Thursday, May 27, 2010

May Interpret This



Spring Dreams
16 x 14

I went very literal this month; I'm not sure why that seemed the best thing to do, but it also worked into my tight schedule since I didn't change my mind several times.

Everything is simple and straight forward except for the tree, where I wanted to add a texture to suggest the softness of the blossoms and change the color a bit.   I wet the fabric, twisted it until it doubled back on itself into a ball, put rubber bands around it, and then stuffed the ball into the toe of an old nylon footie until it dried; drying takes about a week. ( I guess this is a kind of dye-less shibori.)  I did this about the first day of the month, which was fortunate, because when I came home from my unplanned trip, the fabric was dry. 
Then I opened it, smoothed it a little and fused it to a piece of light weight interfacing.
Stitching at random back and forth adds texture and holds the wrinkles in place.  Lots of different decorative stitches, threads, and couched fibers can be used, but I kept it simple here.  Then I pressed a freezer paper pattern to the textured fabric, stitched around it to keep the edges flat,  and cut out the tree shape.


Since I wanted to do the branches with reverse applique, I marked their outline on the freezer paper and stitched around that too; then when the tree was in place I stitched again around the branch outline, and cut to reveal the branch fabric I'd placed underneath.

Since the tree fabric already had lots of stitching, I just quilted in a circular pattern to emphasize the design in the fabric, then added the beads for more texture.




7 comments:

Barbara Strobel Lardon said...

For my birthday my sister gave me a product that wrinkles up your fabric, but I love this and how it does it with no added products to purchase.

Waiting a week would be the only issue for me. haha.

Hope your mom is doing better. My mother is also having issues as you may know. Just took her to the doctor again this morning but this time for her arthritis. At least I am closer it must be hard for you.

I love this interpretation this month....it brings peace to the viewer.

Beverly said...

This has a folk art feel to me- it captured the color and peacefulness of the scene. Sometimes simple really is better!

*karendianne. said...

Everything about this I like but I knew I'd like it this month. For some reason I think it was the fact that the tree had pink and I was certain to watch you use that. Also, I enjoyed what you so simply refer to as simple and straight forward.

I read thru all the technical information as usual and there's nothing simple to my mind BUT I did understand this: "Then I opened it, smoothed it a little and fused it to a piece of light weight interfacing." and I thought that was neat.

Spring Dreams is very very pretty my friend. Simple and pretty! Thanks for creating yet another work of ART.

Liz in Kansas said...

Very elegant! A simple concept, but you've taken it a couple of steps further. Love the way you wrinkled the fabric! I'll have to try that sometime. Right! When I have nothing else to do. Haha!

Nellie's Needles said...

You've "cut through" to the bones of that photo. When I squint my eyes and look at the photograph, what I see is what you created.

I'd like to see the actual piece. Your wrinkled pink and beaded tree must be wonderful.

Finishing Lines by K.Sperino said...

This is very nice, Kay. and thanks for sharing your method.

Barbara C said...

Lovely quilt. This scrunching technique is perfect for the tree, and really adds a lot of texture and detail.