My name is Charlotte, sometimes known as Ms Lottie, occasionally as The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady. This is my blog, where you'll find me writing a lot about my quilting and textile arts and a little about my family's life in a small seaside town in New Zealand. Haere mai!

Friday, October 26, 2018

The big snip

I didn't show you a photo of the finished 'Dawn Contemplation' quilt.  When you last saw it, I was pushing to get it finished for the KOAST art trail, and it looked like this:


Well, the first day of the trail saw me stitching on the binding, but I managed to finish that and get a sleeve on it and it was on display on the second day.  I added some colour and a bit more stitching to the woman to give her more depth and make her more part of the whole image rather than just 'on top'.  I also added a bit more to the bird above her head.  And it's always amazing how finishes the edges makes it look so much better.

The colour of the binding was a hard choice.  I auditioned many before I went with this tan colour.  It was a serendipitous choice, it just happened to fall next to the quilt when I was looking through my purple and pink hand dyes.  I really liked how it complemented the blues and purples rather than blended with them.  And the dark grey/blacks I'd tried just looked flat, so tan it was.


But, and it's a really big but.

I'm thinking of taking my rotary cutter to it.


I'm not entirely happy with the bird above the woman's head.  It's not quite right.  Then when I was editing my image before uploading it to the blog, I played with a few croppings.  And I think I really like the image above.

The question is, do I like it better than the finished quilt as it is now?

So what do you think?

Chop, or not?

4 comments:

  1. How would it be with no binding and just the rough edges. That way you wouldn't cut the image off. This is an artwork after all - not a bed quilt :)
    One other trick I learned a long time back is to put a very large, very neutral border on and continue the image across the border with your free motion sewing.

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  2. I have the other opinion to Mary, I find it much more emotional with the crop.

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  3. If it is possible cut it where you have cropped and introduce binding on both sides of the cut, then hang them ever so slightly separated.

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  4. I can see both sides of the choice. I am generally not a fan of people represented in quilts, but I find yours to be well done and sensitive. That being said, I think there is a lot going on in the quilt and appreciate the simpler imagery of the cropped version. I do like the idea of a series. Perhaps one with the woman and no stone (the center image-not sure what it is)?

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