Art Every Day, Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Good Evening,

Here is today's new piece and it was a joy to make.... both times around.  I made the swirl fabric quite some time ago.  It is a batik made using Elmer's gel glue as a resist and  Dyenaflow paints.  I love swirls and circles both.  The movement of the swirl, the fullness of a circle.  They're both so female. 

Anyway, I chose a pink and orange hand dyed for the background and set it on orange dye painted batting.  I ironed some Misty Fuse to the back of the swirly Batik then cut out the large and small sections.  After playing with the positing for a bit I ironed everything in place.

The quilting is rather straight forward; white thread in the white portions of the swirls and a 1/4" grid in the negative space.  I chose to stitch the grid with straight lines rather than wavy, which would have been easier, so that I could practice straight line free motion quilting.  It ain't perfect, but it's not too bad. 

I like the depth that the swirls have.  In addition to the variation of sizes, this happened because of the way that I painted them.  They're sort of wonky with narrower sides and closer/farther apart lines and most of them are oblong rather than actual circles so that make them look as though they are bending.  I also like how the white pulls them to the forefront.  Because they are basically the same colors as the background, they could have easily gotten lost.  This was a good, creative day.  Wait till you see the project that I just finished.  Look for it in tomorrow's email and on Facebook.

Till then,

Heather