Cathedral Visions – UFO
I’m working on getting my studio cleaned up, since I have a studio tour coming up… in April! OK, maybe that seems like a lot of time, but I need it to be ready. The studio tour is one way that we’re raising money for the LaConner Quilt and Textile Museum through StashFest. Different artists are offering studio tours which people can purchase as and “Insider Visit” at StashFest. So I’m really motivated to get my studio in tip-top shape.
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| Cathedral Visions – designed and machine pieced by Christina Fairley Erickson |
Part of cleaning up is to go through my UFO’s and figure out what I need to finish them off… or if I should even bother. Sometimes a project just doesn’t speak to you anymore. If that’s the case, let it go. There are plenty of groups who make charity quilts who would love your unfinished bits and pieces. It’s quite a relief to give things away. Give yourself permission to get rid of pieces that you really don’t want anymore. Many people are even selling partially completed items on eBay… then they can take their earnings and go get more fabric!
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| My original drawing from my photograph |
So, here is today’s UFO: Cathedral Visions. I started this quilt for a show (Sacred Spaces) but didn’t finish it on time… so it was put on a shelf and has sat there about 2 years. It is completely machine pieced (not appliqued) and I made all the fabrics myself (hand-dyed and painted.)
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| Each section was numbered to cut out the pieces |
I’ve done quite a bit of traveling and this comes from a photo of an inside of a cathedral which I took. The values represent the darks from all the beams and shadows of the convoluted spaces, as well as the light coming through some stained glass windows.
I’m sure you can see the challenges this piece presented when looking at all those curves and sharp angles!
While I like this piece, I feel like it doesn’t entirely work somehow. I can’t quite get my finger on it… I know that adding freemotion quilting will help it to a certain extent. I’ll be checking Leah Day’s FreeMotion Quilting Project for inspiration.
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| Detail view of Cathedral Visions |
I’d love any comments, critique and feedback you might offer!
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Oh, by the way, I am a new follower.
That is a beautiful art quilt. Very inspirational to other quilters like myself. Stopping by from Free Motion Quilting.
Wonderful… I'm stopping by your blog next!
I think the megenta background is coming forward and the beam fabric is too pale and is not looking like beams. If it were my piece I would be applying paint or ink to the beam print to have it read more solid. I do hope you finish it and post it here on the UFO site.
I agree with Joni, what is wrong with the piece is that you don't see the beams as beams. They need to be darker. This is one piece where paint would make a lot of sense.
I also think that just to get the piece under control you need to put a border on it. You can cut most of the border off once it is quilted, but I think it just needs it so you can handle it while free motion quilting.
And I agree with you. Doing quilting on this is going to change it, a lot. Hum…another suggestion from one of my Craftsy teachers. She hated one of the fabrics on a quilt and use the quilting thread color to change how one sees that part of her quilt. It might work for you too.
Thanks for the feedback. I see what you mean with the magenta… all the other colors are muted.
I agree that paint will be a good way to change it to make it work better. I completely changed a UFO a couple years ago by painting over it. At the time I started making it, I was fairly new to dyeing and painting my own fabric and wanted to use what I'd made… not necessarily what would work best for the piece. I think by adding some paint and then quilting in to create more depth, the piece will improve. Thanks for your critique!