Art Every Day, Saturday, August 10, 2013

Good Evening,
Here is today's new piece. As my good friend I.V. said when she saw it this afternoon, it's low contrast.  I've had these toned reds with gray fabrics for quite some time and I think I used them once before really early in the year.  I think they are very interesting, but not really pretty so it's a challenge to use them. They have a hard time playing with others so I figured out how to use them alone.
I layered up two of them in the background, one cotton and one silk noil then I topped them with a piece of jute.  I topped the jute with some silk gauze then twisted up a strip of the cotton and free motion couched it down into the swirl.
I cut away the excess silk gauze so that it just filled the swirl and a scant 1/8" or so hung out around the perimeter.  Next, I fought with my machine as I stitched the off set circles in the darker red area then stitched interlocking squares and rectangles in the lighter red area.
I like the smokey look to the whole thing especially the dark gray gauze inside the swirl.  Though I've played with these swirls a lot, this is the first time I filled one with a different fabric from the background.
The piece has a nice, simple balance with it's one focal point and the quilting is adding some lovely visual texture to an otherwise too staid background.  I think the fringe along the bottom edge of the jute is adding just the right bit of tension to keep the piece from being too simple.
Till tomorrow,
Heather