Monday, September 5, 2016

Into the Woods at Night, part One

This art quilt was made for the Clark County Quilters 2017 Show theme, which is "Walk on the Wild Side".  I had so many ideas to fit this theme and am showing you my sketchbook of some of those ideas... hippy with wild clothes and hair, walking into the woods at night with wild eyes looking back, and just plain old nighttime wood scenes.  I liked the idea of the woods the best, so I used this idea to do my sketch.



design sketch


Did I tell you that I am afraid of the dark?  Yes, the only thing I'm afraid of.  I love to hike, camp, and go into the wild, but I am terrified of the dark even when I am with another person and it is my own front yard!  So eyes of wild animals that are reflecting the light had to be the "hidden" feature of this quilt.

I enlarged my design and used a technique that I learned from Patty Hawkins, which is to add fusible to the front of the batting, and then collage pieces of fabric onto the batting.  I did this in 5 layers on the background.  Also using techniques that I learned from previous art pieces, I used organza in two different colors and tulle to dull the backgrounds.  Here are some progress pictures showing how I achieved this effect.

Two background layers done

Trees added to the two furthest backgrounds

Thread and organza layer



3rd background layer, tulle and organza 


More thread and another layer of organza.  Some quilting added.

Front two layers added, plus "eyes"


When I was at Jo-Ann's getting material for my quilt carrying bags, I spied a really cool black netting with just a hint of sparkle.  I could really envision this material as an overlay for the woods.  I bought 2 yards and planned to have this as the very top layer.

Stay tuned.  I hope you like it so far.





3 comments:

  1. What kind of thread did you use under the tulle? I love the eyes! Are they rhinestones? Your work is amazing!

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  2. The thread is a heavy embroidery pearl cotton. The eyes were made from silver lame and tiny mirrors called Shisha mirrors and are used in Indian embroidery.

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