a simple shape, and told myself that if it looked awful, no one ever had to see it!  It was the beginning of February and hearts were everywhere so I decided to give that shape a try.  The first "go 'round" was rather odd looking, but by the time I stitched around the shape for the third time I thought it took on a whimsical look with a bit of character which I was happy with.  A few more hearts later I had my doodle.  I then needed to add something to the background.  I inherited a journal that my mother kept around the time that she and my father were married, so I made a screen from the entry on the before and day of their wedding,  May 11 & 12, 1943.  I loved the parts about the rhubarb pie that my mother baked the morning of her wedding and that my father had to go to court in Boston to testify at the divorce proceedings of his best man!  After silk-screening the text I thought it needed a bit more color, so in keeping with the heart motif, screened the pink hearts.

12 comments:

  1. What a great idea, Andrea, both the stitching and then using the journal as background! You were brave and you inspire me not to be so afraid to try free-motion stitching on one of my MM quilts!

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  2. Very Andrea!! So much more impreesive in person when you can read the journsl entries!! Love the contrast of the B&W and purple!!

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  3. Andrea, this almost made me cry! I love that you used journal pages from the day before and the day after your parents wedding. And see, you REALLY can machine quilt! Sweet!

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  4. So gorgeous! Love everything about this!

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  5. Lovely. What a treasure to have your mothers journal. Very nice completion.

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  6. From Rita: – This is just beautiful. The interplay of the stitching and the screening and the color all work together perfectly. A wonderful Doodle!

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  7. Oh My Gosh ! Your Doodle quilt is fantastic ! Of course, I'm wild about all the screening you do ... Incredible, and in this case so poignant that you screened part of your Mother's journal. Your FMQing is right on, and once we collectively get over our fear of going Free Motion, it becomes liberating :-D Also loved that you screened in the additional hearts in complementary colors. Your binding sets off the entire quilt perfectly ! BRAVO !

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  8. Oh My Gosh ! Your Doodle quilt is fantastic ! Of course, I'm wild about all the screening you do ... Incredible, and in this case so poignant that you screened part of your Mother's journal. Your FMQing is right on, and once we collectively get over our fear of going Free Motion, it becomes liberating :-D Also loved that you screened in the additional hearts in complementary colors. Your binding sets off the entire quilt perfectly ! BRAVO !

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  10. I love this quilt for both the appealing visual composition and the wonderful sentiment it includes. This is a great marriage of thread work and printing

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  11. very nice. the back story is very interesting. My first thought when I saw it was "love letter"!

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