Thursday, October 06, 2016

Blog hop almost here

Art with Fabric blog hop button
Art with Fabric blog hop
It's almost that time already! Fibre artists from around the globe will show their creations based on art, architecture, books or music. If last spring was an indicator, it's going to be awesome. What a treat to see everyone's creations.

The Art with Fabric bog hop is almost here - and I'm sort of, almost ready. I will definitely have something to post, it just might not be the absolute final version. There are ways of creating an art piece that will be presentable but that will then have a second section added to it shortly after. At least that's my working theory. We'll see if I can pull it off :-)

I have been working as hard as I can on this, and if I had a super power, I would still choose the ability to stop and restart time. Imagine what I could do in that pause! But, since I haven't acquired that particular power yet, here's what I've been doing without adding pauses.

When I left that wonderful quilting retreat where I worked between 8 and 10 hours a day, except for Sunday, the picture below shows what I had accomplished. I had finished rows one to four of the stained glass window. I'm very happy to say that, to date, it's come out better than I expected.

Rows 1 to 4 of the window

Getting the pattern ready for row 5

I resumed work on the window a few days after my retreat. This was the first (and last time I hope), that I've had to rest after a retreat. I followed the same process at home and it went well.
Final row has been attached and is ready to be sewn







After finishing the final row, it was time for the free motion quilting, which technically was more paint sketching, since there was no batting and therefor no quilting involved.

That's what I did last weekend. I wanted each piece with the same colour to have the same pattern. This was the most challenging part because some of the colours are almost, but not quite, identical. I really enjoyed the thread sketching and finding different patterns to stitch.

I took the picture below to see what my window would look like if it wasn't quilted and had light coming through it. It just might be worth making something like this in the future.
Light coming through the thread sketched window
The window is now pieced. Here's what's next:

  • Add panels to the sides and top of the window;
  • Quilt; and
  • Add the lead cane (ribbon) between each piece of glass!!! 

For the side panels, I've consulted my photos, countless images on the web as well as the book below, The Colours of Light, that I bought at the Sagrada Familia the last time I was there. Although Gaudi designed the church and left specific instructions for the work to take place after his death, the master behind creating the stained glass windows is Joan Vila Grau. If you want to learn more, this link will take you to an interview with Joan Vila Grau about his work.

The Colours of Light
Now you know my plans for this weekend (which is Thanksgiving in Canada).

Finishing these tasks should result in the first part of my project. I'm afraid that you'll have to come back to see the results of both Part 1 and 2.

What I've learned:

  • Sometimes there are not enough hours in a day to get everything done. That's when we have to be flexible and come up with plan B (or C, or D, etc.)
  • I went shopping last night for the lead cane (aka ribbon) for my window. I am hoping that I found the perfect ribbon, that I will be able to machine stitch it onto the quilt and that it will look great. This is my favourite outcome!
  • I'll be sending poor, frazzled Alida, who is organising this blog hop, a picture as soon as I can.

My post within the Art with Fabric blog hop will be next Friday, October 14, 2016.

Please join all of the artists who will be participating in this blog hop next week. I know that they have worked hard on their creation. Let's encourage them.

I am linking this post to the following linky parties: Needle & Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Fabric Tuesday, Let's Bee Social,


14 comments:

  1. I love what you have done with the colors so far. Happy Thanksgiving.

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  2. Thanks Claire. Hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving also!

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  3. Beautiful so far Andrée. can't wait to see it with the black ribbon.

    kathy

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    1. Thanks Kathy. Just finished the black ribbon. It looks amazing :-)

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  4. It's a real work of art, great color play. Just to think of all the work in it already and what is still to come with stitching down the ribbon!

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    1. Thanks Lena, I really love the colour. I finally put down the ribbon - it took longer and was harder than I expected but I do like the final look of it.

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  5. Oh how pretty! I hope you will include close-ups of the thread painting in your blog hop post.

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    1. Hi Janine. I promise I will. There are some technical difficulties that I'm still struggling with but I will include closeups.

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  6. It's going to be a beautiful piece...and I marvel at your plan to use ribbon for the 'lead' on those seams. Would satin stitch in black work too? Looking forward to the final result!

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    1. Hi Margaret, in theory satin stitch would have worked, but it would have taken too long and it would have probably needed to be two rows or big fibre since the sewing between the stained glass pieces took between an eight to a quarter of an inch.

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  7. Oh my word - adding the 'lead' between each piece of glass! You are a patient woman. And creative! I love where this is going and can't wait to see the finished piece. Thanks so much for sharing on MCM!

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  8. Thanks Beth. the "lead" came out well - better than some of the other parts! The final posting is coming soon :-) Thanks for your encouragement.

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  9. How pretty! what lovely colors. When this quilt is hanging on the wall, it will look like the sun is shining through it.

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Hi! I would love to hear from you and I will try to answer you. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a message. :-)