Broken Tulips Done

In May I shared my inspiration and beginning of a new art quilt. Much has happened to distract me from completing the project, not the least of which was a persistent fear of doing the wrong thing. Thank you Kay for shooting that monkey on my back! And here is the quilt. (Click on image for a larger view.)

The last step in completing this piece was using white paint to highlight the areas where the sun turned the yellow-tipped petals white. It’s one thing to make mistakes using thread, it’s entirely another to make them using acrylic paint on a finished piece! Before painting the completed piece I experimented with the paint on fabric scraps from the stash that I used to create the piece. Why I didn’t think of that much earlier is a mystery. I can only say that I was listening to that monkey on my back and wasn’t stepping away to allow more clear thinking. Once I experimented with the paint and could see its effect on the fabric I felt a surge of confidence and dove right into painting.

This piece is 12″ x 12″, a size I like working in. Once again, I must acknowledge my gratitude to my friend Denise Oyama Miller who introduced this style of art-quilt making to me in February 2012. I have enjoyed the process of using it many times — search “Broken Ginkgo’ in the Art Quilt category to view more examples of this technique.