Sue's "Fiber Visions" art quilt group recently issued a challenge to create a small art quilt based on a photograph. Options were varied: print the original photo on fabric and embellish it in some way, recreate the photo using any techniques desired, use the photo as inspiration for your design, or interpret the photo in some other way. Sue chose to work with the photo below from her spring trip to Scotland. These teasels (a type of thistle) were photographed in the gardens of the governor's palace in the village of Culross. For any Outlander fans, Culross is a 17th century village used to represent the village of Crainsmuir in the Starz drama. A number of scenes were filmed in various rooms of the palace.
Sue chose to recreate the photo as closely as possible, making a 9 x 12 version and mounting it on an artist's canvas. The idea behind the photo was to create a Thermofax screen of the teasels, which was already in process when the challenge was issued. So that meant deciding on the techniques for the background of the piece. First was to find fabric for the gold of the wall and the texture of the stones.
On the left is the commercial fabric used for the background. The texture was right, but the color was not, so golden pineapple paint by Profab was sponge painted over it to change the color.
Likewise, the fabric used for the rocks needed to be a bit darker so both gray and black were sponge painted over the original.
Starting on a base of muslin that was cut 3 inches bigger than the 9 x 12 finished size, the upper portion was layered with the gold and the lower part was layered with black, so that the space showing between the rocks of the wall would be dark. A printout of the photo was used to create a template for the rock wall section. After applying a fusible product to the fabrics, the pieces were cut out and fused to the background. Adding a thin layer of felt as batting, free motion machine stitching was added to secure the rocks and create texture for the moss and tree branch. Then the teasels could be added.
The teasels were also done as fusible applique, printed first on a brown fabric, then fusible applied and cut out. The green leaves are also applique and were arranged at the same time as the teasels. Since the extra fabric would be folded around the canvas, there was no need to extend the rocks beyond the 9 x 12 image size. Additional stitching secured the teasels and leaves and added the curlicues and texture to the screen prints. Then the piece was mounted on the canvas.
On the left is the original photo and the art piece on the right. Not an exact duplicate, but a close interpretation. Sue is pleased with the result and plans to put it in a black drop-in frame that should set it off nicely.
The teasels is a new Thermofax screen that you can find in our Etsy shop if you would like to use it in your own artwork.
