The Grand Gallery of SAQA Europe/Middle East's Contributions to the 2014 Benefit Auction

Sandy Snowden (GB)

Ramshackled Houses 

My piece for the SAQA Benefit Auction is a continuation of my ‘Ramshackle’ series in which I have been exploring Neighbourhood. I have been using houses with a sketchy look to develop the character of a particular neighbourhood.

Past works in this series have explored proximity and positioning of houses. I found I could show estrangement or togetherness, depending on the lean of the houses and the placement of ‘accessories’ like a path or smoke from the chimney.

Along with these ideas, I am exploring colour. Does the fabric used as background contribute to the mood or relationship of the neighbours? For instance, in Ramshackled Houses, I haven’t added paths, but I think the green gives a pastoral feel and a sense of companionship.

To see some of the other pieces in this series, you can follow this link. http://sandysnowden.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Ramshackle

Making the work -

I seldom sketch before working, choosing rather to develop the ideas in my head and then work them out in fabric. But for my ‘Ramshackle’ series I make a little sketch of what I have in mind. It helps me get a better feel of the positioning of the houses.

sketch

To make the Ramshackled Houses I used printed cotton fabrics. The top layer was fused using Misty Fuse before cutting the shapes and positioning them over a dark fabric.

 When everything was arranged to my satisfaction, I fused the pieces into place. After this was the rest of the quilt layers, securing the pieces with straight stitches along edges, further quilting through the layers, and lastly the binding.

And the finished Ramshackled Houses piece I sent to SAQA for the Benefit Auction.

This quilt will be up for auction in section 3 of the Benefit Auction, beginning on Sept. 29th . Help support SAQA, and at the same time build your art quilt collection by bidding often!