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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Shenandoah Moon Quilt

Yesterday I started a project that has been running around in my head quite a bit. I’ve done some research into the people who were displaced by the building of the Skyline Drive here in Virginia back in the day. (All brought on by the production of Shenandoah Moon that I’m in.) And I’ve struggled with it some because I am not crazy about some of these old colors but I wanted to keep a kind of old fashioned feel to the elements. I used two of my fabrics dyed with fabric paints for the sky and moon - that ended up being kind of an interesting combination. I found some photographs on the Library of Congress site of the actual folks and a photo of a cabin as well. I printed them out on fabric and gave them some quality time with my iron to set the ink. The woman is as close as I could come to a photo of someone that would look like my character should look. The little cabin kind of looks like a tombstone, which I didn't intend but I don't mind.

So I started by fusing up some fabric and starting to play around with the options. It came together fairly easily and before long I was digging around in my box of vintage lace for something that looked really old that I could use to suggest fog. It’s been foggy here in the mornings for the last few days and I remember that when we lived on the mountain many mornings would find the valley below us fogged in nicely with the folds of the mountains showing above the blanket of fog. I happened to find an ancient bit of ultra fine cotton, very worn and stained in places with freyed edges. It was a nice addition.

I got everything fused down and started with some machine quilting. I toyed with the idea of adding an apple tree, since the people who left had to leave their orchards as well, the government took their homes and their profession away from them. I debated and considered… and then took the iron to that tree and that was that.

A bunch more quilting and then I started into some hand quilting and I’ve been adding some buttons to suggest the apples and I don’t know what else I’ll add. I have a small bag of vintage buttons that I’m using, there are some really cool ones in here!

I’m babysitting a gallery today so it is unlikely that I’ll get much more done. Who knows. I would love to finish the binding today but I don't know when I'd fit it in with everything else. We'll see.

10 comments:

  1. Very cool idea Carmen. I wishi I had your talent. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. I love this quilt! Yay for you for getting into the fusing for getting your idea across with no muss no fuss! Love the beads on the tree.And that piece of old fabric to suggest the fog really works so well!

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  3. OoooMyyyGooosh! This is absolutely incredible! Awesome work. Wow!

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  4. thanks for the "in progress" pictures. It helps to see how each thing added makes it come alive.

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  5. Wonderful! And yes, I, too, love seeing the progress pics - it's kind of like being there.

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  6. Wow - you can turn an idea into a beautiful expression on fabric. Thanks for the history lesson and the quilt photos!

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  7. This is so different from what I have seen from you. It really tells the story you are trying to
    communicate and I too enjoyed watching the progression. Good work!

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  8. The progression of this quilt really shows how you are thinking. I love the results. Can't wait to see it complete!

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  9. Is there anything you don't do? I loved seeing your art glass! And your quilts all seem to be so different and interesting (and lovely). Thanks for sharing!

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