This week I have been back into the studio. After traveling last week and working on other non-studio projects in the weeks before, it feels great. The large quilt I have been thinking about for several months is getting close to completion.

And the stage I’m in now is interesting and challenging.

This is the heart of what interests me about working in textiles as an art medium: the intersection of the surface and the meaning or the story. I spend a lot of time and energy on the quilt surface: this one has been printed and painted and stitched. I printed and painted the fabric as raw yardage to create the work and THEN I printed and painted some more after it is assembled, on the composed surface. So, I enjoy that process.

But the surface is not what the work is actually about. The work is about whatever the work is about: in this case, part of a girl’s journey, and a way to look inside her experience of the world.

My challenge, what will make me think I’ve created a successful work, is if the work I’ve done creating these surfaces leads one inside the work – beyond the surface – and into the story.

Now. Where were we? (For those of you who like to keep track of the whole process, I’ve written about this work in blog posts on August 27 and September 24.) At the beginning of this week I had a basic composition, every part of the surface had been quilted, and I’m thinking about how to go deeper. Here’s a screen shot of one of my PhotoShop mockups

The dark shadow of the arched form did not exist on the quilt yet. That’s what I was trying out in the digital file. (The rest of it I photographed as-it-was on my easel.) I decided to add it this week, in place of some other ideas I had considered earlier.

I like it because it gives me a dark value contrast, and because it unifies different parts of the quilt, and because it suggests another architectural form beyond the gate photo. And it adds depth.

Making the arch:

First I had to correct some surface elements that did not please me. An area where the arch will be had gotten muddy and some shapes in the tree limb weren’t just right. So I collaged fabric over them.

Collaging fabric is a matter of matte medium over the substrate, under the fabric being collaged, and then maybe some more matte medium over the piece being collaged to soak it well. I work it in with a brush.

Drying flat is very important! Collaged fabric wants to wrinkle. Some heavy books while drying make a big difference. (Wax paper under the books so they don’t stick to the quilt.)

Now my surface is corrected and it’s time to add the painted arch. I cut the shape out of freezer paper and laid it down to get the positioning.

Then I matched up the freezer paper shape with the part I had cut away to make the pattern. (Freezer paper, waxy down facing the quilt, sticks when ironed to make a nice clean-edge stencil.) This will block out the background of the quilt and expose the area I want to show as the darker value arch shape. I rolled the paint ono the quilt surface with a sponge roller.

Ahead for me this week: More depth. The addition of some characters to the story. And, of course, the finishing of edges and backing.

Stay tuned.

THANKS so much for following along. The discipline of writing about my work regularly is helpful to me, and it means the world to have folks interested in reading.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating

Thank you for reading. I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

How I keep in touch:

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Near DeLand or Central Florida? I invite you to my favorite art festival, the Fall Festival of the Arts DeLand. Always the weekend before Thanksgiving: this year, November 18-19. I’ll be exhibiting. All info at FallFestivaloftheartsDeLand.com See you downtown!