I’m working step-by-step this week on the next stages of the story quilt I posted about last week.
A reminder: here’s my final vision. A symbolic portrait of my family, an American family, in a rocky little rowboat.
Two things about this project:
First: It interests and inspires me a lot. I have a strong compelling vision of how this will go together and how I want the finished quilt to feel. I have to return to that regularly, to reconnect to the soaring feeling of sprinting towards an interesting artistic goal.
Second: This is a pretty big work with a lot of parts. (I expect the finished size to be about 60”H x 44”W.) That means that part of the process will be a slow trudge. There are things I just have to do to put it together, and some are more motivating and pleasing than others.
Here’s how I’ve progressed this week.
I quilted the sky. When I wrote before about the process of printing the sky, (acrylic paint monotype on shear polyester fabric,) that process was a sprint. It went fast. I really enjoyed it. Stitching the sky section, however, was just work. I chose not to adhere the printed shear to the felt backing before I sewed. That fabric wanted to move and have its own way! It was part sewing and part wrestling.
To quilt it, I used long parallel lines, but wavy, not straight. That helped me control the fabric. And I describe this as a reminder to those who think you need big, fancy equipment to create large quilts. Not so. My construction and quilting are all done on a small portable Pfaff regular sewing machine. That does mean there are some effects in free-motion stitching that other quilters may excel at using that I can’t do. But there is plenty I CAN do, so I choose those stitch patterns.
I mocked up the next section. Now that the sky is quilted, I can begin to design precisely how the other parts will fit on it. In the picture above, I have pinned the section of the family figures onto the sky where they will go. I’ve put a large piece of clear vinyl over that so I can draw the number and location of the seagulls that I’ll create. I’ll use this to create paper patterns for each bird.
I quilted the family section. (Most of it. Not quite done.) The family figures were created as a photo transfer onto muslin. Now I’m quilting that onto a kraft felt backing.
Aaaahhh! Stitching on muslin. So nice. So easy to control. Nothing shifted or buckled. This actually allowed some sewing hours to be contemplative. I am using long running stitches once again, in curved arcs back and forth across the characters. This photo will need a good deal of overpainting to bring it out to become discernible. Now, from some angles it’s actually hard to tell what it is. But I could see them in there, looking back at me as shadowy characters.
Here I am stitching across my Mom’s arm. Here I am stitching across little me. Here I am stitching across my sister’s hair. It was another opportunity to connect with the story I’m creating.
I think my next stage will be to work on the surface painting of the family over the stitching. I am looking forward to that as a “sprint” section – where I can see the idea take shape.
I’ll let you know how it goes.
For all of us: focus each day
on the good that needs to be done in the world.
Be part of doing it.
Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
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