Bad Rain – Crosshair
July 23, 2009
Woo hoo, he's quilted and I think he looks pretty good.
Bad Rain – Crosshair
This is my first quilting task for today. The lines you can see in the picture are the markings, I need to stich them in now. This is the first of the human character I need to do and as such is a big deal. The people are tiny yet they are the focus of the story and therefore the quilt. Having looked at the picture I am hopeful it's going to work.
Power of photos
July 22, 2009Last night when I stopped I had a couple of concerns. The biggest one (in more than one sense) was the fist under the eyeball. The problem is I didn’t think it looked like a fist anymore. It looks fins in the book, it looks fine in the pencils but my pattern and the quilt looked wrong to me. This morning I’ve taken a look at the photograph and I can see it again. I find this happens quite a lot when I am working on big pieces. They are hard to take in and see what they really look like. It’s something I also see in students when they are working on my art quilts class. They can’t see their picture is working so I take photos for them with my phone. It always helps, even if one lady declared her rose a yellow cabbage!
Feeling somewhat encouraged I think I will start the day by cutting my fist. It will take a disproportionate length of time, as it is a large piece of fabric, but it will bring the overall quilt on in a leap so it will help encourage me for the day. I also know it has lots of very satisfying quilting to be done on it to make it’s muscles at least two and a half d. Fun fun fun.
Bad Rain – Day 5
July 21, 2009
It’s reached the point where it is too big to photograph, or indeed see properly. I hope the pictures will give you an idea of how it’s going. I’ve got a new favourite badmouth. I have always liked the ones with their arms folded, but now I have a new fondness for the dark one with it’s arms out. It is in the crease of the book, so it doesn’t get much appreciation, which is a shame as it is a very detailed badmouth. I wonder if if was one of Stephens pets as well, as it seems to have a lot of work in it. Maybe that is party why I like it so much, I’ve spent a lot of time working on it. I think each line takes about a minute whether they are 1/2″ or 3-4″. Most of the time is in the starting and stopping the line, so the areas that have more lines in take a long time.
As you can imaging the side of the building has been another very time consuming area. It’s been fun too. In fact I’ve been really enjoying working on some thing completely different. I’m also starting to think about which of my other projects (hmm I nearly typed problems, how Freudian is that) I will move onto next. I have two small ones that need to be done before the show and I think they might be the next stop. They are more the sort of thing I usually do so will be another complete change and being small I should be able to finish them relatively quickly. I find it helps keep my going if I can have a few quick targets then a longer one.
Track your fabric
I’ve been a bit quiet since yesterday afternoon, because I have been panicking. I bought a lot ombre fabrics just to make Bad Rain. It arrived in several packages, and looked great. I thought I had put it all in the appropriate project pile. I tend to overbuy rather drastically for most projects, especially if I have to buy from America. So yesterday when I realised I had two large pieces still to cut I started to worry. I’ve been trying to get on and cut all the really big pieces. I’ve managed all but one piece and the ground. So as soon as Tet got home he had a look though my stash to see if he could come up with any good solutions. He found the perfect fabrics, then one package I had entirely forgotten and left in the wrong place! I now have the perfect fist and ground fabrics and can press on with a lot less stress. I didn’t think I would have ordered so little fabric, so finding the other 25% has helped. Being the sad person I am, I am really excited to get on with the quilt. I’ll try and take some more picture later.
Bad Rain – day 4
July 20, 2009
Who would have thought drain pipes and gutters would be so satisfying, but they are. It's what makes the blob a house, and they are quite fun to stitch. All the black lines are sewn and they become the quilting on the quilt. Check out the comments on the previous post for more on sewing pencil lines.
Bad Rain – what I am aiming for
July 19, 2009
As Stephen has borrowed a picture from me I thought I would do the same from here, exchange is no robbery and all that. He is the artist behind this image, and this is what I am trying to recreate. I am only using commercial quilting fabrics, so I won’t be getting a perfect colour match. However I do think I should be able to capture the essence of the image. I have discovered a lot more detail in the picture than I had noticed when I saw it in the book. There are huge variations in the pencil strokes, that will be a huge challenge to reproduce. The most problematic areas are the human faces. They are very small relative to the whole piece but very important. I am happy that I have got them just big enough to render them. I have to admit I am really enjoying working on this. It is very different for me, but I like the locks of colour I am using then adding the ‘inks’ over the top. Look out for more updates tomorrow, remember I am on a very tight schedule with this one.
Bad Rain – day 3
I've sewn as much as I can before I add more pieces. I'm really pleased with how it's working out. I had planned on using lots of colours of thread but I think the black will give me a better result, so that's the way I will go. It will mean some of my lines will be stronger than the originals, but it should look pretty similar.
Bad rain – day 3
Just about to start stitching. I've got fabric on all the way across the width of the quilt and I can't roll on until I sew this bit down. Wish me luck.
Bad Rain – day 2
July 18, 2009
This is my current project, Bad Rain. It is taken from the Cancertown graphic novel written by Cy Dethan and illustrated by Stephen Downey. I am very lucky to have been granted permission to make my version of this image which appears in the book as a double page spread. You may recall that I have said some of my recent quilts have been test pieces for another quilt, well this is it. I’ve needed to come up with new ways to approach making art quilts to have a chance of pulling this one off. I’ve made two pieces recently where I have tried very hard to maintain the style of another artist, I am pretty happy with them and will be applying what I have learned on this one. I’ve also been playing with ways of assembling large patterns. It’s helped, I needed to have less distortions in this one and I’ve got it. I’ve also had to have a think about which fabrics I can use and how I can get them in place. I’ll let you know how that goes as I progress.
I realised yesterday that this is the biggest and most intricate art quilt I have attempted. It’s over 90″ long and I am not sure how tall yet. I had to scale it up to that size to be able to get the level of detail that was in the original. I felt that the detail was an essential part of the image, it is what gives it the feel of the busy crowded street, so I had to keep it. Also the main character appears in this double page spread so I had to be able to stitch the details of his face as well. Fortunately I’ve managed to get all those features in and keep the piece just small enough to make on my frame. I could theoretically have made the piece sideways but I find that a lot harder so it’s good I can work on it the right way around. I spent most of yesterday tracing the first 40″ of the quilt. I decided to work with it pinned to my blocking boards as there is nowhere I can lie it down to trace. It makes it more tiring but it is quicker and easier in the long run. Today I’ve been able to crack on with putting the fabric in place, although having been teaching today I didn’t have much time.
Now for the really exciting bit. I need this quilt finished ASAP. I would like it complete by about Thursday this coming week. I’ve still got other quilts I need to make or finish before the show, so I have to get on with this. If things had gone to plan I would actually be at Santa Pod this weekend, but the weather forecast is for rain so I have gained a day to work on the quilt. I would rather be racing, but I am grateful for the extra time to work. I will try and share progress photographs over the next few days. The picture on this post shows the first few pieces of fabric laid down on the sky . The black lines are all my markings for where quilting needs to go, hopefully I will get that stitched tomorrow morning then I can roll on and place more fabrics.