Quilted and (dye) Painted Portrait - Part 2

Fabric Arts - The Portraits Project
Submissions - Textile Self Portraits
Langham Gallery, Kaslo, BC
July 5 - Aug 18, 2013

29" X 34"
Quilt (Dye) Painted Textile
'Eileen Gidman Alpine Hiking'

Early on in the process, I knew I wanted to add textural interest to the trees and also introduce some subtle pink colour. There were several ideas from people in my Quilt Group, such as adding wool, embroidery cotton, lacy threads made by free motion stitching on wash away stabilizer but I envisioned the trees with pieces of cotton fabrics sewn on and that is what I ended up doing after auditioning all the others. My friend Charlsie suggested I add points to the little strips and I did that. Thanks for the suggestion!

 



To add texture to the stump, it was free motion stitched with black, brown and grey thread. Pink and teal threads depicted reflected light in the stump. I loved this coloured stitching so much, it was all I could do not to stitch the whole stump in pink. I was reined in by reminding myself of the overall composition plan.  The colours within the piece are primarily blue and green with a bit of complementary pink.

 

The stump contains the greatest amount of free motion stitching. It is amazing how fast you can run through a bobbin. From experience, I learnt it is important to spread a lot of free motion stitching over a period of days. I didn't and ended up jumping up with leg cramps one night after a full afternoon of sewing! 

 

 

To the emulate granite boulders, I added layers of netting to create a gradation of grey shades. As well I added some folds for different facets of the rocks. For this I had to switch to a regular machine foot as the darning foot would get caught in the netting and at one point I had it so balled up it had to be cut out! Small beads were added in pink and clear to represent the mica flecks in granite.

 

The center of interest is the person of course. Specifically, the pink kerchief is bright and bold with saturated colour to draw attention to that area but  I wanted that colour to remain limited. Only small bits of pink was added to the trees, stump and rock to provide unity within the piece.

 

This piece along with 11 others will be hanging at the Langham Gallery in Kaslo, BC, July 5 - Aug 18, 2013. What for following posts for pictures of the other entries. I can't wait to see them!