Remember when ...

Play "remember when ...." and I'm sure no matter the memory, these are their expressions, this is their photo

Eggplants and dragonflies , a cursory trip of the world in hot air balloons , friends and wishes, and a more-than-healthy doze of colour made up this unique 50th birthday gift. Yes, that's right ! My second art quilt also turned out to be a 50th birthday gift... I think I might be onto something here🤔

Unlike Gathered treasures - my first ever art quilt, this one was nowhere on the cards! Absolutely no planning, no idea of making it, nada. Of course, like any artist will tell you, any photo you take or see, any sights you see, you involuntarily look at it through the eyes of your preferred medium. So technically , it wouldn’t be wrong to say that at some subconscious level, I thought of a photo of these long-standing friends being made into a portrait quilt someday. Or maybe I was just trying to capture the moment.

I was just lazily browsing Pinterest one day, trying to figure out my next project....when H says “ make something for R’s 50th birthday”....I swear, it was music to my ears! My mind immediately jumped to fabric shopping, colours, quilt size, etc., even before a breath had passed! Then H ruined it by suggesting I make the portrait of a monk because R would like it. 🤭 Not that there’s anything wrong with that...but my overactive imagination had already started looking for some personal projects, and this was not one of them. But I figured I had to at least try ....so I looked up some photos of the monk, artist representations, etc, all while dreaming up of a kickass project that would sway H to my side. Eureka! A fabric collage quilt of R and his friends of more than 35 years! What better gift could there be ... one that I could make, that is. 😬 I ran to H with the idea, but not before I armed myself with a range of photos that were guaranteed to sway him, and of course, I knew the one I wanted to make ...I love the camaraderie captured in this photo ...something that I hope I have captured in the art quilt.

One look at the photo , and H was on my side, discussing finished quilt size and saying I have to absolutely add M who isn’t in the photo. Yay!💃

Next step was shopping for fabrics. Of course, like any self respecting quilter, I do have a stash. Pfft ! And no, of course I couldn’t use any of that!😼 I needed batiks and/or hand dyed fabrics or something better...of which I had only some blues that I had bought for Gathered Treasures. And I didn’t want to do blue again. Or maybe not only blue. Shouldn’t omit an entire colour group just because I’ve been-there-done-that, right? So I ordered hand dyed fabrics and some really beautiful prints.

While I waited for the fabrics to arrive, I photoshopped M into the photo ... by now, I had gotten over the horror of having to edit a moment. It was now about capturing the friendship, the fun they have in each other’s company ... by adding M there, I was probably recreating one of the thousands of moments they've shared. Just because I don’t have a good usable photo of that, doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. Play "remember when ...." and I'm sure no matter the memory, these are their expressions, this is their photo.

M, R, S, K and H

I drew up my pattern, enlarged it, set up my design board and by then, the fabrics arrived. It was love at first sight! I set up my entire work area, organised fabrics according to value, kept my stencils ready to go, cutting tools organised in one box, decided I will start with H's portrait cause it’s the biggest face in this photo...all so that when I enter my workspace in the morning, I could get on with it right away. I would plan this to the t, follow it meticulously ( huh! Good luck with that....) and just maybe, I'll finish on time. After all, I was on the clock now - I had less than two months to make portraits of 5 people!

Next day, I enter the workspace, I take one look at the array of colours and draw a blank ! How’s that for anticlimactic ?! I have no idea of how to start ...everything that I had planned yesterday seems wrong... and I’m pretty sure whatever I plan today will also be wrong tomorrow. Which colour do I start with? Which face do I start with? Should I make them one colour each, or all colours each, or two colours each? and so on ....before I knew it, the day was over, and not one fabric was cut.

I’d love to say that a good night's sleep provided me with some amazing clarity.....but that couldn’t be farther than the truth. The next couple of weeks passed in the same haze , or sometimes even worse with pathetic failed attempts and some far more serious questions thrown in the mix - what on earth am I doing? Do I really know what I’m doing? This is only my second art quilt , so isn’t it over ambitious? 5 portraits - What the hell was I thinking ? and so on... I was whining about losing my mojo to D, a 12th grader ( whaaaaaaaat !🙆‍♀️ really ?! ) and she, was empathising with me ! I’m pretty sure the roles are supposed to be reversed .... D the whiner, and me the empathetic mom.

And then finally, something clicked. I loved the green...so just kept adding pieces, changing colours , changing fabrics according to value, and came up with a green and blue version of H. I liked it. It was the first thing that worked, giving me some assurance that just maybe Gathered treasures wasn’t a fluke win. That I’ve still got it. Probably....

But of course, I got stuck .... again. No matter how many different yellows I used for the forehead, they all ended up being the same value. So I did the only smart thing ( after wallowing in self pity for 2 days) - I started on another face. Here’s a few photos of S being made ... I started out with a complete plan of what fabrics I will use - I was thinking of two color groups here, like H’s was coming out in green and blue. Organised the fabrics by color and value, took photos and all, arranged them neatly... all ready to go. Only, once I started it, all carefully laid plans were gone in the wind , for I finally stopped overthinking it and just followed my gut feel... and the results were stunning, if I may say so myself!

The vibrancy of what I had just created took me by surprise! I’ve always admired and been in awe of artists who use a lot of colours in their work, and if I’m being honest, even a little jealous that I can’t do that. This was certainly illuminating... not that I can compare my work to the greats, but I was loving this! And that’s half the battle won, isn’t it - loving what you do!

Next in line was K ... the smallest of all the faces ... only in this photograph because he’s standing behind the others. Bringing in the depth was difficult...not sure I entirely succeeded there. There were jokes going around that I made K's target size rather than his actual size😅 Apart from that, the main challenge was the lack of real estate in which I needed to accommodate quite a few striking elements - Spectacles, a distinctive smile, teeth, moustache, hair, nose, etc.. At least now, I wasn’t colour-shy. I wasn’t second guessing myself ... I was following my gut feel. I had an inkling of which fabric appears lighter or darker next to something else. I still got stuck at certain pieces ... but not like before. I have been pushing off the teeth for all the three portraits that I’ve made so far to a time when I will feel more confident of tackling them.

Now to the birthday boy, R. Already on the 4th portrait ....yay ! I thought this one would be easier .... no wide smile, no teeth to be made. Should be a breeze. Well, let’s just say the universe has its own way of tearing you a new one....just to keep you grounded....and it did ! I thought I got the smile right, and for half a day, I was ecstatic! Until I realised it wasn’t. After that, nothing I did seemed right - chin was wrong, cheeks too chubby, colours too bright, or too monotonous or tonal ... And how horrible it would be if I got the others right and the birthday boy wrong ?! 😱 After deliberating a lot ( by that I mean sitting on my chair and blankly staring at the canvas ) and binge watching a couple of seasons of - I don’t even remember what I watched!🙄 - just to clear my head, I gave up on R for the time being and moved on to M. I now had just 2 weeks left ...

The idea was that M would be , well , not easy, just not as difficult ... I would do the collage as quickly as I can, feel really good about it, get back to R and let my positivity take it to exemplary heights! That’s all. Simple, no? The universe kicked me, again. See, I wasn’t working with a good resolution photo to begin with ... and I had to guess the lighting on his face to suit this scene that I was making , since the photo I had photoshopped had different lighting. The colours got wrong, the smile was tough, and the one attempt that I got right, I rejected it because it was too green. I gave up for the day ( it was already night😬) hoping to revisit with fresh eyes in the morning, and went to bed. Surprise, surprise, a good night's sleep actually came with some clarity and yay, I had M's portrait done in half a day. Okay , okay.... it's just the first acceptable draft...but this time, I actually tackled the teeth and had them done too !

Turns out my initial plan that positivity will lead the way was not wrong. Don’t know about exemplary heights, but I’m pretty happy with the way R turned out.

Now that I had all of them done, I noticed that H was not only unfinished, but also different from the others, not as colourful , predominantly two colours ... so I had to up the colour quotient here, and also finish.

With just four days to go, I still had to add the background, do the shirts, the teeth, revisit all of them to refine them and add any other pieces I might have left out...in addition to quilting and finishing! I also debated about adding a collaged background, but in the end decided to go simple, keeping the focus on the 5 friends. I chose almost pastel fabrics for the shirts so as to not draw attention away from the vibrant collaged faces. Hand dyed grey tulle placed selectively provided the effect of shadow falling on the shirts. Background was tricky as the use of so many colours limited my choice, as did the lack of a local quilt shop that I could run to to find the perfect fabric. I settled for a blue patterned fabric that ultimately didn’t show up as much of the pattern as I had hoped.

Then it was off to making a quilt sandwich and quilting it. I used Birch Invisible thread for the the quilting in a staggered zigzag stitch that my Singer machine has.

All in all, I think I achieved what I set out to do - Capture one of the many moments they’ve had together. Are there things I’d do differently ? Of course - definitely with more time, different background fabric, refine a few features etc... But feeling incredibly proud that I succeeded in using value as a tool here. See the Black and White photos below and you’ll see how close I got ...

Another personal achievement is the usage of so many colours...something that has always intimidated me. That I have done this, is a huge win/accomplishment for me!

Oh wow...that’s a lot of chatter! I’ll leave you with more photos of the quilt, hoping to add some more videos when I find the time. Meanwhile, you can watch a short video of the finished quilt here . Would love to hear your comments below ...

Happy quilting!