29 October 2008

Zen Garden

You all know that I joined ALQS2 (Another Little Quilt Swap 2), don't you? I was in the Art Quilt section. Since I have already received my little art quilt (you can read about it in this post) I thought I should tell you about the one I just sent out.

Like I normally do, I stalked the blog of my swap partner. She likes nature and when I saw her February 2008 post, I knew exactly what I was going to do. You see, I happen to have 9 of these bamboo tops. Yes, you read that correctly -- nine. This is the only one with the dragonfly on it, however.

Here's the back story on all these little quilt tops. I have a degree in art although I make stupid mistake as in this case. I was taking a design class and as part of my final art project I proposed a king sized quilt that was, in essence, a large nine-patch made of rectangles with a large border popped onto it. As a new quilter, I really underestimated the time it would take to complete the WHOLE project and was only able to get this block painted onto muslin.

But I gave a presentation to the instructor showing the block and the rest of the design and he bought into it and I got an 'A' in the class and graduated. I finished painting the other 8 blocks and completed the top and it became my oldest UFO: 25 years. I once pulled it out of the closet hung it on the wall and thought that if I over-dyed it. would I like it better? I over-dyed it green and still didn't like it. Another time, I pulled it out and it hung on the design wall for months before it FINALLY dawned on me what was wrong: scale.

Scale is one of the principles of design and I had totally ignored it in the big picture of a whole quilt. I did not have a king-sized quilt top with borders. What I had was 9 small quilt tops!! Plus some odd shaped pieces that were former borders.

So, Debbie, received a hand painted quilt, the first in a series called 'Zen Garden'. It is painted using Deka Fabric Paints which are no longer available in the US. I over-dyed it with Procion MX Fiber Reactive Dyes. It is the approximate size of a fat quarter, maybe a bit smaller. I machine quilted more bamboo into the background and then filled in with a stipple. The painted dragonfly is a simple couched embellishment, using two different weights of Kreinik thread.

There is one thing you may not have noticed: a lack of a binding. I did not want a binding to catch the eye so I faced the quilt using the bits leftover from when I squared up the quilt. I like the way it turned out.

It is so simple. So zen.

13 comments:

  1. Amazing how you creative people pass things like this off as 'simple'. Great design - Great quilt....

    Don't you feel so good to have it done?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is very zen! Soothing and relaxing to look at. it was just waiting all of this time for this special moment. :~)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I still want one of those from the last time that you showed them...

    (I can remember stuff that I have no need to remember, but the stuff that I need to remember - forget about it!)

    ReplyDelete
  4. You must add 'artist' to your profile! Very nice.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Simple perfection, all things coming together in space and time. It is lovely, Paula.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It is great. I'm glad you found a way to repurpose an old project into something spectacular.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous4:25 PM

    I love a classic mitred binding but, as you have found, this doesn't work for every quilt. So glad that my facing tutorial was of assistance! I've compiled a listing of Alternative Quilt Finishes tutorials which features other useful techniques that you might like to try sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It is simple and calming. Very very zen. Thanks for sharing it's story.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Love what you got and love what you sent! They are both fabulous.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I like it so much too, so creative!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very Zen indeed, and I really like it.

    ReplyDelete
  12. That is one creative quilt - from start to finish! I'm sure it will be treasured! Thanks for the link about how to "face" a quilt...I have never heard of that.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow you make it sound so simple.
    I love the design, it and the space work well together.
    Vicki

    ReplyDelete