As the leaves begin to fall (yes, they do, even in California), the crows begin to gather and conference in the trees. Some depart, the others arrive. The crows replace the leaves.
Arrivals and Departures
29"w x 37.5"h (74 cm x 95 cm)
Hand-painted cotton; hand-stenciled, hand-dyed cotton; hand-dyed velvet; found fabric; Japanese woven cotton binding; free-motion quilting; hand sewn sashiko-style "crossed birds" pattern; hand quilting
Details:
I drew fifteen different views of flying crows and made them into stencils.
Quilting is free-motion on the leafy parts and "crossed birds" over the crows.
The title presented itself, and I stenciled the letters in white on black cotton pieces, stitching them in a row to resemble the arrivals and departures boards at train stations or airports. A bit of stitching by Louise Baldwin, that was featured in the book [Amazon Associates link] Abstract Textiles by Anne Kelly, inspired the spiderlike webbing over the letters, a nod to the wolf spiders appearing here also for the season.
The quilt began mid-September with a section of hand-painted cotton leftover from the quilt, As Above, So Below. I painted over it in autumn colors, which also started looking c. 1970s. (Harvest Gold, Avocado Green, Burnt Orange, Mustard Yellow, and Brown were likely a nod to the environmental movement of the time.)
Up on the board, trying to find a form. I turned to a book of Louise Bourgeois paintings for composition help. I like how she divides up some of her works. The pieces were very busy, so I didn't want to make them much smaller.
And so it went.
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