Lenten Twelves 2021 : Gilded Edges

Sometimes I can’t decide which I like more: the thrill and excitement of an experiment or the confidence of a sure thing. Experiments are full of possibilities, potential breakthroughs, innovative ideas. They also come with nervousness, the chance of failure, and many pauses for consideration. Tried and true methods, on the other hand, can be carried out with speed and confidence. Also, lest we forget, tried and true methods are not always boring or lacking in innovation; sometimes they are the successes born of experiments that have been perfected into common practice.

Experiment : Gold Screen Printing

This week I picked up gold screen printing ink (experiment #1).

I have never printed with metallic before, but I have sketched and imagined the possibilities since visiting Prague and being inspired by the minimal gold accents adorning their many stone sculptures. A gold zucchetto graces a sandstone cleric blackened by pollution. A gilded halo floats above a blackened angel on the famous Charles Bridge. Saint Elizabeth wields a golden scepter over the tourists and locals.

Unfortunately, my local art shop was out of the small jars of gold textile screen printing ink. Not wanting to wait, I opted to dive in to this experiment with acrylic ink (experiment #2). The ink was silky smooth to print with (although I can’t be sure the texture difference between the acrylic gold ink and my textile ink isn’t age-related rather than substrate-related).

Results: beautiful gold printing

I still want to experiment with the gold ink more to really grasp its versatility and uses, but so far, I would consider it a success. Due to its metallic nature, the gold ink looks darker from some angles and lighter and more subtle from others. I would be curious to see how it plays off darker fabrics.

Experiment : Canvas-mounted Quilt

This is something I regularly wrestle with as I create wall quilts: how can an art quilt be easily and masterfully hung? There are several methods for finishing the edges of a quilt other than traditional binding, and I hope to work on a tutorial series covering some of these methods. However, no matter how you finish the edges of the art quilt, you are still left deciding how to hang it on the wall. I have used velcro. I have used dowels. I have hand-sewed individual quilt squares to a piece of mat board. None of these methods have satisfied my desire for a method that elevates the quilt to the crisp finish of modern art without requiring painstaking care and copious amounts of fiddly hand-sewing.

This week, I planned to try wrapping my finished quilt around a pre-made canvas (experiment #3). I added a border to the original composition in order to provide extra fabric for wrapping. Then, after printing on the quilt, I realized I had calculated the margin wrong and added more. I also cut my batting in a cross shape so that there would be no bulky batting to fold around the corners of the canvas.

Results : trying French cleats next

After all this thought-filled preparation, when it came time to wrap the quilt around the canvas, I realized that I liked the quilt composition better with the borders that I had added (borders that would be lost to the edges and back of the canvas). Not to mention, I love how the gold printing is cropped by the outermost border. With this in mind, I padded upstairs to discuss the predicament with my partner and resident art-hanging expert. As a gallery director and once-art-museum-preparator, my husband is a treasure trove of expertise and talent when it comes to hanging artwork.

After some discussion, he suggested I mount the quilt on a 1/4” piece of plywood and then use French cleats on the back to float it in a frame. Enthused by this new idea (experiment #4), we drove to the store to get some MDF, short screws, and short staples. We don’t own a table saw, so my husband will cut the board and French cleats for me when he’s at work tomorrow. I am excited and hopeful that this system might provide a straight-forward and professional system for mounting and framing my art quilts. Stay tuned!

Lenten Twelves 2021

Follow the links below to read more about this quilt series or check out #LentenTwelves and #LentenTwelves2021 on Instagram. Curious what “Lenten Twelves” are? Check out this introductory post: Lenten Twelves: a Creative Practice.

Lenten Twelves 2021 : Black and White Beginning

Back After a Two-Year Hiatus

It was been two years since I celebrated the Lenten season with weekly quilt meditations. But in 2019, I had just begun my full-time job as a project manager at a biomedical research institute, and 2020 was, as we know, incredibly turned upside down with the COVID19 pandemic hitting a few weeks into Lent. With that in mind, I return to Lenten Twelves in 2021 with grace for myself for the two-year gap in this practice.

Curious what “Lenten Twelves” is? Check out my landing page for this meditative quilt series – Lenten Twelves: a Creative Practice.

Theme: Variations on an Irish-Chain Quilt

This year, I am exploring variations on a theme with an Irish chain quilt as the starting point for my creative explorations. My color palette draws inspiration from my large Black and White Twelves quilt, using black, white, and a variety of creams to explore pattern, focal points, and layering. You can follow along these series on Instagram through the hashtag: #LentenTwelves2021.

Quilt theme: Irish Chain quilt, inspired by the Campfire Glow quilt

Color palette: black, white, and cream, inspired by my Black and White Twelves quilt

Reading: The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief by Jan Richardson

The Cure for Sorrow

Having lost so much this year—even if the loss feels intangible—I am taking this season of waiting to read The Cure for Sorrow by Jan Richardson. The book is full of blessings written surrounding the early death of Jan’s partner. Many feel poignant in this time of separation of loss of closeness and normalcy. In response to these readings, I have been writing short poems of my own, and I will share these here and in my Instagram stories. I have included some of my instagram stories at the end of this post if you are not instagram savvy or have given up social media for Lent.

Printed, Then Overprinted

I started by printing the entire quilt with white hydrangeas. I love the texture it added. However, the all-over quilting didn’t lend a focal point to the quilt, and the white printing ended up being more subtle than I expected with such a contrasty background. This led me to experiment with overprinting the quilt after it was quilted, choosing a dark burgundy for my overprinting. Success was mixed… The quilting had shrunk the quilt a bit, so the burgundy overprinting did not align well to the original white blooms. Plus, the burgundy feels a bit out of left field in terms of design concept.

I don’t have a good picture yet, but will try to post later. I am waiting to make a final judgment on the quilt until I have finished the whole series. If worse comes to worst, I will cut it up and salvage the section of the quilt (about 9” square) that doesn’t have any printing on it.

Variegated thread adds movement

I also experimented with my thread choice, trying a variegated thread for the first time. My mom recently used a variegated thread to quilt one of her art quilts to great effect. Inspired, I ordered some black and white variegated Aurifil thread (Graphite 4665). Good news: I love it! The variegation is subtle when sewn over a black and white background, but I love how the thread disappears on the black in some places, while showing up bright white against the black in other places. It adds subtle movement to the quilt, guiding your eye across the straight-line quilted sections. Note: Aurifil Graphite 4665 has a bit of a blue cast to it that I wasn’t expecting but didn’t end up minding.

I am already scheming about ordering a second spool of variegated thread in cream/tan/white.

Lenten Twelves 2018

Every Lenten season, I take a break from my current quilting projects to feast into creativity. The first year, this meant a 12"x 12" mini quilt every week (hence the original name "Lenten Twelves"). The next year was a series of baby quilts. Last year was a series of printed quilts. This Lenten season, I am exploring double wedding ring quilt blocks and the stations of the cross.

The double wedding ring block carries double meaning for me. For one, it has significance as I plan my wedding and prepare for marriage. However, it also feels like an apt block to explore during Lent as we contemplate Jesus coming to the world to take the church as his bride.

While visiting the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC last fall, I came across Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross. Minimal in black and white, the room was incredibly meditative, and I have mulling over their simple power ever since gallery. With Barnett as inspiration, I am spending this Lent working in shades of black and white and loosely exploring the stations of the cross. The 14 stations of the cross are intended to be meditations that center around the day of Jesus crucifixion, following the story from when he is condemned to die to when he is placed in his tomb. 

My first block is titled: Prayers in Gethsemane.

At this moment in the story, Jesus has finished the Last Supper with his friends, and the full weight of what awaits him next is sinking in. Since he is God, he knows that he needs to die in order to atone for the sins of the world, but he is also human and is overwhelmed at the thought of being crucified. Together with his friends, he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and asks them to stay awake with him as he contemplates his impending death.

"Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.' He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.'

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.' Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. 'Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?' he asked Peter . . .

He went away a second time and prayed, 'My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.' When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy." - Matthew 26: 36–40, 42–43

When Jesus needs his friends' support, they fall asleep. This block depicts the twelve sleeping disciples in grey with Jesus awake at the center. Dark printed foliage covers the entire piece, obscuring the disciples and blending into the night sky.

Check out previous year's Lenten Twelves series.