“Joining”; Pride inspired textile art.
The colours of the pride flag are the inspiration for this project.
A collection of primary coloured jelly-roll strips needing a worthy purpose.
June is a favourite month. It is the month of my birthday and that of both my sisters. It is the last month of school and it signifies the start of the summer vacation. Typically, June is soft breezes, shorts and t-shirts and memories of freedom as a child. It is lilac scented, bird-song, freshness and a world of expectation for the summer ahead. Summer, as a child seemed to stretch interminably, with endless weeks of ease, playing out on the street, skipping, ball games, strawberries, going to bed when it was still light out, and staying up later than was allowed throughout the school year.
In more recent years, certainly since I was a child, June has also come to represent Pride, acceptance, tolerance and a joyful embracing of love amongst every human being. In Canada, thank goodness, homophobia seems more or less a thing of the past and as we evolve as a society we have learned to accept and appreciate that all human beings are deserving of love, kindness and acceptance. I hope as my extended family grows with their own little ones, this will continue and hatred and intolerance will eventually fade to nothingness.
So, with pride comes the symbols that accompany it. Rainbow flags, colourful representations and celebrations. I am doing my own small part to create a simple representation in my usual style; “winging it!”
I LOVE this paper dolls fabric that I found some time ago. I think it works well, representative of the black stripe of the pride flag. Something about faceless paper dolls adds an element of gender neutrality perfect to the sentiment of the pride movement.
I’m a big fan of ‘wonky’, and not too perfect. Although I am adhering strictly to the traditional 1/4” seam allowance, I am trimming the edges of each addition randomly, so as not to turn out too formulaic or planned.
I just may grow to love primary colours afterall!
Really cheerful yellow thread is the winner for hand stitching.
When adding directional images such as text, work in reverse. An easy way to do this is to print a letter right way around, then take it to a window, and trace it backwards onto the fusible web you are using. You will fuse the backward letter onto the wrong side of your fabric. When you turn that over and fuse to your piece, it is the right way around.
Although sometimes fusing is enough, in this case hand stitching the letters was necessary. Call me weird, but I really do enjoy hand stitching! I find it very peaceful and, it allows me time to think deeply about the person or reason(s) for making the piece. The title of the piece comes from the text on the dolls’ legs.
On display at home on a sunny day.
Gifted to a wonderful woman. Miranda is a maker, an entrepreneur, a mom, wife, business owner, knitter, crocheter, festival originator, and absolutely awesome gal. I couldn’t have made this for a nicer human being.
Essentially, I used a “Quilt As You Go” method of adding strips and trimming after each addition.