Sometimes when you are struggling to find inspiration for a theme something just happens and presents itself as the perfect thought.

I have been dealing with getting my mother settled into a new lifestyle and this meant clearing out years of memories. When going through a pile of photos I came across this one of my husband and daughter by the water. My daughter is now in her thirties so this was a very old image. My husband just looked like he was contemplating the future – yes even from the back and along with the reflections in the water I just immediately thought of how we sometime stare into the distance reflecting on past and present.

I played around in photoshop to create a monochromatic image with 6 levels which I then had printed to full size.

I hand dyed six shades of purple and fused the backs with Mistyfuse.

Using baking paper I traced shapes and transferred them to the Mistyfuse (click here to see the technique) and built up the design in layers.

The pieces were fused into position but I found the overall result too purple! What a surprise!

Looking for something to help tone it down I discovered a piece of hand dyed silk organza which had to be over 10 years old which was so perfect to overlay onto the quilt.

Then it was time to quilt which is a joy with my Bernina Q20. The reflections were done with metallic thread.

I am very happy with the result although there was quite a bit of reverse sewing (aka unpicking) done and I have made a few mistakes which I would change if I did it again but it was a great creative experience and much of my time was spent reflecting on how things have changed since the photo was taken

Reflections

30″ x 40″

Hand dyed cotton and hand painted silk organza

Raw edge fused techniques.

Free motion quilted.