Endeavourers Reveal Day 5 – Texture
It is time for another quarterly reveal day, for the online group The Endeavourers. This time our theme was “Texture.”
Our themes are picked at random from a list, but I felt we were going to be very on-trend with this one, because in November I had seen some SAQA exhibits at the International Quilt Festival, and many of the quilts were thick with layers and crusted with objects. One that stuck with me was from the exhibit Dusk to Dawn, called Motorcycopath by Jim Hay, which had toy motorcycles and cars appliqued on. Another was from the exhibit Metamorphosis, called Growing Pains by Kathy L. Brown. Its caption said it was made from organza, chiffon, taffeta, satin, silk, cotton, wool, beads, and silk roving, and that it was hand-embroidered, felted, free motion embroidered, heat-distressed, painted, photo manipulated, beaded, and quilted.
I had several ideas, but the only one I got completed is nothing like the inspirational quilts I saw in the SAQA exhibits. I started with some cocoons I have gathered, thinking I could soften them and open them out into little flat shapes, or even affix them as beads. That didn’t work and I ended up just using three types of silk — a dull tussah, and two shiny plain weaves.
Tussah and Taffeta, for the Endeavourers’ texture theme.
A cocoon laying on the finished piece.
Another detail.
Compared to my usual ideas, this strikes me understated, but it’s what I was in the mood for. Maybe all this cloudy and cool weather we’ve been having affected me. I like it, but I hope I get around to making some of the other ideas too. You can read a little more about how I made this piece here.
What I really like is looking at all the group’s results together, seeing where we aligned and where we differed. This time, a lot of people were on the same page, emphasizing texture with embellishment, pleating, and hand stitching. But there seemed to be two strong directions with color — some people toned it down in order to strengthen the impact of texture, but others balanced their texture with bold color. You can see all the pieces here, and since most people do two posts about each entry, one on The Endeavourers, and one on their home blog, here is a list of the participants:
Catherine – http://www.knottedcotton.com
Janine – https://rainbowhare.com/
Nancy – http://www.patchworkbreeze.blogspot.com/
Carol – http://beadsandbirds.blogspot.com/
Ruth – http://benandcharlyscorner.blogspot.co.uk/
Gwen – https://textileranger.com/
Martha – www.weekenddoings.com
Maureen – https://josephinaballerina.com/
Kay – http://thecraftyyak.wordpress.com
Fiona – http://celticthistlestitches.blogspot.co.uk/
Paula – https://paulabquilts.com/
Wendy – http://www.piecefulthoughts.com/
I like the play of light on the different surfaces very much. It’s perhaps something missing from the work I do, where the surfaces are mainly matt and the texture is plain, and colour and shape do all the work.
Your angel wings have so much visual texture, and your Worldwide Friends quilt has all kinds of texture and puffy loveliness too. And then, I wouldn’t want to make a real, useful quilt with these fabrics, I think they would pull apart from the seams very easily. But they were fun to play with in this small piece.
You’re probably right about the durability of the fabric and seams, but I did enjoy seeing this extra dimension added to the visual impact. I have seen an absolutely fabulous velvet quilt, though – the pieces were quite large, about 4 inches square, but they had a wonderful range of colours and turned the fabric so that the nap lay in different directions. I’ve always wanted to try something with texture and the play of light…
It’s really interesting to see all the examples in one place–what variety and creativity! The colors in yours, combined with the fairly subtle differences in texture, look so rich and opulent!
Thank you! And you are right, it is always so fun to see the different responses to one prompt!
The fabrics you chose reflect the light in different interesting ways, and I love the woven effect of the cream areas. In fact, your weaving roots come through beautifully in this piece. Let me know if you figure out how to use cocoons. I was given some and have yet to find a use for them.
Thank you, and thank you for pointing out the effect my weaving roots had, I didn’t really think about that!
I was hoping the cocoons would soften in hot water, and then I could kind of tease out the fibers into little squares. I think the cocoons of real silkmoths don’t have so much sericin in them, and can be treated that way. But these just looked shiny and paperlike no matter what I did, and kept their curves. Maybe if I cut them up very small, I could use them more like sequins.
Silk is so beautiful and you’ve used them beautifully. I know what you mean about being “in the mood” for particular kinds of work. If you end up wanting to change this, take a page from Joanna’s book and go for it. Could add layers with organza butterfly wings or … 🙂 Anything! Either way, it’s lovely as is.
Yes, it is kind of bothering me that there is not an actual focal point, just the place where the triangles meet in the very center. I did actually print off an enlargement of the cocoon strands on silk organza, and layered it over that spot, but it didn’t speak to me enough to make me try to figure out how to attach it attractively. 🙂 I may ponder this one a bit and then add something to it, or I may just let it stay understated and use it as an air conditioner cover. 🙂
I don’t think there is any hurry. Most of our projects are quite happy to wait for us. 🙂
I love this quilt. I feel the silks are so lovely in themselves that the way you have combined them creates a very luxurious, opulent effect and the light shows off the textural variations beautifully. I think it is perfect just as it is and adding extra things would have distracted from the natural differences between the fabrics 🙂
Thank you! The theme led me in a different direction than I thought it would, but I am enjoying the quiet of this piece. 🙂
The fabric textures and colors are wonderful!
I thought about you a lot as I made it — I was only dealing with three different thicknesses of fabrics, and you include so many! Have you ever done a post with tips on dealing with such things? If you have, will you send me the link? If you haven’t, will you add it to your “someday” list? 🙂
This was the first time I have ever made flying geese, and using the thick wild silk with the very thin Thai silk was not a good idea. I lost the points on all the triangles. But it is only practice, to push us out of our comfort zones, and it did that!
I did do this post if it helps 🙂 https://tierneycreates.com/2016/03/31/blog-tour-day-4-unlikely-materials/
Thank you, that is exactly what I was looking for. I am going to look into that French Fuse for a start!
Your point about using bold colour to balance the texture, or toning it down to emphasize it is an interesting one. It was lovely to see how you developed the ideas from your sources of inspiration!
Yes, it seems like no matter which end of the continuum they chose, every quilter at least considered how their color choices would affect the impact of the texture. It was such a good theme! But then I say that about all of them. 🙂
Congratulations.. your blog is included in INTERESTING BLOGS in FRIDAY FOSSICKING at
https://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com/2019/02/friday-fossicking-feb-8th-2019.html
Thank you, Chris
Inspiring as always…
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