I am working on my second piece for the 3 Creative Studios 2010 Quilt Challenge. The word for the second challenge is “Passage.” When faced with the dictionary definition of passage, there are a lot more meanings for the word than I thought there were.
The first image that came to my mind was the passage of the river through our town. At the time the word was put out to the group, our town was flooding (there are pics on other posts about this). I found an aerial view of the flood forecast for our town and was going to use that as a basis for my project.
Then I thought twice–sometimes that can get you into trouble. I was thinking about the veins and arteries in our bodies and the passage of blood through them. I was thinking about the abstract lines that could be created by making a closeup of an arm or a leg.
Then after voicing my thoughts to Michael (my DH), he got me thinking on another track altogether. The passage of this life into another. I found a picture I had taken at a cemetery in Savanah, GA a few years ago that I liked. I was intrigued by this wall of very old, seemingly anonymous, tombstones.
The closeup picture is the one I decided to use for my Passage piece. I manipulated the picture in Photoshop to get the look I wanted. The next step is to transfer it to fabric. I decided to paint a piece of Kona cotton with Jaquard Textile Paints and Setacolor paints. I started with a light wash of color. After that dried, I painted a second layer with more intense colors. Next I will put it on my quilting machine and “draw” on it with black thread. It should get a very sketchy look.
I can’t wait to see how the quilting will turn out. Stay tuned for part II.