Art Every Day, Monday, January 21, 2013
Good Morning,
Here is today's new piece. I really enjoyed making it and looking at the finished product. I wanted to play with this empty square shape and wanted high contrast thus the cool/warm color choices. But, when I placed the strips that make the squares down on the background there was no pop, no sizzle. Then I thought about adding the cheesecloth underneath and once I repositioned everything it began to sing - and it was a song I could dance to - with my machine that is.
The bubble quilting in the cheesecloth helps to bring it into the mid ground and keep it above the rest of the negative space which is quilted with a very energetic all over, triangular design. Because the green/blue green, empty squares are physically on top of all of the other fabrics rather than pieced into them, they manage to read as positive space and hold their own as focal points.
It's a good day when it begins with things working out the way you had hoped. Now it's off to the studio to rinse out some fabrics and package some others.
Till tomorrow,
Heather
2 comments:
Love the bright colors in this quilt. And I love the quilting - especially the bubbles on the cheesecloth. I am working through your previous blog posts re: the quilting stitches to broaden my options for free motion quilting. Realizing just how important the quilting is to a piece - can make or break the whole piece. I have been giving myself permission to go ahead and play on small quilt sandwiches so I can neatly quilt on my art quilt pieces. Just need time to practice!
I see exactly what you mean about the bubble quilting bringing the cheesecloth to the mid-ground and how you clearly have a back-, mid-, and foreground in the piece. This is an area I have been working to improve. My quilts had been flat, but are now beginning to have life and dimension. Loving how motivating that is!
Wow! I love the energy in this piece!
I agree with Steph- the quilting very clearly defines the layers- I love that I can see that! Though I will admit that had you not pointed it out, I might not have been able to identify the fact that it was the quilting that did it.
I am experiencing a lot of difficulty with the positive/negative space thing and as it's part of our design assignment this month, I'm working on it!
I never realized until you started this series, how much impact the warm/cool combination can have. I really need to explore this in my own work, it's so energizing!
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