Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Beijing

I saw many beautiful window screens last year in China. I loved the simpler ones, based on squares and rectangles. They inspired me with drawing this grid, which also makes me think a little bit of a log cabin block, courthouse steps style. 
I burned two thermal screens from my drawing. I found the marks on the first one a bit too thin, so I did a second one with thicker lines. I finally used them both for printing the central square panel, using red, gold and blue paint.
Once I was happy with the printing, I added red and gold borders, with a touch of blue and green, because these are the colours I remember of Beijing. The piece is machine and hand quilted.
I'll post a few more pictures on my blog.
Working on this quilt has given me many ideas for other pieces. 
Thank you Gerrie for choosing this theme!

9 comments:

Karen said...

Francoise, after your tease the other day, I couldn't wait to see this. The gold screening is so subtle and effective, and you framed it so beautifully, and of course the handstitching is wonderful.

Dolores said...

I too couldn't wait to see what the whole piece looked like after seeing a small part. My daughter went to Beijing just before the Olympics and she photographed some of the windows and screens she saw too. This is so well executed.

Diane Perin said...

Francoise! This is just beautiful. There is a striking simplicity to it -- cleanness of line and color -- but there is also great complexity in the texture and stitching and the way the lines are layered. I could look at this for a long time.

Terry Grant said...

Echoing everyone else's thoughts. This is so elegant and harmonious. Your pieces are always like a deep, cleansing breath amid the jumble of ideas and images the rest of us are putting out!

Terri Stegmiller said...

Oh I bet you were very inspired by all the lovely oriental visions from your trip. Its a very lovely piece. The hand stitched details really jump out at me.

Gerrie said...

I adore this little quilt. The colors are gorgeous. It just seems to glow. The dual printing on the windows gives it a nice dimension. I love your signature pieceing and the hand stitching.

Anonymous said...

It's hard to pick a favourite for this round, but this is one of mine!! I adore the strong, elegant colours. And I particularly am impressed by the balance you have achieved between the different scales. The screen section is fine and small, the border around it is so much thicker but it all works very very well!

Kristin L said...

Exquisite workmanship as always and I love your economy of design. You have a wonderful way of paring everything down to elegant simplicity.

Unknown said...

Like Brenda I always think your work has such a distinct and recognisable style to it. This makes me look forward to the visitto Shanghi we have planned!