The Constructing and Deconstructing of a Whole Cloth Quilt.......

In my last post, I showed a small portion of a quilt I was working on. I sometimes work spontaneously, which can be a good or bad thing! Getting ahead of myself before thinking my idea through can lead to ripping stitches out, or, in this case, cutting the original idea into three pieces.... and ripping stitches out. However, these little glitches can sometimes have serendipitous results!

The idea behind this quilt started with an exhibit opportunity for AQuA. The theme was "Singular Sensations", and the quilt had to be a whole cloth piece. I began with the above fabric. When pulled from the dye vat, the images of poppy flowers came to mind, so I went with that subject.

I had the not so bright idea of quilting the fabric first, then silk screening over it. After the quilting began I realized it wasn't such a good idea, so opted to halt the quilting and do the silk screening first. Two screens were made by cutting stencils from freezer paper. One of poppy pods, the other of grass. These stencils were then ironed directly on the screen. Using textile paint, I began the screening process, and was having such fun with this process that I didn't take the time to step back and look at my progress. The poppies and grass were sprouting on the fabric like a fresh rain had just passed through! I overdid the screen printing on one side of the fabric, which resulted in an unbalanced piece of fabric. I decided to cut the fabric into three pieces, and after rearranging them, rather liked them in their new order. No triptychs were permitted for this particular show, so I had to decide whether to choose one of the three pieces for the show, or forget the show and continue this as a triptrych.

Realizing that each piece could work on it's own, I decided to continue with the piece on the left. By this time, my quilting design changed from the original plan, so I ended up ripping out some of the original stitches to make way for the new idea. Once I got that chore out of the way, I had a great time with the quilting!


I usually don't work in such unorganized chaos, but looking back on the whole process, I'm glad I did it this way, as it was a learning process for me. And to top things off, I got accepted into the show, and received a juror's mention!

Singular Sensations will be shown as a special exhibit at the Pacific International Quilt Fest, which will be held October 14 - 17, 2010 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. http://www.quiltfest.com/activities.asp?id=7