This is my quilt for my new Internet Art Quilt group, The Material Mavens. Our group is made up of 12 art quilters from the East Coast to the West, down to Texas, and across the Atlantic to Scotland. We make 12"x 12" quilts based on themes chosen in turn by our members. Our first theme was Harmony.
I debated many ideas and designs before finally settling on this one. Here I sun-printed the Chinese characters for harmony on some fabric that I had just painted, using a combination of two blues and black, acrylic fabric paint. To do this, I cut out the characters from craft foam and laid them onto the background and then placed the fabric in the sun. As hot as it's been, and as bright as the sun, the printing process took very little time.
Then I cut out from commercial fabrics the Yin-Yang and fused first and then appliqued it with a small zig zag stitch to the background. Next from some lovely Asian-themed commercial fabrics I cut out two Koi, whose tails and bodies just fit each side of the Yin-Yang. I used the same fusing and applique methods as before.
I backed the quilt with some blue fabric that is printed with Chinese characters--who knows what words are used there! I used the pillow case method of finishing the edges.
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| a close-up view of the sun-printed Chinese characters for Harmony |
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| A close up of my two koi |
The back of my quilt
