Mendelssohn – Creating an Art Quilt

People often ask how long it takes me to create an art quilt.  That is a very difficult question to answer: Each quilt has a unique inspiration and execution time. Some small pieces have taken a few hours or days. Others have been in the making for much longer. Mendelssohn is an example of the later timing.

In March 2009 I took Ruth McDowell’s  class “Designing From Nature” hosted by Empty Spools Seminars at Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, CA.  Ruth teaches her method for creating a unique pattern from a photograph or drawing.  I needed this skill in order to make a quilt from a treasured photograph I had of my then 8-week old puppy, Mendelssohn (b. June 15, 2000).  My sister Christy took this photograph in August 2000.  The moment I saw it I knew I wanted to turn it into a quilt.

 

 

It took me the full 5 days with Ruth to complete the pattern.  When I got home I put it up on my design wall and admired it.  Then it was rolled up and set aside so that I could complete other work.

I unrolled the pattern March 18, 2010 (Yes, a year later, I know.  The truth is I was intimidated by the pattern and the process.  I hadn’t done this kind of work before and I had to muster courage.) and started working.  The first step was to create the freezer paper pattern that would be cut up and fused to the fabric.  Then — choose the fabric.  This process took a while.  I needed a lot of just-the-right whites.  I thought I would find everything I needed in my stash, but not so.  Shopping was in order.  I went to several stores, then I shopped several friends’ stashes.   By late May, I was finally getting somewhere…

 

 

This was a complicated pattern!  The solid yellow lines on the paper pattern indicate the sections.  The dashed lines are sections of pattern pieces that must be stitched together before they can be joined to the pieces next to them; solid pencil lines are individual pattern pieces.  Each freezer paper pattern piece was fused to fabric, then stitched to an adjoining pattern piece.  The freezer paper allows for stability of the fabric and very accurate piecing.  Quite an ingenious method actually.  There were 5 sections to create, then the sections were pieced together.  It was slow work.  I completed the 3rd section on June 3:

 

 

Five days later I had the fourth section in hand:

 

 

At this point, I remember thinking that I was having more of a success than a failure with this process.  I could actually imagine completing the quilt.  A big “Whew!” moment was savored.  I pressed on, now with a smile.

Almost there June 24:

 

 

The quilt top is completed June 28, 2010.

 

 

The celebration time was short. I wanted to enter “Mendelssohn” for an October exhibition in Mill Valley. I had to press on to quilt, bind and get it photographed. Once marked, the quilting was rather straightforward. I used metallic thread to bring out his eyes. Quilting was completed in August 2010. Having a goal with a firm deadline is always a good thing.

 

I am very pleased with this quilt. And “Mendelssohn” was featured in Art Quilts, A Group Show, juried by Jane Przybysz (then the Director of the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles) at the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts the month of October.

So, from inspiration to completed art quilt a full ten years flew by. Thank goodness all my art quilt don’t take this long!