This blog records my experiments and successes with fabric and fibers, surface design, stitching, weaving, photography and whatever else strikes my fancy. Enjoy ...
Showing posts with label John Hiatt Quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John Hiatt Quilt. Show all posts
The third and final (for now, anyway) in the series of Art Quilts inspired by John Hiatt songs is complete.
This is the line that inspired this quilt :
from John Hiatt's "Back of My Mind"
And I saw that the light I'd been hoping to see
was the spark in the back of my mind
And the cold wind that blew through the hole in my heart
Made a fire for the very first time
From some branches of trust and a kindling of faith
And that spark in the back of my mind.
Listen to the whole song here :
There's also a line from Hiatt's "Seven Little Indians" that could also apply to this quilt :
And every once in a while, he'd get all wound up with one of his stories,
He'd put 'em all on and dance around that blue tv light
Like it was some campfire blazin' away
* * * * *
The Fire Block : The fire piece was created separately as a unit, embroidered, and then appliqued onto the background of the quilt. It puffs up nicely trapunto-style to give it a 3D quality. Making the fire block is similar to my composed fabric technique, with layers trapped under a sheer fabric. I learned it in a class with Linda Schmidt through Quilt University. She taught an Elements in Fabric class where we learned to emulate fire, water, air and earth in fiber and stitch. A very worthwhile class, but I had to let the learnings sit and simmer for a while ...
Wood - The wood in the fire is heavily free-motion embroidered. This was done BEFORE the block was secured to the quilt background, much less the batting and backing.
Words - The "branches of Trust and Kindling of Faith" were "thread calligraphied" onto the wood fabrics. This after a class with the author, Nancy K. I wanted the words to be subtle, and not scream "I'm here!" so there is not very much contrast between the embroidery thread and the wood fabrics. That was intentional. I want my quilts to have some gifts for those who stand close and study them long enough to discover these little surprises. ;-)
As I said earlier, this piece has been in the works for several years. The beauty of having a blog like this is that I can go back to the earlier stages. If you want to see how the fire came to be, revisit the following links :
The Batting : A recycled (but not so old) mattress pad.
These are good and puffy for wall quilts, and they don't sag and droop
over time like my favorite Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly batting--which works great for bed quilts.
The Quilting :
The brown groundis heavily quilted with a red variegated thread. I wanted to this push back and not stand out, giving emphasis to the fire.
I knew I needed to do something with the quilting in the air to simulate sparks being shot up from the fire. These are spaced much farther apart, giving them an airier quality.
The quilting motif in the borders is meant to simulate smoke and how it curls and moves off on the wind. If you look closely, you'll also see some hearts there, perhaps indicative of the love and healing the speaker / singer eventually found "in the back of his mind" or maybe it's "the cold wind that blew through the hole in his heart"?
Sparkle - There are a few crystals in the centers of the quilted sparks. You know I like a little bling, and this called out for it! They were hard to capture in the photographs, so you'll have to trust me on this one.
Does it still need some beads? Maybe ...
Auditioning fabrics for borders last spring.
Borders
I put a lot of thought into the borders, colors and widths. They get darker the farther they get from the fire -- as if the heat -- the brightest part is the center of the fire. The yellow, then orange, then, brown, and red and black--more like ashes at the edges of the quilt.
The borders are also intentionally uneven. Part of that was because I hadn't cut the batting big enough to start with (Ooops! Good time to make it a design element!). Sometimes that happens when I work with no pattern, and these pieces grow organically, and take on lives of their own. But it also wasn't going to work for the bottom of the quilt to have the same size border as the rest of it. I wanted the fire to be the star attraction. If it had a 4 inch border along the bottom, it would have thrown off the balance, and really made the bottom third too heavy.
Binding
I used a new technique for the binding to add a dark red flange. See the Flanged Binding Tutorial from Sew Fresh Quilts. This technique worked out very well, and was worth the extra trouble to do it.
After thought :
“You have to carry the fire." I don't know how to." Yes, you do." Is the fire real? The fire?" Yes it is." Where is it? I don't know where it is." Yes you do. It's inside you. It always was there. I can see it.”
― Cormac McCarthy, The Road
This is another quilt that's been a looonnnggg time coming. Begun in 2007 (or so), it's finally finished! This is another in the "Stolen Moments" Series of art quilts inspired by John Hiatt songs. His lyrics are wonderfully visual. This one comes from a line from his "7 Little Indians." (PC People : Please don't be offended -- It's not about Native Americans at all. He grew up in Indiana, and in the song that's what his Dad called everyone in his family while they were growing up.) It's one of my all-time favorite John Hiatt songs -- always has been. I discovered it about the time I was planning to move to Alaska in my younger days ... so I also love the line about "Some mukluks, seal skin gloves and a coat with beads around the collar."
This is the line that inspired this quilt : "Blazin' like the sheets of light dancin' in the sky up above Anchorage" -- from John Hiatt's song "7 Little Indians." You can see the full lyrics for this song at the end of this post. Or listen here :
There are many other visual lines that could have inspired several other quilts ... so more to come!
Now that you know the inspiration for this quilt, on to the specifics :
A page from my Sweet Leaf Notebook / sketchbook, which acts as a repository for all these ideas before they actually come into real life.
No pattern. Aside from the lyrical inspiration, this quilt is entirely my original work. That's why these things tend to take so long ... No pattern to follow, many design and implementation problems to solve along the way. It all started with that Northern Lights fabric, and kept growing outward and upward.
Batting : Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly batting. I always like how it gets nice and crinkly, antique-looking once it's washed. And I did wash this BEFORE adding the beads.
Northern Lights Fabric in the center is not the traditional cotton quilting fabric we're supposed to use. But what the heck -- I say use whatever you like in Art Quilts! It's a satin with sparkles stuck to it -- from the prom section of the fabric store. To me, this screamed (well--more like whispered) Rivers of Light dotted with stars. Perfect! The quilting in this area is very simple, following the contours of the flowing aurora borealis. It didn't need much embellishment, as it already had bling. I just kept building the block around this center.
Mountains - This is a batik scrap from my mom's very ample quilting stash. The brown / gray was a hand-dyed fabric done by me. Since the center square was on point, it was natural that the landscape was a mountainside with those angles.
The Trees - Mostly drawn and cut free-hand, fused to the mountain section and heavily free-motion embroidered to give them depth and dimension. I used as many green fabrics as I could find that still looked like pine trees.
Sky - Starry night fabrics (I think) are from my mom's wonderful stash of scraps (again). They could be mine, too, as I've used these for backgrounds in other quilts. The starry night borders are quilted with a Van Gogh-like starry night swirl pattern This is one of my favorite go-to free-motion patterns that I can do in my sleep.
North Star - If you look closely, you'll see a tortoise amid those star trails. Somewhere in my 45 years, I remember a story about the North Star being the belly of the turtle, and the whole heavens turn around it--Why the North Star Stands Still. That particular piece of fabric came from Nigeria, West Africa in my college days. It's a starch stencil resist indigo-dyed tortoise design. I purposefully did NOT set the turtle straight up. I wanted it to convey that sense of the world turning and star trails. That worked better if the turtle was at 10 o'clock--if that makes sense?
Beading and Bling
* Heavier green beads along the lower edge reflect the forest and also weight it down.
* Iridescent beads border the night sky and help reflect the purple mountains in the night sky, providing some balance. These little buggers are hard to photograph.
* Hematite beads line the outer border. Darker and shinier, hematite is also known as "Alaskan Diamonds" -- long been one of my favorite substances on this Earth.
* The Star Pin is from my Gramma's old jewelry box. (She gave it up when she moved into a nursing home. My son got it as "treasure" for the role-playing games he played when he was younger.) I tried a starry button and even a Swarovske crystal, but it called out for a larger something in that spot. So Gramma's Star Pin won out.
* Freshwater Pearls and shiny metal beads to simulate the stars in the Tortoise Shell. 2 rows frame the North Star and draw your attention to that area.
How to Hang a House-Shaped Wall Quilt?
A ring at the top point to hang over a nail or hook in the wall.
Corner triangles at the mid-points with a stick to keep it extended -- kind of like the framing in a kite.
Here are the full lyrics [I had to include the whole thing as it tells a wonderful story about his family, and there's no good video out there for this particular song.] :
"Seven Little Indians"
by John Hiatt
There were seven little Indians
Living in a brick house on
Central Avenue
Gathered 'round their daddy
Tellin' stories in the living room
From a slightly unrealistic point of view
Momma was off yonder in the kitchen somewhere
Boiling up some hot water for them to all get up to their necks in
The seven little Indians knew
If the rest of the tribe ever scrutinized their household
Somehow it would not pass inspection
The big chief railed on
And spun his tales of brave conquest
About the moving of his little band
Up to Alaska
Where the caribou run free
See he had been there putting in telephone lines
For the army during World War II
Even brought back a picture of a frozen mastodon
For the little Indians to see
And some mukluks and some sealskin gloves
And a coat with beads around the collar
His wife kept them in the mothballs
Underneath the Hudson Bays
And every once and a while he'd get all wound up
With one of his stories, he'd put them all on
And dance around in that blue TV light
Like it was some campfire blazing away
Well he stamped and he hollered
But he could not stay warm in that living room
And even the seven little Indians could feel the chill
And although everything always worked
Out for the better in all of his stories
In that old brick house it always felt like
Something was movin' in for the kill
Blazing like a trail
Shot through the eyes of the seven little Indians
Blazing like the sheets of light dancing in the sky
Up above Anchorage
Blazing like a star shot down to the ground
Back home again in Indiana
Now it finally got so quiet you could hear a pin drop
They started dropping like flies
The oldest little Indian got sick and vanished
The big chief went two years later
The mother raised the six little Indians up
The best she could
To be housewives, musicians, and insurance salesmen
But they all shared this common denominator
You see, all the characters in the big chief's stories
Were named after the seven little Indians
And like I said, in his stories everything
Always worked out for the better
And now as I'm telling this stuff to my own kids
Dancing around in that blue TV light
Well, I wish I had those mukluks, those sealskin gloves
And that coat with beads around the collar
Several years ago (2009?), I took an online class with Terri Stegmiller called Faces on Fabric. She taught us to paint the faces and add shading and highlights. I'd done an entirely appliqued face with The Oliver quilt, but didn't want this sweet little girl to look like Frankenstein with all the stitching required with applique. I am so pleased with this result!
Did I mention : I dyed the fabric for the gray background and her skin?
Her hair is entirely commercial fabrics.
The antique bowl is a piece of a wide ribbon folded over on itself.
The spoon is completely free-motioned embroidered.
My friend Sheila over at Idaho Beauty and I have begun a tradition of challenging each other to go beyond our normal paces, to try something new, or to finish something ... Last year, I tried a few new techniques on a Journal, and Sheila did the same with a padfolio. This year, she's working on some thread sketches (a new technique that I think will work nicely with her sketch book sketches). I can't wait to see what she comes up with!
For my part of the challenge, I'm committed to finishing the John Hiatt Quilt that I started many years ago. I kind of lost steam when my Art Quilt Group fell apart, and I no longer had the influence and ideas of those creative ladies to keep me moving on the project--to get me unstuck when problems came up. Now Mr. Hiatt is on tour again, and coming to my neck of the woods with an acoustic show (my favorite), I can't think of better inspiration to kick start this project back into being! I had originally wanted to do 6 or 7 blocks, but I think at this point, I'll be happy to finish the 3 I started (more may come later ... I have ideas ...). John Hiatt's songs and lyrics are wonderfully VISUAL. They easily lend themselves to visual interpretations again and again.
Here's where I left the Spoon Girl, aka Sienna, aka "Mama Let You Lick the Spoon." Just didn't have the heart to continue--until now. I've missed her--truthfully! She's been around so long, she's like my own little girl who never grows up. (Actually, I think that's sorta the point of the song ... )
I hung her (along with the other two unfinished blocks) on my design wall early in the new year--just waiting for inspiration to strike. In my disaster of a sewing studio, I was delighted to be able to find the John Hiatt Quilt folder easily and effortlessly amid the clutter. Does this mean the time is right? the stars are aligning?
Design Question 1) Do I try to piece them together into a single wall quilt? Or do I work them up as individual pieces? The original idea was to do a compilation piece -- in the style of McKenna Ryan's picture quilts with 7 blocks. Each one could easily stand on it's own, but they would also work well together as a tribute to Mr Hiatt's wonderful body of work. I decided that I should quilt them individually, and not try to put them together in one single quilt. If I work on the blocks as individuals, then I can tie them together--maybe that means "working in a series" rather than putting them together in a single quilt. Each individual block is too big to put them all together. Best to treat them as individual wall hangings.
Auditioning borders. The dark one in the middle is a flange. In the end, I decided to go with a darker green than this gray. It was the obvious choice since it made everything else "pop."
This where I left her on Saturday. Still need to quilt the outer border and bind it.
You can really see the quilting on the gray background here.
Design Question 2) How to quilt the backgrounds? My signature bumblebee meander works for the gray background behind her. What about the borders? I wanted to include the lyric that inspired this portrait quilt : John Hiatt's Angel :
Y'all put that hammer down and drove through Love's angel food cake
Tastin' every spongy layer and lickin' frosting off the moon
Wild-eyed with excitement but childishly disappointed
Maybe even tasted better when mama let you lick the spoon
This one shows the quilted words a little better. It's subtle. I didn't want to hit anyone over the head with it. Those who know John Hiatt may want to dig deeper, and smile with recognition. I thread-sketched the words in cursive writing : That will be a secret code that many young people today don't know how to read, nor write. He-He!
Around the words in the outer border, I used a leafy vine (aka vine heart). I was doodling that pattern way back in high school. Been with me a long time!
Design Question 3) Do I add beads and embellishments? Yes--where that treatment works. It doesn't fit on Spoon Girl.
We have tickets for the Hiatt concert in Green Bay, WI, later this month. What do you think are the chances to actually meet John Hiatt, show him the quilt, and ask for an autograph? Do you think he'll recognize which songs I'm trying to illustrate? He probably gets quilters all across the country who show up at his concerts with the same idea! ;-) I left the lower right corner "open" for John Hiatt's autograph should we manage to meet him on Friday. "Cross My Fingers!" (That's yet another John Hiatt song!)
