Tag Archives: moon

Quilting a Full Moon in Taurus

Fern-Village

I THOUGHT I was going to bind and be done with this.  But a few influences (later on those, perhaps) got me to wanting to add a moon and moon shadows.

To make the moon, I looked in some unlikely places, underlining my rule about COLLECTING UGLY FABRIC.

ugly-fabric

who knew I'd want this fabric?!!

Disk and batting to start —

ugly-disk-base-+-batting

I won't use a backing -- but there will be two top layers

I love sheers for layering to create depth and a one-of-a-kind surface —

shirt-for-shadow-and-shine

sheer shirts and scarves layer well

This shirt has shown up in other places lately — a self portrait, for one… Its scenes of New York resonate to a child of parents who haled from Brooklyn.  THIS particular full moon was in Taurus, and so, while my initial impulse was to make a quilt about money, the difficult transitions to fall/daylight savings, and the painful nature of attachment… now it had also to do with my father (b. May 19, 1929).

stippled-craters

I like to use dissimiliar threads top and bottom for more texture

After stippling the craters, I flipped one of the lighter edges over the top (making a third top layer) because I thought the moon was too dark, and the fabric was there.

fold-edge-to-TOP-first

Then, because I wanted to make progress and because I knew I didn’t want to attach the moon to the quilt with a loose satin stitch, I machine-stitched the lunar edges under.  (BTW, do you see those two men in the foreground of the grey landscape?!!  This reference to the “man (or men) in the moon” not only affirms my love of visual puns, it does direct homage to my father, who was a true Master of the Pun.

tucking-under-on-machine

On a different day, I might have decided to tuck these edges under by hand.

Now, I wanted to make moon shadows.

lacey-moonlight

rejected this treatment of moonlight

More on that tomorrow!  (This treatment was soundly rejected!)

Journal Quilt — Worm Moon

14" x 21"

14" x 21"

I found about the Worm Moon on one of my favorite blogs — that of Elspeth Thompson.  It is the Full Moon associated with the stirring of the soil and this year occurred on March 11.  While it continues to be in the 30’s in the morning here (in fact, there was frost in the Upper Field when Jack and I walked at 8:00), the earth is definitely warming up!

worm-face-and-lace

This lace came from my mother’s collection, gathered back when she was designing and creating one-of-a-kind wedding gowns that incorporated antique textiles.  I have left the hooks on.

busy 'underground'

busy 'underground'

The lower section is covered with tulle to hold all the little chips of fabric in place during quilting.  All the lines and swirls are meant to depict the busy work of microbes and worms, all happening out of sight and below the surface.

worm-moon-lace-spirals

This journal quilt will get some more hand-quilting and will be bound.  Of course, that takes it into several weeks beyond “its” week, but so be it!