Sunshine and Picnics

Many apologies to all the Latitude Quilters -- I am very late on my "Escape" reveal -- but many thanks to them for understanding my difficulties.  In November I suffered a fractured tailbone, making any sort of art-related work out of the question.  Family difficulties at the start of the year kept me away even longer.

I've finally been able to get back into the studio and, pressed for time, I changed course.  My original idea for "Escape" was very cool, but would have taken more time than I felt appropriate; I didn't want to continue to keep my fellow members waiting.

As a result, I decided to piece a small quilt to remind me of one of my favorite summer "escape" activities: picnics.  Piecing seems to reflect best those days when picnics are a special treat, with a homemade cloth spread out on the lawn.  I love picnics on gentle summer days with puffy clouds, so yellow and white became the color palette.

In my hope to get the quilt done quickly I didn't take as much care as I should have; I pieced one section backwards.  Rather than take the section apart and resew it, I chose to cover up the error.  Now there's grass peeking up along the edge of the quilt, just like it might at a picnic.  (I have to wonder if I was influenced by the bit of green I've spied alongside mounds of melting snow.)  As it turns out, I think the quilt has a bit more charm now.

If Not Here, Then Where?

The theme of escape can bring many different things to mind, some pleasurable, some fanciful and some more dire. I think that it would be a rare individual who never wished for an escape from one thing or another.

In my quilt I wanted to ask the question “ Escape to where?” Simply put, if I were having a perfect day, where would I be? What would I be doing? Who would I be with?

The answers to these questions would probably vary depending on the situation that I wanted to escape. If it were the cold of winter, I might want to be on a tropical island. If it were from the tedium of everyday life, I might want some place exciting or stimulating. If it were from the noise and chaos of a big city, I might want to be in a tranquil and serene place. The possibilities, like the reasons, are infinite and personal.

In this quilt I have created a map of an imaginary place to represent all of the imaginary places that I might wish to be. My presence is represented by an abstract copper coloured symbol which symbolizes a compass for direction but with a central square which represents me. I am, therefore, the heart of this desire and the chooser of the destination.

The outlined compasses represent some of the possibilities of where I might want to be.

Tempus Effugere

 

 

Escaping time is one of the joys of creating your own fabric and working with it. It is time consuming but brings pleasure as the imagery and texture develop and the final touches are added.

The quilt was an escape from the tumult of daily life as the various processes and hand quilting required focussed attention. It was also an exploration of several new processes, and a way of working with art cloth to transform it into a quilt.

 

Techniques:

Tray Dye with Procion dyes; screen print using textile inks and thickened Procion dyes;  discharge with Jaquard Discharge Paste; Stamping; screen print through freezer paper stencil; gold leaf; hand and machine quilting

 

Sunset at Jimbaran Beach, Bali

So many differnt interpretations came to my mind when I learned about our new theme. Quilting in itself is an escape for me, as it is probably for the other members of this group. But also reading, listening to music, dreaming can be ways to escape the demands of everyday life. And of course traveling.
My husband and I enjoyed traveling before we had children. My favorite place of all we have been to is the indonesian island of Bali, and not only because of the wonderful batik fabrics produced there. The people are so friendly, you really get the feeling it still comes from the heart and not because as a tourist they hope you will buy something or leave a good tip. As we were staying in a hotel in Jimbaran we often went to some fishermen's restaurant directly on the beach in Jimbaran. There we would sit at the table, barefoots in the sand and enjoy a wonderful meal while watching the sun sut in front of us.
I hope to return to this wonderful island one day when our children are older. For the present time I can only escape there in toughts. The memories of our vacation are still very present.

The background is made of commercial hand dyed fabrics by Heide Stoll-Weber. The black horizont line, the clouds, the sun and its reflection in the water are wool felt and machine felted to the background. The sun reflection is quilted with metallic thread to add more glitter.
Materials:
cotton fabric
wool felt
polyester batting
metallic and polyester threads.

Sabine

Escape

At first glance, this was an interesting theme. But when I started working with it, I had problems how to solve it as a quilt. I decided to go abstract, focusing on this:
Escape = an act of breaking free from confinement or control.
We live in a world where, in certain environments, being "out of the box" is not always a good thing.  You have to fit in. So, I've tried to show this by breaking it all down to squares - in rows - with military precision, except for the one escaping and blooming. Because these people are sometimes regarded like    a weed, like a dandelion. They are strong, beautiful, full of colour, they have freed themselves from the rules of the garden and pop up wherever they want!

Dichotomy

I had about 25 things on my suggestions list for the theme of Escape. I chose to go with the theme of cages. Aside from the literal idea of keeping wild birds in cages or setting them free, it seemed like we are all in cages. Sometimes we make our own bars, by creating a home, an environment, where we are cocooned from the wildness of nature. Sometimes other people put cages around us to protect us, and sometimes we are truly imprisoned by others' desires for power and control.

When we have the chance to escape to freedom, not everyone chooses that path.

Birds are naturally free in the elements, but they then have the 'prison' of finding food, shelter and avoiding predators.

Life is never entirely black or white, and that's why I chose Dichotomy as my title.

This quilt can be hung either in the black or white orientation.

The technicalities were that I drew the basic outlines of the cages and birds on soluble stabiliser and stitched it from the white side. I then washed the quilt to remove the soluble before more stitching and applique. The advantage of the outline stitching was that I had the exact placement for both sides of the quilt. The main stitching was done with 30 weight thread, while the quilting was done with very fine thread. Even though there are little 'ticks' of fine black thread on the white side where I changed direction, I find they add a certain pattern to the stitch.

Escape

When this theme was announced there was only one thing that appeared in my mind. It was our plot with olive trees and the view from our house in Greece. This really is the place to which I can escape and use my time to all the things that make me happy and creative and with very little "musts".

I chose to make a piece showing the wonderful  view I can enjoy and look at every day when I am there with the olive trees in the foreground and the Messenia Gulf  and the peninsula, on the other side of the Gulf with the high mountain top, the Prophet Elias, 2400 meters over above sea level.

The background is  whole cloth, painted with Dye-na-Flow paint and four patches are sun printed with Dye-na -flow paint, screen printing ink and fabric paint with letter masks made from freezer paper  with the letters esc , as the word esc on the PC keyboard.

On top of this I have printed some olive trees on ExtravOrganza and fused them using white Misty fuse.

Finally the piece is quilted with running stitches and seed stitches with cotton and metallic threads. In order to emphasize the trees I put some paint with Shiva paint sticks on top of the embroidery stitches on top of the trees.