Dreamer (started late November 2016)

Posted by ewquilts on December 28, 2016 in Publications, WIP (Work-In-Progress) |
Currently working on another colossal scale quilt (~8.5 x 24 feet), working title Dreamer.  I’ve had the idea for some time.  I made a sketch while vacationing on San Juan Island in Washington state in early November 2016.
I started mostly with fabric from my existing collection, as well as several pieces given to me by felllow quilter, Dawn Eckrich, of Iowa City, Iowa.
This square was left over from Swim (2013).  The center piece (1×1″) was not the right size for that piece. This orphaned square continued to inspire my fascination with concentric square work.

112716

120416

121116

121216

121216

121816
121816

122216

122216

122316

122416

122816
123016
123116
010817
011417
011417
011517
012117
012217
020417
021517
021817
030417
0311117

031917
Summer 2017
Dreamer, 99″ (height) x 264″ (width)
As of early summer 2017, this is where I’ve landed with Dreamer.  When I arranged the squares according to the original sketch, I soon realized, albeit somewhat crestfallen, that at this scale, the piece needed more structure.  Just shy of despair, I decided to start from a classic ROYGBIV (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet) approach and see what happened.  There it was!  After months and months of labor to complete each individual tone-on-tone square, I was finally excited about the combined total.  It meant culling out three of the finished 33″ squares…but at this scale, there’s cast off just like in a smaller project where it happens less notably.  The missing square in the photo shows the floor at my office where I took the photo.  The reflection gave me insight that the piece needs a chromatic foil – white – a place for the eye to rest awhile and something to set off the color intensity. So the final square will be a white-on-(off)white combination.  I hope to have this piece sent to the hand quilter no later than January 2018, and hopefully ready for exhibit by late spring/early summer 2018.

Here is the final version of the quilt, sent to the hand quilter early November 2017.
Dreamer was finished being hand-quilted by late June 2018.
I drove to Shipshewana, Indiana to pick it up from my hand-quilting broker.

After hand-sewing 726 inches of binding on Dreamer
I had exactly this much thread left.  
I consider this a friendly nod from my muses living in this world and beyond.
Next stop: Le Carrefour Européen du Patchwork, France, September 2018.
Rainbow Power, Timmy Thomas – pretty much sums up what this quilt means to me.

No Responses

  1. Laura T
    December 19, 2017

    The white seems to ground your art quilt. I found you by way of quilts.com – interesting work.