30” x 30”

Working on the background for this next ‘Message’ textile, and ended up with this size. The colors and patterns really inspire me! That may sound silly if you do not have a love affair with fabric as I do – OK, some may call it hoarding fabric or (my husband’s favorite phrase) EFS, extensive fabric stash, but I love being able to walk over to my stash shelves and just start pulling fabrics out to see if they make potential neighbors sing. I have worked with some very small fabric blocks in previous projects (¾” square blocks in Autumn comes to mind!), so just picking fabrics and stripping/piecing is quite a change.

Chosen, stitched, pressed, lines of fabric that all sing together! It is now over-painted with a mix of gold and white acrylic + fabric medium. It took a little bit of trial and error with the first ‘Listening’ work, but without the fabric medium the fabric would be too stiff to work with. The work would not have flexibility and would lose some of the acrylic paint over time. It would literally chip off like latex paint over older oil paint on a wall. Now the message…?

Beth