Greetings from Gatherings

 

"Greetings from Gatherings"  4x6" postcard.  Fused applique, hand embroidery

The Project Quilting prompt "Virtual Vacation"  - where so many responded with images of places they wanted to go once this Covid time is over - brought me to a memory of a my favorite 'place':  a dinner table with a gathering of friends enjoying a meal, a drink and conversation.

This image was such a gathering, hosted at our home in California in about 10 years ago.  I have wonderful memories of this evening. 

So my first task was to convert this to a drawing I could work with. 

 I used various filters on a the "Photo Sketch" app to get to these 2 possibilities.  If I was going to embroider the outline, I may have used this first one. 

Then decided to do some simple shape fusible applique using this as a template: 

Next I traced the simple shapes and made some preliminary color choices. 

This yellow fabric reminds me of the wall color at our home in California.  I made some editorial choices with some colors.  For example, my friend Sam is wearing an orange shirt, although she is in black in the original, because she loves orange.  My friend Adva, although wearing dark blue in the original, is in a grey stripe because that's what she wore when we travelled together to a quilt show. My hair is purple because I always wanted purple hair.  

I assembled this using a lightbox, where I could carefully place the pieces in their correct location.  You can see the tracing under the background in this next image.

I added some plates and bottles of wine to the table, trying to match their approximate location, but this has such a folk art feel, that I'm not too worried about precision.  

Finally,  I embroidered the word "Gatherings" in a variegated orange floss, to match the tablecloth, then arranged the pieces and fused it all to a stiff timtex and a cardboard backing. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has left us all yearning for a return to 'normal', when we can travel at will and gather with friends and family.  As of this post on February 7, 2021,  the USA alone has suffered 462,000 deaths, worldwide the number is 2.3 million.  So many families will experience an empty seat at the table when we can gather again.  From this image alone, we have lost 2 friends: the funny and loving Mark Jason (4th from right) and the amazing, beautiful, brilliant Debbie Salgarolo (2nd from left). Not to Covid, but we miss them nonetheless. Their memories are a blessing. 

Peace, 

Paula 

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