Whenever in the past I wanted to create soft edges in a quilt I either used sheers, discharge, paint or zapped some synthetic fabric. But for this lesson I decided to stick with regular cotton and thread. And I can only say that it is difficult to create this effect. For the background I wove 2 pieces of fabric - next to each other in the color wheel - so that they blended nicely. My first idea was to use other pastel colors for the applique, but they simply got lost because of lack of contrast. After some thinking I opted for an open applique. This I made more open by punching a gazillion little holes in it, so that the colors of the background showed through. This only got partly the effect I wanted. Time for drastic steps :-). Using the dark blue thread which I used for quilting the spiral I added lots of additional stitching way outside the shape of the spiral. I admit that I never have done something like this and don't know whether I will ever again do it, but I got the effect I wanted.
The empty space I had on this quilt I used for adding broken lines, 3 vertical and 2 horizontal. More time consuming, but I like how they look like. Looking at this quilt now it is finished I can say it is not the best I ever made, but I think I got the soft edges correct.
5 comments:
Wil, I like this piece very much. I think 'soft edges' can be interpreted in a variety of ways and you expressed that phrase very well in the use of curvy lines -- in your weaving, your stitching and the shapes of your applique. :-)
Are you kidding?? I love this piece. you hang onto that hole punch girl! What a great effect!
I like this a lot. I particularly like the effect you got with the weaving of the closely related fabrics and then the red, well I'm not sure what to call them. They are like brush strokes and very effectively frame your spiral.
mooi!
prachtig.
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