Wednesday, October 3, 2012

SunFlowerChild

My last post was the fabric, book and embellishments to create this quilt. I wanted to do a quilt with autumn colors and a woman with braids. I began with a Ricky Timm's Convergence quilt background. I machine quilted the inner border and the center of the quilt then fused the applique over the quilting because it would be more consistant and I wouldn't have to start and stop my quilting stich. As I was viewing the quilt I decided to add the
"ends" of the braid because I thought it needed it. I bought some variegated green boucle yarn and tore some dark green batik from the applique and tied it in a knot and hand tacked the ends to the bottom of the quilt to dangle. I finished quilting the piece once the applique was fused on.
I had planned to use the dark green batik for the binding but didn't have enough fabric and used this great tomato soup orange batik and am happy with the choice. The quilt was getting too green and orange was where I began. The green borders balance the energy of the center of the quilt and I am pleased with the results.
I used the paper flowers to form the flower ring. I added a sead bead to each center to attach the flowers-it was putsy but I love the affect. There is orange glitter on the eylids, lots of green flower beads on the green borders attached with green sead beads and a bit of white paint on the eyes to add zing. I thought that was enough embellishments and did not add the African beads I purchased at the quilt expo in Madison WI.
I made this quilt for fun and not to enter in a quilt show but who knows....

Elements of Design:
Line: Straight and Curved
Shape: Squares, Rectangles
Space: Positive from applique and Negative from the background
Color:  Anagalous Color Scheme from oranges, yellows, greens
Value: Contrast of background light/medium value and applique dark value
Texture: Paper flowers, braid ends from yard, beads

Principles of Design:
Emphasis: Woman with braids
Balance: Warm/.Cool Colors, Value Differences
Scale: Use of different fabric scales for variety, paper flowers are in scale in size of woman
Rhythm: Eye moves across quilt from flowers to face to braids and then to oranges in center of quilt
Contrast: Warm/Cool colors, Value contrast
Repetition: Flower theme, orange and green repeated in quilt with fabric, glitter, embellishments, quilting
Unity: All elements come together to have visual harmony

Time to do paperwork to apply for future quilt teaching positions....Later then to sew a cute hat before Sunday's quilt show in Appleton WI (my hometown!!)