Making a mount for On the Edge

I know! - here I am again ... I've been mounting pieces to go the Bramble Patch tomorrow for Steph and I's August exhibition and I'm now boiling. So I thought a bit of a blog (under the air-con unit) would be a good plan. And I thought you might like to see a few process shots of making the mount for On the Edge - which will be in  the Art Quilts competition at Festival of Quilts in LESS THAN TWO WEEKS NOW .... arghhhhhhh

Sorry - was overcome with pre-festival 'I've got massively too much to do' nerves ... back to the quilt now. You may (or may not) remember the piece 'On the Edge' which I made earlier this year. It was always destined to be mounted on a collaged board, and last week, after THE BOOK was sorted, it came to the top of my 'desperately needs doing NOW list'. I think all the capitals here are representative of my state of mind ... lots of IMPORATNT things to remember. So here we are, trying out materials on the board, with the quilt laid on top.

I want that red/orange there, to suggest that it may not be all as tranquil as it seems, but I don't want it in that big chunk. So I cut up the strips and re-arranged a bit - much better I think:

These fabrics had heat n bond on them, so they were ironed in place and then I started auditioning some paper elements to add detail and movement .. I don't want all the straight lines:

I like those first pieces, so I collage them done using matte medium

You do really need to see a piece this size  vertically to be able to fine tune the design. so I propped the board up with the quilt pinned on top and auditioned more papers, further up the sides and in the sky area - these are again collaged down with matte medium

I'm starting to really like this now, but felt the sky needed more elements to give it the same depth as the sea below - so yet more papers

Laid back done, I'm now trying out the positioning of a line of 'sticks' that I want to represent either a fence (safety) or a broken ladder(danger), depending on how you want to view the piece. You may remember my saying about this piece when I made the collage, that it can be viewed as a simple seaside pastiche of houses on the cliff, or as a more allegorical piece about security and safety. The sticks are in adhesive backed fabric so they will be ironed down.

I realise I need to see them vertically before I finally iron them down - so I get on my stool to see (those are my toes)

Happy with those, so they are ironed in place with some horizontal fence bars/ladder sides added, and another assessment made

And again - some balance and connection is needed in the sky - so I carry the birds out of the quilt into the surround. I've also added some high and low lights to the fence/ladder to give it more impact. At this stage I am happy, so I cover the whole mount with matte medium to seal and protect.

You can see how carrying elements of shape and colour from the quilt to the surround connects them  and lets this work as a whole piece

I can't use stitch to add line on the mount as it is collaged on to the board. In this situation I like to use fine lines of appliglue to mimic stitch and add dimensional line where I want it .. here on the fence posts/ladder rungs

and here on the birds

I've also added it in places on the quilt, again to tie the two together. The red here is stitch, the black, appliglue

Finished and stood up to check .. I'm happy (if you look hard in the background you can see other work stacked up ready to go to the Bramble Patch)

'On the Edge' 41" x 41"

fingers crossed the judges like it. Thank you for visiting - talk again soon .. Hilary x