Sunday, January 12, 2014

Life is like an onion

I am a member of several international online groups because I like working in a small scale and having a theme. Recently I became a member of Stitched. With this group each member picks her theme and makes 4 quilts this year in the size of 12"x24". My theme for this year is circles. This may sound a bit boring, but you will see that interesting quilts can be made with a theme like this.
My first quilt for this group started with a visit to the super market. I needed a big onion. Okay, I admit, I love onion soup, but this one I needed for stamping. I sliced the onion in 2 parts and let it dry for a couple of days so that the separate rings show better. In the mean time I prepared the fabric. The centre of the quilt is made from a piece of snow dyed fabric with a big black border around it. 
When the onion had dried enough I applied a thin layer of decoulorant plus on top (gold and bronze) and placed my stamp on the fabric.
This proces I repeated till I had a pleasing arrangement of 'circles'. After the decoulorant had dried I ironed it - a very smelly process -, but I was happy with the result. The circles I quilted with a gold metallic thread following the rings as much as possible. The other part of the quilt I quilted with a wavy grid using blue and black thread. This is how the completed quilt looks like:
 And a detail shot:
And yes I should have used a lint roller to remove the cat hair :-)
For the title I found inspiration in a quote by Carl Sandburg: 'Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time and sometimes you weep.


3 comments:

Margaret said...

A very neat idea indeed, Wil. I really like this piece! I'm thinking an onion stamp would make great hay bales...

Ineke said...

Mooi, en wat ben je snel! Is het niet zo dat er 4 quiltjes gemaakt moeten worden of vergis ik me?

Unknown said...

LOVE LOVE LOVE this piece!! And if "circles" bring out such works of art as "lines" did...You will have an amazing collection!