Friend of Twelve by Twelve - Metamorphosis

An online friend and I are being friends of Twelve by Twelve, which means that we are working with their theme and their timeline. Be sure to check out her blog and the Twelve by Twelve blog. The group chooses a theme every two months and reveals their quilts on the deadline, which is today.

The theme this time is "metamorphosis" and the dimensions are actually 12 x 20. In working with this theme I started out with a plain piece of muslin.

I did two sessions of shibori dyeing, sewing little pleats in the fabric, dyeing, removing the stitching, and repeating. It felt important to me to represent metamorphosis by beginning with the fabric. The fabric was larger than the finished piece and cut into two smaller pieces.

For the quilt, I started machine quilting organic lines at the bottom, with the lines getting closer as I got to the top. On the other piece, I free motioned some fairly tight stippling.

I cut circles from both pieces, replacing the circles on the quilt with the ones from the stippled piece to create another element of change. I learned the concept of cutting and replacing from an online class by Dena Crain and it's something I enjoy because I love to cut, at least once I get past that first cut. That first cut is a little heart-stopping in a quilt that already has hours in it.

And then, the beading, starting with small beads at the bottom and the beading getting getting bigger and more dense at the top to represent the metamorphosis. And, there you have it, my interpretation of the word.

By the way, the Twelve by Twelve group will have some of their work at the Cincinnati International Quilt Festival in April. I can't wait to see their work there.