Music- Beverly

 'Digital'

Hand dyed cotton, machine quilted hand embroidered

This piece started in my head.  I thought about the many aspects of music- structure, represented by the treble and bass bars, notes, and other 'letters', which I saw as straight lines.  Then there are the curved, rolling lines, representing the flow of the music as it moves through me.  That was my starting place.

I rooted through my stash, looking for fabric that spoke to me with those thoughts in mind.  I found this piece that I did last summer.  I liked the straight lines of the rust against the petrol green background.  I kind of reminded me of the readout of an echocardiogram- but hey, heart's have a beat too, right?

I machine quilted it with curved, flowing lines- or at least attempted to.  Working on this piece told me how rusty my free motion skills have gotten.  It was not easy.

 

After the machine quilting, I hand embroidered the 'notes.  I wanted to use perle cotton, but couldn't find any in the color I needed, so it ended up being three strands of embroidery cotton.  That gave me the accents I wanted.

If the proportions of this piece look different than the others, that is because they are.  I did not realize until I was almost done that it is 12 X 20, not 16.  By the time I realized it, it was too late to do anything about it, and I aure didn't have the energy to re-do it.  So, it is what it is.  Hopefully, my creative energy and mojo will return with the spring and warmer weather.

I showed this to my son, asking him what he saw.  He said it looked like a digital music file- hence the name!  So, that told me I'd been successful in conveying my idea, at least from a modern perspective!