Remember the
brown bag challenge my quilt guild had way back last Spring? I finally got my brown bag back. She took a couple of extra months because she was unsure what to do with my fabric. We were supposed to put in the brown bag 3 fat quarters and some information about the type of quilt we liked and didn't like. I put in my bag a piece of fabric I had Shibori dyed along with some coordinating fabric and beads. I asked for a whole cloth quilt. The fabric and the request were a real challenge for the guild member.
The quilt I got back had elements I loved and some I did not care about as much. Overall, I think the guild member had a great vision for the piece. I love the shibori dyed fabric and I think she used it to good advantage here. It goes wonderfully with the cone flowers that the guild woman made. The flowers are a new technique to me and one I have already tried in other projects now. The petals of the cone flowers are made of fabric fused to be two sided and then only attached at the flower center leaving them free to float in the breeze. They are really great! The flowers I did not like were yo-yos. I think it was the color of the fabric and the size that bothered me more than the shape.
I debated what to do and decided to redo the section I did not care for since I really liked parts of the quilt. I remembered the runching tool I had bought years ago and never used. I had bought it and never opened it. See the card with the instructions? They made no sense to me so everytime I thought about using the tool, I chickened out. Now I had the perfect motivation! It took me 3 or 4 attempts before I got it but now I am turning out little runched flowers that I am using to finish the wallhanging.
I need to add a few more runched flowers and some stems and leaves for them but here it is so far. I took off the yo-yo's, am adding the runched flowers and a few more stems and leaves (also two-sided fabric attached only minimally to the background), and maybe a small butterfly in the upper left corner, and calling it done.
I hope my guild sister does not mind my slight re-working of her piece. I think I merely finished a wonderful beginning. And we all know that the beginning is the hardest part.
Beautiful fabric and I think I would have done away with the yo-yos too. It is a very nice piece with a good story too!
ReplyDeleteWow, your Shibori fabric is beautiful. I wouldn't have been able to cut into that fabric either. I have a piece that I haven't done anything with, because as you say, "Starting is the hardest part."
ReplyDeleteI once was invited to quilt guild meeting and the speaker was somebody, "famous". I can't remember who it was, though. Anyway, she went around tapping people, on the shoulder with a plastic fairy wand and granting them permission to do whatever they wanted with items they had received back from swaps. It seemed funny, at the time but the more she talked about it you could see people nodding their heads. The block, blocks, top, whatever it is, IS YOURS. If you don't like it cut it up and reuse what you do like. Put it on point, applique or fuse something over it, make a postcard out of it. It's YOURS. And, yes it would be wonderful if we all loved the art that other artists did. Isn't it better to do what YOU DID and make some adjustments and have a beautiful finished product that was a collaboration between two artists? I think so. WELL DONE. :)Bea
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