A different angle to inspiration from nature...

The second project of our Transitions group was to make a background of strips and do something with it....!     

On one of our trips, Willem and I stayed at the Riebeek Valley Hotel in Riebeek West.   Walking around the beautiful gardens, I was taken with the bark of a huge pine tree and took photographs as inspiration for maybe one day.....     While putting my fabrics together for our next project, somehow this image of the bark kept coming back to me...    I decided that I was ready to use this photograph as inspiration for my second art quilt.

Bark of a pine tree - photo taken in Riebeek West

I prepared a piece using strips of cotton, taffeta, upholstery fabric and even peach skin in various widths.    Quite a variety of fabrics indeed!    I singed some of the edges with a candle to give it interesting edges and lines before stitching it together.  Somehow I worked in the same colour range as Tranformation - Glow Beyond the Scorched Earth.....    

I started work on this quilt while I was also working on Transformation - Glow Beyond the Scorched Earth.    It was so much easier to work on this piece - maybe I had made the transition to a different way of working....    I added more strips of singed chiffon, taffeta and even tulle to the foundation piece as part of the embellishment and stitched hand embroidery stitches in a very random way using variegated perle no 8 threads.   I also couched cords and recycled silk yarns to the piece.    I finished the embellishment with motifs which I made from copper wire and other metal pins used for making earrings as well as a variety of glass and metal beads.....

Centre panel of Transformation - An Ode  to Trees 2009

We were discussing discharging of fabric at one of our meetings and I started experimenting with odd pieces of black fabric and were absolutely thrilled with the result.   I promptly used two pieces for the side panels of the quilt and bought a lovely piece of screen printed fabric from Pam Stallabrass which was just perfect for the top section of the quilt (although I used the reverse side of the fabric)....    The pieces of fabric lent itself to a Kimono shape quilt.....    

I made fabric beads to use in a fringe for the bottom of the quilt mixed with wooden and metal beads.   On one of our trips, I collected quills of porcupines which were run over while trying to cross the road in a remote area...    I desperately wanted to use some of the quills in this quilt.....     As the beaded fringe at the bottom were quite bulky, I added beads hanging from T-section with porcupine ends secured with copper wire which seemed to balance the bottom fringe.     The quilt was machine quilted and the edges were secured without bindings which added more texture.

Side section using discharged black fabric and porcupine quill ends  finishing the beading.

Beaded fringe at bottom of quilt

I gave this quilt to my daughter Elizabeth.    While shopping for beads, I found small little copper coins with the image of Elizabeth I and had to buy it....!    I embellished some of the fabric beads with the little coin, truly a quilt for the namesake...!

The centre panel of this quilt is heavily stitched and embellished with beads etc...    I believe it is a fine art to know when to stop embellishing as too much can also spoil a wonderful piece of work.    My motto is when in doubt, don't or stop!    

I named the quilt Transformation - An Ode to Trees.    Transformation as I was still in the process of adapting to this new way of quilting and because I used so much of the same fabric as Glow Beyond the Scorched Earth.   I also worked on these two quilts at the same time, it almost felt like quilts in a series.     As my initial inspiration was the photograph of the tree bark which I took in Riebeek West, I had to pay tribute to trees .....

Transformation - An Ode to Trees 2009

My realistically themed quilts were all inspired by nature -  so it was an interesting challenge to use an element from nature to create this quilt....!     I felt very blessed to have created these two Transformation  quilts.......