Every fall, members of The Fibre Art Network (FAN) meet somewhere in Western Canada for our annual retreat and planning meeting. This year, we will meet in Winnipeg MB in early October.
The theme is “Gateways and Portals”. The retreat announcement says “We will be asking everyone to participate in a challenge again this year. The pieces are to be 8 ½” x 11”, and designed to fit with our theme. We would like people to try and use a technique that is new to them in creating their piece.”
The theme brought to mind my photos of interesting doors and windows from our trip to Croatia in 2013. Here are several of the photos I considered for this project.
On the left below is the photo I decided to use. Using photo editing software, I cropped it and boosted the contrast – right image.
When I was happy with the look of the photo, I printed it onto fabric. In the past, I have used commercially prepared 8.5 x 11 inch sheets to print photos on fabric. As the finished size of this project must be 8.5 x 11 inches, and I needed a seam allowance around the edges, I needed a larger size. I have a printer that will take paper up to 13 inches wide, so I decided to use Bubble Jet Set to prepare my own fabric. After the fabric dried, I ironed it to freezer paper, cut it to 10 x 13 inches, inserted the prepared sheet into my printer’s paper tray and printed my photo.
I let it dry for 30 minutes, then (with some apprehension) rinsed it in lukewarm water. To my relief, there was no loss of ink.
I wanted to emphasize the roughness of the rock wall and the depth of the inset door, so I quilted the foreground rock surfaces with one layer of batting. Then I added a second layer of batting and quilted the grout between the rocks and the surface of the door. The sections that were quilted through both layers of batting receded and the other sections puffed up, giving the quilt a dimensional trapunto effect.
I was very happy with the dimensional quality of the finished piece. As usual with my art quilts, I finished it with a facing.
Thanks for stopping by. Today, I’m linking up with these blogs – click on the links below, where you’ll find many other creative projects to inspire you.
Absolutely gorgeous, Terry! Great interpretation of the theme.
That’s a very nice quilt and the trapunto effect is exactly what it needed! Great for you to be ready with your challenge ahead of time))
How great is that! I really must try something like that soon. I have been collecting some shots of older buildings like that. I like how you added the texture to the old wood door.
That looks great Terry! What a relief that must have been when you rinsed your image and everything was good. I like all the images you were contemplating – a series coming up perhaps?!
I really love the results. I’ve never use Bubble Jet but I think I might give it a try.
Beautiful, Terry. Thank you for sharing your process.
Thank you for posting to TN&TN’s WIP Wednesday!
Very nice work! Hope I’ll get a chance to see the finished quilt in person!
WOW! It’s stunning Terry!
That turned out great. Love it!