Tuesday, August 25, 2009

"Our House Is A Very, Very, Very Fine House . . ."


" . . . with two cats in the yard.

Life used to be so hard;

Now everything is easy

'Cause of you."

At times it makes me giggle when I realize how often old songs make their way to the forefront of my thoughts as I work on a new piece. Music is one of my muses, and it may be responsible for many of the motifs that emerge in my designs without my being fully aware of its presence. Most of my wall quilts are named after favorite songs of mine.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I found myself humming this endearing little tune from 1970 by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young (if you remember this group when there were four of them, you’re a Baby Boomer) as this piece came together in Laura Wasilowski’s class at Quilting By The Lake. Our assignment was to create any form of “scape” we desired (landscape, cityscape, seascape), and Laura showed us numerous examples of whimsical houses, trees, and fields as inspiration. I had the wonderful feeling of a child in kindergarten, having been given total permission to play with colors, shapes, and scissors.

The border is a piece of hand-dyed fabric which had been resist-dyed with a spiral-shaped stamp; I decided to follow the lines of the spirals with free-motion quilting and then fill in the spaces with my own version of “McTavishing” (an alternative to stippling).

There are no cats in the yard, though – I don’t do cats very well . . .

10 comments:

connie said...

I love the song as well as your quilt! The quilting is amazing. Someday I hope I can do such a fine job.

Anonymous said...

What a delightful quilt, and the song is so appropriate. I'd like to know what other musical names you have for your quilts.

Thanks for your comment on my blog. The beads were fun to make.

Unknown said...

Just love the quilt and the name is perfect!

Diane Wright said...

Your sense of fun is so evident in this post. I am also an admirer of your quilting. Thanks for the inspiration.

Quilt Rat said...

LOVE IT! what a wonderfully whimsical piece.
It is indeed "very very fine" for sure

Tracey said...

Love this piece. I have a sketch (somewhere) to make a quilt with an element of every house I have lived in. Your quilt reminded me of it. One day I will make it. I like the quilting you have done on this very much too. Its interesting about the song choice... I immediately thought of the song "Our House" by Madness. I dont really remember CS&N but I watched an old TV programme of them in concert just last week and recognised alot of the songs.

Linda Bacon said...

Diane - Advice from an art teacher (me): Do, with your usual confidence and grace, what ever YOUR version of a cat is. I'm sure it will be wonderful! Looking forward to seeing it. Speaking of songs, remember Phoebe's (Friends TV show) "Smelly Cat"?

Elizabeth Rosenberg said...

I love using songs as inspiration, too! It's amazing how many CSNY songs are on my ipod -- what does that say about my age, I wonder? . . . Adorable quilt -- it looks like you had a great time with Laura W!

imquilternity said...

Another gorgeous quilt! Your quilting is just exquisite!

Tangled Stitch said...

This is absolutely beautiful. I love the song too!

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