I'm always interested in how other textile artists put together a project before they begin working on it. My art quilting usually begins with a rummage through this basket of all the hand-dyed and vintage fabics I've saved.
For my Jane Eyre-themed slow stitch project I narrowed down the choices for the background fabric to these two hand-dyed pieces. To audition them, I simply put my project elements on top of the fabric to see how everything works together.
This fabric, which is an organically dyed old Kitchen Aid linen towel, seems at first glance to me to be a bit too light for my theme.
My other choice is very Gothic; the organically dyed synthetic. A bit too dark, though, as it seemed to swallow up the colors of my elements.
The contrast between both of my background fabric choices made me think, too. Is Jane Eyre really that dark of a story to me? Mostly of it is pretty dismal and dreary. But when I first read the novel as a girl I felt a strong affinity for Jane and how no matter what happened to her -- even being abused and losing her best friend -- she never gave up hope.
Hope is light, not dark. Hope is lovely, not dreary. That's why I chose the lighter piece for my project.
The more I look at my materials, the more confident I am that I made the right choice -- even if it doesn't make sense to anyone but me.
I keep looking at everything for another day or so, and maybe make some sketches, and then get started.
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