Sunday, November 30, 2014

For Galskapen heng i det grøne, og Eplet er raudt utan synd

When the challenge came, I thought this was just my thing. I love letters and writing, and often try to incorporate it in my work. So I looked through my sketchbooks for inspiration, and at once found my quote. It is from a poem by the Norwegian author Jon Fosse and in Norwegian it goes: "For galskapen heng i det grøne, og eplet er raudt utan synd". Translated to English it says something like: "For the madness is hanging in the green, and the apple is red without sinn". I had already a rough idea of how to interpret it, and for a long time, I had wanted to try to embroider lettering in the style of Lorina Bulwer. I had found somewhere on the internet a tutorial of how tom make letters like hers easy, and decided to use it this time.
What colours to use were easy to pick, I needle-turn appliqued  the apple, machine quilted the piece simple with free straight lines before I embroidered the lettering and finished it all with some simple hand-stitches. And framed it all with the colour of the apple.
Because the quote is Norwegian, as my native language is, I decided to keep both the text in the quilt and the title in Norwegian.


and a close up:

6 comments:

  1. Greta, I envy your ability to make something meaningful from these challenges, with subtlety and effectiveness.

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  2. The balance and proportions of your colours re perfect. The vertical stitching both machine and hand works well and I am amazed the your lettering is so clear even though small in size.

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  3. Beautiful quilt Greta. The mix of hand and machine stitch adds lovely texture and interest

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  4. This is a lovely elegant piece that has so much depth and meaning. Your lettering technique is very skillful.

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  5. Your hand embroidered letters harmony so very well with the over all simple design. Hand embroidery together with machine embroidery works very well together as it adds a lot of texture to the work. I like the simplicity you have obtained in your lovely piece.

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