I was absolutely thrilled to hear the news that my
Under the Sea quilt had won 2nd prize in the
World of Textures competition. The competition was held at the
Berry Patchwork Retreat and Quilt Show, in Berry NSW, Australia.
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| Under the Sea ©2015 Linda Steele |
I had known about the competition for ages and I had no inspiration and no time while minding Savannah, my little granddaughter. One day as I was watching her play with her toys I thought about creating texture with coral and using my embroidery skills from all the crazy quilting I have done over the years. Once I had the theme lots of ideas started coming to me.
I am usually tired at night after a day with Savannah but I do have the weekends free and just by chance the school holidays were coming up. My daughter is a school teacher so I get the school holidays off.
I worked every spare minute. I even took my little bits of coral away with me when we went to Queensland for a week.
I didn't draw up any pattern, I just made it up as I went along. It was very free and I really enjoyed making it.
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| Lion Fish |
I had thought about making an Under Sea quilt before but I never got inspired enough to actually do it, although I have done some underwater crazy blocks before and always enjoyed making them.
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| Star Fish |
I used many different fabrics and materials. In fact I had been collecting all sorts of fancy threads and shiny fabrics over the years to use 'one day'. That day finally came and out came the boxes, I had stuff everywhere.
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| Bottom left of Quilt |
I was making all sorts of different textures, none of them very realistic and not all of them very successful but I was really pushed for time and hardly had time to think.
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| Bottom right of quilt |
There were times near the end that I didn't think that I would be able to pull it all together and make that coral work with one another. That's where the french knots came in very handy.
There was a size requirement of 100cm (39") high and only 40cm (16") wide, so it was a long and narrow quilt. I only just got it finished in time, I faced the quilt, photographed it and sent it off to Berry express post to get it in before the deadline.
To actually finish the quilt and get a prize for it was icing on the cake especially as I have never entered an Art Quilt competition before. I have made plenty of art quilts but never entered them anywhere.
Bye for now,
Linda
12 comments:
A big congratulations, what a lovely bright art quilt and your work is fabulous as usual. Maybe you should enter more??
Thank you Dawn, I really want to make more art quilts
Lovely work Linda, congratulations, amazing what a deadline can do for motivation.
Thanks Jude, I always seem to be working to deadlines. I have another coming up, luckily school holidays are nearly here
Congrats Linda! Adore all the embellishments :)
Wow Linda, it's beautiful - so much texture and so many embellishments. I love all the colour too - it really does look like a coral reef. Congratulations on turning an idea into something so original and unique - and for winning a prize too.
Thanks for your kind comments Lorraine and Wendy. I have tried doing an under the sea quilt before and it never got past the design stage, sometimes I just have to wait until the time is right
I always find that deadlines are what make me finish anything within a timeframe. Love your Under the Sea quilt and I'm glad you found a use for the variegated threads that I sent you. Well done, love the colours.
Thanks Viv, I knew those threads would be just the thing. But I've used up some of the colours now. I'll have to get some more.
Well deserved congratulations Linda.
You obviously work very well under pressure as the results above show.
Great descriptions of how you achieved the pieces.
I am fascinated by everything on the panel. I hope you make and enter many more competitions.
Thank you, every time I put myself under pressure for a deadline, I say never again. Until the next time that is!!
Hi Linda, Here it is 2019 and I've just found your quilt. It is absolutely beautiful. Congrats. I hope you are winning more prizes. I'm thrilled to find you live in Australia. For a while I lived in Robertson and used to go to the Berry markets.
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