Thursday 28 January 2010

To boldly go...

Having started to move in a paler direction, as always, one thing led to another, and my ideas have taken a monumental leap in completely the opposite direction! Oh well... ya gotta go with it!

I've been musing over an idea for a brand new, slow cloth, art quilt. A serpentine one! (I'll explain in more detail later). But for now, this is where that's taking me. I've had students all week (last night I cooked for 8 people!) and so I've been playing with this wee square meanwhile. Check ('scuz the pun) it out!















Very much inspired by Jude Hill and her amazing patchwork skills. I've been practising some smaller stitches. My stitching is always... crude... but I kind of like it that way. I've always been abit of a perfectionist, so crude stitches are a definite letting go for me :} And that has to be a good thing... since in the end, we have to let go of it all!















I might have mentioned already, that everynight, before bed, we play checkers - or "draughts", as we Brit's call it. Nilo, (who, by the way, is just 7 years old), is virtually unbeatable! He even plays against our university students, and he usually beats them, including Brazillians, Columbians, Chileans, Germans, and Costa Ricans! We got a new board at Christmastime and this is kind of where my idea originated. So I started with the idea of the checkered board...















... and I thought about adding some counters... and they immediately became eyes!
















I thought, what if I combine these two?... circles and squares... just like the board.















But then I thought about doing this, reverse applique...















... I really enjoy the surprise element of this technique ("The only people who say ta-da are magicians and idiots", according to Nurse Jackie, the TV show... I saw a trailer for it the other night, and wondered is it witty, or not?)















And this morning I finished this first nine-patch square. And thought, I wonder how it would look as a repeat pattern? Let's find out!

The wonders of modern technology, eh?... (yes, I photoshopped the image!)



















WOW! Virtual slow cloth! That's bold! I might just do this in real time! Just look at all those squares and circles (even the eye motifs form a ring or a cross!) And it has that tribal quality that crops up in my cloth from time to time. This one has a definite African feel to it. Not a bad start really.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

wonderful how the eyes form more circles with the repeat!! Really like this!

jude said...

wow! love it! this is really wonderful... and i like your virual testing ground.....

jude said...

of course i meant virtual.....

arlee said...

very strong image--where will you take it i wonder?

Velma Bolyard said...

very nifty, this. i like the presence.

Elizabeth Seaver said...

Love the nine patch and "watching" you dream it up. I'm glad I found your blog.

Deb G said...

This is fantastic! Love how you can test things out with the computer....

Jacky said...

Your test piece is wonderful. Love that strong image of this stitching and the eyes...amazing what we can do with modern technology - what a great image of what it could be.
I love your "crude" stitching and the pattern it has formed. Definately a strong african feel to it.

Jacky xox

Mnemosyne said...

that is absolutely wonderful!

Sandra said...

This is gorgeous, i love the stiches. And what a good idea to try it out in photoshop! This gives you a good idea of what it will look like when you continue the pattern. I really like this. And an "immediate connection with another human being" is a very special moment,something precious, I know what you mean.
I'm collecting scraps at the moment for you..., blues and browns.I really like doing this, even came across some I had forgotten all about...

Catherine V. Bainbridge said...

Oh my goodness... 10 comments! I am overwhelmed! I'll take this as an indication that I should go head and make the piece - which, actually I had decided to do anyway. Can't wait to see if others start using the photoshop idea to preview their quilts! Thanks everbody for the kind comments and creative support :}

Suzanna said...

This is a beautiful piece and I love to see the process of evolution. It's powerful and peaceful at the same time. It will be interesting to see how the actual stitched piece looks next to the photoshop projection. Lovely!!

Karin Millson said...

I looked at the images hadn't read your text (sorry) but thought Nigeria - beautiful work. Very restful to look at let alone stitch, I guess.

Red (aka Puddleduck!) said...

This is gorgeous! I particularly like the eyes and reverse applique...
Thanks for the link to my blog too! What a suprise!

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