Sunday, February 1, 2009

Rock-A-Bye Chair


When I was a wee tot, just two years old, my parents gave me my very own little rocking chair. It is made of wood and I still have it to this day, many many (not going to tell you how many) years later.

These days it serves as a room decoration and my handmade Raggedy Ann doll (made by my grandmother) sits in it.

When I first thought about using my chair in my quilt I had pictured in my mind a photo of me sitting in it...you know, those old black and white photos from back in the day. (No, not me at my present age sitting in it...silly!) Well unfortunately the only people who have these photos are my parents and they winter in warmer states during the cold months of the year. So I couldn't get my hands on the photo I had wanted to incorporate into my quilt. So my next idea was to take a photo of my chair and digitally alter it in my photo editing software.

I made a black and white image of the chair and then printed it onto a sheet of inkjet transparency. Using a gel medium transfer technique I applied it to my color splashed background of cotton duck. This transfer technique doesn't always create perfect transfers, and therefore gives a rough and tumble kind of transfer, just what I wanted.

After the transfer, I stitched with black thread all around the edges of the chair. Next I added the handwritten wording. I used several types of mediums to add the lettering...Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow, white-out pen, metallic acrylic ink, and black textile paint in a squeeze bottle. After the lettering dried, I added some hand stitched details.

8 comments:

Gerrie said...

Thanks so much for sharing your technique for the chair. I thought you had painted it. I have done the transparency transfer, but not recently. Do you have an Epson printer? I am missing a Terri face, but this is really lovely - great background, too. The whole effect looks like a painting.

This would make a great gift for a new baby's room - don't you think?

Karen said...

I try to make a point of guessing who made the piece as I'm looking at it, before reading the commentary and I did not have a clue who made this! It is different, and I like it a lot, I am trying out some of the techniques you used in my own work, so I was thrilled to see the great results you got. I thnk rocking chairs may be a familiar theme for us all.

Kristin L said...

We have a chair like that in our family -- it holds a doll at my mom's house, just like yours. This is a nice departure from your usual style -- kudos for breaking out a bit!

Nikki said...

I was also surprised this was yours, but then again I should have guessed from the orange and pink. Your lettering is wonderful. The whole quilt reminds me of rocking my sweet baby girls.

Diane Perin said...

I have to agree with everyone else -- this surprised me because it is a departure from your usual beautiful women, but it is no less wonderful. I love how you have layers of wonderful things here -- the crisp lines of the chair, the softer calligraphy, the clouds of color, the stitching texture.. it all works together beautifully. I really love this, Terri. And what a wonderful way to honor your childhood chair!

Terry Grant said...

Oh you know I love this! That chair is most definitely the companion of my two little chairs. The calligraphy is beautiful and works so perfectly with the image.

Deborah Boschert said...

What an excellent use of image transfer. The stitching really emphasizes the lines just perfectly. Great job. I also love the combination of the traditional image with the contemporary colorful background.

Françoise said...

Lovely! I like the way you painted your background. And the calligraphy looks very good. What did you use for the blue letters? They're perfect!