The devil is in the detail

Week 37

I just can't get the look I want with this dragon.  So far three attempts have ended up in the bin.  I've tried it with various backgrounds and ended up with the one I tried first off.  The problem is I'm trying to show that I can only get a glimpse of this dragon's personality.  It seems to be all in it's tail.  I have used shear fabrics to try and show that the image keeps fading on me. ( I took the photo image and printed it onto this fabric.)  The only clear thing about it is the curves of it's body, that I have tried to show with the quilting and that reptilian tail.

I have dyed the tail fabric and then highlighted the details with coloured pencils.  I don't know why it is green somehow or other I just couldn't see any other colour.  If I had more time I think I would have used sequins on that tail as the scales.  But at this point I'm over it.  I feel it is only the tail that escaped out of the stone where that dragon is trapped.

Week 33

Looking at those carvings there is a flower that is repeated in several different styles.  It is a simple 6 petal design that is repeated many times over the whole of the pagoda.

 

I took this simple flower shape and drew it in various sizes and scattered them across the page.  I then defined this in a 6" square.

To keep some sort of continuity I selected batik fabrics in a range of colours.  Outlining the shapes in a satin stitch and quilting the background with close circles of various sizes.  I used the same background fabric as week 31.

I think that this same concept could be used for a small quilt top .

Week 32

One day late but finished.  This is another of the wood carving designs and I have used the bobbin technique again.  I seem to be getting better control of my machine using this technique but I think it will be sometime yet before I am really comfortable with it.

The design I started with has changed quite a bit with the re-drawing of it.

I had to come up with a design which I could stitch without stopping stitching too many times.  I will have to do something about my drawing.  I manage to squash the drawing every time.  Actually I'm surprised that my stitching is so like my drawing, I suppose that is a plus? 
The other thing I have tried to do is use a totally different colour scheme that is completely alien to the wood.  I have a thing for that blue at the moment, so using that is a bit of an indulgence.

Time to think about the next design.

Week 31

This is the second in the designs taken from the wood carvings that decorate the pagoda and it has taken the strangest direction.  I was going to bobbin stitch all these designs but this one had different ideas.

 

I was going to stitch a repeat pattern but when I looked at the detail this flower reminded me of an Art Deco design.  Looking closely at the background I saw dots, then when I looked again it took on a life of it's own.  I have appliqued the design onto a spotty background and ended up outline quilting it.  This flower just said "do what I tell you".

Week 26 - The half way point

Yes 6 months have elapsed since I began this challenge.  I am surprised that I have been able to keep at it.  But they do say that if you do a thing long enough it will turn into a habit.

This week I continue with the goddess of compassion.  I have decided to make the aquamarine colour the connective element it these pieces.  I looked at the statue and found her feet beautiful to contemplate.  I know that sounds strange but the more I looked at the detail the more serene I found them. 

Every time I am in the Pagoda there are always people coming and going.  Tourists, passers by, the curious and non ever seem to take the time to contemplate the beauty of the place.  It is, just take a quick look, a photo and then on with our lives.  To represent this I used the modern shoe fabric. I kept the blue fabric continuous, to show the length of time the statue represents and the shoe fabric disjointed, like our modern day lives.

I found trying to outline the design on the legs very difficult because of the size.  Perhaps I should have just drawn this in and I used the aquamarine thread to out line the legs to represent a sort of aura.

week 25

I have now turned my attention to a dusty sculpture that sits behind a very scratched perspex cover in a dark corner of the pagoda.  It is in a difficult position to get photos of, yet, the more I look at it the more I see in the detail.  So, it fits this challenge.  It is called the Lokewesaar Goddess and is an icon important to Tibetan Buddhism.  She is also known as the Goddess of compassion.  I just can not get a photo of the complete statue and I can not find an image that does it justice.

She has many faces and it is the huge number of arms that first catch your attention.  When you look at the hand there is a design on the palm which is supposed to be an eye for her to see all the suffering in the world.

Aquamarine is the colour of compassion.  This week I have used that colour as my background and on this I have placed two of the hands and drawn the 'eye' on the palm of each.

 

Week 24

Well this is it for the bamboo, the last one.  I was a bit ambitious here.  I wanted to recreate the chaos that is the inside of the bamboo grove.  It is a mess.  Stems going in all directions and leaves everywhere, yet, there is a wild sort of organisation here. 

 

Doing this challenge drives me crazy, but, I learn something new each week.  This week I used a piece of green fabric I had dyed for the background.  What I should have done is quilt the bamboo leaf pattern before I did the applique.  Working in a 6" square I found quilting amongst all the shapes trying.  I also had to settle for a representation not an exact copy.  There were just too many shapes and layers in the original photo.  Still, I'm not unhappy with the result.

Week 21

Another view of the bamboo.  When I looked closely there were so many variations of colour in the main stems, from almost white through to black brown.

In an effort to replicate the striations I attempted a little dyeing with various levels of success.  So, I used some of my hand dyed fabric and some commercial ones.  I then used a little white fabric paint to get some highlights.  The white fabric gave me the most grief. 

As the colours of the fabric were the focal point I have kept the quilting to the background, outlines and some shadows.

week 19 again

Well I have managed to get it finished,  but it changed!  I found once I had appliqued those stars that there was too much open space.  I think I should have made those original stars larger.  So, I needle turned smaller stars between the reverse applique stars.

 

I don't know if it's because I'm tired or because I did some of the quilting in a metallic thread but I just can't seem to get a good straight on shot of this piece.  I have tried with two different cameras without much success.

The hand stitching took most of the day and I like needle turn applique far better than the reverse technique.  But both have their place and you can get differences in heights.  But working on shapes that are so small and trying to get sharp corners is a pain.  I think I will go back and quilt the triangles in the corners caused by putting this on point.

Week 18

This week came around before I was ready for it.  I had so many commitments during the week but it surprises me that I keep thinking what I will do with this challenge.  I have still kept my source of inspiration the screen from the pagoda but this time I have turned it into an applique block.

I have kept to the 6" block which made the petals quite fiddly.  I think it would have been better as a 10'' or 12'' block but it is a simple design that could be made in a number of fabrics which would change the look of it.  Also if the block was bigger you could do different things with the quilting in the background. I have drawn the pattern with my CAD drawing program, I bet all the engineers would be horrified to see me using it to draw flowers.

I used three of the fabrics that I used in weeks 16 and 17 to keep some kind of continuity.  I think that I will try this design in other fabrics .

 The petals are made up of both of the above fabrics and I have used a saddle stitch to highlight the centre.