Year of the Snake

Happy Chinese New Year.  Whether you celebrate it or not, it's always fun to depict it in art. 

I started with good intentions.  In fact, I even gave myself a choice of how I would color my very bland bed sheet.  In the end, I chose to use my Staz-on reinkers and 91% rubbing alcohol over paint and water.  Unfortunately, it was so cold in my craft room, I forgot to provide step out photos.

It took several days and many false starts to finish this.  This is the largest quiltlet I have ever made.  It's really an art quilt wall hanging.  I didn't measure it, but it's definitely about 24 inches tall.

I realize my camera takes really, really lousy photos, but one detail you can see in this photo that is hard to see in the scans is the second layer I used.  I got the not-so-bright idea to add it under the very thin bed sheet I used for the top layer.  However, the second layer was made from stretchy fabric, an old tank top, that wanted its own way and, like a spoiled, unruly child, gave me a very hard time.  In the end, I simply allowed it to have its way.

In this detail shot, you see the collar and robe detail I made from ribbon, as well as the head and neck I cut from an old wet wipe. 

I surrounded the head with buttons.  Originally I intended to back all the buttons with red fabric, then changed my mind after I backed three.  The tree is supposed to symbolize the decoration Geishas wear in their hair.   The white face represents the white make-up they wear.

For the right sleeve (shown on the left side of the photo above), I wrapped four strands of fancy fibers and regular yarn together and sewed them in what I think is called a roving.  I know there's a name for what I did, but I am not that sewing savvy, so that's all I could think to call it.  You can also see the second layer in the above scan, too.

For the left sleeve, I used ribbon and rick rack, then used the last of the ribbon I thought looked a bit like the ribbon I used to delineate the center of the robe.

At the bottom, I show the year.

Since I'm unable to see my own blog (according to a phone conversation with my friend Scott, it might be either a blogger problem, or more likely, a memory or cache problem, or a result of something I might have downloaded that infected my computer), I'm spending the day with my friend Sally.  We are headed to a book fair out of town, but I'll be home tomorrow to celebrate Chinese New Year in style.  Have a great Chinese New Year tomorrow (February 10, 2013).