Monday, April 28, 2008

A Little Bit of Vintage


Here's the 7th mini embroidered art quilt in my abstract series. My youngest daughter, who shares my love of sewing, declared this one to be her favorite. And at least one other person felt the same way, because it sold lickity-split! The black flower print is vintage, I believe from the 1930's.


I tend to hoard my vintage fabric, and only use it when I feel it is truly needed, (it's not like I can run to the store and buy more!) Below you can see that I used a strip of the same fabric in this illustration quilt I did 2 years ago. It may be hard to tell from the photo, but this quilt is completely covered in embroidery stitches, and is one of my personal favorites.


It's called "Walking to School in the Garden of Eden". It is semi autobiographical, and deals with the loss of innocence. The only part I have never been satisfied with is how I drew the snake in the grass, in the lower left panel. A bit to cartoonish, I just could not get it right. I used Tsukineko all purpose inks to color in the girl, the bird and the snake. They are wonderful as you have a lot of control over their application, and it is very easy to build up the color just so.


Other vintage elements in this piece include The red flowered fabric along the sides, the green fabric used for the flower petals, and the background is done on a vintage piece of feedsack. If you look closely you can see the printed text of the feedsack, but the embroidery stitches have somewhat obscured it. The button that represents the sun is also vintage, along with the crocheted buttons in the center of each flower.

13 comments:

Katie L. said...

Wow, you have such talent! And I think the snake is cute :)

Anonymous said...

Your work is really good. :)

gunnelsvensson said...

Yes, your work are always beautiful! And I also love vintage fabric, we have to be careful with these goodies, because it´s hard to find them!

picciolo said...

well done on the quick sale, I'm not surprised, it is beautiful! I love the vintage fabric
: )

Anonymous said...

Well your youngest has impeccible taste! Congrats on the sale!

Love the vintage fabric, I don't blame you for being protective of it! :)

Anonymous said...

You continue to blow me away.
I'm not surprised it sold so quickly, it's just gorgeous.

Sandra Evertson said...

Wow, love your work!
Sandra Evertson

High Desert Diva said...

I agree with your youngest daughter. Great color combo

Anonymous said...

Beautiful work! :) And I love the fact that bunnies visit your garden!! I would love to see some little ones.. though they better not touch my strawberries! :)

woolies said...

wow, awesome work! LOVE the vintage fabric, I would hoard it too...

Hey Harriet said...

These are beautiful & I'm not surprised about the super speedy sale! Hey that snake is sweet, I like it because it's a little cartoonish...far less frightening that way. I don't appreciate snakes as much when they're scary looking ;)

Unknown said...

Love your pretty blog! Thanks for checking out mine and adding it to your bloglist! I will add yours also. I love your whimsical sense of design and your blog name - so fun!

Mrs.French said...

Such talent! It is gray and yucky today, so I am a bit gray and yucky myself. A perfect day to check out your sweet, happy blog. Oh and your etsy shop is now one of my favorites. ;)