Detail from "Rain Dance," an original quilt by Sherrie Spangler

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Work in progress


Remember all of that silk I painted a few posts ago?
Here's how I'm turning it into a quilt.

1. Narrow down the selection and choose some hand-painted cotton to lay under the sheer silk. (Above) Options are unlimited!


2. Spread the blue and orange cotton background over a piece of quilt batting. (The white fluffy stuff showing around the edges.) Cut, arrange and rearrange silk pieces, along with some glitzy gold fabric. Keep cutting and tossing and rearranging and shuffling. When satisfied, pin in place.
(Normally I would also lay a backing fabric under the batting, but since I'm planning to stretch this piece over a frame, I left that out.)

I'm going for a loose, breezy feel.


3. Roll up quilt from the sides and begin quilting in the center. I'm using gold thread -- I love glitter -- and making up the quilt design as I go, responding to the fabric.


This part is the dance.

I love watching the colors pass under the needle. I love seeing how an overlay of violet silk affects the colors beneath. I love leaving the edges raw so they can move.


4. I'm almost done with the quilting, but there's a lot more needed. I think I'll add some hand embroidery and maybe some beads next. I'll keep you posted.

Colorfully yours!

3 comments:

Judy Ferguson said...

Love all the transparency of this piece. Very unusual.

The Idaho Beauty said...

I would try for a dark color not as harsh as the black - a blue, not as dark as navy, would perhaps give the definition you were hoping for without being so overbearing. I have a bundle of oliver twist hand dyed decorative threads that would be perfect - some have a twist of metallic in them, some are chenille, some are like shoe laces - you get the picture. At any rate, I say lighten up a bit and change the color from black to something else.

Sherrie Spangler said...

Thanks guys. Judy -- I'm still trying to create more transparency in my work and think I may have to not quilt my next piece down as much. I want a looser, breezier effect. Sheila -- I agree, the black is too harsh. I'm going to rework the composition center and then maybe add soft softer lines. I'll keep you posted.