The Endeavourers, #5, Texture - "Drops and Drips"

I'm a bit late sharing the quilt I made for the first reveal of 2019 for the Endeavourers.  Our theme this quarter was 'Texture', and this was a lovely one to think about!

When I make a quilt for The Endeavourers I usually start by looking up the dictionary definition of our theme.  It kickstarts the thought processes and it's interesting sometimes comparing the entries in different dictionaries.

In this case, some dictionaries focussed on what you might think of as the obvious definition which describes texture as the tactile characteristics of something, which are experienced through touch.  Others added the idea that texture can be experienced visually too.  And others added another idea - that texture is the quality you get when you combine different elements, for example in literature or music, or even in life - you could say the way in which the elements, or strands, are 'woven together', which is a nice fabric metaphor!

Anyway, I started off by thinking about the tactile qualities of different fabrics.  For some time I've been fascinated by the lovely (I think!)  pattern made by bubbles and drips in condensation on my window and so I made this odd piece inspired by the visual texture, experimenting by putting velvet and cotton together and then added more texture with bubble quilting.   I also used trapunto to create some of the larger white bubbles, and portholes through which the velvet appears for the black ones.

When I came to square up the quilt, I thought that it had an organic quality that make squaring it andcontaining it within binding feel wrong so I cut it into a wavy asymmetrical shape, and "bagged it out" rather than binding it.

I was still so interested in the theme though that I started wondering about adding texture to fabric.  I was thinking back in particular to these pictures I took last summer of some ripple patterns of sand on the beach which are so beautiful.

This made me wonder at the time about the possibility of using pleats and folds in fabric in a quilt which is still in the pipeline.

I absolutely love being a part of this group - having a prompt to think about is such a luxury, and seeing reading about the quilts that the other members have made is so interesting as we all work in very different ways.  You can check out the other quilts on our group blog, and also find there links to each member's own blog.