Nellie"s Needles

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Beware Of The Cats

Another quilt from the African series.
Beware Of The Cats -37"x40" - 2004
This piece began as just a demonstration to share Ricky Tims harmonic conversion technique. I selected interesting fabrics just to see where they would take me. I had no idea it would be into this fantasy jungle.

The great aspect about this technique is that the strip sets can be combined any number of ways besides Ricky's prescribed formula. When I saw the tree trunks appear in this one I played with the arrangement to get the canopy of tree tops and a shadowed floor.
The large pieces of the fabric printed with animals ended up at the bottom. What little of that fabric was left got all the animals, birds, and circles cut out and hand-appliqued to the piece. I also added "natives" cut from a different fabric. The green aura around those figures fit right into the green and purple print.
If you look closely, you'll see the cats sneaking upon the beasts and the natives. Life is full of concealed and veiled surprises.
This piece is machine-quilted following the printed pattern on the back. The decorative threads were wound on the bobbin. A variegated rayon thread is used for the flowers and fronds and a heavy multi-colored metalic for the cats.

I added a hint of color to the flowers and fronds in the black border with oil stick pastels. Most of it is rubbed into (or off) and heat set into the fabric.

Exhibitions: 2004 Dogwood Arts Quilt Show (3rd place)
Knoxville, Tennessee

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8 comments:

marisa said...

lovely your conversion harmonic.I like Ricky Tims.

Anonymous said...

That technique is so versatile - I really do have to try it some day. Yours is one of the most interesting I have seen!

Joyce said...

I love the way this one turned out. I tried Ricky Timm's technique once but I need to get his book to understand it better. It is amazing what you have doen with it.

LuĂ­sa Silva said...

Very artistic composition. The mathalic threads look wonderful. I saw also Toonga quilt and is very beautiful too. I love the quilting idea to surround the printed pictures but not exatly on the border.

Unknown said...

This is a FUN quilt!! I love the Jungle cats you appliqued at the bottom.

Teodo said...

"BELLISSIMO" (beautiful)
the colour of this Ricky Tims are really harmonious. i really like it! Last summer I went to classes to learn this technique..I enjoied! It was so interesting! ciao, ciao.

Paulina Baeza Creadora Textil
hechoamano9@gmail.com @taller_muy_freak
said...

Nellie :great job,i sew a little of your blog,but i founded interestings things,you are a good artist.Then i come back. visit me and my dolls .Pauly.Chile.

Unknown said...

I really like the effect you get with the cats quilted from the back with the metallic threads. Subtle yet very effective!