Tuesday 27 May 2008

Working Through Ideas

I've had a productive few days over the Bank Holiday working out ideas for quilts for 'Festival of Quilts'. I always need deadlines - this one is entry forms in by the end of the week ( tho' not necessarily finished pieces). I made good progress on Quilters Guild Challenge on theme of 'Elemental' spending a happy time yesterday with printing blocks to extend a piece already started. I want to do an additional piece using my stitching and painting techniques and so today I took annual leave to develop samples ( which I'll finish off as 12 x 12 CQ Journal Quilts).
In addition to my usual seascapes, I've been working on one based on mown fields in Greece
This sketch I did on the spot - as it had been wet, Mrs Farmer was out turning the hay again, even breaking up bales that had got too damp. So it was a bit of a challenge as she came back and turned a few rows after I'd started.
I did a larger scale sketch at home - the Inktense pencils are great for gestural strokes.
So to fabric - I used the same purple over-dyed fabric front and back so that people can see what the original was once painted ( also gives a second crack at it if it goes horribly wrong) I stitched the rows between the mounds of hay by machine and the hay itself by hand stitching with cotton perle. At this stage I'd already discounted this as subject for a larger piece as the curved stiching distorted the fabric terribly.
Once taped to a board it was more amenable. The painting was initially fun but became a bit of a struggle. As the stitching was quite uniform with few areas unstitched, it didn't have the 'hills and dales' to catch the paint but leave the underlying fabric revealed.
I kept going and took photos of numerous incarnations, all not quite working - if I corrected one area I ended up having to alter areas I was pleased with to get the overall balance right!
This is the final version so far - the grasses in the foreground aren't right but that area is so overworked and scratched into with palette knife I'll have to leave it a bit to see if I can retrieve it
So I think it's going to be another seascape for FoQ !

2 comments:

Dale Anne Potter said...

LOVE This piece!!!
THANKS for showing your process.......I like the idea of straight quilting lines and then the hand stitching in between the rows.

West Country Buddha said...

Cor, this is brill! I really love the use of paint over the stitch. Thanks for showing the processes of your work.