Hill-Stead Museum Portrait: A whole cloth quilt - Day6

Painting in the details of the window panes and shadows of the architecture, gives depth, and compliments the perspective.

Hill-Stead Museum Portrait: A whole cloth quilt - Day5

Painting the house white makes me feel like the piece is coming along. It really is taking share! The more I paint, the more excited I get.

Hill-Stead Museum Portrait: A whole cloth quilt - Day4

I started painting some of the small details on the house. The shutters were a good place to start, for many artistic reasons. I am looking forward to developing the composition as a whole. I love landscape and it will frame this beautiful house.

Hill-Stead Museum Portrait: A whole cloth quilt - Day3

While I was sewing, I had to make decisions about which lines to stitch and which lines to save for painting. I’m stitching the major lines to capture each architectural detail and will paint the intricate details later. The beginning and end of each stitch line must have the threads pulled to the back of the piece and tied in a small knot.

Hill-Stead Museum Portrait: A whole cloth quilt - Day2

Notice that I drew the general shapes of the tree and rock wall and focused on the details of the mansion. The sketching of so many details was tedious but it needed to be exact to maintain the interesting structure of the house. Drawing straight lines is something I don’t usually do in my artwork!

Hill-Stead Museum Portrait: A whole cloth quilt - Day1

My latest project is a portrait of a mansion, the Hill-Stead Museum. The mansion houses masterpieces by Edgar Degas and Claude Monet, along with notable works by Mary Cassatt, Edouard Manet, James Whistler, and others, make the collection at Hill-Stead one of the most significant in the United States. To see the magnificent collection of art, sculpture, furnishings, gardens, and more, visit www.hillstead.org.

I am excited to be working on a piece with architectural detail. It was interesting to splice together two different photographs taken in two seasons to create a cohesive piece. My challenge is to portray the expansiveness of the mansion while capturing the incredible details at the same time.

This will be a whole cloth piece and will include stitching, paint, and embellishments to make the artwork come alive. (Read note in right margin for definition of “whole cloth quilts”.)

It's the Thought That Counts - Day11

"It's the Thought That Counts" is one of my favorite quilts!  I loved the freedom of innovative piecing and designing as I sewed! The inspiration of the batik panel intrigues me. When I am looking at it, I imagine what the rest of the picture would be and it makes me want to expand the visual space of the original piece.

It's the Thought That Counts - Day10

When beginning the piecing process, I work the with the main panel first. I sometimes cut other units which makes assembly a lot easier. By cutting up the other pieced units and re-piecing them, I enhance the abstract look of the art. Sewing almost in a log cabin fashion, piecing around and around until all units are sewn onto the panel, is a primitive way to work, but again, this technique adds to the ethnc feel of the art quilt. Then I added the border that tied it all together!

It's the Thought That Counts - Day9

Collecting all my pieces, and putting them into the border frame on the design wall, I then saw the space where the batik panel would be placed for balance.

It's the Thought That Counts - Day8

I like using traditional fabric with my batiks, so I wanted to find a fabric that had all the colors of the artwork. I cut shapes that enabled me to piece the quilt.

It's the Thought That Counts - Day7

As I finished piecing all my design choices, I am put them into the border frame on the design wall. This gave me the chance to look at how the composition was developing.

It's the Thought That Counts - Day6

Seeing that I needed more pieced elements in the quilt and needed some red color to complement the girl’s image, I decided to piece a checkerboard of two colors. At this point I am looking for color and composition balance. The maroon color and the geometric pattern that I pieced seemed like it would do the job.

It's the Thought That Counts - Day5

Wanting to see the blocks I created up to this point and how much area they would occupy in the quilt, I put them inside the frame of border fabric.

It's the Thought That Counts - Day4

I liked the Mosiac Crosses, so I wanted to make them again. This time I made them smaller and used more colors. Not really planning how many blocks I should make, I really just cut and sewed as the whim hit. I also used a slightly different way to piece the mosiac pattern together, integrating the blocks into a makeshift strip set.