Rainbow Dance

This challenge, although it seemed easy at the beginning, has given me a lot of trouble.  I started (quite late, due to having too many exhibitions this autumn, among other things) on one design I was quite keen on, but as time passed and the work progressed I was getting more and more unhappy with it.  Therefore I slowed down and kept reflecting on it – but getting nowhere.  Eventually I realised that some of the elements of that design would fit better with the next challenge, 3-D.  So I decided to scrap the design, save the suitable elements to use in the 3-D challenge, and think again.

So here is finally the piece for Challenge 4.  It’s my interpretation of the technique of strip-piecing, which was widely used in traditional quilts in Wales and the North of England – they were often called ‘strippy’ - but my piecing is much more elaborate.  It’s built with a ‘double stripes’ method: from top to bottom I have followed an expanded version of the colours of the rainbow, interspersed with black strips.  The completed curved striped piece was then cut into five vertical curved stripes, again interspersed with black strips, stitched, and fitted into a black background. The curves reference the wave quality of light. As it looks like a dance is taking place, I added black and white stripes all around the quilt, to reference piano keys. I completed it with quilting and metallic thread stitching, and gave it slightly curved edges.

It relates to my theme of Magic and Science as it is about the spectrum of colours that form white light. The well known experiment of splitting white light with a prism is clear proof of that.

The quilt is 40" high by 25" wide.