Quilt 13 - 2022 'Qnce Upon a Time'

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At the beginning of 2022 my wife, Esther Tronchoni, and I were invited to mount a joint exhibition, which we entitled “Sticking Together”, at the Carrefour Européen du Patchwork in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, Alsace Lorraine in September. The festival also hosts a themed competition, in this case “Once upon a thread”, and we decided it would be a good opportunity to see if we could make a quilt together which might profit from the combination of our two very different styles in the one piece.

 

Esther had found a beautiful and enchanting picture by Anne Stokes which looked ideal for the purpose and Anne was kind enough to give her permission for us to make as faithful a copy of her work in fabric as we could. Esther´s style of patchwork is very much based on realistic representations of animals so she took on the dragon and the girl while I got the background, for which I felt that the “false weaving” technique which I had first used in “Quid Pro Quo” (Quilt 12) and my favourite Hoffman 1895 batiks collection would be ideal. The idea was that the depth gained by the pixels, together with the sombre tones in which they were to be made, would give a sense of eerie mystery and provide a strong contrast with the brighter figures in the foreground.

 

We sought to add further to this contrast by quilting our respective parts very differently. I simply stitched in the ditch with invisible thread while Esther`s visible stitches followed the contours of the dragon and the girl. She also took the opportunity to add a few hotfix crystals to make the crown and the ring shine a bit.

 

“Once Upon a Time” was well received at the festival where it was awarded a ribbon from the judges and much acclaim from the visiting public.

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Click thumbnails on the right to enlarge