And then we set it on fire! – 2015.12.05

This is a long post with photos at the end, so feel free skip to the bottom.  But I think when you see the photos, you may want to come back and read the explanation.

At the beginning of this year, my sister Anne and I started working on a collaborative project.  Our starting point was to focus on a limited color palette – various shades of red with accents of chartreuse, and experiment with a variety of surface design techniques –  dyeing, painting, stamping, printing, discharging, foiling, piecing.

We worked on it – both together and separately – for a couple of months.  During that time, in our minds, the theme of our quilt evolved from a study in red to a study of Fire.  We also decided we would do a series, and the theme would be The Elements, beginning with Fire.

‘Fire: an Element’ was completed in June. We entered it in the La Conner Quilt & Fiber Arts Festival in the ‘Fiber Art – Created Textiles’ category, and were thrilled when it was juried in.

Fast forward to the comments we received from the judges at the La Conner Festival:

Best features: Block design, with straight and curving lines, is engaging . . . Adding textured effects and stitching draws us in to investigate closer

Recommended improvements:  Feel of fire could be strengthened by avoiding colors like pink and delicate green

Now, I have to say that sometimes I agree with judges’ comments, and sometimes I don’t, and I generally take them with a grain of salt.  But in this case, the comments hit home. Looking at our piece with a critical eye and from a fresh point of view, we both immediately realized that there was indeed much too pink to evoke the feeling of fire – we had been too close to our project to see it objectively!  In fact, Anne commented that we could have titled it ‘Spring’ rather than ‘Fire’!

So, we decided to set it on fire!  First, we added some fiery colors to the lightest and pinkest parts with Shiva PaintStiks.  Then Anne had the brilliant idea to add some burned and melted fabric. Why did we not think of that before??!!    We also scattered metal and glass beads on top of the burned fabric, and various other places.

We think our new and improved Fire quilt is now worthy of its name and even better than it was before.  We’re going to enter it in another show soon.

Here are the before and after photos – what do you think of it?  Have you ever taken a finished quilt and amended or enhanced it?

Thanks for stopping by.  Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative and inspirational projects.