Saturday, July 15, 2017

The Space Within III



Dee Stewart Merrell



The Space Within III

Too much space?  Never enough?  Or the obvious “ SPACE – The Final Frontier”.  I had to be true to my first feeling on this challenge, and it had to be the space that is mysterious and unknown.  I wanted to show all the colors and energy of a nebula, I wanted to bring the exploding darkness to life.  Then I knew that I could show space in my own way:  with a circle.  These were just a few of the rabbit holes that I went down and I feel like I also did a bit of time travel - because I  completely changed my entire piece this morning, the day of REVEAL.  

This past week I was at a Quilting Adventures retreat in Schulenburg, TX,  and my teacher was Jane Sassaman.  Many things that she told us, and I did take notes, made a definite impression on me and I absorbed some things to such a degree that when I got home on Thursday evening and viewed my “space piece” again, it no longer pleased me.  I tried to stitch new life into it, but that did not work.   So I started a brand new art piece on Friday… the design was really looking good, and then I stitched it -  the stitching turned it into a psychedelic sunflower!   I like it, and I will use it after some major tweaks, but not for this challenge. 

Back to my Sassaman notes:  Simplify and Exaggerate.  I knew that I did not have time to design a background, so I would need fabric that did the work for me.  I had tried hand dyes and batiks before because they have a lot of depth and movement.  A really nice green caught my eye and when I spread it out it was one of those fabrics that you cannot live without but you are never sure what to do with it.  It was a Robert Kaufman and designed by Sherrill Kahn, the fabric name was “The Fire Within II “ ..  thus the name of this work:. “The Space Within III”. (three tries to get it right.)



The Space Within I





The Space Within II










8 comments:

  1. Ooooooooo! I love the 3rd one! You really learned a lot in Jane's class and your final piece is truly the right one for this word. It has depth and it is dynamic! Colors are spot on. Great job!

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  2. All are beautiful, but truly "the third one is the charm." You made the right call on this. Outstanding!

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  3. Wow! Spectacular! I love them all, but can definitely see your progression through 1,2, and 3. That's why working in a series is so often touted. I think you're onto something here Dee. You need to come to our retreats and teach us. I greatly admire your work here and so enriching to see all 3 attempts. Thanks for sharing them all. You are fabulous!

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  4. I love your progression from good, better,best. Thank you for sharing the evolution of your design. I love the way the lines of the background fabric connect with the images and how your image bursts out of the frame of the quilt - well done.

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  5. Your final image is gorgeous! Everything is perfect, the color, the design, the movement. You certainly hit a home run on this one. I love it!

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  6. All three quilts are wonderful. I love your use of shapes and colors. Not sure which I like the best.

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  7. All three of your quilts are beautiful, and I agree that your 3rd quilt really says it all ! How wonderful that you were able to participate in classes with Jane Sassaman - she's one of my most favorites of the "Super Star Quilters" and I too was thrilled to take classes from her when she came to Anchorage, AK to teach !
    Great job on this MM challenge :-D

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  8. This is beautiful. The colors and the movement and my favorite symbol the circle.

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