There is a reason that I haven't posted in 5 months....my daughter's wedding quilt. Not that it took this long to create, but it was a surprise that culminated in the presentation during the reception of our Cake Eater's Show at Two Twelve Art Center in Saline, MI. I couldn't take the chance of her happening on a post before the surprise was ready. Thank you for your patience!
My last post chronicled my newest passion of glue resist fabric painting which I had learned only a few weeks previous. I fell in love with this fun and free technique that gives the look of batik. I was so inspired that I decided to create a world quilt for my world traveling daughter and her new husband.
They live in Singapore. In fact, that is where she met Enghui. They have been saving their pennies for the last three years so they could travel the world for a year. Quite the honeymoon don't you think?
How was I going to create the world? After all, I'm not God! So I sized it down a bit. First, I printed out a map of the world, and after deciding on the size of the quilt, I drew the map into 10 inch grid sections.
Then I pre-washed a good quality white muslin fabric and cut it into 10.5"square sections. I then started drawing in the continents using Elmer's blue gel school glue. This was a technique I had just learned the previous month in my fiber arts guild. These prayer flags were my first attempts...
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| This was used in the finished quilt as the tag. it is a reproduction of their wedding invitation. |
After letting the glue dry, the hand painting began.
When all the continents were painted and detailed using salt to create texture, I heat set each square using my hand iron then soaked them in warm water for several hours to loosen the glue. Finally, I tossed them into the washing machine to wash the rest out and iron dried them.
Now I had to decide how to create the oceans that had no land touching them. I considered solid or patterned fabrics but they just seemed too static for the free form of hand painting. So I chose another new technique I had learned at a friend's home with another group of fiber friends called the Dragon Ladies. This technique was called "Ice Dying". I used Procion powder dyes sprinkled over mounds of ice piled onto pre-treated and crumpled muslin.
After heat setting these, I began piecing my world puzzle together on the top of my bed. I began to get quite excited by the results!
I was able to stitch them together, create a backing piece, and prepare the binding in advance and have the top and backing to the long arm quilter the day before Lauren and Enghui arrived home. Then secretly, I bound, attached the label/wedding invitation, and a hanging sleeve without their notice. Then the hardest part began. I had to wait for the artist reception to present this gift!
Here is a preview in the Saline Post featuring my quilt!
http://thesalinepost.com/section/arts-entertainment/blog/arts/two-twelve-arts-show-i-want-give-you-world/1447196903
It was wonderful watching their reaction when they realized the quilt was for them! Enghui was the first to notice. "Why is our wedding invitation on this quilt" he asked.
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| Lauren examining the back of the quilt. |
I saw a beautiful "Around the World" (funny name coincidence?) quilt on Pinterest. The colors were sooooo Shelby; very autumn themed. But I had put so much thought and hand painted all of the fabric in Lauren's quilt, that I decided to go another route. Then I found this book at my library. All I can say is that I am creating a quilt that is inspired by the ideas I saw in this book. There will be 100 very personalized blocks especially for Shelby and Nate. Stay tuned...
