Repast for a Butterfly

In keeping with a pledge to myself to revisit works that were started many moons ago but that took a backseat to pressing exhibit deadlines, I finally completed this work, "Midday Repast".

This is a 23"x35.5" whole cloth, hand painted quilt that was executed on a piece of painter's canvas drop cloth that I was able to salvage from a room painting adventure.  Thus, there is a big, flat-felled seam right down the middle.    The background was achieved by using Setacolor transparent fabric paints from Dharma Trading Company.  The flowers were made by using a combination of Sharpie permanent markers  from Staples and acrylic craft paints mixed with fabric medium.  The work is heavily contour quilted with a combination of polyester and cotton threads..  Instead of making a binding, I chose to face this so that there would be no defined border.

Along the way, I have kicked myself for creating this work on canvas that had a fat, flat-felled seam down the middle, but I must say that it is consistent with my desire to recycle and/or upcycle as much as possible.  A drop cloth that would have otherwise been tossed into the back of the painter's truck and probably made its way to the dump is now paying colorful homage to nature.

Here are a couple of close-ups of the work.

 Thanks for visiting and...

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved

Deep Sea Ballet in Fiber - Scene 3

I'm ecstatic to report that I completed my 38"(w) x 42"(l) "Deep Sea Ballet" whole cloth, art quilt last evening.   I'm quite excited about it and am chomping at the bit to post a picture of the entire piece; however, as mentioned earlier, it may be exhibited in August, so I still must wait until the exhibit has opened.  Thus, only close ups of some elements will be posted here.

Henri Matisse's work, La Danse, was a constant inspiration as I created this work.  Perhaps you can see how Matisse's painting influenced the "Deep Sea Ballet" fiber art work.

In order to accentuate the suggestion of water movement I inserted piping between the top and the batting and stitched on either side of to create a raised effect an upward motion.

 I created upward "floating" sea flora by sewing together strips of hand dyed stretchy fabric.  After the strips were sewn together, I slashed the edges and then machine stitched the streamers to the top. The green ocean bottom image was made from a loosely woven scarf that I free motion stitched over the "base" of the sea flora and to the quilt top fabric.

To further suggest ocean flora, I hand cut a stencil from freezer paper and stenciled it with Setacolor opaque and transparent paints.

 Until August, this will probably be the last time I write about this work.  Once it is hung in the exhibit, I'll post a picture of the finished work.

Thank you for taking this deep sea journey with me.  It's been great fun.

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved