100 Days of Dice Compositions: Week 15 - O-FISH-ial FIN-ale

When I first embarked on this 100 Day Journey, I didn't have a concrete plan for what I would do on Day 99 and 100. I kept these two days in my back pocket in case one or two weeks might need an extra day to complete any of the weekly compositions. I briefly contemplated the idea of using all the fused scraps to create one final rainbow composition, but wasn't feeling as inspired. 

Thankfully Studio Art Quilt Associates provided a final spark of motiviation with their open call for 7" x 10" pieces for their Traveling Trunk Shows, which showcases the variety of techniques, breadth of creativity, and diversity of artistic talents of SAQA members. Given the smaller size and approaching deadline for submissions, I thought this would be the perfect project to wrap up my last 2 days of using mark-making fabrics to create a final small composition. Join me as I share the whirlwind process of starting and finishing my trunk show piece in just a little over 24 hours.

99/100: Pull Fabrics, Apply Fusible Backing, and Cut Out Shapes

As on previous 100 Day Projects, I usually pass on rolling the dice on the last day or two and instead play with the various concepts as a way of seeing how much I learned over the course of the project. So after I wrapped up my Week 14 blog post, I headed into the studio and started to pull out fabrics. Almost immediately I reached for the swatches printed with my new ArtFoamies stamps using a mix of Color Shift acrylic paints.

I went to work backing several of the motifs with Wonder Under-Pellon 805 and cutting out the individual elements. Several black and silver fabrics were pulled from my stash as potential background fabrics. Blue tape was used to mark the 7" x 10" size requirement on one of my rotary rulers so I could audition various layouts. That evening, I went to bed giddy with excitement and a bit of trepidation as I thought about my chances of actually finishing it the next day.

100/100:

As fate would have it, I woke up with a pretty nasty tension headache that progressed throughout the morning and afternoon. But I rallied and went into the studio to start playing with potential layout ideas. The various elements were laid within the 7" x 10" taped space on my rotary ruler, so I could then place the ruler on top of various background fabrics without having to recreate the entire layout. Here are a few of the initial layouts from my design play.

While I initially planned to use black and silver fabrics for the background, I swapped them out for this scrap of fauxbori. The bottom wasn't wide enough so I made sure to use some of the larger elements to cover up any gaps. In the end, I found another small scrap to layer underneath providing a bit of wiggle room in my design and finishing. Instead of 3 green fish, I swapped out two of them for the salmon-colored fish which offered more contrast against the teal background. The circular stamps were positioned along the bottom to create coral with a few more smaller circles to create bubbles in the opposite corner.

Instead of fusing everything into place, I took a photo and carefully transferred everything back onto the rotary ruler. This way I could quilt the entire background in one pass without having to work in and around fused elements. A variegated Fantastico thread added a bit of sheen as I stitched out horizontal flames to echo the water current.

I continued to layer on background elements and topstitching before applying all the remaining motifs in the foreground. This made it faster and easier to complete the free-motion quilting.

With everything fused and topstitched into place, it was time to embellish with hand-embroidery and other fun details. Here are the threads used to create and embellish this piece.

As you can tell by this detail shot of the embroidered stitches and sequin embellishments, I had a lot of fun in using my growing arsenal of hand-embroidery stitches: asterisks, Xs, stars, backstitching, running stitch, colonial knots, and frenchknots!

I am always amazed at how the hand embroidery truly transforms each of my pieces. Below is a before and after photo to showcase the incredible transformation!

Just before midnight, I managed to trim and face my small quilt. Since I hadn't decided on a quilt title, I didn't consider my piece O-FISH-ially FINished. The next morning I added a label and took photos.

And here is my final Composition in this series..."O-FISH-ial FIN-ale"...

"O-FISH-ial FIN-ale" Finishes 7" x 10"

Personal Critique:

• While I did not roll the dice to determine a design guide, I definitely drew inspiration from both the Magic 3 and Landscape design guides.
• It's hard to believe that this entire composition started with white Pimatex Prepared for Dye fabric! It was transformed into all the wonderful patterns and colors through the use of acrylic paints, stamps, threads, and embellishments! 
• It features a Double-Complementary Color Scheme of vibrant Yellow-Orange/Blue-Green and Red-Violet/Yellow-Green. While more subtle, there are several different values included from the unstamped portions of the white Pimatex fabric, light yellow stamped areas, to medium and darker values in the blue background.
• Focus is given to the centrally positioned fish which are larger in size and surrounded by a high contrast, cool-colored blue background.
• A variety of circle shapes, sizes, and patterning are used along the periphery of this quilt. 
• Movement was introduced through the wavy lines in the background fabric, positioning of the 3 fish, and bubbles floating up along the top right corner. 
• Once again, texture played a significant role in the transformation of this piece. The ArtFoamie stamps created lots of wonderful textures within the circle shapes, as well as each of the 3 fish. More water-like texure is introduced through the Fauxbori stripes and flame quilting. The hand-embroidered stitches and sequins add the final and most dramatic textures. 

This marks 15 finished compositions in 100 days! Over the next few days, I'll be reflecting on this entire journey and sharing my reflections and lessons learned along the way. Be sure to TUNA in for the final celebratory blog post.