A Happy Accident
I've had such a nice week. I've gone out to lunch with girlfriends, met with quilting friends -- twice!, gone on long walks, and even read a book, start to finish. And today, my girls and I had a special day together while my husband and son were off at a baseball tournament. We miss them, but it was a great girls day.
At any rate, I had a little time this evening to create a journal quilt. I started by drawing a picture with water soluble crayons. I wet the fabric so the colors would run and blend a bit, then ran the iron over the fabric to stop the bleeding. When I did that, the colors dulled and the whole drawing lost its appeal. The fabric I had laid under the drawing to protect my ironing board, however, looked very cool. The colors had seeped through and created blotches that were much more interesting than the initial drawing.
I decided it would be more fun to play with this new bit of "painted" fabric than to stick with the original. I brightened some spots with paintsticks, added a few more dabs of color here and there, and highlighted a few of the blotch edges with colored pencils. I sewed rippled blue tulle on top to represent water because I thought the shapes looked a bit aquatic. Then I couched down pieces of chartreuse yarn (perhaps some algae floating on the surface?) and finished with metallic silver chicken scratch in the center of the big green blob at the bottom.
This was pure play. I'm not sure of this piece's artistic value -- it does look rather like a preschooler's painting -- but I had fun experimenting with something completely abstract. The end results are growing on me and I'm calling this piece, Blend. I think I'm done with it, although I suppose that's up for debate. How do you know when something this abstract is finished?
Detail:
At any rate, I had a little time this evening to create a journal quilt. I started by drawing a picture with water soluble crayons. I wet the fabric so the colors would run and blend a bit, then ran the iron over the fabric to stop the bleeding. When I did that, the colors dulled and the whole drawing lost its appeal. The fabric I had laid under the drawing to protect my ironing board, however, looked very cool. The colors had seeped through and created blotches that were much more interesting than the initial drawing.
I decided it would be more fun to play with this new bit of "painted" fabric than to stick with the original. I brightened some spots with paintsticks, added a few more dabs of color here and there, and highlighted a few of the blotch edges with colored pencils. I sewed rippled blue tulle on top to represent water because I thought the shapes looked a bit aquatic. Then I couched down pieces of chartreuse yarn (perhaps some algae floating on the surface?) and finished with metallic silver chicken scratch in the center of the big green blob at the bottom.
This was pure play. I'm not sure of this piece's artistic value -- it does look rather like a preschooler's painting -- but I had fun experimenting with something completely abstract. The end results are growing on me and I'm calling this piece, Blend. I think I'm done with it, although I suppose that's up for debate. How do you know when something this abstract is finished?
Detail:
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