Here's my latest art quilt. It's a small piece (8x10) for a reader challenge for Quilting Arts magazine. They publish a call for entries on a specific topic and art quilters submit their work hoping to get chosen for publication. I thought I'd share a bit about my process even though it didn't get chosen for publication.
The topic is "Changing Seasons." I particularly love the change of seasons and since relocating to Texas, I miss the change of seasons. Here we have 2 seasons, hot and not so hot.
However, I didn't want to make a literal interpretation for this challenge. As soon as I read the brief, I started singing Carole King's song, "Winter, Spring, summer or fall, all you have to do is call and I'll be there." I wanted to tell a story with my art quilt and I knew I wanted my theme to be about love and commitment for friends or family through all times and seasons.
As a child, I spent many weekends with my Aunt Pearl and sewing on her machine was always a big thrill for me. She gave me her Singer sewing machine after her vision started to fail. She recently moved to another state and I knew it was going to be difficult visiting her but I told her I would get there somehow.
I wanted an image of a young girl to represent my childhood so I painted a watercolor of a girl who was carrying a suitcase. I transferred the image onto fabric and embroidered the words. I didn't want to use the exact lyrics because they are copyrighted, so I just wrote out my sentiments.
I added fabric swatches to represent the colors of the changing season but it wasn't finished until I added vintage lace doilies. A fine touch to represent the times I spent many years ago with Aunt Pearl at her house on weekends.
Fast forward to the present day, my aunt is now 99 years old and she means the world to me. We visited last week when I traveled to see her in Pennsylvania.
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