SWD 'Arts and Craft Movement' Challenge

Each year our Spinners, Weavers and Dyers Guild announce a Challenge theme.

From an earlier post you'll see that this years theme / topic is the Arts and Crafts Movement. When the topic was announced earlier I started hunting around for possible inspiration, you can see the post here.  

There were some aspects regarding the Arts and Crafts Movement, period that I wanted to avoid.  Not because I didn't like the designs or designers, eg: Mackintosh, but more because I knew that their designs would be popular and easily reproduced.  This decision lead me towards Art Nouveau jewellery and seriously considering dragonfly and butterfly images, floral and stencils, which can be seen in this mosaic that I'd prepared.

However, since returning from holiday I've done quite a bit more surfing and searching and decided to go in a slightly different direction.  

OK I'm sticking with a floral theme, but it's not quite the clean cut lines of a perfectly symmetrical design or a stencil, it's actually based on a polymer clay pendant/brooch design.  Maybe not strictly Arts and Crafts or Art Nouveau, but, there are aspects of the design which hark back to both these movements.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/claynine/5841531867/in/photostream/

So, having made the decision I was buzzing and eager to get things under way last night.  Whilst dinner was cooking last night I rummaged around in the pile of hand dyed fabrics and pulled out some purple, deep rose, grey and  rose pink.

This is how it looks after some quick cutting and sewing last night.  I've brought it into work today with 2 layers of batting and a layer of backing fabric to baste everything together at lunch today ready for the first bits of quilting.  

I got the quilting under way tonight when I got home - more to finish tomorrow night, then I'll have to cut and prepare lost of fabric strips for the appliqué enhancements.