I started this piece about a week or less before moving last February. I
had the idea in my head and the muse commanded me forward. I
had a very short amount of time to get the preliminary blocks done.
I started by taking profile shots of my face. I needed a face and mine was
the closest one handy. I had no success creating a good usable image until
I went into my windowless closet, shut the door, and used a full spectrum
light to get the depth of value that I needed. I wanted the profile
to be as simple as possible.
With four values, I made six different colorways of the same image using
mostly commercial fabrics. I made the pattern, fused the fabric, and collected
them into bags to be cut while the movers packed. I finished that part just
in time.
But while I was cutting the pieces, I knew that I wanted to go farther.
I wanted the six colorways to interrelate, to blend. To do this, I made intermediate
steps between the blocks that would use 2 light values from one color and
2 dark values from another color. Using this methodology, the quilt quickly
grew to 28 blocks.
I couldn't bring myself to put them together on a traditional background.
I painted a wholecloth to the light blue I wanted and placed the blocks.
Then I used paintsticks and a stencil to create the fence. Then the idea
of the brass key came to me for the horizontal bands, and for that I used
paint and a key stamp.
Once the piece was quilted, however, there was still too much blank space
in the upper vertical bands. I brazenly stamped dragonflies and spent a couple
of panic stricken days wondering how to un-do it. I finally decided that
part of the tradition of quilt-making is making do with what you have, so
I used Micron pens to color the body of the dragonflies green and brown --
and then found a wonderful metallic tulle in my stash that brought that magic
I needed to the wings. The outer bands have more delicate red ladybugs that
are also stamped on & colored with a Micron pen.
Art Quilts XIV: Significant Stitching, Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler,
AZ November/December 2009
