I was looking through my photos from Paris and my fabric for inspiration and it hit me to do a quilt of a stained glass window from Sainte-Chapelle. I fell in love with the interior of this church the moment I stepped inside.
I chose my photo of the rose window due to the repeated pattern of the glass pieces. But interestingly enough the fabric was the main inspiration to do this piece. It was a fabric that I had printed at Spoonflower last summer from a sketch that I did on my ipad. When I received the fabric I liked it, but had no idea what I was ever going to do with it. I thought for sure that it was going to take a long time to get around to using it.
Has a fabric ever been your inspiration for a quilt idea?
Here is the fabric. Doesn’t it just scream stained glass? I might have to have more of this fabric printed for future use since this was only a fat quarter and I pretty much used it up.
My photo is a view of the window from below so you get distortion of the pieces of glass due to that perspective, but I liked that. The "leaf” shapes alternate between the thin leaves and the fat leaves in a circular pattern. Hence the rhythm.
I decided to print out the glass pieces on ExtravOrganza to get very shear images of the glass to put on top of the fabric. In doing that I realized that the fabric did not have enough white in it so under some of the organza pieces I painted some white with Tsukineko white ink. After cutting out the glass pieces I went to my stash for a black fabric for the background and of course did not have anything large enough. So I hand dyed some black fabric so I did not have to go out in the bitter cold to go to a quilt store. Plus it did not come out as black as some of my solid fabrics which was actually a good thing.
So here is the quilt that I call “Rhythm in Glass.”
So that is the challenge done. What is the decision? I decided to go with sketch 5 for the master class quilt. That is the one that most people liked the best. Interestingly enough it was the last edit I did to the original sketch. The more I look at it the more I like it the best.
Elizabeth suggested in the lesson that we make a monochromatic quilt so I think I will make it from blues. I have a ton of blues in my stash. I guess I will pull fabrics today to see it that will be interesting enough. If not I will have to rethink this choice of color scheme.
As always thanks for reading my blog and let me know if you have ever had a fabric give you the inspiration for a quilt.
Chris
Your stained glass window is beautiful. Wonderful print. It sounds as though Paris has given you lots of inspiration.
ReplyDeleteNancyB
Thanks for your comments, Nancy. The vacation was so wonderful that it is not hard to find inspiration.
ReplyDeleteLove looking at your work and so glad you explain the 'thinking' process that you used. My brain doesn't work that way so I enjoy reading how you decided to do what you did.
ReplyDeleteNice use of your original design fabric. I honestly thought the quilt was reverse applique until I took a closer look and read your process. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteI am often inspired by a fabric first and develop a quilt around it. Sometimes that is easier than starting with a design and then finding the right fabrics to go into it. Doing those monochromatic studies with your sketch, btw, is something I keep telling myself I need to try. It surely will show the value gaps in your stash!