Art Quilt: Fire Break

After the quilt "Fire Line: Do Not Cross" went its own way, becoming something beyond and quite different from what I had envisioned, I wanted to revisit my initial interest and wonderment at the line on a hill between an ashy burnt area and ordinary everyday tan grasses. As I wrote about early in June, the Corral fire had jumped a freeway, which forced me to take a detour from my current home to the place where I grew up. However, the road was open on my way back, and I could see where the fire had been. From the highway the view was stark. The dividing line between burnt and unburnt was as clear as a paint stroke. I imagined the firefighters applying a fire retardant, but using hoses instead of a brush, and I could sense the danger of being so close.

I started a new quilt the end of June, but it felt too static. I didn't like a piece of it, so I trimmed it. But I liked the trimmed piece on its own better than the larger quilt. I rolled up the larger quilt and put it away, attacking the long, scroll-like piece with much more energy.

Fire Break

8"w x 33"h (20 cm x 84 cm)

Letterpress printed and handpainted cotton, linen, velvet; commercially printed and woven cottons; appliqué; hand embroidered and quilted with cotton embroidery and sashiko threads

Details

Detail from the upper section, the hills. Chain stitch and visible knotting. Inspired by Alabama Chanin stitching.

Detail from the break between upper and lower sections. Small scrap of acrylic ink painted cotton shows, as well as some commercially printed gold-on-black cotton.

Detail of lower section, painted gold flame (actually a cutout scrap from the "Fire Line" quilt, so a little nod back to that one) appliquéed, trapped under the stitching.

Letterpress word "fire" printed in gold on black cotton.

And the back

Someday, someday, I will intentionally do embroidery on black.