Magritte and Me
17x23" (challenge #46)
by Laura West Kong
I've been experimenting with fusible "brush strokes" of fabric to "paint" a picture with fabric instead of paint. This is my second attempt at this technique.
I scheduled this quilt to take a week, but due to a shortage of Lite Steam a Seam 2 in my personal quilt stop, aka stash, it took about a month. I have got to have a talk with that store manager about inventory shortages. ... Oh yeah, that manager would be me. ;-)
I scheduled this quilt to take a week, but due to a shortage of Lite Steam a Seam 2 in my personal quilt stop, aka stash, it took about a month. I have got to have a talk with that store manager about inventory shortages. ... Oh yeah, that manager would be me. ;-)
I've always loved Rene Magritte's painting, The Castle of the Pyrenees. In fact I liked it so much I did a reproduction of it in a painting class, and I used my painting as the reference for this quilt. You can see my painting and find out more about this quilt at my blog.
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7 comments:
Laura I love the colors, and for this piece the irregular border you have on the bottom works really well. I also like Magritte's works, he may not be quite as well know as Dali, but he did some very interesting things. No point in critiquing this as a work of art, but it is a great example of how you can center an object in a work, but still keep the viewers eye moving around the piece to pickup all the details and so keep it from getting boring. Great Job. Glad you were able to get it finished despite the inventory issue.
Kathy Walker
I am absolutely mesmerized by this piece! You've achieved amazing dimension with your 'strokes' of fabric. I like the colors in this one better than the original...so very fanciful and fun. I would love to try this technique. Any pointers?
Cherie
I love your 'Sky Castle' Laura.. looks like fun using fabric for brush strokes... nice to see your work again.
This is really very interesting, great technique.
Laura, I love this work of Magritte. Have had a postcard of it ever handy for years and years. I like what you have done with your fabric brushstrokes. Nice texture.
Thanks for your thoughts everyone. :-)
Cherie,
It's a fun, easy technique. Here are a few tips:
Lite Steam a Seam 2 works better for this than regular.
Cut strips from the Steam-a-seamed fabric with a rotary cutter, no ruler necessary. Variation is a good thing.
Cross cut some of the strips into random diamonds and triangles, and save a few strips to cut into pieces when you're closer to finishing and might need more specific shapes and sizes.
Stick the shapes onto gridded fusible interfacing (the kind for watercolor quilts) This is the most lightweight and transparent interfacing I have found. I used it fusible side down and then laid it on top of cotton batting when I ironed the pieces down -- fuse the fabric brush strokes down and baste the top to the batting in one step. That leaves only the backing to worry about (which I used a sprinkling of BoNash 007 Bonding Agent to baste the backing to the batting. If you have a favorite spray baste that would work well too.)
Try this technique on an easel if you have one, or propped up vertically somehow. It feels more like painting when you're working upright.
Thanks for your thoughts everyone. :-)
Cherie,
It's a fun, easy technique. Here are a few tips:
Lite Steam a Seam 2 works better for this than regular.
Cut strips from the Steam-a-seamed fabric with a rotary cutter, no ruler necessary. Variation is a good thing.
Cross cut some of the strips into random diamonds and triangles, and save a few strips to cut into pieces when you're closer to finishing and might need more specific shapes and sizes.
Stick the shapes onto gridded fusible interfacing (the kind for watercolor quilts) This is the most lightweight and transparent interfacing I have found. I used it fusible side down and then laid it on top of cotton batting when I ironed the pieces down -- fuse the fabric brush strokes down and baste the top to the batting in one step. That leaves only the backing to worry about (which I used a sprinkling of BoNash 007 Bonding Agent to baste the backing to the batting. If you have a favorite spray baste that would work well too.)
Try this technique on an easel if you have one, or propped up vertically somehow. It feels more like painting when you're working upright.
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