If Monet had a French Poodle...

"A FRENCH Poodle in Monet's garden"  12" X 12"  

The Stat project this time was to make a quilt inspired by the artist Claude Monet. The size must be 12 " square, and the quilt made with an emphasis on textures. 

How would you approach this challenge? 

This is the 10th artist we've studied, see  list of STAT pictures here

I usually study technique, and try to interpret an aspect of their techniques but this time I wanted to capture his waterlily paintings with bridges, and focused on content. I also researched quotes and fell in like with his words.

I knew the components would be flowers, willows, a bridge and a poodle. I found a collection of monet inspired fabrics and the sheer hand-dyed I used for the sky. What I didn't know was that the sheer would bubble up when I pressed it to the fusible interfacing. The poodle was a crystal studded embroidery applique from Joann's. The bridge was ribbon sewn down with a straight stitch.

 Sometimes I don't want to over think, or over plan a piece, and I work quickly to keep the creativity flowing. This was one of those times. The ribbon curled a bit, and I didn't plan the placement but didn't want it centered as I wanted to see if some kind of perspective or surprise emotion emerged from working freely.
I free motion quilted the piece first with metallic threads, sometimes vertically, sometimes circular waterlily shaped.

As I told you in the first post (HERE or keep reading) I felted some roving to add flowers. That didn't work, so I deconstructed some yarn and piled up a colorful bit, and using mylar thread I zigzagged over the lumps to bring texture to the flowers.

You can't tell in the photo but the sky fabric is just so shimmery and sparkling as are the threads.

The willow branched hang loosely, free to move around.

The binding on sides was hand whipped to back. The top and bottom, I left extra fabric in place to pull to the back, turn under and whipstitch to backing.
I printed out some quotes onto prepared fabric and the BrushScript font. This became my label.

 I cut out this quote, "Color is my daylong obsession, joy, and torment" sewed ribbon around it, then appliqued it to the back of the quilt.

Speaking of backs, I do try to use somewhat pretty fabric on the backs of quilts. It goes against the grain to use up pretties on the back but this came out of the overfull scrap bin and the flowers soooo fit.

I hope you enjoyed the latest STAT quilt. We have several more to go. At the end I'll have 12 quilts.


Please continue reading for another post on how threads and fabrics were chosen and what they looked like before the choices were made.
Remember you can see at a few other STAT quilts from the link listed above or label on side ==>

When you make an original composition, it's all about decision making. From which fabrics establish a mood, to size of pieces, whether to border, what to include or not, how to achieve a component, how to quilt and bind it. Then embellishments. It's sometimes uncomfortable in the process but very rewarding to see something come from bits and pieces!
 I hope you spend some time today creating something from your heart.