I've finished my piece for the 12x12x12 challenge. It's a crazy quilted block that I've also used to incorporate some of the stitches from the Sharon B's Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. Being that I'm an expert multi-tasker, this is also the last piece in the series on the Madonna that I've been doing with Debra Spincic. We each set out to make four quilts incorporating images of the Madonna roughly based on the seasons. We chonicled a lot of our earlier work on the series on our blog The Madonna Idea. Morning Glory is my Spring quilt in the series.
Some of the stitches I used in this piece include: cross-stitch, fly stitch, eyelet stitch chevron stitch, open cretan stitch, detached chian stitch, buttonhole, and herringbone stitches. The hummingbird and morning glory motifs are transfers from an Aunt Martha package. You can still buy those and I find that Walmart, of all places, has a good selection. The hanging charms are hearts and leaves that were part of a bracelet I bought on clearance at Target.
One of my challenges in this piece was to connect the motifs so that they weren't so isolated from each other. I did this by extending the vine to connect the motifs, even through the floral print in the background. If I had planned ahead, rather than made it up as I went along, I would've used a higher contrast green to make the vine. But live and learn, right? I ripped out and edited a lot as I was making this piece. Perhaps I'll move to working more on paper as part of the process. In the future I might make a photocopy of the block and them play with embellishment options.My future 12x12x12 pieces are going to incorporate bird images. I feel like I'm not quite done with the Madonna images yet, so I expect to continue to use those as well.
Here are links to my other Madonna quilts in the series:
La Ofrenda (42x43) 2005
House of Gold, Pray for Us (26x16.5) 2005
O Serene Like the Moon, O Resplendent Like the Sun (24") 2006
6 comments:
Beautiful piece, Barbara! There's a whole lot going on here and it's all a fantastic symphony. The beads hanging from the bottom are a nice touch.
I love the richness, all the details. Just beautiful Barbara!
Barbara, this is a triumph...
"Making it up as you go along" seems like it is part of the crazy quilt process, but I too have been thinking that doing a little advance work on paper would be a good idea!
What a fantastic series....
Wonderful piece as the final 4th season! I love those hummingbirds flitting around everywhere.
I just bought Carole Samples's books on CQ stitching and she shows some of her little block sketches with stitches. I try to jot down notes for each block of the stitches I want to us in a little journal I have on my worktable. Sometimes I follow it and sometimes I don't.
She is beautifully worthy to be of the Madonna series. I love the morning glories and hummingbirds. You manage to work in so many neat things, like the little red spider. The long fringy pieces are a great touch.
I love the way you've made your embroidery flow from the fabric design. I became a fan of the Madonna Idea when I first got into blogging-You did some incredible work in that series and continue to do so. Very lovely
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