Do you ever look at some of your finished art works and think "I wish I had done so and so"? I was looking at my Screen Door piece and wondering why I left a notch sticking out on the side. I liked it when I did it, but as it sat hanging in my studio, I liked it less and less. It was an easy fix to cut it off and resew the edge shut. So that is exactly what I did. Here is its photo before and after its surgery.
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The next quilt (my rock cairn quilt called Rise) went through more of a struggle. I didn't like the plant that I had sewn onto one of the rocks and I liked even less the way I had sewn roots onto the rock. It took hours to rip out all the little stitches. But I got them out successfully. Then I decided I didn't like the painting on the rock either. I had enough fabric leftover to cut out another rock and I sewed it on top of the other one. Then I researched plants and decided on sewing a lichen so I sketched out several and finally got one I liked. I cut it out of fabric leftover from one of the other rocks and painted its tips the color of rust. I sewed the lichen on a different rock and this time, for its roots, I mimicked the pattern I used in the sun. To me, this looked so much better than before. Aren't we lucky that we can rip things off and do over?
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I have a third quilt I want to make over, but I'm not sure it's possible on that one. Maybe I'll take it to my art group for an evaluation and see what they think.
On the more fun side, I made an Artist Trading Card for an upcoming class I'm taking with Pat Pauly. I like to trade with other artists. I started with a background of some of my monoprinted fabric, which I included on the reverse side. I sewed sari silks and a tag from the inside of a garment. Then I did some stitching with black thread which I love to do on my quilts.
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| Artist Trading Card |
I'm linking this to
Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments to let the artists know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.
I love Screen Door - and agree with your decision to alter that edge! This was a really interesting post - I enjoyed looking at your pieces and thinking about what I would have done in your place, and then seeing what you did and why. Thanks for sharing the process.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kaja. It was a little scary ripping away at the rock cairn quilt because I didn't want to damage it in the process. But I worked slowly and it went well and I think it was worth it.
DeleteI think you were definitely right to alter the edge of the screen door; the piece sticking out looked too insignificant. Nice job with the rocks piece.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Maggi. I knew I was right in redoing the rock quilt when it was done and I looked at it and exhaled an Ahh, yes. A minor change, but, for me, an important one.
DeleteYou were very brave to alter a finished quilt, but the results were worth it.
ReplyDeleteI just can't leave things alone once I get an idea in mind.
DeleteIts funny how as we evolve as artists we look at our work and want to change it. makes sense that we would want to. Your changes are great but the originals were good as well. the main thing is how you want it. like nina says we (or at least most of us) make our quilts to please ourselves first.
ReplyDeleteI think you hit the nail on the head. I evolved since I made the original works. I'm glad I was able to change them without damaging them. There is one more I want to change but it's impossible so I have to live with it as it is.
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