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

Deep Sea Ballet in Fiber - Scene 2

...And the dance goes on...

Capturing the movement of fish through water with the use of a hand held needle punch machine offered by Keeling's Krafts has been great fun.  Watching the form take shape is quite exciting.  Below is the 2nd of four fish that will ultimately perform a water dance.

Needle Punched Fish #2

One element of the sea floor was made from a woven fabric and manipulated to suggest algae type growth.  Once the fabric was arranged in way that I wanted it, I tacked it with Bonash adhesive powder and then free motion stitched it to the bottom of the quilt.  I created another type of kelp image by dyeing a stretchy fabric, cutting the fabric into strips and then slashing the edges.  Finally it was loosely gathered and stitched along the center.  The edges were left free to suggest movement in water.

Lower Left Side of "Sea Floor" Bottom

Soon I will post the third of four fish that will finally take their place in this Deep Sea Ballet.  Until then...

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved

Deep Sea Ballet in Fiber - Scene One

Several years ago I started a 40+" x 40"+ whole cloth quilt that was a lot of fun creating.  Somehow other projects including shows and exhibits intervened and it was set aside and became one of those UFO's (unfinished objects) that I promised to get back to one day.

This has been the week to set about finishing the work.  Because it may be in a very large exhibit for the entire month of August, 2015, I am only going to show elements of it until the exhibit is past.

I first designed and hand cut a freezer paper stencil of two kelp images. each with two branches and then painted the images onto the commercial background fabric with fabric paint.

You may be able to see that I inserted cording between the top and the batting and then stitched on either side of the cording.  This is just one small area of the quilt.

At the time I was originally working on this, I was also exploring needle punching with a battery operated needle punch machine that I purchased from Keeling's Krafts and created three fairly large needle punch fish onto the quilt top.  This was done before the quilt top was added to batting and a backing.  Here is one of the fish images.

To add another type of kelp flora, I cut strips of an old stretchy type garment and then slashed it up and down the strip length.  This element rises from what will be the sea floor.  It is only stitched along the middle of the strip from top to bottom.  The edges are left free to create a feeling of movement.

I'm actually becoming quite excited about the way that this work is developing and it's all I can do to hold back sharing the entire piece. The next post will show another element though.

Should you happen to be in the Orange County area in California during the month of August, you might enjoy visiting the Mission Viejo Library where this work will be exhibited and where each of us in the Beyond the Edge Fiber Artists group will have a full 11'x8' of wall space for our works.  There are 10 of us in the group so it promises to be a spectacular exhibit.

I'll be BAAAAAAAAACK...

Always remember, never fear to experiment.  

Sometimes wonderful things happen.

© Linda Friedman 2015.  All rights reserved