Feeling Blue

Time to reveal my challenge - Feeling Blue - and yes, there are layers, growing layers, of meaning to the title - it's been a very long week, and it's only Wednesday. This quilt was my attempt to address becoming an empty-nester, it was a very cathartic exercise, and every piece of the quilt holds a very personal meaning. I was so looking forward to the reveal, but things just didn't go as planned, another layer. This is not the best photo of the quilt - I'll photograph it again tomorrow morning when the light is better.


I plan on spending the next few posts to show you my construction process and to share the meaning of the title in relation to the imagery of the quilt. Today's post is just for photos and to show you the "photogenic" references in my quilt.

Here's a close-up of the birds - they are indigo buntings - a male and an immature bird.

Here's the close-up of the male.

A close-up of the face of the immature bird.

If you remember - this weed gone to seed was one of my "photogenic" inspirations.

I quilted the image into my background.

Here was another "photogenic" inspiration - a dried up Queen Anne's lace.

A stylized version of it became part of the background quilting too.

The map stars have a very special meaning - I'll reveal the details in tomorrow's post.

Here's a close-up of the globe and my thimble full of forget-me-nots.

This tramp art frame was the inspiration for how I handled my stretcher frame.
Here's a close-up of how I treated my frame - it is covered with zig-zag quilted fabric, topped with an open prairie point strip, and topped again with a pinked strip of wool, anchored with a triple zig-zag stitch. I bound the quilt with prairie points which stick out behind the frame - layers upon layers to get the effect.