Let the Quilting Begin!

I started quilting on Monday. Here are some details.

Final Design

Well, here it is! The top is pretty much fused. I realized I needed larger elements in the center to balance it (the yellow and purple circles). The colors aren't totally accurate in the photo - at least not on my monitor. The background is really more turquoise than blue and the little row of squares in the center look white, but they are really yellow. But, you get the idea.

Now to start quilting...after I clean off the sewing table.....

Have I gone too far?? Now What??

Is this too much?








I'm stuck. This is what we artist call being blocked. But you don't sit around saying "Oh dear. I'm a little blocked today. No worries! I'll just get on with life, pay the bills, clean up, buy groceries, trim the cat's claws, then I'm sure in a couple of hours I'll have a brilliant idea!!"



Crap - that's not right either!!






No your thought process is something along the lines of "Oh, god! Why did I agree to do this job? I'm a total hack! I'll never have a good/artistic/original/creative thought again! Can I back out? Can I pretend I forgot I agreed to do it? can I leave the country? Can I say the dog ate it?!"

It seems to be part of the process. I work with out a net, so to speak. I have and idea and just start. It builds and I get excited and I'm lovin' it! The piece practically designs itself..for a time. Then I manage to create myself into a corner and can't figure out how to get our of it. So I panic, I curse my empty mind, I curse the artwork, and why did I ever staqrt doing this 12 years ago anyway....

But then I breathe, let it sit for a few days and resume. Thing perculate, I stop obsessing, then it gets fun again. So now I am breathing and cleaning and otherwise distracting myself.

Evolution

Here's what I did today...it may change tomorrow! :-)

We're working on the floor now - no flat surfaces big enough. Lilah is helping.

Lilah takes a break - she's worked hard!
And this is what I've got at the end of the day.

The Process Continues...

Indecision. It happens. What if both colors work - how do you choose? Better than nothing working, I suppose. I'm going to let it rest and make a decision after acupuncture and massage tomorrow.

From Fabric to Work-in-progress

So this is how I work. Get the main colors and basic "bones" of the peice laid down, then audition lots of fabrics.


Once I have my stash of fabrics, I start adding the elements at random. When I add one element, my instinct is to balance it by placing a similar sized element or color else where in the piece.

I don't want to have any large unbroken blocks of color, because a large unbroken block attracts too much attention and unbalances the piece, so I added some dark blue blocks to the big swatch of yellow. Compare this pic to the one above - it's getting much more interesting!
This is probably the most time-consuming part. But once I have my main elements nailed down (or ironed, as it were...) then the rest of it usually falls into place easily.

Final Fabric - I love it!

Painted, stamped, scrunched, dried, painted some more, then over dyed, dried, rinsed and ironed. Here is the final background fabric for Heidi and Andy's quilt. The top should be completed this week, then comes the quilting. Oh - check the last photo for the design prototype. Colors will be different, but this is the basic design. It will be a triptych with the main design flowing across all three pieces.

Painting fabric

I painted some fabric this afternoon for Heidi and Andy's artpeice.

Where the heck have I been???

Hmm - sort of lost track of time for six months. Here are some photos from my latest Art-o-mat series.