Friday, April 26, 2013

"Going to Seed" - a few details

 "Going to Seed" is the quilt I designed and created to enter into this year's Grand National Quilt show. The show has a different theme each time and this year, it was "Local Colour" instead of depicting a local landmark, landscape or culture, I decided to"USE" local colour
This is the Artist Statement accompanying the piece:

We often overlook the beauty of a bloom as it fades-- no longer fresh, vibrant and full of energy-- but nurture that which has “Gone to Seed” to be rewarded with new emerging and exciting possibilities. The transformation is complete. This quilt is made up almost entirely of “local colour”, unwanted and discarded items, their beauty and usefulness gone, banished to the thrift store.

It all pretty much began with a few cotton remnants and a wool coat I found at a rummage sale. A few more cast off garments went into the mix along with some discarded belts and costume jewelry.

I dyed the fabric to create that inky night sky background, the rest of the colour pallete was dictated by the things I found, a terrific apple green jacket, a deep plum skirt, as well as a light blue, cream and tan plaid one.

here you can see what the elements actually are

and a look at the quilting in the background.
next time I'll show you what I did to that wonderful wool coat to get that gradated look along with a few more details.
 
It's Friday so I am linking up to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays   featuring lots of inspiring artists to visit.


14 comments:

Mary Schroeder said...

That is a beautiful design and the quilting really supports it well. Thanks for sharing.

Quilt or Dye said...

First, wow that is a LOT of quilting!

Second, I love that you recycled garments in the quilt!

What Comes Next? said...

just gorgeous! An incredible use of your local colour and spectacular quilting

B J Elder said...

A wonderful piece. I love all the 'recycled' items you have used in your piece, which fit your theme so well, as things (seeds) die and then bloom into new life. Looking forward to more pictures and details.

Anonymous said...

WOWZERS knock my socks off!

The Inside Stori said...

Fascinating...thank you for sharing the process.....

Heather Pregger said...

Beautiful piece! Thank you for taking us through the process.

Sylvia said...

Interesting idea for using recycled fabrics and bits of stuff. Well done!

Nic said...

I didn't realise you'd used recycled materials. It makes it even more fantastic. What sort of feedback did you get at the show?

Anne-Marie B. said...

Wow! What a beautiful piece of work! Thank you so much for sharing your process! Looking forward to the next post on this!

Robbie said...

It is outstanding and the use of the remnants and wool coat..."waste not, want not"...so cool...look forward to the next details!

Nina Marie said...

wow - love how you are using reclaimed fabric! and the quilting is amazing!

MulticoloredPieces said...

Simply exquisite piece. And of course, I'm all for recycling.
best, nadia

Anonymous said...

You've got to love recycled wool! This is a stunning piece... It's great to see how you created it. Thanks for sharing it with us! Awesomeness! ;-)

Copyright Jill Buckley