04 May 2011

Hero's nemesis; or, the orange lizard


If a had to choose a favorite among my three stencil quilts, it would be this one. I love everything about it, starting with orange and blue (the colors of the California poppies and blue lupine blooming all over the hills right now.) The background is a disappearing nine-patch of royal blue and deep turquoise prints and solids. The stencil is a grid of half-square triangles in orange shot cotton and prints.


I'm also pleased  with the sense of menace and movement created by the dinosaur entering the frame from the side.


The back is also pieced in orange and blue collected from trimmings and extras from the front. Once again, The quilting along the stencil outlines has a surprising impact on the back.
The stencil design was inspired by a piece of clip art I saw on SLOG (the blog of Seattle's Stranger newsweekly). My favorite things on SLOG are the Savage Love letter of the day and Mary Traverse's regular Dinosaur News updates, in addition to lots of other delightful nuggets. Mary was kind enough to send me the full image of the articulated skeleton. Thanks Mary! And thank goodness the Stranger has its priorities straight and put her on the dinosaur beat.
I quilted the blanket with concentric zig-zags emanating from the T. rex's gaping maw. It was as close as I could get to a menacing roar without spelling it out.


My nine-year-old wants a dinosaur quilt, but he insists on a red one. So the orange lizard is now available on Etsy.

18 comments:

  1. Fantastic, Dan! Just like the other two stencil quilts. Very original. Each one of them is simply fabulous. Congratulations!

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  2. Fantastic, I love it! I can even hear the dino roar from here.

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  3. The quilting makes it very dynamic, great choice! The colors are so raw too. You are cranking out some rocking quilts!

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  4. Hello! I love all your three stencil quilts - it's really exiting technic! Lizard is my favorite, too even I like so much the deer and the horse! Blue and orange - impressive combination - sea and sun!
    Thank you for your visit and comment!
    Teje

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  5. Oooh, another fabulosity! First-ever time I've seen disappearing 9-patch put to (IMO) good use. Usually it strikes me as a waste of fabric, but it works so well in close tones as the background here. Love the back, too!

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  6. Your creativity just amazes me! I really can't get enough of how you can create so much movement and texture from simple colors. Just so inspirational... can't wait to give this a go. What's next for your stencil ideas?

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  7. This is absolutely amazing, You managed to get a beautiful amount of detail into the stencil. What a lovely color choice for the lizard, the orange really glows next to the blue and the blue nine patch does a good job of being both interesting but not battling the stencil. The attention you pay to your quilt backs is also inspiring....

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  8. Another masterpiece! It's awesome how placing just a part of the dinosaur on the edge gives it a sense of movement.

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  9. Very cool! I had to surf in when I saw this picture on Flickr. It really is great and sso different!!!

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  10. wow!! this is awesome!! love the blue & orange combo and I think they match perfectly with the T-rex!

    ....and love the new banner, its so modern and fresh!

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  11. I'm head over heels for your reverse applique stencil quilts! You are wonderfully creative, I wish you all the success you deserve with your Etsy store and thank you for your wisdom and input in my own journey to creative quilting!

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  12. very cool! I love your technique and series of quilts. They are great!

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  13. Amazing! I love the colors and the originality!

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  14. This is crazy creative, great job!!

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  15. Everything about it is amazing! Wow!

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  16. I love your quilt-- especially the way the background is pieced instead of just a print fabric. Really neat!

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