Last year I made a quilt that was inspired by Van Gogh's "Iris in Yellow Vase". I spent a lot of time piecing and then free motion quilting, but it did not turn out as I had hoped. I blogged about it here and asked for advise from Quiltart, an online art quilt group, to see if "this quilt could be saved". I got a lot of comments on my blog giving many different suggestions and lot of emails, including one that said "this quilt cannot be saved". So I folded it up and put it away.
Fast forward to now. My small quilt group puts on a show at a local library every year and we always have a theme. This year it is Surface Design. I made one quilt and decided to see if I could revive my iris quilt somehow for a second quilt. So I spread it out on the table and found an area that had the most interesting quilting and cut out a 28" square. Then I took some pale aqua paint, actually a sample of wall paint for my bathroom, and brushed over the top of the quilt, being sure not to go into the valleys created by the quilting. And this is what I got.
I got a whole new pattern and design. I then trimmed it to 24 inches and put binding on to match the quit. I usually face my quilts, but the paint made it a little stiff and I thought it would be difficult. All pictures are clickable for a bigger view.
If you look at the details, you can see what's really going on. The blue is the paint and the orange is the fabric beneath.
More of the same.
I have a new camera, Sony Cyber-shot, and I'm very pleased with the Macro shots. You don't even have to switch over to Macro, if you get close enough to the object, it just automatically goes to Macro.
6 comments:
way cool, Norma.
It always amazes me how successful the viewfinder exercise can be.
The blue overpainting is terrific, it really brings out the quilting.
I am not sure what it looked like before, but the blue paint over free motion quilting was a great idea. Nice recovery.
Claude Larson
No guts, no glory--you definitely have something bolder and more interesting than you did before!
Keep up the good work,
Linda Laird
Quiltart reader
A really creative solution. Now you can hang it in that very bathroom!
Pretty gutsy move--painting over quilting. I looked back at the original and missed seeing the swirls on the blue fabric. Did you add darker blue paint also? I like the idea that a piece isn't finished until we say it is finished!
Norma,
Great way to not give up on your art. I am impressed with your bold move to paint over it. Personally I have wanted to try that myself and you may have motivated a lot of us to go for it after seeing how much it changed the look of your work and showcased your stitching.
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