"I begin with an idea ... and then it becomes something else"
~ Picasso

Sunday 28 June 2009

Tropical Caribbean Art Quilt - WIP

I've been working on my art quilt (with the Dominican Republic foliage theme) today, adding some machine quilting with green tonal quilting cotton, stitching palm trees and leaves. The shade of my quilting cotton is appropriately called "foliage". I had to stop to fill a new bobbin so I took a picture of some of the colours














This is the quilt pieced together "my way". I'm not a traditional quilter and I am in awe of all the talented quilters out there who do it properly! I do it "by eye" and the pieces are all different sizes. I prefer to work this way because it holds a bit more interest for me personally

It's a bit creased here where it's been folded but it still needed to be pushed and pulled through the sewing machine so I didn't worry!


















The rest of these pictures show a bit more detail. Most of the fabrics are hand dyed by me using silk paints and there are some pre-printed cottons in there too














The images are from photographs I took in Dominican Republic, photocopies of maps, stamps, bank notes or postcards. I transferred the images to cotton using Dylon Image Maker. I used both methods of Dylon Image Maker. Some of the images were transferred using the paste method which gives a matt finish. Some were transferred by printing the image to Image Maker printer paper then ironing it onto the fabric. This second method is much quicker than the first but gives a glossy finish which I'm not so keen on







































In this picture I used a stamp, a photocopy of a map of Dominican Republic and a photograph of pink and green tropical leaves



























The images here are tropical fruits from a market stall, a photo I took of a painting of a stralizia plant. The painting was on the wall of our hotel room and I thought the colours worked in well with the quilt. At the bottom there is a green parrot, a native bird of Dominican Republic, a photograph of a yellow flowering plant and some tiny little orange flowers which I pressed and trapped under plastic and sewed to the top of the quilt















In this one some of the images are repeated but you can see a traditional Dominican Republic house, a shack painted bright yellow. Some of the houses are so vibrant and zingy! The crocodile was on the front of a menu book and the palm tree trunks were a photograph I took in the gardens of our hotel. On the far right are more palm trees in sunset colours































This one features some Taino art masks that were hanging up outside a shop















A great variety of tropical fruits available on a market stall














Detail of the yellow flowering plant. It was a little like a hydrangea but lovely orangey/yellows














Here you can see the menu book with the croc on it!














This one shows the palm trees and yellow house in a little more detail and also part of a bank note which I photocopied and transferred to fabric




























A tropical plant with green and pink foliage


















At the bottom you can see some native Taino art designs - a fish and a circle. I bought a small piece of original Taino art which I photocopied and transferred to fabric. The original piece was made by using a flour/water paste resist on canvas before being painted and varnished














I've almost finished machine stitching, adding applique and hand stitching - so I'll show you the completely finished quilt very soon!

7 comments:

imac said...

What a great kaleidoscope of colours and what a wonderful reminder of your holiday. You've given me some ideas for our upcoming trip. I'll look forward to seeing this stitched.

imac said...

Sorry - imac is my DH it should say Julie (Mixed Media) Doh!

arlee said...

Carolyn, this is looking superb! And as for the "right way", if you are happy with what you are doing, THAT *is* the "right way"!!!! Your quilt, your rules :}

konnykards .. Musings of a Senior Citizen said...

I love every bit of this and especially love "your way" of doing things! Connie. x

Sharne Gregory said...

What a lovely tropical feel your work evokes, I cant wait to see it finishd.

Annica said...

A scrapquilt! Great idea! I might have to make one myself... Love the colours!

Shelley Whiting said...

Your quilts are amazing. You are very inventive with your fabrics. I especially love the way you use photographs in your fabrics. I agree with the person above about the tropical feel to your fabric. It's very intelligent, beautiful and multicultural.