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Twilight Pond
I swear it has taken longer to get around to writing the blogpost and take the pics than it did to quilt this little piece! Well, not counting the nearly two years it has taken me to get around to quilting it either! Only REALLY long-time readers will remember that in 2006 I did my first dyeing workshop with Carol Soderlund, which I blogged about here — there are actually three posts, late August and September 2006 I had this tiny bit of fabric… 9 x 22 inches or so… leftover, so one day at the end I grabbed a plastic cup, squished the fabric into the bottom and added some yellow dye or something (?). Then I squished in more fabric and poured on blue dye. My tablemate Debby Harwell took one look at it when it came out and said “OH, it looks like trees and a pond!”
(Note: pics in this post are clickable to make them a bit larger.)
Of course I could never see the piece as anything else SINCE then! Finally, I told myself I abso-positively HAD to get around to quilting something to take in to sell at Ducktrap Trading company, the gallery where I sell some of my work here in Camden, Maine.
My thought was to keep this a wholecloth. However, when it was done, it kinda lacked OOMPH–the colored quilting helped, but not quite enough.
So what does any self-respecting art quilter do? Add paint! I had just begun in the photo above, when it occurred to me that I really ought to get a before photo (and should have gotten a before quilting, too, but too late now!)… here’s a detail:
Then I went to town and colored all the smaller trees, the trunk and the boughs of the Maine state tree, the White Pine. The branches reach out like arms, hands turned up to the sun….. here’s another detail to show what a difference a bit of color makes…MUCH better!
Since I’m not too sure how water-soluble these babies are (very I think) I sprayed the painted area with spray fixative to keep it from running in case of accidental moisture. I couched yarn to the edges (one of my favorite edge finishes for art quilts that are on the small side), then thought some wind-fall branches from the yard would be perfect. Making the hanging loops and sewing them by hand was a bit fiddly, but it worked. Now, to go in and do the miserable color editing behind the quilt so it merges with the background of my website, get it posted on to the site, listed for sale, then do an invoice for $250 and take it down to the gallery and pray someone in this sad economy is still buying art!
October 4th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I love this piece of work and how interesting to see how it developed.
Eileen
October 4th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
This piece turned out wonderfully! As I recall, you pulled this piece out of the dye and really didn’t like it at all, therefore the visualization to spur you along to like the fabric. If you get the $250, then you’ll love it even more! It’s beautiful! and a perfect Maine piece. Debby
October 5th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I love it! It’s very cool! The sky is fabulous and the trees are wonderful. Thanks for sharing!
October 5th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I love it, too, especially the quilting. I have used a couching edge but never also used the yarn for hanging. I am planning some small pieces for the fiber bazaar and have already collected some small pieces of driftwood. I would like to copy your technique for hanging. Much better than fabric strips that might overwhelm a small piece and you know what I mean by small. Betty
October 10th, 2008 at 9:04 am
What a lovely piece. Often dyeing will produce a piece of fabric that just cries out to be a picture.