Opposites Attract: Big/Small

 Well this was another really wide theme that could have gone in a million directions.  Right from the beginning though, I knew I wanted to do something with gravity.  I'm always amazed how weak a force it is and how strong a force it is.  Weak in that we can jump and lift things and throw things and strong in that it can tear planets and moons apart.

So I came up with the idea of doing something based on Saturn and showing how the might of Saturn breaks its moons and captures the pieces in rings.

I used a collage technique I had learned in a workshop with Kim Caskey, teaching a Laura Heine pattern.  You use steam a seam to bond fusible to patterned fabric and cut out flowers and motifs to use to build a collage. The technique is explained really well in Laura Heine's patterns so if you are interested in collage look her up.  She has some fun patterns like roosters, camper vans, and bees.

I drew out the shape of Saturn and some rings on Pattern Ease (a background material you can build collage on and leave it in your project).  I had fabrics already fused left over from another project and I wasn't sure how to do Saturn's ring so I pulled everything out and had a play.  I thought these circles would work as abstract impression of the rings so gave it a go.

Instead of making the whole planet from motifs I used blenders from my stash.  I pulled some yellow and purple fat quarters and used strips and larger pieces to give the impression of Saturn and then added some swirly motifs on to show the gaseous nature of the planet.  

Over to the ironing board to fuse everything down. The thing with steam a seam is you can move the fabrics around and they will stick to each other until you press them.  When you press them on to where you want them then they fuse but the glue can be sticky when trying to quilt through.  

The trick is to press using steam to release all that glue and to use lots of steam, then the free motion quilting of the planet was easier and I just echo quilted around the rings and planet with a walking foot to give the impression of the gravitational pull that Saturn creates.

This was a lot of fun and I was glad to re-visit this collage style of quilting.  Now to find some where to hang it.  It's getting crowded on the wall now with all the art pieces we have been creating!

Opposites Attract

I really struggled to come up with anything to make this quarter and also with finding time to make anything at all so this is definitely a better-finished-than-perfect offering, which I eventually managed to make yesterday. 

Amazingly, I started by bagging a layer cake square with some wadding and backing (having absolutely no idea what to do with it) and then had to go out. By some kind of miracle, by the time I got back and re-staked some rows of runner beans that had been razed to the ground by high winds, the butterfly/flower idea had popped into my head and I sewed it up very quickly in the evening.

It reminded me of a Ted Talk, I think by Elizabeth Gilbert (I will look it up and edit) where she speaks about her daemon (but I think it could be our subconscious or something) and says she if she sits ready to work, she's done her part of the job and making that commitment allows the universe, or whatever to come with the inspiration. Sorry this is vague and may be quite wrong but I have two minutes to the deadline!

Anyway, the rational behind this quilt is that the shapes are opposite each other in space and the colours are complementary opposites...

And the 'attract' part is indicated by the flower and butterfly because butterflies are attracted to flowers.

I stitched mainly in white and painted (in colours) the shapes comprising the 'opposite' elements. Then I used black stitching to illustrated the flower and butterfly details - so black and white for the non-opposite elements.

Apologies for such a rushed and garbled post this quarter! I can't wait to see what everyone else had made :)

 

Opposite Day

 I had a very hard time with this theme -- each pair of opposites I thought of (curvy/straight, thick/thin, vintage/modern) seemed to cancel each other out. I could picture them in a nice background pattern, but not in an interesting focal image.

Then I thought of "Opposite Day," which we used to do for fun when my kids were small (usually on a rainy summer day).  You would think of all your normal routines and try to do them opposite.  Eat popsicles for breakfast, write backwards with your non-dominant hand, etc.

It was fun to approach my usual quilting process from the "opposite" direction, and try new techniques.  Usually I have some sort of representational image, so I thought it would be "opposite" for me to just use simple geometric shapes.  I chose this image for a composition inspiration:

I clipped this from a magazine years ago; I am not sure of its original source.

I decided to make my quilt sandwich inside out, using painted batting for the top layer, and then doing reverse applique, with the fabrics of the middle layer revealed.

"Opposite Day", a small art quilt based on reversing my usual quilt process.

Detail showing the dyed, painted, and stitched surface.

I think this quilt would have been a good solution to our Texture challenge as well.  I had fun re-thinking my quilting habits!

You can read more about how I made this piece at my blog, Deep in the Heart of Textiles.