Taking the first step
Last week I shared the first step(s) of my journey creating Blue Dinghy. There is a natural path my creative journeys take. When I begin I am filled with enthusiasm and excitement. In fact those feelings are how I know the journey is worth taking.
However, another commonality of my creative journeys is the plunge off the cliff. This is when I am just as certain I have ruined my work and wasted my time. I wonder if this is why so many of my fellow creatives and I during the earlier years of creating, set projects aside and launch into the next project that catches our eyes. The most arduous part of the journey is having the courage, even chutzpah, to continue when everything is pointing to failure.
Facing a challenge
If you are an ardent fan of Ernest Shackleton, as my husband is, you will know one of his strengths was his ability to get others to join him and be brave against the odds. This is precisely how he and his crew survived against all odds when they were literarily frozen in place.
What took me by surprise and paralyzed me with fear when working on Blue Dinghy? Simple. I started quilting the sky. I wanted to capture the wispy coral hue of the sunrise where the sky meets the land. The more I coral thread added, the less I liked how it looked. However, I kept going. I am so glad I did. Much to my shock, as I continued quilting different sections, everything came together.
Surmounting a challenge
The variety of textures achieved with the quilting is one of the strengths of the piece. How many times I have I shared or read others say varying quilting density is crucial to getting motifs to pop and others areas recede? Too many to count. Still it is worth repeating.
I am linking up with Nina Marie’s Off the Wall Fridays.
Oh my gosh, Gwyned — that coral thread was a stroke of genius! I’m so glad you stuck with it, because you captured that essence of the early morning light so successfully. The thread is like rays of light stretching out from the horizon and it seems to go THROUGH the landscape rather than just sitting on top. It really looks fantastic.
You truly have me blushing, Grace. It is good to have my instincts to use thread to create the dawn light reflecting on wispy clouds was the right choice.
I’m rather in love with the back of this one. Maybe display it so both sides can be seen?
I shared the back, Joanna, precisely because I loved the ghost image it created. However, I shared it before adding the facing, a hanging sleeve and label. As you can imagine much of the back side stitching is now obscured. Perhaps I will apply you idea to future piece. I’ve always been tempted to try my hand at a two sided quilt.
LOVE IT!!!
Very kind, Mary. Thank you!