Garden of the Sun God

It is time to introduce to you my latest quilt, completed this past spring.  You can visit it at Houston if you go to the big show in October.

At the time of its creation, my teaching schedule had slowed down considerably, so I had more relaxed embroidery and quilting time with this large quilt. It was a joy to make.  I did envision how this quilt to should go together, the background is 4 basic pieces, a little different from my usual style, but similar in feel to Egyptian Garden II.

The working title for this new quilt was Egyptian Water Garden III. The plan was to paint a large panel of fabric which would be divided into 3 thin strips for the background. I always cut the white base fabric a little larger than needed, to give myself some options in how to trim it up for the quilt. So I used about 1.5 yards of "prepared for dying" white cotton.  I poured and dribbled lots of sky blue stuff on the top and browns, greens and yellows for the lower edge.  I twist up the fabric into a long log so the Setacolor paints intermix in interesting patterns.

This is the hand painted panel, pressed, sliced into 3 sections, auditioning a sashing strip.

I envisioned a water garden, with papyrus, pink coneflowers, and a blue heron fishing in a lily pond. So above you see the very beginning! Remember, this will have an ancient Egyptian feel to it, but I created most of symbols to make it mine!

The sashing strips were cut from a rich hand dyed fabric by Dagmar Plenk of Milwaukee. It was a luscious fabric blending red, gold and rust dyes. It made me think of very hot desert when I saw it for the first time. Above the shorter center panel I will place the symbol of the Egyptian sun god.

The strips are pieced with the red sashing. The lower dark blue strip is being auditioned for the water.

The heron is supposed to be fishing in the pond, and I have decided that the special water fabric I have purchased is too heavy and dark.

Auditioning another lighter turquoise for the strip to become the pond.

This lighter fabric blends and subtly contrasts with the upper section, so I'm much happier with this selection.  Good thing I had it left over from my Orange Coneflower Quilt.

Auditioning red fabrics for outer border.

Now the inner section is complete. All the while I have been working on the background, I have been unsure about what to use for the outer border.  It must harmonize with the inside, yet be heavy enough to hold all the sections together. I'm not there yet.

More border auditions.

It seems that I'm getting closer to a border.  I like the fabric on the lower left that changes from bright red to dark red. This creates an interesting border with some movement; this works well with the water idea.

Tune in next time to view the exciting conclusion.......What will be chosen for the border!

Have a good weekend.

Ann Fahl