New Quilt: Solarpunk

 Recently SAQA had a call for entries called StitchPunk which was interested in quilts inspired by steampunk and other related genres.  I love this idea, and I generally really enjoy sci-fi literature, sci-fi art, the steampunk genre.  I cannot wait to see what quilts are actually in the show.  A few artist friends of mine have made pieces that were amazing.  I really wanted to make something for the call,  I think it's super fun and likely to be something very popular with the viewing public, but I didn't really have a solid idea.  I don't do very many representational things so I struggled on that front.   In reading about all the related genres, I was most struck by the idea of solarpunk.  So much of futuristic speculative fiction is focused on dystopian imaginings of the future, I was intrigued by the idea of a future where we'd used technology to actually better our condition, to generate clean power and clean up the environment, and prevent climate change.  A sunny colorful quilt fel more like where I wanted to go.  I had a vague idea for a fairly abstract interpretation of a community in the trees, and I knew I wanted to use a bunch of plastic out of my recycling bin.  I got started late (this spring was tough) but I got it going finally.

Earlier this spring I painted a bunch of large pieces of fabric, in anticipation of filming my segments of The Quilt Show and some other quilts I knew I had coming up.  This yellow painted piece was originally designed to be used for a smocking demonstration (it even has the smocking grid marked on the back), but I decided the bright sunny color was great to use for my solarpunk piece.

After finishing the quilting, I got out all my clear plastics out of the recycling bin.  Since I'm using regular spray paint, I only use clear plastic because I paint it from the back (so the front doesn't chip off).  These were mostly Sams parmesan cheese containers and cherry tomato containers.  Here's some of the cut up plastic after painting.

I marked the broad design with washable markers and then added a bunch of color fo the tree with shiva paintsticks.  I really like those for adding gradients of color.  Then it was just a matter of starting to hand stitch on my plastic bits.

I mostly stitched them on with the quilt suspended between two work tables so that I could easily get to the back of the piece.

I got this far and felt sort of stuck.  The main design elements were there (the trees, the little flying houses and houses suspended from the trees), but it didn't feel done.  Come back later this week to see how I finished it.