Oh My Stars AQC entry 2024
Oh my stars! The 2024 Australian Quilt Challenge theme was “Oh my stars!” which originally bought up images of film stars and pop idols, but I am not so good at people, so decided to go with something I know I am good at, animals. I played around with several images then settled on a dog and a mouse. It had to include stars so I decided a star shaped biscuit was the connection between the mouse and dog. I made a pattern of the head and enlarged it onto brown paper, the acetate pattern was traced from this and would be reversed for tracing the shapes needed for the iron on fusing web. The fused fabric is then cut out and using the correct side of the acetate pattern, I can place the pieces onto the calico backing. I use a Janome sewing machine, very basic, and a hoop to keep the fabric flat whist sewing as the multi directional stitching can make the fabric warp. I use embroidery thread and cottons, with bobbin fill as my bobbin thread in white for the lighter areas and black for the dark areas. As with all my textiles I only ever use straight and zig-zag stitches. Once the dogs head is complete I can cut it out from the backing, then I can begin on the mouse. I tried a few different angles for the mouse, but decided to show the biscuits he was sitting on from the eye level of the viewer, looking at the dresser face on. The background was dyed using Alcohol inks on white homespun. The diluted inks are painted on, then splashed, to replicate my watercolour painting backgrounds. This is left to line dry and then ironed to fix the ink. Constructing the quilt The mouse and dog are cut from the backing fabric and I placed them onto several different layouts, before finally deciding on a dresser that held plates. At first I had the plates way too small, so had to remake them. I settled on a part of the dyed background that complimented the dogs colours, and then began to deign the dresser. This changed a couple of times in the process. Finally I had a design I liked and a dresser I was happy with, so the finishing construction begins. Each piece was sewn onto the dyed background and the mouse and dog appliqued over the top. I added applique stars made from the dyed backing fabric, and added some buttons that were star shaped, you can never have too many stars! I wanted to tie the whole piece together and not make it look so divided by the dresser. I tried to keep the stars the same tones as the background to make them less of a focal point. At last I was finished! “Otis the great Dane is shocked to see someone had helped himself to HIS favourite star shaped biscuits. The Audacity!” The quilting and final embellishment took about 3 days, and in total the quilt took about 5 months to make. It is 90cm square. My quilt entry was accepted as a finalist and was exhibited around the Eastern states of Australia in 2024. It didn’t win any prizes but I hang it proudly on my wall at home.
