Art Quilt: Blue Hot, Blue Cold

Working with another Studio Art Quilt Associates prompt, Color in Context: Blue, it took a bit of thinking and imagining and talking to figure out what I wanted to say about blue that wasn't the obvious sea or sky, both of which I love. But a scientist friend told me he would get confused by blue: in the lab, blue was the hottest part of the flame, but at a sink, blue indicated cold. I started thinking about how there are so many cases where we have to hold two opposing ideas at once, and that they are both true. I was off and running-stitching.

Blue Hot, Blue Cold
23.75"w X 44.5"h (60.5 cm x 113 cm)
Letterpress printed, handpainted, stenciled, and hand-dyed cotton; commercially printed and woven cotton; reverse appliqué; hand quilted with cotton sashiko threads

Details:
Lettepress printed in silver from wood type. A large piece of white cotton was hand painted first.


I drew and cut a stencil of a hand, then stenciled in, stitched around it, and cut out the center to reveal another cloth underneath.


The red thread is the contrast: red hot, red cold.
The sashiko stitch is my favorite, "rising steam," which seems to work for almost any occasion!
Blue and red, united, somehow.



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