Overlap

Overlap
48" x 48"
(the back side of Two Halves)

This is the back side of my quilt, Two Halves.  In a sense, it is the opposite of the front side.  The front has two different halves that meet in the middle.  This side has two different tracks that overlap.  The overlap represents the places we have in common.

Some things I love about this design.  One, I LOVE the actual design, of the lines going off every side.  I love their exactness, and I love how the process let me dye one color on top of another thus creating transparency.  I love the colors!

To create this, I had to make the quilt top in two halves because my batik frame wasn't large enough for one piece of fabric. I drew lines in pencil to help guide the application of the wax.  Then I filled in with dye.  Here's a photo of what it looks like when the dye spills in an area where it is not supposed to be.  I hate it when that happens.

Then I rinsed, and dried, and boiled off the wax, and then repeated with the second half of fabric.

Next, I drew the lines for the second set of overlapping lines, and very carefully applied the wax.  It looks grey in the photo below.

Then the fun part!  Adding the dye now shows me the exquisite colors of the overlapping areas!

This is where I stand in wonder and awe.  How can something so simple be so crazy good?
Unfortunately for this one, I used a red dye that had died. And when I rinsed it out, all the red went with it.  This SHOULD have been a signal to reapply another red dye, but I skipped that step, because something about the 2 orange lines also looked good to me.

The above photo was before the wax had been boiled off, and the two oranges look slightly different.  After boiling the wax off, the two oranges became almost identical, when it was too late to change it.  So, I had to repeat the "mistake" on the second panel so that it would match the first.  Here they are, hanging together for the first time on my clothesline outside, getting a little rinse with the hose.

Yeah baby!  Works for me! A little measuring and then sewing the two pieces together and it was ready for the basting in the quilt sandwich and quilting.

I was also rather pleased with another aspect of the planning of this quilt, and that was to make the back design a bit too large.  Then when I finished quilting, and trimmed the quilt to it's final size, there was a section left over that was large enough to make the hanging tube.  So the colors and the size perfectly match and appear somewhat invisible.  And if not invisible, at least not distracting from the overall design.

I am pleased this quilt.  I like how the front and the back complement each other. I hope you like it too!