A "Slow Cloth" Project

Over at Sharon B's blog, there is a discussion on what makes a "slow cloth", and why that approach may be valuable......To me it means committing the necessary time to see a project through, not rushing any aspect of it, doing one's best every step of the way, and holding the attitude of surrender to the demands of the piece. If you click to her comments sections, here and check out her links here, you will find a lively discussion of what this concept of "slow cloth" means to different textile practitioners.

As I figured that no one would be interested in seeing another picture of the back of the H quilt currently still being basted, I thought I would share a project from back in the mid 1990's, one that qualifies as being "slow cloth" even though it was huge!

I was asked to make a decorative hanging that would cover some necessary sound-proofing tiles on a large wall in a meeting room for my church. I accepted this challenge thinking it was going to take at least a year, which indeed it just about did.

It was a "Stained Glass" style wall hanging, which finished was 12' X 17' (3.65 meters X 5.18 meters). I had to dye paint all my fabric with procion dyes before beginning constructing the hanging, as I had heard those dyes are the most resistant to fading. Here I am ironing down some of the "leading", which in this case was bonded gold lame that had wonder-under fused to the back before it was sliced into long ribbons. You get a sense of scale of this thing when you look at the next picture.

I constructed it basically in two halves, then joined it at the horizon line, with the tree trunks "leaded down" after the two halves were joined. Of course all the leading is sewn down with zig zag clear thread.
This picture was taken down in the basement rec room. I was lucky to have a large enough space to lay the thing out. (Tough on the knees, though.)

Here it is completed and stretched over the unsightly soundproofing tiles and mounted into place. Those of you familiar with the work of Louis Comfort Tiffany will recognize the main elements of the design....the trees on the right look more like they are out of "Flowers and Trees", an early Disney "Silly Symphony", however!

It took many slow months of dedicated and careful work to complete this project....I am glad I did it, too.
But that doesn't mean we aren't glad when a "slow cloth" is FINALLY finished!