Monet

This month the Waverley Art Quilters were studying Monet. We have already studied him in the past but the Victorian Art Gallery had the Monet's Garden exhibition on this year and we thought that it would be a good opportunity to revisit him.

We last studied him in 2010 and this is the quilt that I made back then.

Morning with Monet ©2010 Linda Steele

We had a group excursion to the gallery to see the exhibition and the gallery had gone to a lot of effort decorating the venue to fit in with the Monet theme.

Café

Kitchen

It was easy to get into a French frame of mind. We all met in the café for a coffee and then went into the gallery. We were there in time for the guided tour but it was very busy.

Here I am in front of the Monet sign.

It almost seems like I am there doesn't it? Quite a few of our group had been to the actual Monet's Garden in Giverny France. I'll get there one day!

Monet was famous for his water lily paintings and the gallery has set up a modern day lily pond in the foyer.

They are different sized china bowls that are floating in water and as they move around and tap each other they make a lovely tinkling chime. It is very relaxing.

I had taken a photo of some water lilies at the Adelaide Zoo a couple of years ago and decided to use it as inspiration for my quilt.

I got out my fabrics that I thought would be suitable.

Then I traced out a pattern and used a fusible web to place the leaves onto the background fabric.

I changed the background fabric because the one I had chosen seemed too light, but I didn't like the quilt at all. It wasn't until the next day that I realised that the value of the leaves was wrong. I had bought some new fusible Vliesofix that sticks to the fabric when pressed with a dry iron but is not permanent until you use steam, so I could peel the fabrics off the background and start again.

I was much happier with these fabrics. I added a flower and a bit of paint for some dimension.

Here is the quilt all quilted and ready to show the members of our group.

I quilted it with a thread that has a bit of sparkle in it but unfortunately it is not showing up in the photo. I am not super happy with it; it's not as good as it seemed in my imagination. I realise that I would need to put a lot more time in it for that.

After I had finished I received a parcel in the mail and it was the 2014 Calendar from the American Quilters Society and look what was on the front cover!

Monet in Pasadena by Melinda Bula

Now that is a beautiful quilt. I am sure she spent a lot more than two days making it though!

Bye for now,
Linda