09 January 2006

Africa - Abstract Challenge

I´m in an online group, that does a monthly challenge quiltlet, size 20cm x 20cm or 8x8inches.
There is a given theme each month and this month´s theme is Africa.
So I thought about this theme for a few days and found that the colours that come to my mind when thinking about Africa are brown/beige (for the soile and sand) and blue (for the sky). So I decided to make a snipped-like background in these colours and then add quilting lines in red. Those red lines should be symbolizing the trails of blood, shed by all those horrible fights and wars in many parts of africa, that are mostly ignored by the rest of the world. And the snipped-like background with sharp lines stands for the nature, that isn´t soft and easy but rough and dangerous.

My first try now looks like this:


But I am not at all happy with it. I like the technique for the background, but the colours are too dark and there is too much blue. The quilting is OK, but I need something else to put more interest in those red lines. Maybe I will do them with beads or yarn. But yarn is too "nice and cosy", so I´ll have to think about it for a while.

Tomorrow I will do another one with lighter blues and lighter browns/beiges. Not sure what to do with this one, but although it didn´t come out the way I planned, I like it. It´s not Africa for me, but it might be the starting point for another quilt.

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