this here quilt is "spiders on acid". the title of which is me being cheeky: a spiderweb quilt in acidic, bright colors.
the name is also a half-assed reference to this video i saw a few years ago, showing the effects of various illicit substances upon spiders (spoiler: they apparently weave different webs depending on the substance to which they are exposed):
the desire to make my own spiderweb quilt started with an obsession with the two quilts above, which were featured in one of my favorite books, the oft mentioned (by me) roderick kiracofe tome unconventional and unexpected. i loved the optical movement that happens with the circle shapes, created by the triangles joining together to form squares. it looks more complicated than it is. i found it to be an easy quilt to make, but one of the most time consuming quilts i have made, to date. there's a lot of work in joining all the strips out to the points of the triangles. i thought the piecing stage would never, ever end! freakin' tedious! and i am not one to shy away from a lot of work. i'm a fiber person, for chrissakes, everything i do seems to involve a lot of labor and i actually love it. but whoa. in the end, it was worth it, for the effect.
the fabrics are a mix, as they always are. vintage, new, whatever. dunno if anyone notices, but i often throw a little marrimekko fabric and a little tasteful batik into most of my quilts too (the bold stuff, like those designed by malka dubrawsky).
the colorway/design story goes a little something like this: i started with one color of yellow for the triangles. then i thought it might be interesting to add a few other varied shades of yellow, and yellow green. and since purple is the compliment to yellow, i thought it would make an nice contrast with the yellow, both in hue and value. as for the strings, the reds and greens are also compliments, along with the yellows and the purples, and orange is thrown in for more interest. i had started with just green, red, and yellow strings, but the addition of the purple added the right amount of "jazz" to the whole color play, and just felt "right" to me. i like the surprise of adding all the variations and the little bits of purple and orange. it's the unexpected, the extra little something and keeps the whole quilt from being a bore. the colors are crazy, but i like crazy. i AM crazy. maybe i'm a little like those spiders on acid...doing what i do, but maybe i'm a little tweaked? have you heard of people saying you should be careful using complimentary colors in your work? whateverrrr. i say bubkis. BUBKIS!!
i started out hand quilting this quilt, but decided i would rather machine quilt it. so i used my 1980s berninamatic 910 to finish it off with straight lines on the diagonal, using a yellow variegated thread 100% cotton thread. faced it, rather than binding it. again, i'm digging the look of no binding or "frame".
nothing fancy as far as the quilting goes, just straight lines for miles, but i like that minimal look.(AND...ummm, walking foot quilting is pretty much all i can do well, machine quilting-wise, truth be told).