Thursday 29 December 2016

Ramshackle with Escher Influences

Today was the first day for sometime that I felt I could get on with things without excessive weariness or a headache.
Okay...weariness, but tolerable! I have been just sitting in here thinking and planning things for next year, not doing much. Kind of recovering from too many weeks doing far more than way too much.

So. Suddenly I thought, I could finish the Ramshackle piece for the Contemporary Quilt Suitcase Collection: My Favourite Artist. They had extended the deadline which was a Very Good Thing.
And of course, it took much less time than I thought. Hurrah!


“Ramshackle with Escher Influences”

Here is the blurb I am sending with the quilt.

My Favourite Artist: “Ramshackle with Escher Influences”

One of the Artists whose work I love is M.C. Escher. I especially like his work that plays with perspective. However, I realised that is quite beyond me! So, I have focussed on his work using tessellating shapes.
In my own work, I have a series with wonky houses I call Ramshackle Houses. So, I decided to see if I could develop a house shape that tessellates.

The first little houses were too similar - ‘ticky-tacky boxes’, if you like. And then I realised that my own houses, though a bit higgledy-piggledy, have slanting roofs. Once they got their slanting roof, these houses happily became a little like Ramshackle Houses but with Escher Influences. And to get them a bit more ramshackle, I placed them on a slant, also leaving a bit of a gap between them so they could be a bit more individual than if they were snugged up as tessellating shapes are meant to.

I used fused cotton with a raw edge appliqué technique using the machine. Felt is used for the middle layer. The edge of the quilt was covered with a satin stitch.
The tessellating house shape was developed with a technique where one removes a section from the bottom and adds it to the top. Thus, the chimney and door use the same shape. The same concept is used to develop the sides; remove from one side and position on the other side.

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