Plenty to Go Around, the back side, Part 2

Plenty to Go Around, the back side, Part 2
80" x 80" project

Welcome to another installment of my blue quilt, Plenty to Go Around. I am working my way through all the photos of batik work I did this last summer to create a back for my quilt. And it seemed appropriate on this Christmas day to show the panel with the fence.  Because as the front of my quilt has plenty for the fawns to eat (hence the name), the back has just the opposite. It will be about Scarcity. The fawns will be on one side and they will be separated from their food with this giant fence. I also represented the crisis by intentionally using baby deer, the fawns, to draw attention to the unaccompanied minors and the children separated from their parents at the border.  It is my hope that people who are in this situation are met with compassion and care instead of brutally separated from their children and left in holding cells for seemingly endless blocks of time. I can only imagine what a difference it would make if the funding for this useless wall was spent on direct aid for those in need.

The fence reaches from the bottom of the quilt to the top.  I found it quite the interesting task to do this in a way that the multiple panels would line up and present the image of the fence as a continuous one. After multiple attempts, here is my sketch of the wall.  This is the full scale drawing, in pencil first, and then Sharpie so that I can see the lines to trace onto the fabric. I wanted it to undulate as if going over the hilly landscape, and I wanted it to have depth and appear to go on forever.

 Also, I am starting to feel a bit of pride in my craftsmanship of putting the wax where I want it to go.  This is not easy on so many straight and parallel lines, but I am getting the hang of it.

I am also really fascinated by the interesting abstract lines and shapes of the detail shots, so you will have to indulge me with too many photos.  The light gray part is actually the wax.  This will be white when finished.  The dark blue lines have already been dyed and represent the hills that will be seen through the open sections of the fence. The white part in this photo will be dyed gray, so essentially the white and grey colors will be reversed when completed.

Once again, I put a generous border of wax around anything that I was going to dye, to avoid leaks and spillage, but even those borders of wax look really interesting at this stage.

After dyeing and boiling out the wax, this panel is complete.

The group of fawns will be on one side of this fence.  Next week, I will post the "food" on the other side of the fence, just out of reach of our fawns.