Nellie"s Needles

Friday, February 08, 2013

Unraveled VII

This piece has been brewing in my head for quite some time. Finally, it's being realized in materials to be one of my entries in our guild's upcoming quilt show.

First, I laid out silk fabric samples on a background of raw silk to see the effect. I liked it! So I went digging for the disc shaped "beads" I bought in Colorado last summer. Seeing those discs in the bead shop is what sparked the idea for this...

Then I got serious about the arrangement of hues ... to create a diamond shaped focal point with the yellows, plus arranging the others in a loose progression of hues...
Then I determined that another row was needed to balance out the proportion of the design made with the silk squares to the size of the background...
This is part of the "unraveled" series ... meaning yarns are part of the surface design. I'm always on the lookout for the yarn made in Nepal from recycled silk saris. This past year I found the two that are hanging to the sides in the photo above.

The background silk tussah has batting and a backing of upholstery fabric attached with a minimum of machine quilting. The silk fabric samples were kept the size they were already cut and have been sewn to the sandwiched background. Each silk square is individually stuffed on the surface, then the disc bead is hand stitched in place with mono filament thread. The variegated green silk sari yarn is couched around the squares that reflect the diamond pattern made by the yellow ones.
Stay tune for the next step ... the variegated gray silk sari yarn will be stitched around the other silk squares to fill the surface ... I think.

12 comments:

Barbara Strobel Lardon said...

It was worth the wait! This is again a winner. Will look wonderful along with the others in the series. It is sooo nice to see you back "at it" again.

Unknown said...

Love all that texture!! What a joy!

acasarella said...

Beautiful! (As usual ;)

Heather said...

I love this Nellie. That gorgeous woven silk background plus the rich colours of the squares gives a sumptuous feel and the hanging threads just top it all off. I love sari yarn too.

Kay said...

I love the colors of this! And it's such a,pleasure to see you back at work and to read about your creative process. I thought the way you described the color,arrangement was particularly interesting.

Cher said...

thank you for sharing your creative process.

p said...

so far so good..has a turkish feel..or some exotic land thing going on with that texture and color.

Unknown said...

oh my! This is so yummy and inspiring! The colors are fabulous, the textures are divine and being a former yarn junkie during my years as a weaver . . . be still my heart! can't wait to see the progress. I'm inspired!

June Calender said...

Fascinating and lovely -- love hearing about your process.

Rian said...

Beautiful so far--I just want to run my hands all over that glorious texture. Eagerly awaiting your next installment!

Pam Huggins said...

It is just gorgeous Nellie! I look forward to seeing the next step- even though it's wonderful as is.
I'm glad your energy is returning.

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