Autobiography

My October break this year did not go as I hoped or planned. In a flurry of angst, with too much time unexpectedly on my hands, I made this quilted tapestry of sorts. It took about four days from start to finish and I didn’t do much else in those four days.

I started with a pile of bits and pieces pulled from my scraps basket. My “canvas” was a large rectangle of single-sided interfacing. I worked by arranging the bits and pieces on the interfacing and then ironing them down when I was sure where each went. Once the top was all stuck down, I added a frame made from two different fabrics. I basted the top together with a light cotton batting and a piece of solid raw silk for the back.

Quilting it was an exercise in free-motion patterns. I used almost every stitch design I had watched and liked on YouTube: pebbles, waves, stippling, paisley, flower, feather, and geometric lines done with a ruler, including triangles and rectangles. Yes, it’s messy. No, the technique is not perfect. It’s my first foray into free-motion quilting so it’s a lot more like looking at a calligrapher’s practice book than a work of art.

I call it “Autobiography” because it metaphorically captures my life on multiple levels, but you can read that story on my other blog.

Here, it is enough to say that I just dove head-first into art quilts with this piece and I won’t be looking back. I love using up old fabric. I also love the improvisational flow of creativity and making something that represents layers of poetic meaning. More to come …