Serendipity

"Serendipity" is one of my favorite words and at first, when Deborah announced it as our next challenge word for the Art 1016 group, I was pleased.  But then I began to think about how I would represent this word in a quilt and nothing came to mind. After weeks of not coming up with an image, I decided I was trying too hard and I would let serendipity take over. I would start with a background fabric and immediately I went to my pile of snow dyes, for that process is a true example of serendipity. I chose a piece with teal-y blue tones that move into earthy browns and watery greens and lots of interesting texture.

I made some slashes with a hand-dyed blue and then I was struck so I set it aside for a while. Later I began playing with shapes to add and nothing was working until I chanced to draw a nautilus-like shape and I wondered what if I exploded that shape.

I liked it enough to add another and then added some French knots in perle cotton at various points to add more texture to the machine quilting I had done on the background. But it needed something more so I added the exploded circles in the midsection. In honor of the serendipity nature of the piece, all the gold pieces are machine appliqued, raw-edged and non-fused so the edges are soft and fuzzy.

It is, of course, 10 x 16 inches. And, if you want to see how the other members of the group interpreted this theme, visit our blog.

Thanks for the company, if you are still with me.