Total Eclipse of the Pivot was created using hand dyed fabrics such as marigold, weld, and walnut, along with striped fabric from Kim's "imbue" line of modern batiks. It is made from three layers of cloth, stiched together and then cut to reveal layers of color and texture below.
Total Eclipse of the Pivot was created using hand dyed fabrics using marigold, weld, and walnut, along with striped fabric from Kim's "imbue" line of modern batiks. It is made from three layers of cloth, stiched together and then cut to reveal layers of color and texture below.
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This month's video from the National Quilt Museum features the exhibit Stories of West Africa by artist Hollis Chatelain, and a wonderful interview with artist Lise Belanger in the museum Corner Gallery.
If you want to see it in person, it will be going to the International Quilt Festival in Houston as a special exhibit later this year.
Why did I make this quilt?
Ever since I started making portrait quilts, I had always dreamt of making something larger than life. This project is my attempt at making my dream a reality!
Why this picture?
My home town is Satara, the city which has a rich history. I spent my holidays hiking up the Ajinkyatara - one of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's forts with my cousins and friends. I grew up listening to stories of bravery and righteousness of this great warrior king. And my young mind was influenced by his many qualities.
A little bit about Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. He is considered to be one of the greatest warriors of his time and even today, stories of his exploits are narrated as a part of the folklore.He had an inspiring and endearing personality which spontaneously commanded respect, loyalty and the highest sacrifices from his devoted soldiers and peasants. He was also the staunch promoter of secularism and roused the sleeping conscience of the nation. He was the ultimate man of the father of freedom movement in Maharashtra and source of inspiration to the Hindu throughout India.
Chatrapati Shivaji has influenced people for generations. There is just so much to learn from just reading his stories. Artists around me, before me and even today, have used their medium to express their respect and paid tribute to this inspirational hero. There are many films, books, paintings, songs even rangolis that have been created to pay homage to Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. I am using my medium - quilts- to do just that.
I chose this specific image because it is the most glorious moment in his life, where the dream that he saw since the age of 16 was finally realized. The coronation ceremony in itself was an iconic event that spoke of the grandeur and strength of the Maratha empire and Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj himself.
Making this quilt taught me a lot of things - patience, consistency, priorities, and skills. It also gave me a glimpse into people’s minds and what they thought about me. I believe after a 10 month effort, I have emerged on the other side as a better person!!!
Shruti sent a video just to give you an idea of the size.
Susan Beck writes about flat couching, "Adapted from a hand embroidery technique, couching is a simple way to add color and texture to a project, stitching yarn, cord, or fibers to the surface of the fabric. Couching is one of my favorite embellishment techniques because of the limitless combinations of fabric, fibers, stitches and colors that can be used. Change only one of these and you change the look of the couched project."
When my young son (now age 15) played baseball, it made me crazy. I cringed as he was at bat, I closed my eyes each time he threw a pitch, and when he fielded the ball, I prayed really hard. If he made an error, I was a basket case for the rest of the game. When he graduated from Little League and became a serious baseball player, I said the heck with this. I'll take a project to the games and concentrate on that, while peripherally enjoying the game. So I went to my trusty fabric shop and got the fabric to make twelve blocks, based on Judy Martin's Carnival Ride block with Laurel Burch's Jungle Song elephants as the focus. Needless to say, my son was less than pleased. Not only was his mom not really watching him play, but now HE had to be the kid with the weirdo mom who was all covered with thread and pieces of fabric, scissors clipped to her shoulder, and pins stuck all in her (uh-hum) bosom. As the quilt grew larger and larger (and larger still), so did his embarrassment. This quilt took on a life of its own, as you know quilts are prone to do. It said, "Shouldn't I have a picture in the middle?" Well, I don't really draw, but okay, so I doodled a couple of elephants. "Wouldn't it be better if the picture was on point?" asked the quilt. Quilts have absolutely NO IDEA how big they will grow when they turn their medallion on point, do they? Alright. "I want Swarovski crystals on my polka dots!" it cried. Do you have any idea how many crystals that is? how much time? money? So I ordered 15 gross of 8 different colors and I still ran out. Then, according to the original plan, I hand pieced a beautiful pinwheel border for the edge, but when I put on the inner border the quilt said, "I'm done now. I'm sorry you made all those blocks, but I don't need them. Oops." Shoot! All that trouble for nothing. But what's a quilter to do? Quilts are SMART. We just have to listen to them and then sit back and admire the phenomenal results. That's what it is all about.
As a lot of the Quilting World has been watching with bated breath the social media posts from Quilt Market in Kansas City, I have been on the other side of the nation visiting family. It has been interesting to me that as of late I have been on a weeklong quilting fast and have dived head first into my cross stitch world. I know many of you are quilting purist...but, I am a Heinz 57 kind of stitcher. I truly love anything that requires me to hold a needle and thread.
I had the good fortune of seeing some of my creations when visiting my sister this week. She has been my longest quilting fan, and so it is fun for me to visit her home and see some of my creations hanging or lying around. One of the fun things about seeing these older works is I can see how far I have come in my stitching, LOL. And yet, admire the variety of challenges I stepped up to embrace. Needle turn appliqué, Sashiko, button hole appliqué...to name a few. I feel like I have just sampled the tip of the quilting ice berg and wonder what I will challenge myself with next!?
Is there anything in the stitching world that you have not tried but is on your list to give a go??? Let's make the second half of this year a stitching adventure!
(Note: This is not a slideshow, but a photo collage.)
Stay tuned and travel along with us on Quilt Roadies.
Alex Anderson gets to ask longarm questions of Connie Fanders, the Director of Education at BERNINA USA. Alex wants to know what the difference is between the Q20 vs Q24. She also asks about some of the features that BERNINA brings to the longarm game.
Watch them make the BERNINA Longarm in 2 minutes. Fun video. Plus, he's cute.
Stone Portraits and Sacred Stonescapes: Denise Labadie
June 5 - July 14, 2019
Denise Labadie creates portraits of Celtic megalithic stones and monoliths, and more recent monastic ruins. These stonescapes – stone circles, standing stones, dolmens, burial tombs, abandoned churches, forgotten cemeteries, and lost-in-history portals and passageways – are both timeless and evoke deep remembrances of human pasts largely forgotten. Labadie's quilts are known both for their surprising emotionality, large size and, from a construction standpoint, their hand-painted fabrics, textures, color gradation, shadowing and perspective, depth of field, craftsmanship and technique precision.
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.jpg "2019 Sponsor - BERNINA Q 24")
