WIP Wednesday



When I left you on Monday, I had just finished fusing my cuts of transfer painted fabric to my batting.  As you may know, my usual practice is to happily throw stuff at a piece and be pleased with the result at the end, which was fine when my goal was to just "try" different techniques.  But this year, I have chosen as my word of the year "intention" and so have decided to not start a piece without know what it is I'm trying to accomplish, before I cut a thread. 


             

As you may also know, I'm a big joiner - I want to be a part of a group, enjoy the camaraderie and the fun, but then I find myself bored and drift away.  

Melody Johnson is doing an art-quilt-along, and I decided that I would play along. But as she posted her tutorials, I found myself uninspired. Not by her work, which is really beautiful, but by the idea of spending time doing work that is essentially a copy of someone else's. 

                    

And though I initially pulled coordinating solids and started making vague doodles on a pad about what the finished product might look like, these transfer painted fabrics kept calling me with a very specific idea that has been sitting at the centre of my forehead for the past couple of weeks - so I drew a very different kind of sketch and got to work. 

Once I had cut and placed all my pieces of fabrics, I quilted - quilting some of the tiniest lines with the tiniest stitches I've ever done, and after that; I quilted the green piece and knew it was coming to fruition.    I wanted a background that was kind of moody and perhaps a little ominous; that had a hint of magic realism. Given that it took me nearly 10 hours to quilt it, I'm glad I liked how it turned out!


Once the piece was quilted, I took a piece of Vicki Welsh's hand-dyed fabric, and began to play with that.   I had run out of steam a seam, so I cut the tree shapes out of paper and then lightly glued them down to the fabric using a glue stick.

My time at Melody's blog has not been for naught though, I used her "fuse directly to the batting" technique and her envelope back, and really like both results.

The finished piece will be revealed on Friday - I look forward to seeing you then!


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P.S. - I'm having my surgery today, and I have postings set up for the next week - but I may be slow on the responses to comments - depending on how I'm feeling afterwards.  Talk soon!

Kit Lang

10 comments:

  1. Good luck with your surgery! I hope you are back in your studio very soon.

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  2. Kit, your quilting is fantastic! Such beautiful movement on your background. Good luck with the surgery!

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  3. I really love what you turned this fabric into. I'm surprised that the two different fabrics blended so well into a realistic "sky". I love the addition of the "forest" at the bottom. It could be a real skyline...it reminds me of camping in the mountains.

    And good luck on your surgery!

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  4. WOW!!! That's some amazing quilting! I love it! Good luck with "intentions", as you seem to be doing pretty good throwing stuff together ;-). Maybe a combo of both? Hope the surgery goes well.

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  5. susana8.2.12

    10 horas kit!!!su "intención",parece encontrar su camino.Mucha luz para su cirugía y que descanse usted tranquila. :D

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  6. Terrific... I haven't seen your work before... my loss. Glad to link to you with WIP

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  7. Good luck with your surgery !!! Take good care of yourself, will you, please? Get all the rest you need - let the kittens keep you warm ;-))

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  8. Good luck with the surgery. Just love this piece - amazing what the quilting does to change the piece. Mary Ann

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  9. I love the echo quilting on these bits of lovely fabric. I was VERY interested in seeing where you were going with it. It's one of favs that you've done. Can't wait til Friday. BTW sent tons of + energy for you yesterday. Hope all went well.

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  10. the envelope method transformed my thinking about my work. bindings always left me with the feeling that I had just finished a blanket no matter my intent.

    the "reveal" when you face and turn a piece, envelope style is such a different experience, like pulling a covering cloth off of a statue, a piece of art.

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