Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Slimeball



I, like Gerrie, adore chartreuse and all it's limey, slimey buddies! It has long been my favourite neutral, too. SO this should have been easy...
Is anything ever easy in this Twelve by Twelve journey??

This was supposed to be moss. And bright, soft new shoots of grass. It isn't. Somewhere along the way it morphed into an algal bloom. Maybe it's a reaction to the loooong, WET tropical summer that we have had here in North Queensland.

The base cloth is very dark chocolate brown wool (what a right royal pain THAT is to remove fluffy stuff from!). The stitching is free-motion with the tightest top tension I can get on my machine and no bottom tension at all. Three different bottom threads -
regular sewing cotton, Koigu KPM 4 ply merino and a perle cotton. The fluffy stuff is some nasty acrylic stuff that I hand couched to give the image a bit more substance.

There are lots of beads and sequins scattered throughout which has made the thing an utter torment to photograph. The fluffiness seems to add to that problem as well. The camera doesn't know what to focus on (just like me!!) Minimal background quilting including a few lines of mother-of-pearl metallic.

Fun to make! I may well repeat some of these techniques. Sewing on the wool was particularly nice. I used an embroidery hoop to keep it taut and it was buttery to sew (as you would expect).

16 comments:

stART said...

I think I'm in love - this is just fabulous!

Gerrie said...

You are so funny!! I love this. I don't care what it is supposed to be!

Karen said...

You are so funny, and I think this is really cool. All that experimentation with the tensions looks like something I want to try.

Anonymous said...

Very alive. I think the proper word is probably organic, but it's too boring for your moss/virus/wet tropical algae. I have a vague worry about it spreading, but otherwise think it's wonderful!

Diane Perin said...

The softness and curly, crazy growth of lichen is what I see in this immediately -- Oh, how I wish I could see it in person! I'm impressed with how you manipulated thread and texture to get this great look (and brave! I've never tried sewing with no bottom tension!) I just love this.

Kristin L said...

I'd be OK with this spreading! It captures that mossy, growy aspect of chartreuse so well. It would be a cool experiment to see it done in other colors too, but I'd bet they wouldn't work half as well as this particular shade of green.

JB said...

What a fun departure! I like your experimentation!!

Unknown said...

This really reminds me of the work of Nicholas Hlobo which I saw at the Tate Modern a while ago. See an example here:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3cdl2t2

Unknown said...

This really reminds me of the work of Nicholas Hlobo which I saw at the Tate Modern a while ago. See an example here:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3cdl2t2

Vivien Zepf said...

HA! This is great. Never knew slime could look so wonderful. This has great texture and I wish I could get up close to it.

Terri Stegmiller said...

This is a lovely free-form organic shape. I enjoyed your description ... "limey, slimey". I've never played with my sewing machine tension in this way, but it sounds fun!

Deborah Boschert said...

Well, I'll add to the chorus of people impressed with your experimentation with the tension. Very interesting. I studied the close-up and I can totally see how that allows the thread to sit on the top of the quilt in such an interesting way. I especially love how the moss trails off to the right. I'd love to see a side shot to get a sense of the texture and height of the various embellishments.

Terry Grant said...

This is just incredible. I HATE fuzzy, wispy, fibery clumps and glomps of stuff on quilts, but this just thrills me. The difference from the usual hairball is that yours is so elegant and controlled and yet uncontrolled, but it has contrast and nuance and such elegance in the lines. Delicious is what it is. Bravo!

dutchcomfort said...

Love your interpretation os a slime ball and the use of threads!

KathyB said...

What a cool group of quilters you must be. I love this quilt. My first impression was of a jellyfish, but now that you gave an explanation, I can also see the algae.
I just love art with ambiguity in it. Thank you for sharing this. Please drop by and see what I'm creating with the smallest of scraps. See fiberart by Kathy Bourgeois at kbartdesigns.com

Anonymous said...

This is stunning. I really love the design. What amazing artistry! I wish you were closer to NY. I want to add some algae beadwork/embroidery to my wedding dress and am trying to find someone to do it.