Another challenge 2

I wrote yesterday about a call for entries for a show sponsored by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, based on the quilts of Marie Webster.  I said that I found a quilt that appealed to me, mainly because the appliqued figures were white.

Marie Webster, Bedtime

That's because I have been experimenting with machine stitching directly onto canvas.  I love the look and the process of dense stitching, especially using different shades of the same general color to give a "hand-dyed" effect.

So I thought I could execute a variation of Marie's scene on canvas by stitching the blue background and leaving the moon, stars and children unstitched. What I like about this technique is that the stitched canvas tightens up and shrinks, while the unstitched parts end up puffed and puckered.

Here's a detail shot of one of the stars.  I have this superstition about showing a quilt while its show entry is still pending, so I'm not going to give you the full view just yet.

Left to my own devices, I would have put a sleeve on the back of the canvas and called it done; I like the way the canvas ripples and hangs askew.  But SAQA has rules for what constitutes a quilt, and it must be "layered and stitched."  So I decided I had to put a back on the canvas and put at least some stitching through both the layers.  Fortunately this was easy -- I sewed around the edges, and scribbled a little in the center, and called it "quilting."

So the entry is in the system and in a month we'll see if it gets in.  Yes, it's still sweet and pale, but I hope the technique will come across as edgy enough to qualify as contemporary.

Wish me luck!