Floating Ideas
I saw this blurry photo of a marvelous quilt on Renske Helmuth’s blog. It is called “Kaleidoscope of Nations.” She said it was auctioned in a Mennonite Ontario Relief Sale in 2003 for a record-breaking $44,000! I wish the picture was better.I did a rough circle layout with my little paper pieced people. I’m pondering ideas for a quilt. I don’t think I can come up with anything as spectacular as Renske’s quilt. My people just look as if they are floating around aimlessly. They could make a nice quilt border.
Edited to add: I found another picture of the KaleidoscopeLabels: paper pieced people, quilting
posted by Christine Thresh at 8:23 AM
7 Comments:
The Ontario Relief Sale has gorgeous quilts every year - it's one of the things I truly miss about leaving Waterloo. The top quilts are often bought by the same man, year after year - and he hangs them prominently in his stores for everyone to enjoy. Bruce Menary, of Len's Mill Stores. NOT what you'd expect, I assure you.
Christine, your people are all pointed into space, Renske's are looking both inwards, and out - they're all standing upright. I'll bet that was not accidental. I wonder if orienting your people differently will change the feeling you get from them.
Dorothy,
Yes, I did notice the orientation of the people on her quilt. None of them are standing their heads.
I just spread out some fabric on my bed and dealt the people out like a deck of cards. I am still playing with designs.
Hmmm. I suppose one could borrow a page from Helmuth's composition and create a paper-pieced planet (rather than a kaleidoscope) for the little paper people to hang out with. It would be compositionally similar, but the context would be different.
Tanya,
Oh, no I don't want to copy Helmuth or do anything like her quilt. I was just laying my cards (people) on the table (bed) to see what ideas I could come up with.
I want to do something with the feel of Georges Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte."
I saw her people as design elements which were not lined up and regular.
Christine, this may be completely off from what you're thinking, but... Daniel has a book by Mo Willems called _Knuffle Bunny_. The illustrations are, IMO, brilliant. He superimposed drawings of his characters into (onto) actual black and white photos of his neighbourhood in NYC. How cool would it be to see a recreation in fabric of "Sunday Afternoon" with your people pieced into it?
What a cool idea, Dorothy.
Christine...don't go with typical borders for these wonderful people! Make a street like Lombard in SF, with people on either side instead of houses...
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