Friday, March 8, 2013

Spirit of the Kiva finaly finished




 Spirit of the Kiva
49" X 42"

I just spent an hour writing this post and lost the whole post.  This one may not be as detailed but I'll give it another go.

I started this piece about a year and a half ago.  After making all the design decisions, I began the quilting.  Machine quilting is, by far, my weakest suit.

Usually I have trouble decided what type of quilting I want to do on my work but this time I knew exactly how I wanted to quilt it.  Since the child is the spirit I wanted the Kiva to stand out.  During the quilting, about three-fourths of the way through the panel, the piece began to warp.  The lines of the boarder were distorting and I was concerned that if I finished, with the hope that it would quilt out, it might not.


I made the decision to take the panel out have it reprinted, and ask for help.  That help came from Gail Sexton.  Gail is in my quilt guild and does wonderful machine quilting.  I asked her if she would be interested in collaborating with me and she graciously said yes.  We spent an afternoon together brainstorming about designs to use, etc.  I had specific ideas on the panel and had thought that petroglyps would enhance the boarder but other than that Gail chose what she wanted to do.  I was delighted when I saw the finished piece.










The creation began with this photograph I took while in Copper Canyon, Mexico about six years ago.
















   Soon after that trip I began making portraits using Maria Elkins technique of four values of fabric  www.mariaelkins.com/.  I was so happy with this portrait that I wanted to use it in another piece. 

















After taking a photo of the portrait, I chose a photograph I took in TX of an American Indian Kiva and using Photo Shop Elements I merged the two.


















  This was the results. I then sent it to www.spoonflower.com, no affiliation, to be printed.

When I received the piece I then had to make design decisions about how to finish the piece.  I had quite a few false starts as there were many things I had in mind to use.  Finally I decided that less is sometimes more and to go simple.

The foundation pieced borders are the American Indian symbol for Kiva Steps.  I am a big believer in asymmetry design so I chose to put the pieced blocks on the top and right sides only.  I hope you enjoy reading about my process as much as I enjoyed creating it.

I am linking this post to Nina Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Fridays.  There are lots of wonderful post to check out on her site.
http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

16 comments:

  1. Marilyn,

    This is a wonderful piece. I love how you combined the portrait with the background photo. It has such depth and meaning to it. How big is the piece? Great work as usual!

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    1. Thanks Louise. I went back and posted the size, it is 49" X 42" for some reason I forget to put the size in. Thanks for reminding me.

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  2. lovely! a lot of work and love went in to it!

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    1. Thanks Katherine, it did take a lot of work but was worth the effort.

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  3. Absolutely love seeing how this piece progressed......terrific!

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    1. Thanks Jill, your blog title made me want to look at you blog. Enjoyed it very much.

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  4. This is a beautiful piece. Great job in putting all the different pieces together!

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    1. Thanks Lisa. It took a while but with time it all went together.

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  5. Love seeing this. I think I first started following you, when I stumbled across your photo of that Kiva, and the little girl. Fun to see it finished. Love it.

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    1. Thanks Rachel. The reason I posted that I had finished this piece on Artdigest was because,so many people asked me to post the finished piece. I had so many comments from the first post.
      Thanks for taking another look

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  6. Marilyn...your work just keeps getting better and better...a wonderful piece!!!

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    1. Thanks Judy.
      Saw your post on the technique you taught at Hampton, VA loved it. Would like to see some of your pieces using that technique.

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  7. Replies
    1. Judy, thanks for seeing what I was trying to convey.

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  8. ohhh Marilyn - wow - another great use of spoonflower - this is just lovely. The idea is truly creative and I love love the execution! What an inspiration you are!

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