poison tree

here is the next stage of the envy quilt (hanging on the door and in very bad light - sorry)
this one was inspired by this photo on my friend susan's blog (sorry for the direct link to the photo - blogger wouldn't let me link to that particular post)- love the twisted forms of the trees which reminded me of the awful inner writhings of envy.

i used black linen as the backing, purple velvet, the hand dyed fabric previously shown, a light layer of synthetics, and bile green and black organza. stitched then heat gunned and slashed with a craft knife. then i went over the whole things with black ink, fabric paints, artists oil pastels and paintstick. the next stage is to go back over the slashed bits with a soldering iron to open them out so you can see the gouts of purple velvet underneath.

and the title? this morning i suddenly remembered blake's poison tree (one of my favourites)

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. And I watered it in fears, Night and morning with my tears; And I sunned it with smiles, And with soft deceitful wiles. And it grew both day and night, Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine. And he knew that it was mine, And into my garden stole When the night had veiled the pole; In the morning glad I see My foe outstretched beneath the tree. William Blake