New Work
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\’93Under the harvest moon,
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When the soft silver
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Drips shimmering
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Over the garden nights…\’94\’a0\’a0\’a0\’a0\’a0 –Carl Sandburg
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Our Guild logo is the sailboat to coincide with our name, Lake Norman Guild. One of the themes for a guild challenge this year was “Sailing under the Harvest Moon” (which also happened to be the name of our Quilt Show this past weekend).
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Instead of using the whole theme though, I decided to concentrate just on the harvest moon.
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In my research I learned that the harvest moon is the fullest moon occurring closest to the autumnal equinox.
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An equinox, which happens 2 times each year, occurs when the centre of the Sun spends about the same time above and below the horizon at every location on the Earth.
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Therefore the night and day are equally as long with no long period of darkness between sunset and moonrise.
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The moon shines brighter, takes on a beautiful golden hue and looks larger than it appears because it sits so low in the sky.
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It is so very bright at night that farmers work thru the night harvesting their crops working by
the light of the moon, hence the name “Harvest Moon”.
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To depict this larger than life phenomenon, I painted 2 different Stewart Gill metallic paints along the edge of the hand dyed gold fabric, creating the illuminating moon.
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Using a silver grey Caron D’ache crayon, I extended the haze of the light around the moon and onto the field of wheat to show some reflection.
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The thing that stumped me for a bit though was the fabric we had to use in our finished piece.
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Originally I cut leaves out of the fabric to float on water (sailing theme) but they really looked out of place. In the end I liked the way I used it to portray a suggestion of a fence line across the field.
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The quilt measures 20.5″ x 17″, a small piece again but the smaller size enables me to try out new techniques without committing to larger pieces.
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I have been told lately that my work is taking on a particular “style” (big smile here) and that’s definitely something I’m striving for, to create a body of work that represents the essence of MY creativity.\’a0 I’ve got much more work to do to reach my goal and, in fact, I am a part of the year long SAQA Visioning Project to help me move forward.
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See ya next time “In the Hayloft”,
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I have great admiration for your Artwork, Grace.
Thanks Isa…it’s nice to know that.
I have been reading your website for some time now and I LOVE the things you do. I also appreciate it when you can take the time to tell us more about the things you make. I really enjoyed your research into the harvest moon. Thanks for sharing it. And I think the quilt is just wonderful!
Vicki, what a wonderful note from you…thank you so much. I, too, like a process to be explained (if not completely then at least in part) so I try to include it in my posts if I can.
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Surprisingly, once I knew where I was going with “Harvest Moon”, it came together quite nicely and I truly love the simplicity of the piece.
I just found your blog searching for images of crops at night. I love this little quilt! great image with such force and luminescence!