Tudor Rose

This is one of my Textile Art pieces I made earlier in the year. I love the Tudor period. The rose and the couple were inspired by photos I took in Cambridge. I was trying to depict the sculptured stonework on many of the buildings there.

This was entered into the innovative category for a certain show. The lines and shading on the cream silk were made with the soldering iron. I quilted round all the motifs on the brocade with copper metallic thread, and then applied the cream silk and quilted through the burnt lines.

I was quite surprised then to have comments from all three judges about the couple needing more quilting. In my mind, I had really quilted this! However, I have only recently started working big, so I wasn't sure what they meant. (Okay, this is big for me! It covers the large desk/table in my studio!)

Well, last week in Houston, I took a class called "Here Comes the Judge!" with top quilt show judge, Dixie McBride. I took the quilt, just to see if they could give me some ideas. Mrs. McBride said she probably would have said the same thing, but then went on to explain that the extra quilting would be for texture.

Following more discussion, I realised that I could use cream silk thread and quilted patterns as if they were sculptured by the artist to represent brocade patterns on the clothing. It would not be "clothing" them, but would allude to the idea. I am thinking of how Holbein drew brocade patterns on the drapery and clothing in the portraits he painted. It is possible his painted patterns weren't true to scale, but it gave the idea of opulence he wanted. What I will have to work out is how to do patterns that lay naturally on the drapery of the clothing. For instance, portions of patterns will be hidden in folds of the cloth. SO, that will take some thinking.

Any ideas?