It was quite thrilling to learn that, "Royal Guardian" my 18" x 36" quilted art that was mounted on a stretched canvas is featured in the
July 24, 2015 Studio Art Quilt Associates news.
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| "Royal Guardian" |
I belong to the group,
Beyond the Edge Fiber Artists. We chose to expand the theme, "Boundless," for which each of our group of 10 would create a quilted art work with an individual interpretation of the theme. In "Royal Guardian" I chose to not be bound by the 18" x 36" stretched canvas but, instead, extend beyond it to enter the land of "Boundless".
This work began with a drawing of a peacock that I enlarged to fit within the 18" width of the canvas and extend beyond the 36" length of the canvas.
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| Cartoon |
Notes at the side indicate colors that I wanted to use for the bird.
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| Projected Materials to be Used |
At first I thought about achieving an iridescence by using green glitter over a fabric painted surface. I auditioned how this might look through three different applications that used acrylic gloss varnis as the agent to secure glitter.
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| Free Moltion Stitching over Paint and Glitter |
Actually, this was quite successful, but to me the effect appeared to be garish, so that idea was scrapped.
Next I set up a "MacGyvered" a light box setup and copied the drawing of the peacock to 100% white cotton fabric. I chose various shades of blues, greens and violet
Setacolor fabric paints that I ordered from Dharma Trading Co. and set about painting the bird shape that had been traced onto white fabric. Unfortunately, because I was on a good roll, I became so involved in the painting process that I failed to take pictures of this stage. Drats! So sorry about that.
For the field upon which I would ultimately applique the bird, I hand dyed 100% white cotton fabric with a mottled orange, yellow and green colors, made a quilt sandwich for the background field.
Once again, I traced an outline of the peacock onto the orange fabric so that I would know where to quilt in a fashion that would highlight the bird. I started with a modified feather pattern around the outline of the bird and then carried the shapes of the feathers on to the remainder of the background.
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| Modified Feather Quilting Design |
After the bird painting was completed, I traced the bird shape onto heavy weight Pellon interfacing that I purchased at a local yardage store and then cut out the shape. I placed the Pellon shape under the painted peacock to act as batting, pinned it to the painting so that it wouldn't slip. I then backed the bird shape with a hand dyed fabric down to where the tail extends beyond the edge of the canvas to make a quilt sandwich on which I would start quilting and thread painting. Blue painter's tape marked where the edge of the canvas would fall.
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| Determination of Peacock Placement |
All edges were turned in to the center and hand stitched so that no turned over edges would be visible on the tail section that extended beyond the canvas.
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| Peacock Ready to be Quilted and Thread Painted |
Here is how the backing for the tail looked.
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| Reverse of Tail |
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| Initial Threads Used to Thread Paint the Peacock |
I first thread painted and quilted the peacock with non-metallic threads to define the shapes further.
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| First Quilting and Thread Painting of the Peacock |
After the entire bird shape was quilted and thread painted, I turned to using metallic threads for the head, breast and back edge feathers.
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| Thread Painting with Metallic Threads |
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When all the thread painting was completed, I added the peacock's crown to the background with metallic thread painted small cuttings of dark fabric
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| Peacock's Crown |
