Radiance

Art

-

The National Quilt Museum

Name/Title

Radiance

Entry/Object ID

2012.02.03

Made/Created

Artist

Susan Stewart

Date made

2011

Place

City

Pittsburg

State/Province

Kansas

Country

United States

Continent

North America

Dimensions

Height

75 in

Width

75 in

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Artist Commentary

Label

How long did it take to make this quilt? “I like to tell people who ask this question that it took me 50 years to develop the skills to make it, and 6 to 8 months to construct it!,” writes Susan Stewart. “Fabric and thread have been my passion since I began sewing at age five. After working as an heirloom sewing designer and author for 16 years, I began quilting in 2004. My love of lace and delicate details works its way into my quilts. I often include digitized machine embroidery in my quilts, and strive to make the embroidery an integral part of the design. “The triangular machine embroidery design in the diamond star points was the inspiration for the entire quilt, as well as the determining factor for the size of the star points, the size of the small diamonds making up the star points, and the size of the strips between the star points. I wanted to develop the secondary pattern created by the embroidery over the pieced top. Because the background silk/cotton fabric is sateen weave, and therefore directional, I pieced the background so that the lengthwise grain of the fabric was consistent in the entire top. The colors used for the embroidery were all inspired by the gradated pack of Cherrywood fabrics.”

Research Notes

Notes

Awards Won: BERNINA Machine Workmanship 2012

General Notes

Note Type

Materials Used

Note

Hand-dyed cottons, silk/cotton "Radiance" fabric, wool batt, Isacord, metallic thread, polyester machine embroidery threads, nylon monofilament thread; silk kimono thread, polyester threads

Note Type

Techniques Used

Note

Machine pieced, digitized machine embroidered, free-standing lace made on water-soluble stabilizer, decorative machine stitched, free-motion hand-guided quilted, hand appliquéd facing