Stardeath: In Progress

I enjoyed explaining the "Starbirth" series to the kids. They totally got what I was going for and when they felt the quilting thatI've started for "Stardeath: Supernovae/Red Giant" one said "It looks like flames!" Which is exactly the effect that I was going for.

When explaining my quilts, I told them that I had three styles in front of them: One style where the pieces were painted and reassembled collage-style, another style (wholecloth) where the entire piece is painted and the quiting dictated the design, and the third ("Stardeath") where the fabric was created through bleach discharge and the quilting will complement the fabric.

I know you all were wondering, but here's the beginning of "Stardeath."

Fabric Day for Starbirth

Yup, fabric soaking in anti-chlor. Happy joy in a bucket!

As a lot of you know, I have been working on a "Starbirth" series for over a year. I did some bleach discharge pieces that reminded me a lot of the cosmos, but some of the ones I did on a dark brown West African damask really reminded me of a star's birth complement.

So, what would be the stages of "death" for a star? Supernova. The smaller pieces reminded me of supernova events and the new larger piece of fabric I just bleach discharged and painted, a red giant. I was a little "Ugh" about how the larger piece turned out, I wish it had more dark parts. I let it pool a little long. Darn. That's okay. I think it'll be perfect to represent a red giant.

My friend Elsie will be tickled to know that I painted it in my bathtub. I've become almost legendary for it...Soft Scrub w/bleach is fantastic by the way.