I toyed with a wide range of ideas and kept circling around the shelter of a mother's care and a sheltered life (not unexpected ideas from a geographically single mother trying to balance how much to expose her kids to or not). The concepts in my head didn't match what my hands were willing to do though. Finally, about a week ago, I was looking out the window at some very dramatic clouds moving over the mountains towards us, and decided to just keep it simple.
Log cabin construction reinforces the house/shelter and a contrast of warm colors for the house with cool, stormy colors for the outside hopefully tells the story. I had a lot of fun finding meaningful "stormy" fabrics like the swirling leaves, puddled water, driving rain, and of course, storm clouds. If the Japanese ones at the top look familiar it's because they were a gift from Jude of Spirit Cloth, who has also used them to great effect in her own dramatic work.
12 comments:
I love how you have used the fabrics to evoke a story. And the log cabin pattern works perfectly for this, doesn't it? And there, sheltering, is the quintessential Kristin house!
great!!, the fabric looks great and this piece will be wonderful! i love it.
Your fabric use is wonderful, Kristin! And I love the simplicity of that snug little house in the center of the tempest.
Love the fabrics. They are so perfect for a storm. I can feel the driving rain, the wind and the waves. And your home is so warm and enviting in the midst of it all.
Another wonderful piece! I just love the turmoil of thes storm raging around that calm, warm center. Perfect. I don't know if it is intended, but I really get the sense of your being on an island, totally surrounded by wind and weather and water.
Kristin,
Your simple house just glows from the center of the storm swirling around it. I love the contrasts here -- light and dark, peace and swirling storm, the lines and soft shapes. I'm especially impressed at how with your fabric choices the piece directly conveys a "dark and stormy night". It's interesting to me how the house looks like a calm, contained piece of safety -- an island -- among dark and rough waters. Gee, think this reflects anything about your recent move?! It's just great. Love those rainy stitching lines, too.
Nice! A log cabin, of course.
Your little house is peacefully floating in the middle, full of light and warmth.
The Japanese wave fabric is one of my fabourites.
Your quilt certainly tells a story of stormy weather...but yet it feels tropical to me, which perhaps reflects your current location. It's wonderful Kristin.
Thanks everybody. The island aspect was unintentional, but a nice surprise that viewers find it in the piece as well.
Fantastic. As usual, I am so impressed by the way you combine machine stitching, with hand quilting and with embroidery stitches. Wonderful. The combination of fabrics is perfection.
Such a small house in so much weather! It nakes me think of the fragility of what we construct in the face of powerful phenomenon like hurricanes and tsunamis. Yet the house is childlike in its representation. Shelter in storms is maybe not about fancy architecture but the simple things like family and love
Kristin, your use of comercial fabrics is amazing, it captures a Hawaiian storm perfectly, probably some of the turmoil in your own life as well.
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