Thursday, November 29, 2012

Sunny Disposition

After my gallery show in September and working all summer to get new pieces done I was ready to create something fun and not too challenging.  I created this piece called "Sunny Disposition" and had fun quilting and beading it.  It is such a bright spot on my wall in these every darkening days of fall and winter!

I started with the sunflower print and chose fabrics and beads to compliment it.  The blue splotchy fabric looks like a painted/dyed piece but is actually a commercial cotton print.   The yellow fabric just below center is a piece that I had previously painted.

 
I love adding dangles of beads to quilts. Even though a quilt hangs rather statically on the wall, the dangles seem to add a sense of movement and they catch the light in interesting ways. Using multiple shapes and types of beads in a dangle creates interest and really adds to the way they catch the light. I change the order and combination of beads in the dangles just maintaining a general colorway and types of beads for a cohesive design. 

As you walk by the piece the different beads are highlighted depending on how the light shines on or through them. On this piece there are translucent glass leaves and seed beads that make lovely shimmery dangles that you just can't resist giving a little push so you can see them sway.
   




I used one of my machine stitches to create a line of tiny flowers on one of the very narrow strips. I find this uses a lot of thread, is time consuming, and is somewhat tedious. I do like the look of it but I find the free motion stitching much more fun!

I love the way the beading turned out on the sunflowers. Originally I was going to heavily bead the centers of the flowers, but then I thought of this plan and am very happy with it.

I added a narrow dark blue flat piping to the binding for a nice detail. I believe I used 8 different fabrics for this piece, not including the piping and binding (fabrics which are not used in the body of the piece).


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