I am attracted to the notion of 'stream', flowing water and an environment. Continuing in the series, I chose to make a stream with fish and plants. These are the major steps in its creation. The images were taken with the quilt in progress laid on my studio floor - hence the 'woody' background!
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Using acrylic paints, I painted the background, thinking of a stony streambed. The painted stone shapes are blurred, thinking ahead to water flowing around and over the stones. The fish were cut from a single rayon print, pinned to the background and free-motion stitched down, going around each fish several times to blur it. The detail shows a barely discernable chalk line, indicating where the water's edge will be. The background is shaped that way partly because that is how much fabric I had on hand to use. It will be cut into a better shape soon. |
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Stones are added to the sides. There are three different fabrics for the stones. The fabrics were 'crumpled' and a fusible attached to the wrong side, cut into random shapes and sizes, and fused to the base |
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The base fabric is trimmed to a streambed shape. Backing and batting are layered under it. The edges are turned under and sewn with 'invisible' thread. Quilting is started - just enough to hold the layers together (safety pins are still there). |
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Layers of organza are laid over the top, and quilted with rayon and metallic threads. |
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Slivers of a semi-transparent fabric with silver threads are laid down and also quilted, to add more sparkle and flow to the water surface. |
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The final quilt. Grasses and other plants are sewn along the sides amidst the stones. A few leaves made of thread (using wash-away stabilizer) are floating on the water. |
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Details
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