Overview

I have decided to mount my quilts on canvasses for a better presentation. I have painted a couple of canvasses and this is my 3:16 work so far:

Genesis

Exodus

Leviticus

Numbers

Deuteronomy

Joshua

Judges

Unveiling Judges 3:16

Judges 3:16 But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.

Hard to make even stitches when you sew circles

This turned out quite nice, although I had a few hiccups with printing the letters. I wanted the right part a bit darker and the left in mirror image a bit lighter. I the end I used a pencil to make the text more readable. The target quilting went better than I expected.

This week I have painted some canvasses and mounted all my quilts on them. I am very happy with the result, will try to post them in the next blog post.

Ehud the lefthanded judge

The book of Judges describes the turbulent times when the Israelites began to establish themselves in Canaan. Joshua had died without naming a successor and  "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." (Judges 21:25). God therefore gave them judges (which has a different meaning than the word means today). They were suppose to rule and provide protection as well as to administer justice.

The verse I have to deal with is about one of these judges named Ehud. His name means 'united' and we know about him that he was left handed.
He ruled in a time where the children of Israel were under bondage under Eglon the king of Moab. The Israelites cried unto the LORD, and "the LORD raised them up a deliverer, Ehud....(judges 3:15)

Verse 16 now....But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, of a cubit length; and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh.

With this dagger he killed Eglon and therefore delivered the Israelites from the enemies, the Moabites.

This is the first time I haven't made any sketches. I just saw the picture of a dagger in my mind. And decided to go for a simple representation. I first thought about using strong colours. Like red and yellow to represent anger and blood.

I decide to dye my own fabrics, they turned out alright, but I thought them too bright. Because it wasn't so much out of anger or revenge that he killed the king. It was because this king was an enemy of God. So I thought more about the colour of the dagger and came up with more subdued silver and gold tones. Some red has to be in there though...

I drew a dagger on freezer paper and tried to make a mirror image

Just a picture before quilting, because I might ruin it.....Planning to quilt a 'target' on top and that might be tricky...

The lettering went slightly wrong. I used Transfer Artist Paper, and printed the verse in both normal and mirror version using my deskjet printer and then ironed it on as per instructions. It wouldn't transfer though....I had the iron on the hottest setting and pressed and pressed...anyway I gave up and just used a pencil and wrote the words on it where they hadn't transferred properly. After some research people commented that the TAP paper has a limited shelve life. OK...mine has been sitting in my cupboard for about a year. Wish I had known.

Planning to use my red hand-dyed fabric for a small border. But first...quilting time. I am planning on a target, which might be hard sewing perfect circles and the fabric might pucker and...I am going to try it!

Revealing Joshua 3:16

Finally my Joshua quilt is finished!

For the first time I have tried a so called 'pillowcase finish'. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pillowcase finish (see how I did it:http://www.bluemoonriver.com/PillowcaseTurn.pdf ) is a bit tricky because it means your edges are already finished before you do the quilting. And heavy free motion quilting usually affects the size. But it worked pretty well for this one.

Progress again

After a wedding, engagement and a lot of dress making I started working on my project again. Yesterday I tried to redesign my blog a bit and I like the new, fresh look. I have done an 'in between - experimental little quilt' as well. Better post it for the record. Is has nothing to do with the project 3:16, but I might want to use the techniques.

A little collage using acrylic inks, teabags, drawing on abaca paper, tea labels, pattern tissue. I have quilted an old tile motive over top. 

But back to Joshua 3:16: That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.

I already had the design ready for months, but wasn't completely happy with my colour scheme. I have started afresh and decided to use what's in my stash. One of them was a nice aqua colour which I hand dyed and sprinkled with salt. So it came out with a nice 'water-look'.

I am up to putting all my layers together - batting and a backing. And then ready for quilting it. Haven't though about how to quilt it yet....Probably some diagonal lines on the footsteps and some stone/wall textured look for the looming walls of Jericho. Here's the piece so far:

footsteps and people are drawn and painted with inktense pencils. The walls of Jericho made with dark brown fabric and glued dried teabags on top.Words are printed on fabric by using Transfer Artist Paper.

 I should have picked a slighter lighter brown for the wall, but I didn't know the teabags would completely blend in. Maybe I can correct it with a lighter quilting on top. On the other hand it might show how the Israelites felt in their hearts.