Monday, October 21, 2019

Arthur Revealed

Wow!  Has it really been 8 months since my last blog post?  I have so much quilty news to share, but first I have to reveal my latest work in progress.

In 1969 Arthur Gmeiner gifted the Gmeiner Arts and Cultural Center to the town of Wellsboro PA and I am lucky enough to "work" there part-time as a docent.  In celebration of it's 50th birthday, I seized the opportunity to try a new quilting technique and started working on this mosaic quilt, based on a self-portrait that Arthur painted in 1972.  The top is now pieced and waiting for me to figure out how I want to quilt it...  


I learned so much from this project, and there are definitely things I would do differently next time, but that's what learning is all about.

One of the quilters whose work I admire (adore!) is Timna Tarr.  She has perfected this technique she calls Stitched Mosaic and has just completed a series of 12 barnyard animal quilts that is just amazing.  Click here to see them all.  I saw her do a demo of this technique on The Quilt Show and couldn't wait to give it a try.  This seemed like a good opportunity, so here's my first attempt.

I started with a poster size enlargement of a picture I took of Arthur's painting, then overlaid a clear vinyl 2" diagonal grid, and proceeded to build the quilt, one 2" square at a time.  Here is a pic of the photo and overlay pinned to my design board.


The hardest part for me was deciding which fabrics to use where.  You approach each square separately and hope and pray that they will all blend well when they're sewn together at the end.  This pic shows part of the quilt assembled.


I added Arthur's initials to his pocket hankie...


... and I thought it was interesting that his eyes seem to follow me, whether I took the picture from the left or the right.



And here's a couple of close-ups.  I'm not totally happy with how his facial features turned out, but from a distance it's ok.  And it's not quilted yet, so that will change the final appearance too.



The next three pictures show the process of creating a single 2" square.





I'm already looking forward to trying another one in the future so I can improve on what I learned this time.

Once I finish quilting this I'll share final pictures and also try to get caught up telling you about all the other exciting quilting news from the last 8 months!  There's alot to share!

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