New Art Quilt:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/54793802/crane-art-quilt-escape-and-return

"Escape and Return"

This quilt was designed to honor the greaceful crane and the efforts of those seeking to protect this elegant bird. It depicts cranes as they take flight to clear skies from the dense air of a wildlife reserve that has been set ablaze to clear dense growth that retards their natural feeding habitat. Soon the air will be clear and the controlled burn will make it possible for these elegant birds to return to their breeding grounds to forage for the nutrients that are essential for their successsful breeding and for their noteworthy longevity.

"Escape and Return" is a 21 3/4" x 28 1/2" a one of a kind, original design that was executed with the use of a 3 silk screen printing process and the crane figures were further enhanced for visual dimension with Tsukineko fabric inks. The diagonal swath of color across the quilt was achieved by the application of 3 shades of these inks. Various quilting techniques include echo, stitch in the ditch, outline and free motion circular stitching. The piece is double fold bound with satin fabric and is hand stitched to the reverse side which is signed and which also has a 4" hanging sleeve, the top of which is imbedded into the binding at the top of the quilt. Care has been taken to make this quilt immediately ready to hang.

Taming Wayward Threads

After wrestling to keep with what seemed a gazillion wayward threads out of the way, I finally figured out a way to keep them confined while I quilted. I pulled them into manageable bundles, twisted the bundle a few turns and then wrapped the bundle around around the pins. All these threads will need to be buried between the quilt layers, but until then, they will be corralled and will not make it necessary for me stop every few rows to bury them by hand.

Cranes over Marsh Land Notecards

Cranes over Marsh Land

The lure of possibilities inherent in the screen printing processes has overpowered the siren calls from the sewing machine. I haven't 't tried my hand at this before now, but, as of today, I'm hooked. I do not have the lighting equipment for the emulsion method, but there are myriad other ways to utilize the screen for printing and now I want to try as many as possible.

"Cranes Over Marsh Land" utilizes 4 different printing methods.

Step One involved cutting a sheet of newspaper slightly smaller than the back side of the screen frame.

In Step Two a rough circle was torn out of the newspaper. This was taped to the back of the screen with masking tape.

Step Three involved placing the screen on fabric that had been pre-washed and pinned to a padded board.

In Step Four ink was placed across the top of the screen and drawn across the circle shape. This was repeated 4 times, twice at the bottom of the fabric piece and twice at the top. A quick washing of the screen followed.

In Step Five, wide masking tape was torn in strips and randomly placed on the back of the screen. As in Step Four, ink was placed across the top of the screen and drawn across the entire screen. Again, a quick wash of the screen made it ready for the final printing.

Step 6 involved drawing a flying crane shape onto the dull side of freezer paper and cut out with a craft knife. This piece of freezer paper was then ironed, shiny side down, onto the back side of the screen.

In Step 7 ink was placed just above the crane shape and then drawn across the screen. Yet again, the screen received a quick wash.

Step 8 involved placing painter's tape along the bottom edge of the top print and along the top edge of the bottom print and ink was drawn across the open space, thus creating an integration of the top printing and the bottom printing.

Because the dark gray "marsh grasses" slightly show through the red strip overprinting, another layer of red will need to be made, but once that is complete and ironing sets the color, quilting can begin.