March JQC2006

This month's Journal Quilt was inspired by the works of Utagawa Hiroshige. I know I had seen his work before but never really paid that much attention to it. After discovering Debra's Journal Quilt Challenge, I joined About.com and found a discussion about an ArtImage Challenge. It turns out that Debra was involved in that as well. Recently she moved over to DelphiForums and hosts a forum called Quilt Studio. Stop by and check it out. Debra has done a wonderful job of setting up and managing the folders: Design Discussion, Study Groups, Challenges, How to's, etc. (Thanks, Debra) Information about the ArtImage Challenge can be found there. In January, Sophie proposed a print by Hiroshige for the winter challenge. It was a lovely print and in my typical in-the-moment enthusiasm I researched Hiroshige. The man was prolific, worked in series and experimented with new techniques. What an inspiration! I sketched some ideas and then, also typical of how I work, I did nothing.

By the second week of March, in a panic (because I had procrastinated starting both the Journal Quilt and the ArtImage pieces), I went back to the works of Hiroshige and found an 1855 print, Navaro Rapids (aka Rough Seas at Awa) done as part of a series called the Famous Views in the Sixty-odd Provinces. Hiroshige's work were block prints and in his later years worked with a publisher Uoya Eikichi on prints of finest quality and adventurous techniques: true gradation of color; adding mica for iridescent effect; embossing; fabric printing; blind printing; glue printing for a glittery effect.

I thought about making a block print and printing on fabric. Instead, I started by tracing a rough outline of the image onto fusible web (the paper side), next I used Fabrico pens and added color to the drawing (on the bondable web.) Next I ironed the fusible web to a piece of silk, took off the paper backing and ironed that directly onto a piece of wool batting. The combination of materials and a hot iron produced a nice effect - kind of like ripples which works nicely in this piece. I added a little more color to the top of the silk and did some decorative threadplay. The piece "finished" smaller than I had intended and I really didn't want to add a fabric border, so...

I remembered I had a collection of odds and ends sewing supplies that my mother sent to me after my grandmother had died twelve years ago. I've hardly touched it, but I've held onto lace, zippers, rickrack, buttons, and calico prints. I settled on the buttons, sorted and selected ones that I thought would work. In addition to the buttons, I finished the piece by adding some seed beads. I'm calling this piece "Red Tide" and soon I'm going to get back to the ArtImage challenge but first...

I find this image of dinoflagellates so fascinating. It kind of reminds me of Cat Bordhi's Jester Tentacle bag pictured on the front cover of her book The Second Treasury of Magical Knitting (hat and bag at 9 &10 o'clock positions resp.) I bought the book recently so I could make the Fringed Bowl (5 o'clock) but now I may have to figure out how to make a Dinoflagellate Bowl!