Today is the final Four in Art reveal and, firstly, I would like to say thank you to all the Four in Art members. Sewing along with you in these Art Quilt challenges has been an inspiration and an education and I wish you all well with your future projects :)
Our theme for this year is ‘Light’ and the sub-theme for this quarter is ‘Illumination’. Our aim, as always, is: “…to break out of the usual gridded experience and try a new concept, free of structure or preconception, moving the boundaries of our own skills forward in both concept and technique”.
Although I chose ‘Illumination’ as the sub-theme, I had no idea what to make. I kept thinking about illuminated letters, but that didn’t seem to me to have much to do with this year’s main theme of ‘Light’.
Then I considered light bulbs and that, circuitously (no pun intended), led me to consider light bulb moments and eventually to ponder on Archimedes, who was taking a bath when he realised that a body submerged in water displaces its own volume and ‘took to the streets naked, so excited by his discovery that he had forgotten to dress, crying “Eureka!” (Greek: “εὕρηκα, heúrēka!”, meaning “I have found [it]!”‘ (Wikipedia). Or so the story goes.
This brought me back to the possibility of an illuminated letter – E for Eureka – illustrating a light bulb moment or a moment of illumination.
Once I had the image in my mind of an elegant golden letter with a lightbulb and a person in a bath, I came to the practical problem of how to actually sew that into a quilt. My go-to would ordinarily be appliqué but I’m not keen on raw edge appliqué and I thought if I tried to needle-turn a metallic fabric to appliqué a gilded letter with both thick and very thin strokes it would, most likely, end up a terrible mess! And then I had a small eureka moment myself when I realised I could use paint in place of tiny/awkward appliqué pieces! So I investigated fabric paints and luckily came upon Pebeo Setacolor Opaque fabric paints.
Details of how I painted the letter can be found in my ‘Time and Tide’ post.
I’m considering making some more of these as an occasional long-term project and, one day, turning them into an ‘Unexpected Alphabet Quilt’…
Please visit the other members of Four in Art and see their interpretations of our Final theme.
Bette Ayers Camilla Cathro Catherine Chisholm
Elizabeth Eastmond Nancy Myers Rachel Riley Simone Bradford
Janine @ Rainbow Hare
RAINBOW HARE 
tonia conner
I would say you accomplished your goal. Will this the a stand alone block, I might have missed it if you stated that.
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Rachel
What a great interpretation of an illuminated letter. The light bulb and bathtub details are fantastic. The golden paint really shines. I like that the letter is lower case, as well. I think a whole set of letters would be fantastic. So glad you were a part of this group.
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Carol
This is cool. I love your commentary of how you came to the thought and design. I like your idea of an alphabet quilt too. I find no sense in creating blocks that will only sit in a box unused.
xx, Carol
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catherine
Oh please do an unexpected alphabet quilt! I love your quilts – they are always so imaginative – and the fact that they have these wonderful underlying narratives. Charming and marvellous :-)
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Archie The Wonder Dog
I love it and I love the idea of an unexpected alphabet series!
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Nancy Myers
This made me giggle with the tub, light bulb, and those great bubbles! It is a lovely piece but not too serious. I like that. The paint was a great way to get that letter on the fabric. Fun, fun, fun. I always enjoy reading (to know) how quilters come up with their ideas. Thank you.
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Kim Sharman
Oh how wonderful your illuminated letter quilt is, Janine. I too would love to see an alphabet quilt filled with your fun and brilliant whimsy. Baths surrounded by bubbles, both the fragrant kind and the champers’ kind, are the most wonderful places to experience those Eureka moments. =)
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Louise Hornor
Love the buttons as bath bubbles! Great little piece with a fun background story :)
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Elizabeth E.
Wowsers! or as you say, Eureka! Such a fun quilt with that golden E (and as you might imagine, I am partial to the letter E), and how well it illustrates that splash of inspiration and insight from Archimedes. I love how you made this, with the button bubbles, the golden E, and the ruffled bathing cap (I assume that’s what it is). I love your quilts as they always have a story, and such perfectly executed detail.
Thank you for being a part of this group–you inspired us all!
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Sue W
I like the illuminated letter and the fun way you’ve interpreted this. Look forward to seeing more of them!
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simone braford
Oh this is absolutely lovely! I love how you solved the problem of wanting your letter ‘e’ to be gold. I think you need to keep using and developing this technique into your future projects. The story behind your quilt is so fun, thanks for sharing it too! There is purpose behind each image in your quilt-not easy to do. I can’t wait to see what your future endeavors evolve into.
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Betty A.
How absolutely ingenious! And this is what I am going to miss in leaving the group — all the wonderful ideas and methods. I was sure you had fused lame’ since the gloss is so brilliant, but that all the elements are painted boggles my mind! Your talents are endless and amazing and truly inspirational.
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soma @ whimsandfancies.com
A moment of illumination AND an illuminated letter – what an imaginative interpretation! It looks wonderful! This was definitely your eureka moment. I hope you make that alphabet quilt one day.
-Soma
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Celtic Thistle Stitches
Janine, this is fabulous and fun, you can’t ask for much more than that! I think you should definitely keep that Unexpected Alphabet idea going, I can just imagine the fun quilts that you could come up with :)
A wonderful hurrah to an exciting and inspiring group!
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Andree G Faubert
Hi Janine, That’s a really great art quilt, and your own eurika moment to paint the fabric after appliqueing it is wonderful. Both quilts turned out really well.
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