Hand-dyed Skies

This is the large lake piece that was entered in the SMQ Guild show.

Lake #54 (29"x 27") - 2008

I thought you may like to see it before the paint and oil stick pastel work were added to it.
The collage part of these pieces is done with them laying flat on the table. I have an idea of the mood and kind of day while I'm building it with the fabric and thread scraps and roving. But it isn't until after the tulle is laid on top and the machine quilting secures all those tiny pieces that it can be put on the design board for me to see what is really going on. That is when I can see if there's need for added work to accentuate, or to obscure, or to add elements to the composition. The size of this large one dictated that a focal point was needed rather than just depicting a mood of the lake. That's why it has a sunset.

I wanted to make a small version of #54. This one has some of the elements and coloring of the larger one. However, even if it too had a sunset it would have a different mood ... a different moment in time ... a different set of memories.

Lake #55 (13"x 11") - 2008

It did not require additional work after it was quilted and viewed on the design wall.
Both of these lake quilts use pieces of this fabric for the sky that was hand-dyed and discharged by my friend, Gayle. This is the reverse side of it ... the side used in each one.
This is the right side of the scrap of the heavy cotton twill upholstery fabric given to me by one of my interior decorator friends. Gayle needed more fabrics for all the dye she had mixed up. Plus she was experimenting with discharge techniques at the same time.The next three lakes will get the rest of this fabric used for their skies. I wonder how they will be different from these two. Maybe I'll use the printed "right side" for one of them.