'If you make happiness your goal, then you're not going to get to it… The goal should be an interesting life."

Dorothy Rowe

Friday 20 June 2008

Am I bored yet?

Wil asked me this when she heard I’d finished C&G – but I have been so busy responding to a challenge she set I haven’t had time to be bored!

Last year I signed up for the challenge, on an internet group which Wil moderates, to make a quilt using a variety of embellishment techniques and materials. Of course after that I did nothing – I had other things on my mind!

Last week I started thinking about it, vaguely. My first idea was to make a series of panels of trees and leaves, using a different tecnique on each panel – as I’ve been into trees and leaves recently.

However when I went to look for green fabric in my stash, I didn’t really have enough toning pieces for what I was planning. Plenty of green you understand – just not the sort of green I wanted. [I know leaves don’t have to be green but I was feeling literal.]

Then, while browsing back issues of ‘Quilting Arts’ in bed, I came across an article by Mary Hettmansperger on her ‘collaged fabric panels’, and was inspired. All the elements I like – a wall hanging, strong verticals, repeated units, abstract design, lots of opportunities to add the necessary embellishments. As a bonus, her technique was reminiscent of Gwen Marston’s ‘Liberated Quilting’ – perhaps the quilting book I turn to most often.

So I accumulated some fabric, discharged some of it [the first of the challenge techniques] and liberated it – this is the finished piece. The glitzy bits are Angelina, another of the techniques.

Then I cut the piece into three. I hope the challenge to make ‘a’ quilt will encompass three quilts!

And then I began to play with the tecniques. This is how it looked this morning [nothing is sewn on yet]. It has been modified a bit because when I sewed the first strip to its backing this afternoon I had to make some adjustments because I had forgotten to allow for the seams …

This isn’t ‘designed’ in a C&G sense – no preliminary design work, no full scale mock up – and probably more enjoyable for that! It has also prompted me to use all sorts of things I had bought and never used – a chunk of metal and some patinating fluid for example.

As Friday is one of the few nights there is anything to watch on the telly I shall spend a relaxing evening hand sewing and listening to Alexei Sayle talking about Liverpool – where I am going for part of my summer holiday. Anyone care to guess why we chose Liverpool this year? There is a bit of a clue in my C&G work, although if you don’t live in the UK you can be forgiven for not knowing.

6 comments:

Susan D said...

European Capital of Culture and to go to the "Klimt" exhibition at Tate Liverpool!!!!

Keep an eye out for 120 Superlambananas throughout the city.

Cda00uk said...

10/10 - although having checked your profile you clearly have inside knowledge!

What's a Superlambanana? sounds like a nasty burger!

Celia

Heather said...

nice work with the leaves. will be looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

Heather Pregger said...

Celia, I love your challenge piece!

Susan D said...

Check out this website for full details http://www.gosuperlambananas.co.uk/

You either love or hate the original a cross between a lamb and a banana -

"The Super Lamb Banana was the original work of Japanese-based artist Taro Chiezo. Commissioned for the Art Transpennine Exhibition of 1998, the sculpture was a controversial, but welcome addition to the public art arena in Liverpool. Standing an impressive seventeen feet tall and comprised of concrete and steel, the statue first attracted interest from its original position on the Strand. The unusual artwork was created to warn of the dangers of genetically modified food, whilst being appropriate to the city of Liverpool due to the port's rich history in the trade of lambs and the import of bananas."

Wil said...

I like what you have made! No problem at all that you decide to make a triptych :-)
Wil