Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Hibiscus Haven is Done!

My Motivation
Persistence, faith and gumption is what it takes me to go from idea to completion of an artwork. When I start a new work it seems brilliant. That is the hook that motivates me to begin.  Somewhere in the middle a combination of panic and drudgery take over. The panic is due to whether I will be able to pull off a successful composition. The drudgery comes from the shear repetition of piecing and stitching that is a natural process of making the fiber art that speaks to me. Once I consider a work finished, as I do with Hibiscus Haven, my confidence, that dipped in the middle returns. There is the shear relief of completing the piece from beginning to end. There is also the sense, that yes, this will do. I have another work to add to my website and hang in galleries.

Hibiscus Haven is Done!


Detail Showing Floating Leaves and Binding Finish
Hibiscus Haven is my own design. However, Leah Day's genius in coming up with 365 different free motion quilting designs needs to be mentioned here. Her designs are my bible when selecting a motif to quilt into the background. I used her Floating Leaf pattern in Hibiscus Haven. Prior to Quilting Along with Leah, I probably would have done a small scale version of the design. However, now I am able to modify the scale of my free motion quilting, I chose to do this at a medium scale. I wanted the scale of the quilted leaves to match the appliquéd leaves. Another nod to Leah, is that I have always created bias binding and hand stitched it down on the backside of the quilt. Since, I had used the button hole stitch with the appliquéd leaves and hibiscus, I opted to use the button hole stitch to secure the binding to the front of the quilt, a method that Leah endorses.

12 comments:

  1. Awesome Gwyned! You've done a wonderful job busting through both the panic and drudgery (and, yes, I know exactly where you're coming from). Pat yourself on the back for pushing beyond your comfort zone!

    Leah

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    1. Always good to hear from you, Leah. Thank you for providing me and others with so many glorious designs and tutorials.

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  2. Great leaves! Between the quilting and the pieced green squares, the background of this quilt has a lot of depth.

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    1. Thank you, MC. One of the aspects of creating quilt art that appeals to me is how rich the background can be between fabric choices and thread work.

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  3. Gwyned, this is beautiful!! I love this. Your quilting looks amazing. Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Thank you, Sherri, for the kind comments. My free motion quilting has come a long way since I first attempted it over 15 years. Leah's Quilt Along has given me a few tips that I have found particularly helpful to nudge me along the free motion quilting journey.

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  4. Absolutely inspiring I love it.

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    1. Thank you, Sam. My recent vacation to the Canadian Rockies resulted in many pictures of wildflowers. I feel a series coming on...

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