Reviewing Archived Works

 

Spring Sprouts

Hand dyed cottons, fused, machine embroidered and machine quilted. 56x49” 1995

       

OK here’s the story of this quilt.

I had just had success with Hot Fun (in the Summertime) at the American Quilter’s Society Show. It won a purchase prize and it was suggested that I continue with the theme of the four seasons. Of course I wanted to please the prospective buyer and went ahead with Spring. He (no names here) was under impressed and told me so. It was a kick in the gut. I did enter it in a few shows and it won like a third and then a first, but it was too late. It had a black mark in my mind after that. It just shows how thin skinned  I was back then. Today I would have 1. not made it for him. 2. not cared if he liked it or not. 3. ignored the suggestion in the first place.

Now as I look at it, I am amazed at the amount of work I put into the piece. All that embroidery, and quilting. eek. Obviously I don’t do anything like that now. Phew!

Technically, the top was completely embroidered before making the sandwich, and I used a Janome 6500, with lots of tear away stabilizer under the hoop. Yes. I hooped the fabric as I stitched. The stitching on the word Spring is called the Long Stitch, which I used to teach. It requires a base fabric cut to the shape to be embroidered, fused into place and then free motion stitched, moving the hoop back and forth as each stitch is made. It requires developing a rhythm to do this smoothly.