Music... With a Touch of Red

I realised that it's been two months again since I updated this blog. The days run like rabbits. Soon it'll be Festival of Quilts in Birmingham again, but I'm not going this year either. I'm hoping to get a chance to go there next year. Until then, however, I did the next best thing: I sent in an entry for the European Quilt Association's annual challenge, and it was accepted as one of the 16 quilts that are sent to Birmingham from Finland. Some of you may remember that I participated and was accepted last year too, and that quilt is now on a two-year tour around the world with the rest of the quilts in the exhibition. The theme last year was The Seasonal Garden, and spring was the season given to Finland. Here's a link to last year's quilt, Wake-Up Bells, as well as an image to remind you.

So, last year's quilt celebrated spring, light, warmth and budding new life, but this year's quilt turned out to be the exact opposite. The theme is Music... With a Touch of Red. First I was at a complete loss how to interpret it. I like music as much as anyone, but for some reason the theme didn't speak to me. So I started focusing on the red bit, and though that music with a touch of red hints at some form of drama or tragedy. And then the idea came to me: I would interpret the myth of Orpheus and Eurydike.

For those of you who don't know the story, Orpheus was a legendary musician who could charm even a stone with his music. On his wedding day, his beloved Eurydike was bitten by a snake and died. Crushed by grief Orpheus travelled all the way to the Underworld to play his music before Hades himself, in the hope of softening the god's heart so that Orpheus would get his wife back. The plan worked and Hades agreed to let Eurydike return to earth on one condition: Orpheus had to walk in front of her and could not turn around to look at her before they both had reached the upper world. Everything went well until Orpheus stepped out of the Underworld. Then he forgot that the condition was that they both had to be in the upper world, and he turned around, and Eurydike vanished and was lost forever.

I felt very excited about this theme, and decided that I wanted to depict the very moment when Orpheus turns around and realises what he has done. I used photographs of my own face to help me with the facial expressions, and Wikipedia to help me spell the words in Greek (Orpheus, Eurydike, tragedy and music). Here's the whole quilt:

I painted the fabric for the faces with a silk paint I mixed myself: a warmer tone for the living Orpheus, who's just stepping out into the upper world, and a paler and duller tone for Eurydike, who's fading away into the Underworld. The facial features were filled in with a permanent pen (as a guideline to where I was going to machine stitch the features) and fabric paint.

I covered the raw edges with black chiffon and machine stitched outlines and features, as well as text in Greek, which I eventually filled with metallic fabric paint.

The quilt was started a little too close to the deadline, so my first plan was to keep handstitching to a minimum to save time. However, after I had machine quilted part of the background I didn't like the result. It looked dull and lifeless. I realised that just because the theme of the quilt is death, the surface itself needn't be dead. So I tried some handstitching in another spot, loved the result, ripped out the machine quilting, assumed a comfortable position and started handstitching. I stiched for hours and hours several days. Crazy, but it was so worth it in the end! I love the texture.

A touch of red. Eurydike has to return to her Underworld prison. The strings of Orpheus' lyre form the bars that lock her in and separate them.

Despite the sobre theme and slightly manic last-minute work process, this was such an enjoyable project. And I'll tell you what: I have plans for another pictorial quilt. And I have to start working on it soon, or else it'll be another manic last-minute work process. ;-)

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Wake-Up Bells

Today is the final day of Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, and the winners have already been announced, so now I'm safe to publish images of the quilt that was sent there. As I've already mentioned here, the theme this year was In My Garden, and spring was the season that was given to Finland. I chose the lovely snowdrop, and titled the quilt Wake-Up Bells. Here's an image of the whole quilt, as well as process images and some detail shots of the finished quilt. As mentioned, it will be on tour for two years, so I took lots of photos before I sent it off.

The size of the quilt is 30 x 30 cm (12" x 12"). It's a wholecloth printed and painted quilt with collage elements between cotton and a layer of silk organza.

First of all I made a preliminary plan of the quilt on watercolour paper to help me make decisions about the colour scheme and texture before I started adding paint to fabric.

I printed cotton with pigment (textile) paint and various handmade and found stamps, transferred the pattern to the cotton with a mechanical pencil and painted the hair with a brush and pigment paint.

I also printed and spray painted silk organza,

and the cotton fabric that I used to soak up the paint that went trough the sheer organza was used for the back of the quilt.

I outlined the image with Derwent Inktense pencils, and started adding the collage elements.

I added the organza over the cotton base fabric, free-motion quilted the whole thing and added hand embroidery as a finishing touch. Here are some close-ups of the finished quilt:

If you're interested in this way of working, I recommend looking up Melanie Testa's book Inspired to Quilt. Melanie works with dye in the book, but it's also possible to use pigment paint, as I have done, if that's more accessible to you.

Thanks for visiting!

Spring Into Action

I've been away from this blog for so long that I'm at a loss how to start again. So I'll just start with the most important thing that has happened this summer, apart from my move from Helsinki to Jakobstad (or Pietarsaari, which is the Finnish name for my new home town).

By the end of May I submitted my entry for the The Quilters' Guild Challenge at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham this August. The National Guild in Finland, FinnQuilt, accepted my art quilt, and it was sent to Birmingham together with 15 other quilts. After the exhibition, it will go on tour for two years, and you can probably image how pleased I am about this. It's the first time that I've participated in anything like this, and it's all very exciting.

The theme this year is 'In My Garden', or the seasonal garden, and spring was the season that was given to Finland. As soon as I read about the competition and the theme I knew what I wanted to do. But since it's a competition and the Festival is still about three weeks away, I can't yet publish any images of my finished quilt. However, as I know there are people who are curious and eager to see what I've made, I'll post some sneaky images as a teaser.

In fact, I've already posted one sneaky image of a sketch in this blog entry. Here are a few more.

This piece of fabric was used to soak up extra paint while I was working on organza, and I realised afterwards that it was also the perfect fabric to use for the back of the quilt. Waste not, want not! I printed with crumpled paper, monoprinted with an acrylic block and spray painted through a plastic doily.

In a spring garden there has to be spring flowers, and you can probably make out which flower I chose, even though I'm just giving you a sneaky view from the back of the quilt.

And spring means the return of migrating birds. This is a part of the quilt that I'm particularly pleased with.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope to bring you more news soon!