In 2011, our local Dias Quilters' Guild celebrated their 25th birthday. To celebrate this, there was a Guild challenge to make a piece depicting "25"! When I first heard about this challenge, I wondered what on earth to create... As I was sitting at the Guild meeting listening to the speaker, my eyes caught my bangle and immediately I got excited, all within minutes. Willem gave me this bangle on our 25th wedding anniversary in 2006 and as it was our 34th wedding anniversary yesterday, I thought it a good time to share...
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| Silver, freshwater pearl and gemstone bangle, inspiration for my interpretation of 25. |
Back to the bangle. At the time I was so caught up with other projects that I did not have time to transform my idea into a project. I normally make rough sketches of ideas, some ideas are good, others not. Somehow this sketch kept popping up in my mind and begged to be made.
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| Rough sketch for 25 |
I loved the concept and decided to make a cushion cover instead of a quilt as I needed new scatter cushions. A background of fused horizontal strips in neutral shades was prepared, grading the fabrics from light to medium shades. I selected a variety of rusty browns and greys for the diagonal shapes (the pearls) and fused it onto the background. A variety of colours in silk was used for the round shapes (gemstones) and fused into position. Only the strips were carefully cut as the base fabric had to be covered. The rectangular and round shapes were cut freehand as I wanted it to look a bit uneven like the silver casings moulded around the pearls and gemstones of the bangle.
I used a feather stitch on the sewing machine to join the strips and the shapes were stitched using the free motion raw edge applique technique in a variety of variegated threads.
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| 25 completed in 2014 |
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| Close-up of the stitching of 25 |
At the moment I'm working on a very special exhibition, more about that at a later stage.... Until then, happy stitching!
