Greetings from the White House

 

"Greetings from the White House"  Fabric Postcard  6" x 4.2",  Hand embroidery,  fusible applique, machine quilted.   Created for Project Quilting Season 12 challenge "Fussy Cut"  

The challenge this week is "Fussy Cut",  which in quilting means to carefully cut fabric so that a particular motif is centered in part of a block.    Here is a traditional sample:

Another version of fussy cut is to carefully cut around an image to applique it onto another piece of fabric, a technique called "broderie perse".  

I started this challenge on January 17th, just 3 days before the inauguration of  Joe Biden as our 46th president, I knew that I wanted to CUT the current occupant OUT of the White House. 

So I started with an embroidery of the White House: 

(and yes, for those who know me well, there are 2 shades of gray floss because I started with a small bit of gray and ran out!) 

Next I found a clip art image of a man falling, and redrew it to look like 45,  cut him out as a black silouette then placed him on his signature ridiculous hair. 

I placed him at the base of the White House, as if he was falling or being kicked out.  

I used Steam-a-Seam II fusible, which is slightly sticky before it is ironed down, allowing for rearranging these elements during design phase. 

Since I plan to make a series of these "Greetings from..." postcards, I printed the words in various fonts using Spoonflower services. 

The dark blue shapes are there to provide value contrast for the letters "The White House".

I've also fussy cut a US Flag from this piece of fabric. 
The flag is a little too large, but its what I had on hand. 

When selecting that dark blue, I found this piece of fabric, and realized it looked like the fireworks, that exploded over the capital the night of the inauguration, January 20th.  So I prepared a small piece, then fussy cut fireworks to place above the White House. 

I used a grunge white fabric for the letters, to look like white marble.

Here is the layout before quilting. 

I quilted through this piece and the Timtex so its stiff like a postcard.   Then added cardstock to the back before finishing the edge with a zigzag. 

When photographing I realized the top of the letters HOU were lost against the white banner, so I simply drew in a blue border with a pen. I wouldn't do this on a quilt that was going to be washed, but this is a postcard!

- - - 

After the election in November 2020, with the drumbeat of the conspiracy theorists, stoked by #45, there was some concern that he would not actually leave on January 20th.  The insurrection on January 6th made it clear that there were enough people following this line of un-reasoning that the peaceful transition of power was not guaranteed.   In the end, he left with a grudge by not attending the inauguration of the next administration.  Good riddance! 

The people of the United States, using the peaceful power of the vote, cut a wannabe tyrant out of our government.  I worry about all his followers. I hope that we can somehow regain a shared understanding of facts.  But I don't see that path today. 

More than ever, peace, 

Paula 

 

 

Greetings from New York City

"Greetings from New York City"  Fabric Postcard  6" x 4.5",  Hand embroidery,  fusible applique, machine quilted.   Created for Project Quilting Season 12 challenge "Illuminating" 

UPDATE:  Sold to the private collection of eileen mann

I've been participating in Project Quilting for a number of years.  In the winter, the Kim Lapacek and Trish Frankland create themed challenges, released on Sunday afternoon.  Quilters have ONE WEEK to create a piece to respond to the challenge and post it on social media.  The following week folks vote for their favorites and there are some winners.  Then we get another challenge.  Its a great way to force yourself to MAKE something.  My projects nearly always have a political bend, which is why I originally created this blog. 

This week's challenge is based on the Pantone colors of the year,  a sunny yellow and a drab grey, speaking to the world mood as we hopefully move out of this past year of pandemic lockdown. 

It reminded me of yellow taxi cabs in the grey of NYC streets. 

Neil loves the iconic checker cab,  so I started with this line drawing: 

Using an embroidery technique I like to use,   I created this taxi on a gridded grey fabric, like the grid of streets and buildings in NYC: 

I used this size because I have been wanting to make fabric postcards,  so this was already trimmed to 4"x6" 

I decided to add vintage "Greetings from New York" elements, as can be seen on this vintage postcard: 

Using a bit of Steam-a-Seam fusible,  I cut out tiny letters using some NYC fabric, so you can see some buildings in the letters, like the postcard. 

Then placed them on black fabric, to get the shadow, to end up with this: 

Unfortunately, I had already cut this fabric to postcard size, so the letters fall right off the grey background. I had to rethink this design. 

I chose this coordinating solid grey with a nice linen texture, which is great justification for quilters to have a well stocked "stash" of fabric:

Then I laid out the elements to give space for the letters to float over the taxi embroidery. 

Finally I created the card using instructions from my friend Nanette and machine quilted all the elements to stabilize the whole project. 

This has a muslin backing, rather than a card stock because I don't really intend to send this to anyone,  but it is stiff like a postcard, due to the Peltex layer. 

I think its still missing the "Greetings from" text, which I may fuse on at a later date, but I want to print it on fabric somehow. 

UPDATE on 1/23:  Added the Greetings from text, printed onto Spoonflower swatch.   Completed work shown at the top of this blog post. 

--

This is project is inspired by my love for my adopted city of NEW YORK.  Neil and I moved here 6 years ago (!) and I really feel like I've always belonged here.  We were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in March and April 2020 and I saw New Yorkers respond amazingly well: we stayed home, we wore masks, we washed our hands, we social distanced.  The streets of the city were eerily quiet.  Some people said "New York is dead." 

But its not dead, we are doing what we need to do to keep it alive as best we can.  Those that must ride the subways are masked and keep their distance.  The subways shut down every night for cleaning (can we ALWAYS do this please?!) 

In the summertime, when it was allowed, space on the already crowded streets was turned into outdoor dining.  Bravo to the restaurants for creating instant environments for really nice dining.  

We are not out of the woods yet, but as the vaccines start rolling out and life starts to get back to normal,  when restaurants and theaters open again,  I look forward to life in this vibrant city. 

And while we are at it, let's find a way to make the city better for everyone.  The pandemic and BLM protests this summer have pointed out something hidden in plain sight:  'normal' wasn't great for everyone.  Let's take a step towards a better normal. 

To steal a line from Monty Python (read this with a British accent): We're not dead yet! 

Greetings from New York City.

Peace, 

Paula