For several years the Kansas Art Quilters, of which I am a member, created small quilts for the Fabri-Quilt booth at Quilt Market. The requirement, of course is that one must use just Fabri-Quilt fabric. It was an interesting thing to do, but some quilts were less successful than others. I never quite figured out if it was the limited fabric, the concept or a lousy quilt artist! This is one that I was very enthused about, but it doesn't work. My concept was to have a very plain , flat, sort of primitive chair as a background for a fancy hat covered with flowers. And I do have both of those elements.
I have always liked pieced backgrounds, but I didn't want a lot of color, so I just pieced, cut and re-pieced the fine black and white squiggly fabric to give a little more texture.
"Hat on a Blue Chair" Del Thomas 2004 31"W x 28"L(Thanks to Christine for the reminder that I had left this line off. Del 08-17-09)
The brim of the hat is attached to the crown, but is wired on the edge and loose all around so that it can be adjusted. I tried quite a few ribbons to dangle off the edge, but this was the best I could find without distracting from the flowers.
The flowers are fused and machine appliqued in a modern version of broiderie perse. I think they work great. It is just the combo of chair and hat that bothers me.
What do you think? How would you improve it? I doubt that I will do more work on it after all these years, but one never knows when a brainstorm will lead me to revisit a quilt.
4 comments:
Maybe some shadow so that the hat looks as though it is actually sitting on the chair instead of floating there?
Del,
I really like the hat on the chair. It reminds me of a hat my mother wore. It was woven straw with orange, pink, and red flowers. She wore hats well. How large is the quilt?
Gee, some good looking gals visiting my blog! Thanks for your comments. The quilt is 31"W x 26"L
Ah, that hat is so YOU, Del. I love it and I also like the chair, so I rather think it is the size of the quilt that may be the issue. I actually like this piece but I have a feeling the chair wants more space around it. If that is the case, there's probably not a lot you can do about it at this point.
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