Thursday, October 1, 2009

Twelve by Twelve - The Board Game


After discarding my first two ideas I had for this theme, I landed on the vision of a clock face. A clock has a “twelve” on it, so that’s where my sketches started. I drew a round shape for the clock and added the numbers around the outside. I somehow wanted to associate each number with each theme throughout the past two years (has it been two years already?).

I divided the circle into twelve sections. In each section I embroidered the corresponding name and theme. At this point I was still envisioning a clock so my first sketch included the clock hands and they pointed to the twelve.

At some point the two clock hands became one hand, a single pointer. At first I was thinking I would somehow add this pointer with color, either thread or paint. As I was working on the embroidered names, I came upon the idea that it should be a real clock hand and I’d worry about how to attach it later. Then my thoughts moved onto a game spinner. The more I worked on my quilt, the more it resembled a piece from a board game. But I didn’t know what to use for the spinner and how it could be attached so it would spin.

Well my thoughts then turned into a discussion with my husband. After some brainstorming and searching for something to use as a spinner, we landed upon the almost 15-year-old thermometer that was attached to our garden shed. The plastic face of the thermometer had yellowed and aged so much over time that it was hard to even read it anymore. So off the shed it came and was dismantled. Perfect spinner!

My husband helped me install the spinner so that it would work. Doesn’t this look like a fun game?


14 comments:

Karen said...

Terri,
This is so fun and I can't believe all the hand stitched letters,you put so much work into this. It is very you with the bright colors

Diane Perin said...

Oh, This is so fun! When I first scrolled down to it, the clock struck me (harhar, no pun intended) and then I did see it as a game! I love the colored background, and the linking of our names and challenge topics! The embroidery is wonderful. I'd love to play this game! (Or wait, have we been doing that all along?!)

Gerrie said...

What a fun interpretation of the 12 of us, which seems to be a recurring theme!! Love the colors! I think this may be the most interesting montage of quilts that we have done so far.

Terry Grant said...

Oh, it has been a wonderful game, hasn't it?! Chance, skill, strategy--with 12 winners! Aren't we lucky? I love your colorful take on the theme and a kind of parallel with my piece.

Kristin L said...

It is like a game -- the anticipation of wondering what theme will pop up next. I have to say, I guessed that this was either Nikki's or Deborah's before I guessed you, which shows how comfortable we've gotten with trying new or different things. We've accomplished a lot in two years (that sped by like one).

Françoise said...

This is great Terri. I liked playing this game too.
Love the colours you used for the background. Did you stitch all these words by hand?

Terri Stegmiller said...

Francoise, I did embroider the names and themes by hand after first writing them with pencil. The numbers were first drawn on with pencil and I free-motion zigzagged those.

Unknown said...

We should use this to choose in which order we pick our next themes!

kirsten said...

What a great, zesty palette! And such a fun quilt. I immediately could imagine us all playing twister together :)

Deborah Boschert said...

Oh look! You gave me purple too! (I'm on a purple square in Gerrie's quilt too.)

It's such a fun quilt, Terri! Great job. Thanks to your husband for the help with the spinner. It's excellent.

Jeannie said...

This is so fun. I love the background you created.

Julie Bagamary said...

What a great interpretation of "12" and to have so much fun in the process!

Brenda said...

What fun! I'm ready to spin it again and to see what happens next :-)

Nikki said...

Love the game. Very bright and happy and a joy to play! I am so honored to be a part of it.

And next time we have to make a decision as a group we could just spin!