Fibermania

Cruciform Series #3: The Dance

The Dance

Hand dyed cottons, fused, 60x62"

Remember this sketch? I constructed the figures first and then found them to be too floppy to continually put up on the wall and then take down to add more parts, so I did something different for me. I fused them to batting. I left all the edges un-fused so that I could slip the proceeding piece under the previous layer, and continued to build the design on the batting. This meant: NO screwing up. Once a piece is fused, it pretty much has to stay put or if it has to go, it becomes useless and gets tossed. Luckily the rest of the design didn't require many tiny pieces.

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Here you can see the batting on the lower half. After I built the figures, the cape and the sky I was at loss as to how I would finish off the bottom part.That's when I went to the Answer book and found this solution.

Well it made sense to me. I felt the familiarity of the bottom arc and remembered my Triumph of Tulips quilt uses the same device, so I felt that was my solution, and finished the piece that way, bringing more color to the composition at the same time.

Well it may not be that obvious to you, but it was all that to me...

Now here's what I learned in making this piece. The whole thing was started AFTER the Visions slides had been sent in and the possibility of still having a month to make a third piece in this series loomed ahead of me. The great sigh of relief had descended, I had new sketches, and plenty o'fabric, and time, blissful amounts of time.

1.I work much better (and enjoy it more) without the pressure of having to finish in time to enter something.

2. I am more likely to wait on the solution rather than throw any old thing in place as a fix.

3. I am more likely to stop and dye a specific fabric to use in the piece if necessary. ( I did, and didn't end up using any of them).

4. I am more likely to make something that is really me after having trying to challenge myself (and annoy my friends) by working outside my own style or away from my own color choices.

5. My colors are MY COLORS. Duh. One of the things that makes my quilts look like my quilts is the fabric. The wash of color effect that I employ in the Special Edition fabrics is my special look. It is the direct translation of watercolor washes into fabric. (only using dye instead of course, just to be clear). I must pound this into my little peabrain.

6. While I am sticking to abstract for a while, I found 'subject matter' appearing in this quilt and got a bit grumpy about it. Nevertheless I resisted the urge to define it further, I think and make it a picture of something specific. What I love about abstract artwork is that it engages the viewer and lets them complete the story, to their own interpretation. I don't mind what they see in the piece, since there was no real intent on a specific idea on my part. That did make the title pretty dodgey however. I almost called it several bad titles... and just settled on The Dance because it wasn't as limiting as some of the others.

I feel back in the saddle again, and wish I had several months to just make more work. I ordered plane tickets yesterday for February, so the time is flitting by. I hope those of you who can stay home and make quilts realize how jealous I am of your time...