Sunday, October 28, 2012

the beginning is now a finish


I had so many ideas running through my head for this challenge -there are so many beginnings to think about.   I thought about alpha and omega, biblical beginnings, all kinds of cyclical ideas.  

On many of our hikes we see Nurse trees - I had given a lot of thought to the idea of creating an image based on this.  (Nurse trees are when a tree dies or falls and starts to decay, and a new tree starts growing out of it - a really fine example of a beginning and an end.)  But, I just couldn't come up with an image that really spoke to me, and it would have ended up being a very "green" piece again, and I wanted a change. 

I then thought about the seasons of a tree - the fresh greens of spring, the bright greens of summer, the mixture of colours in the fall, and then the bare bones of the branches in the winter, recuperating and getting ready to start the process all over again.  These and a few other cyclical ideas kept running around  and around.  

It was while looking for possible leaf fabrics that I pulled out the fabric that I had printed last spring in Halifax - I knew I had done some leaf printing and I was thinking I might use it.


But that's when I came across this and my idea changed completely

 - while the theme was beginnings and endings, a circle is all beginnings and endings - every point you pick can be the beginning or the end of your way around the circle.  I had my idea, and of course, it had to involve a lot of dense stitching!  Unfortunately, I ran out of time before the official reveal, so my reveal was still a beginning, but now the ending can be shown.
After finishing the quilting on my piece yesterday, I blocked it over night, trimmed and faced it today and voila - my finished "Circling Around"

Circling Around - Finished
Finished!

front detail2
lots of dense quilting


the back
the back (before trimming)
thank you for a very fun challenge Vicki!

Hand painted and printed fabric, Wonderfil thread on top (4 different colours), Decobob in the bobbin

7 comments:

  1. Gorgeous! you are such a master quilter. I love how everything evolved and the circles are a favourite of mine, however, I KNOW I couldn't quilt them like that!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, that is gorgeous- the colors, the quilting, it all flows together beautifully.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the colours and the quilting Janet! Wonderful Beginnings without an end!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful Janet! Your fabulous quilting really makes this piece, creating wonderful movement(growth) and texture.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Stunning! What a wonderful way to interpret Beginnings! You just want to keep looking around the piece and noticing not only the quilting, but the underlying printing as well. Stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The printed fabric by itself is wonderful, but the quilting makes it awesome. It was worth the wait.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am late to comment! Your interpretation is wonderful, your quilting is out of this world!

    ReplyDelete