Art Quilt in Progress

We were still snowed in, today, which gave me the opportunity to work on my Pendant Wallhanging. 

It started out looking REALLY ugly:

No question I love the fabrics but the piecing was rough.

I was also worried about how in the world I was going to get the center to match up.  Happily, a fellow Okie from the HGTV message board suggested I applique it. 

To be honest, my first thought was, "No, I want to piece it because that is the proper way to do it - and I don't want to duck from a challenge."  But my second thought was that there ain't no quilt police and I am learning enough new things that I don't need to frustrate myself so much that I walk away from it. 

Plus, an art quilt is a good way to tap into your creativity and problem solving skills.  Everyone has their own style and no one can tell me that I am doing it "wrong."  Including me, if that is how I want to do it ... right? 

The drawback to that is that I don't want to develop bad habits.  And I really do like to learn something with every new project - good for the brain, don't cha know.  But that argument doesn't hold up when you consider that the whole endeavor is new, to me.  Including applique. 

So I went ahead and appliqued the circle to the pendant:

Here is a closeup:

And here it is after I turned the corners of the entire pendant in preparation for appliqueing it to a background:

It is really smoothing out. 

I am very happy with it, so far. Here are a few shots:

I think it looks a lot like the pendant, which was what I was aiming for:

I found some great fabrics.

The piecing is definitely not my best but I am so enchanted with the colors that I can live with it.   In some places it looks like there is a gratuitous seam but I was combining different fabrics that don't show up too well in the photo. 

With every project, something stands out that I have learned.  I think this project has been more about color choice than anything else. 

Like I said, it will need a lot of cleaning up.

My current plan is to piece much of the background to put in a shadow and then applique this to it. 

This project is just for me so I consider it a practice piece more than anything else. 

My husband, the ultra engineer/scientist type, came into my sewing room today.  He has all the creativity and appreciation for creativity as a can of cream of celery soup.  Campbells.   He thinks visual artists are a tick on the ear of productive society, for the most part.  He just doesn't "get" that sort of thing. 

He stood for several long, silent moments gazing at my design wall.  I felt a sense of unease because the man always speaks his mind and likes things tidy and symetrical.  I braced myself for a comment I wouldn't like.  Something like - it isn't symetrical.  Or, what is the purpose of this whole thing?  Or, that doesn't look like a quilt - what is it?  Or - the worst - what is its function? 

Finally, he turned and looked at me.  I looked back.

"You sure are artsy."

I breathed. 

"That has to be hard on you," I said, with a smile.

"I can deal with it."

And then he went out to shovel ice off the sidewalk, which meant that I had time and opportunity to continue playing.  That is the way an engineer says I love you. 

Happy Quilting,

Penny, Evelyn and Pearl