Layers, Literally

So there's this art quilt exhibition, a juried show themed "Layered Voices," which is sponsored by the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), and which challenges quilters to think about layers, from physical layers like those of the earth's surface and those we wear in cold weather, to abstract layers such as those in literature and puns.

http://www.saqa.com/calendar-detail.php?ID=4808

I took the theme and ran with it.  I made a nine-patch, 40 x 40 wonder, centering on...what else?  A hen with an egg.  A layer.  Heh heh.

This one was felted first and then embroidered. When that was done the hen figure was padded with extra batting and the background was quilted.

The other eight squares  around the central layer are all double puns on the concept of layer.  For example, each of the eight squares itself contains a layered stack of smaller layers: a silken padded layer on the bottom, a piece of handmade silk paper next, followed by smaller, padded and pieced layer, a felted layer intended to look like geological layers, then a final layer of hand pin-weaving.  On the top of each layered stack:  a photo of something layered.  Like a lasagne.  Yeah.

For this I learned to make my own silk paper:

I also pulled out the pin loom on which my grandmother taught me to weave:

My neighbor Grace was so inspired by  my chicken as I worked on it that she made one of her own:

 

The deadline for the completed piece is September 30, 2016, and I still wasn't done when Joe and I left for our Cape Cod vacation on September 18. I had intended to get it done at home so that Joe could photograph it at home, and I could send in my electronic entry from home, and I could put the whole thing behind me and enjoy my vacation.

In the days before we left for Cape Cod, Joe saw me working nonstop on it, and worrying out loud about it.  So he decided that it might not be so bad if he were forced to bring his photographic equipment here on our vacation.  On my part, I was glad to take a little time pressure off myself.

So we brought the sewing machine here, and I worked on the quilt for four days, and finished it, and Joe set up an impromptu photo studio in the attic of the cottage we're renting.

 

WHAT A GUY, huh?

Then he spent a lot of time editing his photos.  He decided that he's not happy with the quality of his work, problems caused by the dimensionality of the piece and the unevenness of the lighting.

So now, with the time clock ticking, he's trying to locate a commercial photographer here on Cape Cod who can do a better job. We went to Orleans Photo and Video, where a man named Dick did a great job for a reasonable price. 

I put quite a bit of time into deciding what to call this piece.

The final decision:

"Layers, Literally."