Monday, January 08, 2007

Northern Lights



After much searching for a line to use, I chose the last line from Julian May's "Conqueror's Moon". "Bright shimmering curtains, thrusting lances, and slow explosions of red and green and golden radiance stretched from horizon to horizon, whispering about what they might do next."

This was made using just three commercial fabrics and four threads for quilting. I used Wonder Under to attach the pieces and then quilted them securely down. The picture was satin stitched to the border. The backing was turned to the front and secured with a programmed stitch from my machine. It took a lot longer than I had envisioned because of all the starting and stopping and ending of threads.

But--all was worth it. I really like the piece!! By the way---it is 20" x 20".

Sally

5 comments:

Tina Marie Rey said...

The colors on this quilt are just amazing. They are most definately a strength to this piece. What if the pink was just a bit smaller? I found that I almost missed the trees at the bottom, as the contrast between the blue/green and pink was very dominant. Definately get the feeling that something is brooding in the woods... I love the way you portrayed the sky in those colors... it just all flows together nicely. Great piece!

Sally said...

Tina Marie--
Thanks for your comments. I would have made the reddish a bit smaller but had a constraint with the blue/green fabric. It is like a tie-dye and part of it needed to be covered up to let the northern lights stream down instead of up! Somehow it didn't want to be a smaller quilt--so I let it tell me what to do. The trees were supposed to be small so that this would look like a picture of the lights taken in a forest. This quilt can't even come close to matching the grandeur of the real thing. It is one of the wonders of nature.
Sally

Cynthia Ann Morgan said...

Hi Sally,
Glad you made it to the challenge! This is a gorgeous piece and beautifully made (as usual!) It's not subtle like some of your previous work, it's brilliant and dramatic. Did you step out of your box on this one...or is this another side to your work?

Cynthia

Sally said...

Cynthia--It IS another side. I love color. This last line I chose needed something like this. All I had to do was open my closet doors and ask "who is going to come out and play with me". It was unusual in that I only used three pieces of fabric. I often use a great many small pieces of lots of fabrics in my work.

Roberta Ranney said...

Hi Sally - This work really delights me. I have never seen the Northern Lights except on tv but your quilt has taken me a step closer to how beautiful they must be. I love the vivid colors and the vastness of the sky. Lovely.

Roberta