Saturday, June 30, 2012

From Madalene

I had more difficulty with this challenge than I thought I would have. I had what I thought was a great idea that just didn't work out when I started putting it together in fabric. So I began again.  I finally decided to keep it abstract, focusing on color, the contrast of a very dark and a very light, and keying off the idea that the light is all the brighter for the very dark shadows that may surround it.

I had a lot of fun playing with shapes in several dark colors of my hand-dyes and also a commercial black, and was concerned they wouldn't show up well in the photo, but my main problem in photographing it was to make it as dark as the piece really is.  So what may look dark blue is actually a darker red purple.  I also ended up doing some hand stitching in some of the black that you may be able to see if you click on the photo to enlarge it and then look closely.

4 comments:

  1. As I mentioned in my blog post, when I saw your quilt I really had to grin. When somebody would ask me to describe your work, I may say something like "she does wonderful work with light and subtle colors". And this quilt looks quite contrary to me ;-)) I really love how the little "light" rectangle in your quilt makes the whole quilt sing. Your stitching intrigues me - the combination of hand- and machinestitching is wonderful!

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  2. Madalene...what a nice piece! I'd considered the concept of light's strength in the context of darkness...you captured it beautifully! Love the stitching choices. The hand work adds a softness amidst the hard edges.

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  3. This has the feeling of being in a dark BARN with your structures of the dark lines and I want to go look out the window................draws you right in...............definitely the LIGHT!

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    1. If you were standing in front of me, Carol, I would give you a hug. We have a barn that I keep thinking would make a good quilt. As a matter of fact, a couple of years ago I spent a lot of time standing in the cool quiet of that place and just looking and thinking but could never come up with an approach I liked. I kept seeing a bridge-like structure in this piece and some other things, but you are right. This is the feeling of that barn that must have been percolating in my subconscious as I played with the composition and colors of this piece until it looked "right."

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