Saturday, June 23, 2007

plant study

I have always loved the look of old plant engravings. I was curious to know if that look could be reproduced with thread on fabric. What I realized is that it really can't because you can not get the lovely thick and thin line quality that the old engravings have.
Front
Back

I do like the effect and will probably play with this some more. The quilting is not finished yet. This is aprox. 21 x 30. I am thinking about maybe adding some color to the bug. I will bring a photo up in photoshop and play around with it to see if I like the look before I add any color to the fabric.


This is the engraving that I used as inspiration and my sketch that I transferred to the white fabric. I used a .05 lead pencil to draw the plant lightly on the fabric. I fused the fabric to the batting to act as a stabilizer for the heavy stitching.


My sewing machine decided to gobble up a bunch of thread and wrap it around the gears, preventing me from finishing the quilting until I took apart the machine and my daughter and I went at it with long nosed tweezers. By the time I was done I was too tired to quilt anymore and probably not in the best frame of mind. My old Pfaff is probably in desperate need of a tune up at this point.

9 comments:

  1. Oh my! This is truly beautiful. And I would say it's a great success.

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  2. Anonymous3:09 PM

    WOW! that looks stunning. It puts my needle doodle exercises to shame. Your work never fails to inspire and amaze me.

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  3. Thank you.

    But this hardly puts your needle doodles to shame, just imagine those same doodles on plain fabric with out the print of the fabric competing. I have seen the fabulous quilting designs on the backs of your quilts with all the buildings on them. They are as gorgeous as the fronts in a completely different way.

    I feel like sometimes I do so much decorative painting that the quilting is not just secondary, but gets completely lost and unimportant. I thought I would try to do the opposite and make a piece that is just about the quilting. There is something about that simplicity that is so nice.

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  4. It may not look like the old engravings, but it is lovely nonetheless.

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  5. You did a pretty darn good job of it - and I LIKE the look - expecting more great experiments in this area !

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  6. Gorgeous work, Judes. Great idea - trying on the color on photoshop before touching the piece. One problem for me tho, that requires patience. I'm woefully deficient in that area, but I make up for it by being completely obnoxious and overbearing. It's all about balance.

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  7. Oh, this is gorgeous, Judy! You should definitely do more. I don't know which I like better, the front or the back!

    Vic

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  8. I desktopped the green side of your WIP for inspiration. And it is working! I am thinking of doing this and that to my fishy quilt. [not sure yet what all] I'll do it by hand, but you get the credit for launching the lightbulbs at me.
    thank you!

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  9. I will send you my size (under separate cover) for my skirt order. I would like it in Chocolate Lollipop fabrics, ok?

    As you can see, I added my pic to my profile. Now my mug is going to be pasted all over the blogosphere. HA!

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