Wallflowers I

The first version of the wallflower quilt is finally finished. This sat in my pile of unfinished stuff while I played around with techniques and basically just farted around. It felt like writers block. I would try to come up with ideas, and my mind would skitter away. With a background fabric that I just knew would work, I started on a second wallflower quilt. I started with the same couple dancing, found a rubber stamp with an enigmatic face that will make the "perfect" flower. I was itching to work on it, when I went to the weekend with Julio and Corina. I picked up a card with Julio and Corina that I thought might work better, but it overshadowed the wallflowers. It was one of those ah ha moments. The problem with the first quilt was that the flowers were too random, therefore seemed overshadowed. So I picked off the applique on the first quilt, re-quilted and voila… Wallflowers I—In the Shadows.

The block is gone now too. The second wallflower quilt is partly done, and I have at least two more solid ideas. Now I'm off to make tablecloths for the July long weekend.

Strings and Things

Before Elizabeth left for Uculet, she needed a sweater mended. Digging through old needlecraft kits for black wool, I wondered if there wasn't something I could do with all this yarn. Much of it is wool, so needle felting came to mind. Never done it, don't have the equipment, but thought I'd see what would happen with yarn and a sewing machine. Oh, and some fusible web. The yarn was fused to a piece of muslin. I discovered in the process how much I like to look at things straight on when designing, rather than from above. This couldn't be done on a design wall as the threads would have just fallen off, so once fused it sat on the design wall for a bit. When I added extra threads to make the colours work better, they wouldn't fuse, so I stitched it with metallic thread before quilting it. It didn't seem to be the kind of thing to put a binding on, so I stretched it over canvas instead.


I've been trying to find a way to get water soluble pencils to stay in fabric when washed. This is easier said than done. I had a brainstorm that might work though. Using Golden's GAC 900 mixed half and half with water produced a slightly faded result, but not as much as with no treatment.

Pre washing:


Post washing with metallic thread for quilting:

I'm going to try it with less water now just to see.

I've found the perfect background fabric for my wallflower quilt idea, and I'm just itching to get at it, but it will have to wait until next week as I'm off to Seattle for a couple of days to take workshops with Julio Balmaceda and Corina de la Rosa. Guess that means I should go pack.

Wallflowers

From the start, this quilt hasn't been quite what I wanted. The background fabric isn't exactly right, so the flowers couldn't be done the way I had pictured them. At the beginning, it was my intention to make three-dimensional petals to surround each face. But without the Art Nouveau fabric, the lines aren't as delineated, so I used silk flowers instead. Once the pictures were appliqued inside, it started to take shape, but still needed something. Like my daughter (the real artist) said, "they look funny without hair".

I added beads, I removed beads. I added them again. Letting it sit, I pondered it from a distance. Wrong colour beads. Off course, by this time it was after five on a Sunday, so I had to wait until after work today to get the right colour.

From above, it is hard to judge how something will look from front on, so more sewing on of beads. And taking off of beads. It is hard to place beads on a vertical surface to look at from a distance. They have a tendancy to obey the laws of gravity.

As I stare some more, I think I might trim about two inches off the right hand side. The upper portion will be shortened once the quilted is done as well, which should give it a bit more balance. So, should I apolgize to those who are wallflowers, or those who aren't?