polymer strands

This quilt is 12'x17". I started by fusing several different sheers together to achieve the right colors then I cut the strips and fused them onto the black. I painted in all the shadows and accent spaces with seta color, shiva, and sharpie pens. I am a very very beginning painter and was very shaky about trying this. I almost quit at one point and was ready to throw the whole thing away but persevered and this is the result. Finally I covered the entire thing with illusion net and quilted on all the lines to accentuate the strands. It was a real pressing challange for me but I am glad I stuck with it and finished.

Pat Havey

Prayer Plant

What fun I had with this challenge! I don't have a microscope and didn't really want to use an image off the web so instead decided to attach my macro lens to the camera and go searching through my house for something that had an obvious pattern when viewed close up.

I took several photos which I liked but decided to go with one of the more graphic in the leaf of a prayer plant. The actual size ratio is 10:1 with the finished quilt being 20" high by 13" wide.

The photo on the left is the one I started with. The piece is actually a painted wholecloth with a background of cheap ($2 a yard) muslin from Dharma.

I think I may go back in with some paint to add highlights on the right side of the quilt. I like the way it accentuates the curve of the leaf in the photo.

As always, comments are welcome!

Challenge 39, Amoebas Play, 16" w x 15" h

This piece was an experiment that I have been wanting to do for some time. I started with a piece of batik fabric, outlined areas that I wanted to thread paint with designs from microscope slides and set some rules. 1) I would just get one shot at my thread painting - if it didn't work I would enhance with paint or whatever, 2) I would use only one color of thread in each area, 3) I would try to create a balanced composition, 4) I would use only thread and paint, and 5) I would use only what I have.

I outlined the areas with 30wt black thread stitched around twice. Stitched inside each with varying degrees of success which was dependent on the color used. Some areas, where I actually liked the stitching the most, were barely visible. I added additional color with Fabrico Markers.

Today I read somewhere that "there are no mistakes, there are only things learned". I think that applies here. Imposing rules helps to stop the 'paralysis of analysis' for me. So here are the things I learned. First, another time I would look for a fabric with a greater amount of light value colors. Second, I would then be able to find more higher contrast threads to use. Third, with higher contrast thread a possibility I would be able to make the more complex designs I had imagined and they would show up.

In spite of the fact that this piece does not match my imagined piece, I have had fun with it and am happy that I was presented with this challenge. I have not spent much time in my studio over the last three months. It's good to be back.

Any comments are welcome!

FFFC-39 Sea Foam

This challenge was a joy for me. I started by painting an aged piece of fabric that had been naturally rusted. The dyes I painted with started to bleed into the fabric in a big way, but rather than get upset I decided to go with the flow. I ended up with an intriguing background fabric which lent itself to drawing with pens the design that was floating around in my head. After completing the drawing, borders were added and the whole thing was taken to the sewing machine for quilting. This was my first whole cloth quilt, but it certainly won’t be my last. I loved the process of bringing out the design with the quilting. After all the drawn elements were highlighted, I used disappearing ink to make my guide lines for the background quilting. This was really fun for me and I’m already working on my next quilt using this process. As always any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Challenge 39, Grass

"Grass" is 9 1/2" x 11".
This piece shows my favorite grasses, Blue grama and Indian ricegrass, with their natural growth patterns, and various views of the florets and seeds, as well as a microscopic view of the grass remains in the soil (opal phytoliths).

The white PFD fabric was colored by laying strips of red, yellow, and green bleeding tissue paper down and rolling the fabric up and wetting it. I left it wet overnight to absorb the colors.

The images were photo transferred and then quilted.  Touches of ink (instead of paint, as I had the right color) were applied here and there for emphasis.  A close up of the microscopic view will be posted to the Yahoo site.


The opal phytolith images were taken through a microscope at 100 power (part of my Master’s thesis many years ago).  I am glad to make use of that research again after all these years.  I will add additional quilting in the background later (after the Christmas rush).  I always look forward to your comments and critique.  Linda Mac in WY

Challenge 39 - Micro Leaf

Here is my Micro Leaf. Finished size is 10.5 x 17.

I used acrylic paints - red and green - red and green mixed make lovely shades of brown. I painted the skeleton. As always - the acrylic paints loose their vibrancy - it had to be saved with the quilting - I had done a similar quilt like this with small circles - then I bead the circles - this time I changed the scale of the circles. I used yellow, red, maroon, two shades of green and brown threads. After is was quilted - I didn't feel the quilt needed an additional beading.

Lisa
In Cool and Sunny Seattle

Cloned Embryonic Stem Cells

I'm going to do some "recycling" this month and use a piece I made last year for another challenge. 

My Monday Night group was challenged to do something with circles, and after a few false tries, I decided on Cloned Embryonic Stem Cells.

It was my first experience using Angelina, and that was fun. I also put in hundreds of strands of yellow silk thread, and finished it with a few pearl beads. 

I know virtually nothing about microbiology, but I worked from photographs and used my imagination.

Many years ago, I saw a show of photographs by Roman Vishniac, at the Jewish Museum in New York. The images are amazing, and some are what I call "quilts waiting to happen."

Many are shown in his book,  Building Blocks of Life; Proteins, Vitamins, and Hormones: Seen Through the Microscope, by Roman Vishniac. 

Marilyn Foulke

Louisville, KY

marilynfoulke@gmail.com

Beneath the Surface

A real lesson here, never photograph white against white or cream......

Here is my challenge piece for this month. At first I thought 'yikes'!! Then, as I did some research, I thought it could be interesting. I had a piece of fabric paper that didn't have a focal point that I could find,satisfactorily...but it did have some good texture elements that could work with this theme, so I started to play. My paper fabric has inclusions under the paper, then stitching and paint. After it dried I added more paint. Cut some into squares leaving a large piece on which I could add and define the microbes. I added some painted dryer sheets, embellishments and free motion threadwork. Then I hand-stitched [quilted] the piece using hand dyed thread [received from Laura Wasilowski].
Because it is all on a pastel theme, I hope my 'microbial' findings are definitive enough. I had a great day doing this yesterday and finished it this morning.
I have also posted a 'closer look'.  [I am having trouble getting the color correct on the large piece, I can't figure out why it is so pink when it is white!]
I look forward to your comments....
thank you in advance.

Challenge 39 - Microbiology

FFFC-39 November 2009
Theme - Microbiology
Composition and technique - Exaggerated Scale and Paint effects
Hostess: Joni Feddersen

Let’s get up close and personal in this challenge, and I mean REALLY up close – like under the microscope. When we study things at a really enlarged scale and move in for a detailed look, we see beauty in a whole new way. Textures and patterns become visible that at first glance are missed when viewed from a distance. Items under the microscope are teaming with life and have an organic feel and colors can be incredible. This can be a very liberating and satisfying experience.

For this month’s challenge technique, let’s try to get some of those paints and dyes (that you have been wanting to try) out of the drawers and onto your fabric. You can do it!

We are fortunate to have many accomplished quilt and other artists who have already done this. Take a look at the links provided below and get inspired.

Under the Microscope – photos
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/micro/gallery.html
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/gallery/year/2007/1
http://tinyurl.com/bcd6lj


Micro inspired Art:
http://www.microbo.com/paintings01.html
http://tinyurl.com/ykcx6qr
http://tinyurl.com/ylpslee

Examples in Quilts:
http://www.karenkamenetzky.com/
http://www.pat-dolan.com/Pages/OrganicSeries.html
http://tinyurl.com/yz599vj
http://www.jofitsell.com/gallery.html
http://www.cynthiastcharles.com/detail.php?recordID=36
http://www.janelloydtextiles.co.uk/clockwise_circ.htm

Paint Effects
http://tinyurl.com/ygwrymp
http://www.lindakemshall.com/linda_kemshall_laura_gallery.htm
http://www.salume.org/artquilts.htm

Remember to have fun! Due on December 5th (or whenever!)

Logan: Queen of My Animal Kingdom

New to this, I don't know if I should write something different here than I e-mailed to the list. I find it so hard to look at the albums without comments . . . or vice versa.

I did this 10" x 12" study over a few days. I went for a realistic portrait of my little 6-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel's head--something fun and fast to do for a first challenge in this rather intimidating group. I began with trapunto: two extra layers of Warm & Natural under the nose, and one extra layer under the white muzzle area and the eyes. However, I was using Wonder Under instead of appliqué (to be FAST), which made the trapunto somewhat less effective. After layering the pieces and doing some quilting, I did something new for me--I painted on the top with Jacquard Textile Paints to add some highlights, give some fur texture, and to put metallic turquoise sparkle highlights in the eyes. Once quilted, I edged the piece with satin stitching. I'm glad to have participated, learned a few things, and now have gotten my feet wet!

Some issues this raised for me (besides how I'd rather be less trite and realistic), are: whether trapunto ever works well with fusing; whether the muzzle comes forward with a few contour lines of quilting, but not so many as to flatten that whole area; and what I could add to make the black of the eyeballs shinier. Also, I wonder whether working with a photograph distorts the outcome compared to what the eye and brain might register when looking directly at the subject. For example, the photograph I worked from was not head on, so the left and right sides of her face weren't as symmetrical as they are "live," and in the finished piece, perhaps the viewer gets the impression this is a straight-on view of a very lopsided face. Also, some of the areas that appear tan are actually white fur with shadows that reflected in the photo as tan (below her mouth and her neck), and I don't think that's apparent in my finished piece. Photographing without getting edge distortion is another issue (this really is perfectly rectangular). Finally, I think this might be improved if I cropped an inch off the left, leaving a more rectangular format and leaving the left eye, etc., more to the viewer to complete.

I invite your critiques and suggestions.

Thank you!
Chris

P. S. I was sorely tempted to just post a photo of my Jellies quilt -- it fits the theme and has depth created with a little perspective, value gradations of the dark "water fabric," and layers with embellishments including beading, couching, and fuzzy yarn. And I feel pretty good about it because it was juried into Images in Lowell, Mass. However, that's not the point, right? I want to try to do FAST CHALLENGES.

Juvenile Sandhill Crane

I have just joined this group, and want to show my juvenile sandhill crane, based on a photo a friend sent me from Florida...

Here is the photo, outlined to help make my pattern.

I have been doing fused "feathered friends" for several years now. It is a great project for fabric play, and a wonderful way to use scraps in a creative way.

Every feather is applied individually, and they are only attached at the base, so the feathers fluff out and add dimension to the piece.

I loved the way this bird was just striding along, and it seemed like he needed a pair of flip-flops. It is Florida, after all.

The fishin' pole is a piece of bamboo, tucked under his wing.

The piece is about 14" x 21"

I am really happy to be in this group. I love challenges, and really enjoy seeing what everyone else creates.

Marilyn Foulke

marilynfoulke@gmail.com

#38 Moonlight on the Goldfish Pond

I joined this group hoping that I would teach myself just to jump right in and quickly do a small project. I'm afraid this one took me a while longer because I had to figure out how to accomplish it....and I had so many ideas, it was very hard to pick just one.

Quite some time ago, I was a Chinese watercolor painting showing the moon reflecting on a goldfish pond. When I lived in Connecticut, I saw the moon reflected perfectly on our swimming pool. I thought I'd try to recreate this in a small quilt, using the shots I took of my goldfish prior to May 13 of this year.

At first, I thought I'd use the metallic lame sheer, the one which reflects irridescent. That didn't really work very well, so I tried a number of things and finally chose the sheet form of Angelina (the name for this product escapes me at the moment). I discovered that if I did it completely round, it really didn't give the feeling, so I added some Angelina fibers sticking out around it.

I originally was going to use a piece of blue organza over the top to darken it to make it look like night on the water. However, the organza and other dress sheers were too opaque. I finally settled on two layers of navy tulle. That alone seemed a little flat, so I ripped up pieces of sparkle illusion in a turquoise color and layered these underneath.

The water plants are made from eyelash yarn. The goldfish are fused and painted with Dyna-flo paints and their fins are a silk organza which I stitched over.

One of the fun things about this piece is that I realized that it can be viewed from any direction, so I am going to put hanging pockets on all sides.

I can't decide how I'm going to bind this. I usually like to use a traditional binding. I have only done one facing, and I wasn't pleased how it looked on the back of the quilt. Any suggestions or discussion of which would be better (faced, bound, or even satin stitched) is especially welcome. The measurement of this piece is 18 3/4" H x 13 5/8".

Thanks! Lisa Broberg Quintana

#38 Elephants and Lions...Do You See A Zebra? Janice Simpson

Elephants and Lions...Do You see a Zebra?I did reverse applique on the beige Lions and the grey Elephants...and cut the scraps into 2 1/2 inch squares sewed blocks 5x5 squares and cut the squares into circles...also cut circles in background using Cheryl Philips Cut Around tool sewing the patch circles into the background.

I finished the top on time....my hang up was what to bind with and how should I quilt this...I put it altogether and did my old stand by surpintine stitches vertical and horizontal...(use this a lot).We then went out of town for a few days and I finished the binding in the car....

#38 Taking a Little Trip Janice Simpson

Taking A Little Trip....How did the bears get to the lower Peninsula of Michigan...Animal Kingdom...I do have a finished quilt that falls into the #38 FFFC. I have posted it in our photo's section. "Taking A Little Trip"(55 1/2x 47 1/2). This quilt shows about 40 ways for the Bear to cross from upperMi to lower Mi. (the yellow brick road (across the Big Mac Bridge), motor cycles, trucks, sail boats and swimming are just a few of the ways for the bear to get to lower Mi) For those of you not familiar with Michigan...I live in the Upper Peninsula and the Mackinaw Bridge connects us to lower Mi. One day the DNR on a radio show talked about the UP bears crossing to lower Mi... well creative minds of my Art group decided we needed to have a challenge showing how the bears crossed over to lower MIchigan.These quilts have been in MCQA (my guild show), Marquette Public Library,andMichigan Quilt Network show this Sept. I've not been good at FFFC deadlines I will try hard to make this one!! Janice

# 38. Blue Bird of Happiness by Candy Farmer

This is my 'Bluebird of Happiness" for Challenge 38. Materials: 100% Cotton background fabric, screen print with dye paste and over dyed with fabric paint. Fused silk accents. Bird printed on blue polyester chiffon and hand stitched to background. Simple hand quilting and embroidery with silk thread and seed bead eye. Machine overcast edging. 4"x6" postcard. Your comments are welcome.

Cow Girls at Sunflower Branch

Besides dragons, I have always had a lot of cows in my life, especially having raised several from calves and milking by hand during my teen years. So, when the challenge said animals, I thought I would do a few funny cows.My original idea just had the cow girls in poses, but then all the sudden I remembered a piece by Kathy York, and the girls decided to hang out at the Sunflower Branch.

I used variegated thread with a free machined zigzag applique technique. I think it works well for this piece because it is more cartoon like. I am not sure about the zigzag for other things. Surprisingly enough, it actually is less noticeable...if you look at the ladies and also the stem, even though there are some bright colours going on, the full view shows that the thread actually blends into the background more. I think that this piece might have actually wanted a solid applique stitch, though. It might have helped to give it a more comical feel like cartoons.

detail

The quilting is an all over sunflower connected by vines with leaves. I did the trapunto part of the challenge behind the girls and the sunflower.

I think if I did this type of thing again, I would have more contrast between the cows and the background so they would stand out more.

How's a Girl to Choose?

This was a fun challenge.  Sorry the batteries were all gone and didn't get pics until today.  Quilting will be done this week sometime.  Didn't want to be too late again this month.  The second photo shows the 3-D leaves that will be attached after quilting.  They are now  quilted onto fleece backing and really add some great dimension.

Started thinking about which animal print to use and wound up dipicting these tigers, each with different patterns.  Hand dyed background and leaves.  Commerical prints.  Fused.  Will post the finished quilt later.

Comments and critiques welcome and appreciated.

Bubba, the big headed dawg

Bubba is a pure bred Old English Sheepdog. His mom is one of my dearest friends, and we've all watched over the past year as our 10 year old buddy has started to slow down and we know that his time with us is finite. He has survived lymphoma, a rambunctious younger brother, Travis, and a household that also includes some feline cousins.
Bubba's eyes have always intrigued me, so I've tried to capture his wistful face.
The layers are fused applique, Fabrico marker, fabric paint, and stitching.... and this will be his mom's Christmas present this year....
Comments of course, are welcome!

The Hunter and the Hunted

This was a really fun challenge for me. I have taken several classes on free-motion embroidery and decided it was time to try it. The wolf is entirely done free-motion, I did layer fabric behind the threads, that was to tell me where the color change or the eyes/nose etc. were. Once the wolf was done, what do you do with him? So put him on a green background and added a tree which gave the wolf a "home". The quilting is all done free motion as well. I truly had fun on this !

Love to hear your critiques, thanks, Jeanne

Moose

This piece utilized several techniques that included freezer paper stencil on a silk screen for the shadow moose (Lyric Kinard's quituniversity.com class). The front moose was transformed using Beth Wheelers difusement maps tutorial and digitally printed, I used trupunto to bring it forward more. The background is paint sticks on a hand painted background and the thread work added.

Sweet Schnauzer
16" x 20"
fused, thread-painted, FMQ

This challenge came along about the same time that I had a commission to do a pet portrait of this special little dog. He was a much loved pet who died this past summer and two friends decided his owners needed a portrait. So I combined the Fast Friday Challenge and the commission. I finished the portrait including the quilting and a black border but failed to take a picture - something I rarely forget. So I'm posting the little fellow before the piece was finished. This photo was one of many I took to audition backgrounds - this was the winner! His owners loved the quilt as a remembrance of their precious little dog.

Your comments are always welcome. Thanks.

Sewing Caddy - Front

This had to do double duty. I found out about HIA's challenge at the same time as the FFFC and it was due today so I combined them.

Their rules were: Use their embroidery design and make a sewing caddy.

I used a picture of my cats watching the squirrels to make my design and then I thread painted it. The eye was reverse applique and for the dimension I used three layers of batting under her hips and hand appliqued it onto the background..

Sorry for the wonky setting! I took this photo in the Dora canal and changed the color with photo editing software. The thin aqua border around the photos is chiffon and the background fabric I bought on the same day I took the picture by coincidence. The large aqua border is chiffon overlaid over ugly free fabric picked up at a guild meeting.

Windblown Dinner

Windblown Dinner
Gail Myrhorodsky



I finished just over the limit this time! Hope you like my little hungry bird who came to dinner. The flowers and bird are direct FM embroidery. Vines and leaves are quilted and painted. It actually started as a much larger piece about 36" square. I cropped it down to about 14"h by about 12" w. Background fabrics are some of my hand-dyes. Hope you like it.

Just Passing Through

My entry to challenge 38 is titled "Just Passing Through". Some quilts insist on being made - this was one of those for me. For those who don't have the time or inclination for the "why", the details are these: 22" wide x 18" high; trapunto-ed bear totem (creating reverse trapunto for the somewhat subtle bear footprints on the right); reverse applique in the arrow. Things I would do differently - I would limit the Seminole border to one pattern instead of four and I would be more careful about keeping the pieces symmetrical.
For those who want to know the story behind the quilt...
My husband and I jog every morning. Since I run twice as far as he does, we start out together and then go our separate ways. For me, that hour each morning is my most valuable design time and I have created at least 90% of my quilts to the rhythm of the run. Last Friday my thoughts were on the FFFC posted that morning by Cynthia. I kept considering possible designs and rejecting them - nothing seemed to be speaking to me. About three miles into my run I looked up and saw my husband headed my way and I knew something must be going on. When he reached me he started lecturing me about daydreaming and not paying attention to my surroundings. Indignantly I demanded to know why he thought that was the case. Instead of answering he pointed to the ground by my feet. There in the sand, as clear as could be, were two perfect, fresh sets of grizzly bear prints heading back in the direction from which I had come. It was obviously a mama and near grown cub and they had gone through Thursday night sometime. We followed the prints back about a half mile to our barbed wire fence and there we could see where they had gone through. There were big clumps of grizzly fur caught in the barbs. Following the tracks back the opposite direction we found that the two had passed pretty close to our house during the night but thankfully, unlike last year, this time they had not hurt any of our animals. I decided I was meant to do a bear totem quilt. I talked to the folks at Game and Fish to see if I could add a few strands of grizzly bear fur to the piece but, as I suspected, since they have recently been re-listed as an endangered species, even picking the fur off the fence would be illegal!

"Tiny Giraffe" (10" x 13")

This is based on a graphite drawing I did for drawing class. The image was converted to sepia tones and printed on fabric. I will be putting this in a pillow top, so the edges are not yet finished. I love animals, so this was a great challenge. Those who know me will be surprised that I didn't do a cat!

The Lion King

Off to a slow start, the Lion King is still a work in progress. I had planned to do tiger cubs based on a Japanese wood block print purchased in Yokohama some 30+ years ago, but alas I could not find it. During the attic search I did find this somewhat ancient batik that was purchased about the same time in the middle east. This proud lion seemed rather regal, thus the name of this entry. I wanted to frame the batik in a nontraditional way and so cut some “wonky” borders, added a little animal textures and a few wispy things to create a little more interest and this is the end result. I still need to do more quilting on the “border” and have binding to add, but wanted to post this in a timely manner. I really enjoyed working with the sharply contrasting colors and the African feel to this piece. Thank you Cynthia for this challenge. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

African Sunset Ch#38

Wow, I finished before the deadline.
This piece was a lot of cutting. First I place a piece of my hand dyed fabric, then a piece of black fabric. Sewed on the paper side of the stabalizer and then cut it out. A lot like Sue B's upside down applique.
It measures 21x24".
It was a fun challenge. I do have quite a bit of depth in the piece, although hard to see in the picture. I think it needs some eyelashes on the left side :)
Thanks for the wonderful challenge Cynthia.
Now I'm off to view the other work, which I haven't looked at yet.

Fried Chicken

When I started this quilt I had intended to make a phoenix rising from the ashes. My husband said "too expected - why not a burned chicken" - therefor "Fried Chicken. The chicken is made of several layers of fabric starting with an upholstery velour topped with net stuffing to shape the leg and thigh. The top layers are organza - manipulated and burned. The wing is loose on three sides and made of purple embossed sheer. The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted. Now that I see this on screen I realize it needs a lot more quilting which I will do when I once again have more than 5 min. Soon I hope. All critiques and criticisms are welcome. I love to have all the input I can get.

I have now added more quilting and cropped the bottom of the quilt. I think this is an improvement. What do you think?

Pat Havey

After The Storm

This piece started with a picture I took of a baby bird after it spent the day, with its parents' very vocal encouragement, learning to fly across the back yard. It finally managed to make it to the top of the fence, and I was able to snap a great pic.

I photoshopped the picture to create a rainbow set of birds, then printed it onto fabric. I used trapunto to make the birds puffier and gave them some texture with thread painting, then sandwiched and quilted the piece and touched up the eyes and beaks with paint.

This is a small project (10" x 12") and was intended to be a quick project, but it took longer than I thought--that's ok, though, since I had fun with it!

Rainbow Fish School

I think I have improved this. I used some color pencils to do some highlighting on some of the fish, particularly the larger fish in the center area. I tried doing some stitching, but that was not effective. Let me know what you think.



Here is my piece with a detail. It is silk with screenprinted fish, using Lumiere metallic paints. It was then overdyed with Colorhue dyes. The fabric was laid over bubble wrap to give the bubble texture. I have just started experimenting with these dyes. They strike very quickly and require no chemicals or special batching. Once they are dry, they are done. They can be used on linen and wool, also.

I wish I had made a new screen with more detail as the fish are sort of blending into the water, but I guess that is what they do!!

Birds of a Feather

Challenge 38 Wen Redmond

I chose to do a Holographic Images, a Multi-level Surface Design/Mixed Media. Original image digitally printed twice for holographic 3-D effects. The piece is mounted. I invented this method of digital fiber and it was published in Quilting Arts magazine in 2007.

I went for very subtle effects. There is a tiny fern on bottom right. Fabrics are hand dyed, sun printed, painted, and surface designed in a variety of ways to enhance finished photograph.

Heron on the Creek

I just uploaded two photos. One is a photo of my creek at sunset, the inspiration for my challenge piece, Heron. Using the tiling option on the printer, I printed a digital photo of a heron near my pier. I added abstract curved lines to the image. The grasses and curved lines are reverse applique with an underlayer of batting for relief. Trapunto technique was used on the heron. Layers of fused scraps were added for the grasses. Ribbon was couched on two of the curved lines. Light strokes of oil pastel were used to complete the highlights. I would welcome any comments as this is my second attempt. Its great to explore new technique with these challenges, however, I need to know am I going in the right direction.

The Tri-lingual Parrot of Puerto Vallarta

I changed the quilt a little bit - edging the bird with a narrow black zig-zag, and adding two more red flowers. I think it looks better. Thanks for the suggestions!

At a resort in Puerto Vallarta, I kept hearing the words "hola!" and "hello!" coming from a clump of bushes. Following the sounds, we discovered a cage holding 2 beautiful parrots. They not only spoke Parrot, but they also spoke Spanish and English!

Here is a picture I took and printed on fabric. Then I printed the words on a sheer fabric, and fused all the pieces together to make an 11" x 13 " quilt.

After it was all done, I noticed the part of the challenge that mentioned "subtle dimension." So, I didn't follow the rules.

I always look forward to your comments.

Just Passin' Through

Just Passin' Through

Bernice Maddux

I just dropped by to say hello,

Now if you love me, let me go.

Thanks for the food and company,

But there's another place I need to be.

Don't grieve because I fly away,

I'll be back another day

To rest awhile and sing for you,

And maybe enjoy a meal or two.

Promise me you won't be sad,

But treasure the little time we had,

Our two worlds met for a brief hello,

Now if you love me, let me go.

This little bird is my first attempt at actual felting on my embellisher. I used both wool and silk roving (silk hankie). I don't know if it comes across in the picture, but it is very dimensional.

The 'sunlit' leaves are a glitter encrusted velvet. The rest of the leaves are two layers of fabric fused to either side of heavy duty aluminum foil, stitched, then cut out and stitched to the quilt only part way along the center vein...thus shapeable.

I plan to add a border (or two), so the edges are not finished yet.

As of now it measures 8x 10 1/2.

I loved this challenge Cynthia! Hope this meets the criteria.Thanks for all you do for this group :-)
Cherie

The borders are finished...it now measures 11 1/2x 14

Challenge 38: "Pals"

I usually don't do literal interpretations, so this was a challenge for me. I made this whimsical turtle piece using a metal turtle I had as a template......the turtles are machine trapunto as I learned fromthe video. Grasses and rocks were fused on last. Lots of free motion quilting. I didn't finished the edges since I plan to use this for a pillow front......the theme for a new grandson's room is turtles so this may be a fun addition. All comments welcome......thanks!

Z

9.5” X 14”

I only had today to work on this challenge so needed something small and more simplistic. Enjoyed the challenge of the reverse appliqué and definitely need more practice with my satin stitching. I was getting the “hang of it” by the time I finished!!

I used a cropped photo of a zebra, sized it and printed out. This is a mirror image of the original.

I will hang it 90 degrees clockwise but this view is more realistic for a zebra.

Thanks Cynthia for the challenge and comments are welcome and appreciated.

Pam

The Mouse and the Radish by Cynthia Ann Morgan

My animal is a mouse hanging out with a radish...based on a vintage Japanese woodcut. The mouse and radish have trapunto and some of the leaves are reverse appliqued. Size is 10 x 11"

Comments welcome!

Cynthia

Chickadee Antics

I love chickadees and if you all remember I posted a single bird last winter. After doing that my guild asked if I'd teach a class on how to do the bird and get some realism to their work. I'd not done this before but finally agreed to it. Last summer I began to make this piece to use as an example of the difference paint and thread painting could make to a subject (photo #3). I had both birds completed but only one painted (the upper right bird in photo #3)) to show the difference paint made. I needed to finish this quilt anyhow so I got it out yesterday, finished painting the lower left bird, thread painted both birds, quilted it all, and now it's ready to share. I've also included photos (#2) of the winter chickadee I did last winter for this group and then the summer chickadee (#1) I did these two to show the participants the difference background color would make. Sorry I didn't get the photos placed in the right order. I hope numbering helps differentiate. The first two are about 11" x 16" and the double chickadee pair just completed is about 18" x 24".


I do so enjoy animals anyhow that I hope to get another new animal quilt started and completed yet for this month's challenge.

Psalm 124: 6,7

22" by 8"

Commercial Cotton

Machine Quilted

Dimensional  Wings

10 hours to complete

I'm not a big animal person.  As a child I didn't read animal stories like everyone else.  I've had the same cat for 20 years.  I don't melt when I see puppies.  In that light, this month's theme was a real challenge.  After reading it early Friday morning, I thought on it all day at school.  When I got home, I took out my inspirational books and saw a picture of these neat Art Deco love birds.  Using the picture as a base, I added lines, edited lines and came up with a really complicated design that would make a cool quilt.  That said, this is Fast Friday Challenge and I didn't have that kind of time to invest.

So this is the edited version.  I quilted the blue base.  Then I started on the bird working with a pellon foundation.  At this point it started to take on a life of its own.  I wanted to challenge myself to only work with commercial prints.  To complete the dimension element of the challenge, I double fused the wings to a blue base fabric.  Then each wing is cut out individually and radomly.  They are tacked down to the bird just on one end and can be bent up for a ripple effect.  The bird was then rough edged appliqued to the background - making the body of the bird puff up.  I did not stuff the bird but it does look all puffy since I added a ton of thread work around the edge.

Zebra

9" x 12" Satin

Update 11/5: I decided 1) to rip the binding off and redo it, 2) following Cynthia's suggestion to add a bit more quilting on the large black stripes, and 3) outline the background leaves in ink. This photo seems to show them better than the original did.
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As soon as I saw "Animal Kingdom," I wanted to do a zebra! I'm not sure why, wished I had some zebra stripe fabric, but no such. And reverse applique was something I had read about, but really didn't understand, until yesterday, so this is my first use of that technique.

My original thought was to have the background half-white, half-black, but making the wide uneven stripes like a zebra coat seemed more effective. I quickly realized the need to simplify the stripe pattern, as thinner stripes would be nearly impossible to cut away. And as usual, my husband had a final suggestion, the dot of red fabric paint for the eye.

And since the white satin was fairly thin, I added some of the black and white grassy fabric that I used last month just behind it for a subtle background.

I am planning to donate this as a Priority Quilt to the Alzheimers Quilt Initiative, hence the rectangle and the size. All comments welcome!

Challenge 38 - Sluggish

So my piece for Challenge 38 is Sluggish. I'm not sure if a slug technically falls into the Animal Kingdom but I'm sticking with it.

The background is pieced with my hand dyed fabrics - it is suppose to be a mossy pathway - the slug has three layers of batting and a cotton ball for his head. The slug is actual size. He is beaded followed by a beautiful beaded slug slim. The finished size is 15 inches by 13 inches.

Lisa
In Rainy Seattle - where the Slugs are munching in the garden.

Updated 10/28
Ok so taking some advice regarding the composition of the slug - I added an green leaf for lunch - changed the orientation of the quilt. Please let me know what you think now.

Dance Challenge 38

YES, I started and finished this today, no cheating for once.

I don't know if this is considered in the animal kingdom, but I posted my piece for this challenge. It's titled "Dance". I have been working on keeping everything I do related to the river and lakes I live by. Since I am an avid fisherwoman it seems appropriate. Maybe there will be a one woman show somewhere in the future, lol.

I had many photos I took of huge carp in a feeding frenzy by one of the docks. The sun glared on the surface so I had to use many photoshop filters to bring out the fish. Our water here is crystal clear so that posed a problem to make the fish stand out from the water. I printed this photo in yellow tones, fused it to a larger piece of cotton and then using textile paints I started enhancing the water and the fish to blend the two layers. Next I used machine trapunto to make part of each fish rise above the surface of the water. I covered the entire piece with scrunched copper colored tulle and FMQ the piece. This gave the illusion of waves or mossy plants. I cut the tulle off the fish so they are a different texture than the parts that are under water. The quilting is done with a variagated rayon thread to mimic the light off the ripples but I couldn't get this to show well in the photo.

The piece finished at roughly 13 inches square and I probably am not going to square it up or put any edge finish on it.

Your comments are always welcome, love to hear from all of you.Does it look like the fish are breaking the surface?

FFFC Challenge #38:

Animals, from man to mouse and everything in between, are the inspiration for our Challenge this month. Anything goes….Abstract, realistic, stylized, whimsical, traditional, contemporary or anything else.

Nature Theme: Animals
Quilt Art examples: http://www.robappell.com/image/tid/5
http://www.yessy.com/littletonstudio/galleryfibe.html?i=5057

Realistic Art examples: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/subjects/Animals.html
Contemporary/Abstract Art examples: http://www.decordova.org/Decordova/exhibit/2006/animals/animals.html
http://www.govinder.info/
http://www.alisoningram.co.uk/abstract_mammals_home.htm

Picasso’s Bull series - a study on moving from a realistic image to an abstract image http://johnmactaggart.com/art_appreciation/animals_in_art/pablo_picasso/pablo_picasso.htm
Traditional ethnic: http://park.org/SanBlasDeCuna/molas.html
As an alternative to including an animal image in your piece: think about using the colors, texture and patterns in animal skins http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/animal-skin.html
Or use those wonderful animal print fabrics from your stash!


Have fun…can’t wait to see what you all come up with! For the “fast” FFFC artists, it’s due Saturday, October 31 noon Eastern time. For the “non-so-fast” FFFC artists, it’s whenever you can!

Cynthia

Challenge 37-Nebula

Challenge 37-Space has been designed in my head for weeks. Finally got time to get the work done and photos taken.

Hubble's photos have long been inspiration for me as a friend from high school was on the original Hubble design team, not to mention the fact that I'm a "Trekky" from way back.

My embellisher seemed the perfect tool to accomplish the task of building my own Nebula right in my studio. Quilting with metallic thread was new to me. Critiques welcomed.

Blast Off

Challenge 37 finally fully finished. I spent days looking at marvelous photos from the Hubble Telescope. However, as much as I was in awe of the photos, nothing spoke to me. Finally I hit upon this theme = going into outer space.
I wanted to use dyes, but my past experience had been just applying the dyes on a piece of cloth laying on a table. It didn't work as I had envisioned. Lots of flow across the table; very little control. Therefore, my first step was to make an adjustable frame on which to secure my fabric. I recycled wood from some old shelf frames I had used when I lived in apartments and moved a lot. I used a textile maker in gray as I only wanted a little bit to show threw the 'dust from the blast off'. Then I applied dyes. It took several layers of dye to get what I wanted. Then I began with the paints. I ironed between layers to preserve what I had already done. Previously, I had skipped this step. Not happy when the colors moved. I learned from that mistake. Although my quilting is far from perfect, it is the best I've done so far. Horay! I'm improving.

Blast Off 17" x 37 1\2"

Detail 1 darkened to show the quilting.

Detail 2 darkened to show the quilting.

Challenge #37 "Meet Me In 2287" 60,000years Janice Simpson

Outer Space ...I posted Malacandra(Mars quilt description from CL Lewis bookPerelandra)an already finished quilt & fit the theme. My plan was to finish anew FFFC...well it's almost finished after a few distractions....I thought Iwould have it finished before the new FFFC #38 came out... very soon..The nameis "Did You See This?" or "Meet You in 2287" (60,000Years). The name aloneshould get some interest going!!The idea for this FFFC came from an e-mail telling me to watch the sky's for the month of August. On August 27th Mars will be close to the Moon and we could see it ...well we had a cloudy night. Well I did see this very bright "Star" Mars next to the Moon during August evenings. This will not happen again for 60,000 years...I printed the words from my computer onto fabric and next cut the large circles..the Moon and Mars...the Earth much smaller(only 34,649,589 miles from Mars) has a sketch of the United States..these were attached to the background fabric with an iron-on and various fringed yarn. The MilkyWay across the quilt is angelina fibers attached with Misty Fuse.A few silver stars attached with beads and quilted stars with silver metalic thread.I wrapped the front fabric to the back for the edge finish...edges not too streight...OK for the universe!!!
Labels: FFFC #37 OuterSpace
posted by Designs by Janice Simpson at 8:03 AM 0 comments

FFFC #37 Outer Space


Labels: "Meet You In 2287" 60, 000 years

Astronomical Event

I have GOT to be the last to finish! Please take a look at my really fast entry (about 4 hours) – Astronomical Event. I decided to let one of my very first hand-dyed fabrics do the work. After quilting with several colors of metallic threads in a firey starburst design, I layered some holographic shredded cellophane under some sparkly dark gold tulle and again stitched over it with gold metallic threads. Then I melted this addition to give it a more lacey-spacey effect, floating through space. Comments welcome, even though this isn’t my best work….I got the urge to do this challenge and just sat down and did it. Hope to be a bit more timely next time!

Gail Myrhorodsky

Deep Space - WIP

Here is Deep Space. It is not finished. I am struggling with this. It is okay, but not wonderful. I used sequined and beaded fabric for the background which was not a Good Idea. When I finally got the bits under the planets and sun removed, they went flat and lost life. But I couldn't fuse them to the beads and sequins, nor could I just stitch them bumpily on there. I have put a facing on, although it needs stitching down in back. Because I already spent ages taking beads off the front, I didn't take them out of the SA when I stitched the facing on, and even through I was careful...I broke 3 needles!

So I am coming for advice.
I know how I want to quilt the sun, but any advice on how to quilt the planets?
Any advice on how to get it to be alive and not flat looking?
Shall I put it in the cupboard with the other space one from sometime back and hope I like it better in a year or so? LOL
Thanks!

Planet Wihet by Vivien Zepf

This is my first challenge with the group and I've been looking forward to participating. Unfortunately, yesterday was my first day in the studio for weeks, so I tasked myself to create something in a day. It's not the most marvelous piece ever, but I'm glad I did it. It was a good way to reacquaint myself with my sewing machine and supplies.

The planet is made from a piece of fabric from my stash that I had painted. I rubbed paint sticks over some sequin waste and raised paper to create the "glow" around the planet. I used a sheer (my first time!) to create the wisps around the planet and colored on them after quilting so that they had more contrast. For lack of a better idea, I free-motioned meander quilted the background; a mistake, I think, but I couldn't think of anything else to do. (It also looks wretched because I used some batting I had lying about that got all puffy and icky as I used it. ) I used metallic silver thread to augment the glow, along with some purple rayon thread. The finished piece is 14 x 16 1/2.

Thanks for looking and for your critique.

Vivien

Celestial Black Hole

New techniques that I used:

• painting over acrylic paints with a transparent black Setacolor. The acrylic acted as a resist so only the unpainted areas took the black paint. I love this way of working.
• adding Golden's mica chips in gel medium for some celestial glitz.

This also has a lot of foiling, which is not a new technique for me.

Here is a detail


I have another one painted, but it is not stitched as yet.

OK, I am ready for the next challenge.

Our Galaxy

This is my first Fast Friday challenge and creation. I used a photo from the Herschel telescope as my inspiration. The photo has an "open copyright". It can be seen at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8284650.stm. I was attracted by the layering and luminoscity and wanted to try using Lutrador which is new-to-me.

I used black Kona cotton, which was painted with a mix of Stewart Gill, Jacquard and Setacolor paints (I rapidly learnt that Setacolor transparent does not show up at all on black without being mixed with white.) I had black heavier weight and white very light weight Lutrador to work with. I painted the Lutrador with Mettallic Jacquard and Steward Gill paints, and then used both a textile tool and an embossing heat gun to melt the Lutrador to make it look "airier." I quilted the background with monofilament and metallics, and tried facing it (the first time I have done a facing) before stitching on the Lutrador. I wanted a slightly 3D look. I know I need a lesson on how to do facings. If you have any comments or suggestions I am open to them. I mainly did this to try the materials and to see if I can work fast. I found I still thought about the project for almost 3 weeks before getting down to it---something I need to change, which is why I joined the challenge

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

This is my second challenge quilt and I really enjoyed this subject matter. I learned alot too. I discovered "Smart-ease" tm. and it really helped with the planet circles. I also got to try some thread blending which I learned about in a Carol Shinn class. This quilt is approx. 18" by 24" inches. The background is a hand-dyed batik. I loved playing with the embellishments of Swavarski chrystals, Angelina fibers and hand beading. I learned alot about composition and had alot of fun playing with my planets ! I was really inspired by the beautiful photos from the Hubble telescope. Donna of Sea Ranch

Pluto is gone

Here I am late with the very first one since I came back.

My piece is 22-1/2" x 24-3/4"

The planets are flying willy nilly through the sky.

Fabrics uses were: the old stand by - cotton, soft wool, a paper towel that I used to wipe up some spilled tsukineko inks a long time ago, netting, etc.

One of them was done on my embellisher and saturn's ring was made from a silver bag that was inside a box of peanut brittle.

The little dog is saying "They took Pluto away. WHY?"

Good to be back

Betty

Challenge 37 "Planetary Fiction" by Pam Clark

This is my first fast friday challenge. I chose to use some new products that I hadn't tried before. I started with Angelina film. I layed strands of fibers between two layers of film and ironed to hold the fibers in place. I cut the film into a half moon shape and stitched it onto my dark background. I had never tried fiber painting before, so I painted around the planet to look like reflections coming off the surface. I also painted a small moon and a swirling nebula. I couched decorative fibers around the planet, across the planet and throughout the piece. I quilted with metallic threads to add glitz, added some Angelina fibers to the surface of the planet, and sewed on a few beads. I'm not really happy with the outcome, since I feel that my planet is too shiny, but I did learn how to use the Angelina film and how to fiber paint. Your comments are welcome.

Challenge 37 - Seattle Moonlight

OK - so it took a little bit - but I think you'll understand.

My piece is Seattle Moonlight - I had to do the Space Needle with a full moon. The final piece measures 8 1/2 x 13 1/2 - it is not intended to be an exact skyline - the windows are beaded.

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Challenge #37 - Blue Moon by Candy Farmer

Close to home and closer to heart, the moon has inspired the folklore and poetry of the ancients and helped us mark the passing of time and season. The full moon is especially potent and magical and speaks of the feminine.

The features of this moon were free cut from a remnant of polyester chiffon in hombre blues and applied to the surface with a single strand of silk sewing thread to keep it floaty and something of a suggestion. The background, or
black-ground, is cotton velveteen with black paisley jacquard applique. I used a polyester bat for loft and to add dimension to the moon. Everything was hand stitched.

This is my first larger-size piece, 16.5"x 21.5" approximate, and I would really like your feed back. Thanks, everyone.

Challenge #37 - full mOOn reflections by Wen Redmond

Photo that amazed me to create my piece 'full mOOn reflections'. Note the symmetrically of the centered moon. This is taken at sunset, North Pole. Just had to share it.

Going crazy getting ready for Fall shows and itchin' to participate in this challenge, I realized I have a piece that fits the 'bill'. I hope this isn't considered cheating but that's what I'm goin' do. My piece is called Full mOOn Reflections. I hope you'll give me feedback. Happy Fall All!!Full mOOn Reflections has several layers, and a circle was cut directly in the main piece. I used this elsewhere in the piece, repeating the circle motif.  Medium was used on sections to see how it affected the transparency and texture. It was mono-printed,  painted and dyed using silk noil, and organza. Mounted on painted rayon and poly stabilizer. Stitching

27hx18wx.50d

I wrote text in the bottom that I forgot to add, it says "Awaken! It comes to you, Extraordinary!"

WEBSITE http://WenRedmond.co 
BLOG http://fiberartgoddess.blogspot.com

Genesis 1:16

18" by 8"
Painted cotton with Tempera Paint, sea salt
Commercial Fabric
Metallic, Rayon thread
Fusible gems

I originally created a background with Dyn-na-flow paints, but found it boring and too light for my needs. My 12 year old daughter, Tessa made this background at the same time using her washable tempera paints and sea salt. When I saw how great it was, I asked if I could use it for the challenge. She agreed as long as I gave her credit (grin). After heat setting and cutting up the background, I added a commercial print from Paula Nadlestern's collection and embellished with Glitter thread. Because I truly believe that less is more when it comes to embellishing, I just added a few fusible gems at the end to give it a little twinkle-twinkle. I finished the edges just with a free motion scribble of green and orange thread.

Cosmic Fire

This was inspired by the batik fabric background. I try to to use what I have on hand so it was copper Angelina and Misty Fuse. Also quilting and beading. There is so much inspiration out there. I find I am limited by my expertise in using some of the embelishments. Some things just didn't work! Thanks for the great challenge and a chance to try something new. Your comments helpful and welcome.

Elaine Koenig

Fires of Arnica

Ok my apologies, I could not get this posted as an edit and wanted to share. Thank you all for the critiques. In my hurry to do my 1st FFFC I forgot the very basics of art. So this is the result of cutting the 1st one down and I do like it much better.

PERSPECTIVE

12" x 16"

commercial fabrics

beads

angelina fiber

metallic thread

This piece is recycled from a couple of years ago. I've never posted an "oldie" before but I hope it will get me back in the swing of Fast Friday. I don't know why I stuck this piece away on the "experiments that didn't grow up into real quilts" shelf.

Now I hope to spend some time looking further at all the wonderful work I've noticed for this challenge. Your comments are always welcome.

Cosmos

"Cosmos" Is a Mixed media piece. I started with Black canvas and used paper towel with SPaint stick rubbings, decorative rice paper, cheese cloth, metallic paint, beads. I had fun playing with this piece and using some mixed media that I am not used to working with. I think it may be to crowded but still enjoyed the process. Coments welcome

Rita Legere

www.mooseandcrow.com

www.gracefulspirit.blogspot.com

Leaving Home

24½” x 16¼”, Satin, Polyester, Angelina fiber, beads

Update 10/13/09: I had comments that I should add some flame to the rocket, both in comments and from my husband, so I did. The new picture also has the border sewn on to the foam core so it's somewhat trimmer.
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There are only two fabrics that I used in this piece. The black satin shouted to me for the background, and the polyester piece, scraps from a blouse I just finished, had even the basic shapes which I only smoothed out. The rocket shape came from one of the copyright-free photos, and I used metallic foils for it. Then Angelina, with paper foil stars embedded in it, an experiment that only partially worked, because if the Angelina is thick enough, the stars don't show up, and if it's thin, they aren't held in very well. I added beads in part to help hold the Angelina on.

The earth came from another photo from the NASA pictures, and printed on photo transfer paper. It was when I put that in that the title became obvious.

I quilted the piece lightly with metallic thread. It is mounted on foam core, and I still need to sew down the edges and will probably stitch around the rocket, at least, to hold it down more smoothly. Comments welcome as always!

FFFC 37 Kalahari from Space

I decided to do something a little different for this challenge and use a photo of earth taken from 400 miles above the surface. I'm posting the photo here as well as my attempt to interpret it. As someone on the internet said, from that distance, Earth is abstract art. I have to admit that I'm not terribly happy with this. I'd like it to have a little more 'fire.' But at least it's a little different. I started with a plain yellow background and then added lines of color with almost everything in my arsenal--crayolas, ink pens, Sharpies, pencils, etc. Stitched on top of all of that. The photo on the right is the original satellite photo.

Thanks for a fun challenge! Comments and suggestions welcome!

Saturn

Saturn 16" x 16"
Discharged black cotton. A little bit of paint and a lot of thread. Metallic threads in the rings and black thread on black background don't make for good photography!
Thanks for another great challenge!

Fires of Arnica by Jeanne Knudsen

I live just 50 miles away from Yellowstone National Forest and last week as the "Arnica" fires raged to over 9000acres the air and sky outside became smokey. This is from a photo I took outside our front door. It was mid day, but the sun was red/orange. I used felt I melted for the tree branches, silk leaves, and put a brown tinted tulle over the piece and then quilted it. Not exactly "outer space" but it is my space looking out. I encourage critique!

challenge 37

After about 30 tries I finally figured out that I have to accept terms of service in order to post my photo. Sooo here it is. I used hand dyed and commercial fabric, including velvets and sheers. I used raw edge applique, and free motion and satin stitches.

Exploding Star

With a very full calendar this month, I only had a short time to devote to FFFC. I love the challenge, and all those wonderful Nebula Photos, but when looking through my stash to start my entry, this fabric that I had hand dyed got my attention. It seemed to say exploding star to me. Using Angelina fibers, I made a slurry of various colors and created a 8 x 10 mesh of fibers. From that I cut some strips and sewed them to my background. Next I used some set-a-color pens and drew some of the wispy lines, then used embroidery to complete my design. The quilting is intended to accent the flow of the piece. I’m not sure it looks very “starry”, but I love the colors and the sparkle. I’m pleased with its general appearance, but wish I had more time to make it special…. Maybe later. Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Challenge #37

Here's the Two Moon Junction piece I did for Challenge #37- Outer Spaces. Its also my first entry into this group. The piece is only 8 1/2 by 11 inches. It was fast if nothing else.

Ganymede Trumps Jupiter

This is my first group challenge, and it was a blast! The piece is 18x20" (I can never remember--do you list height or width first?) and I think I'm going to call it "Ganymede Trumps Jupiter."

I ran across a NASA (copyright-free) photo of Ganymede, one of the moons of Jupiter, and was fascinated by its textures and colors (I'm sure it was color-enhanced), so I decided to replicate it by stitching painted Tyvek to fabric and shrink-melting it. It looked a little lonely on its own, so I found a picture of Jupiter and used hand-dyed fabric and acrylic paint to recreate it. I took some artistic license with this piece; Ganymede is MUCH larger, proportional to Jupiter, than it should be, but I like it that way. The photos are a little misleading; they show a sparkly (star-filled?) background because I used clear invisible thread for the quilting, but it's not nearly so obvious in the real piece.

This is the first art quilt I've created in a VERY long time, and I'm thrilled that the challenge pushed me toward creativity. This was exactly what I was looking for when I joined the group! Please feel free to offer critiques.

Michele

Black Hole

15 x 20
This has been a fun challenge producing great results! I chose to do a black hole, no particular one as I was working with colors I had on hand. Background fabric is commercial. For the different materials (black hole), I used Angelina Fibers and painted, twisted cheesecloth. Both materials/techniques are new to me. Embellishment is beads in the center of the black hole and some metallic thread quilting.

Thanks Cherie for a fun challenge and great websites for inspiration. Comments are welcome and appreciated.

Pam

Flamboyant Galaxy

Like Chris, I've had this piece and have been agonizing over next steps. It started as an abstract drawing which morphed into a small 8x11 piece and then I enlarged it to the current size - 45x36. In the pictures, Galaxy 3 has the black/white trim on two corners; Galaxy 2 has more black/white trim in the body; and in Galaxy 1 I also added some more moons in the lower right corner. I've looked at this piece for so long that it's become difficult for me to separate what works and what doesn't. So I'm posting it to this challenge. Thanks for you input!

White Hot Sunspots

This piece started with some of my hand dyed fabric in yellows and oranges that I felt depicted intense heat and vaporous gasses. After choosing a section that showed a little surface of the sun, I FMQ around some of the shapes then accented some of the suns surface with a distress ink pad. Next I used embroidery on the sun and little knots of thread to look like sparks. It still needed some contrast and interest so I added the rivers of opague yellow beads and finally used glitter pens to outline some of the shapes. I think I've taken this as far as it can go. Comments are always welcome and this will also be on the blog.

Janice P-D

Spiral Galaxy by Cynthia Ann Morgan

Cool challenge...lots of beautiful images from space to choose from. I chose a spiral galaxy called the Whirlpool Galaxy some 25 million light-years away. My different technique was discharge. I sprayed and brushed on diluted bleach to a piece of green hand dyed cotton, to get the general spiral effect...then I added highlights and shaping and some metallic thread quilting.

Update: I added a few minor elements - the photo on the left is the revised piece. Had some advice about some darker contrasts and some sparkly, so decided to do some subtle changes...which I like! Had a mishap with the foil glue and the foil looked like globs plopped onto top. Mother of invention...I found I could "reshape" the foil with quilting around it, plus it looks more integrated that way and less of the afterthought that it was.

Comments and greetings welcome!

Cynthia

Thanks to Cherie for an exciting challenge!

butterfly nebula

This was a great challange. Thank you Cherie. I loved all the great sites to
visit. I chose to recreate the Butterfly nebula from the Hubble site. I felt
this waS a good chance to try silk hankie. It seemed the perfect material for
this nebula. I also included angelina fibers. The planet is made from two
different brocades - one a poly stretch. The entire piece is covered with
charcoal gray tulle, then hand quilted and beaded. What a blast!
Pat Havey

Many Moons

I am having a very stupid day. I have done this post about four times and each time, I push one wrong button and it disappears into that outer space continuium we are attempting to show in this challenge.

This is hand painted with thickened dyes....first attempt. Fun and maybe again sometime.

Comments are very welcome.

Sea Ranch Carol

Starship Enterprise

Thank you Cheri for this fun challenge.  I used two new products for the first time, Lutradur, and Transfer Artist Paper (TAP).   I found free pics of the starship on-line and added the lettering USS Enterprise in Photoship, then printed to TAP, and heat transfered the image to Lutradur.  Next I took some blue fabric and discharged it with bleach to make the galaxy.  The starship was added to my galaxy, and netting and sequin-stars were added.  This piece is 11" x 12 1/4".  Linda Mac in WY

Sun Storm 12"x19"

For this piece I got brave and actually used my new Babylock Embellisher! Ihave had it since July and hadn't even plugged it in...haa

The sun is entirely created on the embellisher,and then zapped with heat to bubble and create 'holes' into lower levels of fabric. I don't even know how many different fabrics and fibers I felted together, maybe 20 or more, organza, chiffon, metallic lame, tulle, metallic studded net and chiffon....it was so much fun I didn't want to stop LOL.

The background/'flames' are done with silk hankie in several colors and white, chiffon, metallic etc , then thread painted and quilted with different metallics as well as monofiliment.

The sun is appliqued onto the background and a very deep burgundy metallic and fuzzy textured yarn is couched along the edge to create a sense of depth.

Your comments are as always welcome and appreciated :-)

Cherie

Nebula

This is my first post ever....! Joining Fast Friday has given me the creative freedom to challenge myself.

I used wool roving, painted tyvek, beads, and lots of free-motion, also my first ever!!!!

I need lots of help and practice, but for a first attempt I am thrilled!

Hope I did this posting correctly. Thank you for allowing me to participate. Jane Stricker

Challenge 37: Somewhere out There

This quilt is about 28 by 30 inches. All the background fabrics were painted or dyed on white fabric by me.
I "globbed" on different colors, sprayed a little water, then shaped the fabric into a ball and let it dry outside. I used three different pieces of fabric prepared in this way. After they were ironed, washed, and ironed again, I cut them into four inch squares. The white irregular area was partially in the fabric, but I extended it with white fabric paints. The circles I had painted on initially using a lid dipped into white paint to create open circles. Then I filled the circles in with metallic paints, hoping I created dimension in the circles as moving heavenly bodies of some sort. I quilted over the surface in lined star shapes using different variegated and metallic threads. I had no idea how this would end up when I started, but this is my preferred method of working. Just begin with some fabric and see where it takes you.

FFFC Challenge #37

Hostess: Cherie Brown

Nature Theme: Outer Space
This can be any interpretation of space or from space you choose.
Here are some inspiring photos and artists renditions of stars, nebulae and planets, as well as astronauts and spaceships.
This is a fun interactive space site from Hubble: http://heritage.stsci.edu/2007/16/images/i0716bw.jpg
The Hubble website: http://hubblesite.org/gallery
Black hole: http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/photos/black-holes-gallery.html
Copyright free photos : http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/NASA/page1.html
This is my favorite site : http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
Be sure to get permission to use any copyright images. I have had good response from all I have requested. Most are more than happy to grant permission.
Here’s some links to see Art based on outer space:
http://www.outer-space-art-gallery.com/galactic-gallery.html
http://www.spaceprime.com/spaceart.htm http://visionafar.spaceart.org/

Techniques: Different materials and embellishments
The sky’s the limit (pardon the pun). Let your imagination roam and try different fabrics (sheers, velvets, suede cloth, and metallic. How about foiling, beading, crystals? Perhaps try some heat altered and painted Tyvek or Lutradur?
http://www.joggles.com/lutradurtutorial.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7gebEy2XXc
http://judyperez.blogspot.com/2006/05/lutradur.html http://www.sewfunpatterns.com/tyvek.html
http://wildonionstudio.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/umbria-roof-fibertiles
This is a great site with many different techniques:
Fun With Embellishments: http://www.greatamericanquilt.com/pdffiles/embellishments.pdf
Have fun with this and play with some new materials and techniques.

Conception

Hi All. I am posting a work fitting challenge 36, transparency. I love to work with transparent silk organza. This piece experiments with a free layered collage. You can lift each layer to discover a new concept on each page. I'm not sure whether I will leave it as is or place it on stretcher bars- which will mean it will be fixed in place.

What do you think?

Conception    Transparent multi- layered collage. Dyed, painted, mono print, script, sewn. Silk organza and cotton .   15hx14w     

Stained glass

This stained glass sits in my basement window and offers a lovely altered view of the outdoors. I used three layers of sheers - one for the jug, another for the glass in the stained glass window and another for the glass in the actual window (behind the stained glass). I sewed them all to water soluble stabilizer and later added the background. This was a lot of fun!

Blue Ridge Sunrise

As a brand new member, this is my first challenge. It's just 4x6, but it's my first experience using sheers, and I'm also just learning to quilt by machine. I was inspired by two things that have always fascinated me -- the delicate coloring of an early morning sky, and the magical Blue Ridge Mountains in NC, where my parents used to live. I used layers of organza to try to capture the look of the mountains. /Jill Williams

Morning's Moon Set

This piece was my first attempt at using sheer fabrics. The photo underneath was taken as the moon was setting one wonderful morning. I was trying to capture the rosy-apricot still calm of the morning. I used organza overlay and silk transparent ribbon. There is some novelty yarn at the horizon line which provides some texture. The piece is 9" by 11". This was a good exercise for me to get over my "fear" of Sheer.....LOL. Your comments are most welcome. Clearly I need to do a better job of taking the photo straight...Donna

drop in

I started this quilt for the July challange. Due to family problems I never had a chance to finish it. Yesterday I finally had a chance to think about it and it seemed to me to fit both July and August so I finished it and am entering it now.
I started with four layers of fabric and cut away layers for the right effect. I edge stitched all the pieces because they had no other way of staying in place. The leaf is cut from printed fabric and painted with Sheva stix. The leaf shadow is net. It is very unusual for me to work with blue anything. I have a lot of blue pieces in my stash but never seem to use them. This piece has blue faille, dark blue chiffon, silver lame andice blue chiffon. It was a great challange. Thank you! Pat Havey

Tern and Flags

I have chosen to work from a photograph from a recent vacation. The fish are under layers of chiffon that is quilted with both holographic thread and sliver thread.

"Bend Don't Break" (10"x16")

Skeleton leaves on a discharged homespun with stitch. I haven't done a quilt in months, so this was a good challenge for me. Went for a high horizon with somewhat transparent leaves. More dimensional in person!

Beach at Sunrise

(Renamed from Beach Sunset)
19 1/2" x 21"
Polyester, rayon, cotton,plastic mesh, Angelina fiber, Polyfil batting

I began by pulling out all my gauzier fabrics and a bag of plastic mesh from food packaging, and began laying everything on a yellow background until something clicked that it should be blue. It was all pretty delicate until I dug further and found the black and white fabric and tucked pieces of that in and around the scene. The water is the same fabric as the sky, but overlaid with blue plastic mesh and some wavy thread-painting.

I added Polyfil clouds and Angelina fiber for the sunset, and finally overlaid it all with a fine white gauze. I used clear thread for all the stitching; this was one piece where I didn't want to add any other color with the thread. I was planning for less sky to show, and hence have a higher horizon, but it seemed to want to expand upward with the clouds.

9/7/09 Update. I've got this mounted now, and used my Tsukineo ink technique to do some shading at the top and upper sides for a better sky. Comments welcome!

Challenge #36-Misty Valley by Elaine Koenig

I used some purple fabric from a scarf and misty fuse on cheese cloth. Layered the fabric to get darker colors and stitched edges. It needed "something" so tried foiling it and then added green "trees" with paint stick. zigzagged the birds. I had to put it on a white back in order to see it. Transparent fabrics have unique problems but I want to try this again and make a true transparent piece.I have a lot of ideas! Critiques are welcome. Elaine

I Hate Math

I had an idea for this challenge but couldn't act on it right away. When I ready Rosemary's descriptions of her work, especially the piece she says she hangs in her dining room window, I saw a kind of fabric window decoration. I worked very small to make it easier to finish. I started by painting organza with Tsukineiko inks. I then cut them out in rough trapezoid shape. I sewed them to another piece of organza over a piece of muslin as to not distort the ink colors. I then quilted in metallic for fun and just to outline the basic shape. Nothing fancy but an idea seen to fruition was very satisfying. Thanks Sandy for a great challenge.

Michele Sheets in NC

Wine

This is the first challenge I've met since joining last year. The stars were aligned, I've been working with sheers for a few weeks now! I painted the green for the wine bottle, found that white organza was too sheer for the glass so backed it with gray. Added burgandy for the wine between the two layers, using wonder under to keep the fraying down. Quilted the pieced batik backing before adding the sheers, then just edge stitched them down. The upper left corner seemed bare, so added a fussy cut "picture" with some brown for frame. Did a little stitching for highlights, and used fabric paint for shadows since I hadn't thought about how else to do them before the stitching was done! It was a fun exercise and I will continue to explore sheers. Thanks Sandy!!! And I hope to keep up from now on!

janice in Houston

Comments and suggestions appreciated!

Challenge 36 - Sea of Dreams by Cynthia Ann Morgan

Interesting and challenging challenge...I resisted and fretted, but when I settled down, I enjoyed it very much. I went with a simple design in order to focus on the concepts.

Working with sheers was a new experience...ravely, slippery but what a nice shimmer! I used the horizontal layers concept, also a new experience.

Hand dyed cottons for the background, moon and boats, with hand painted chiffon and organza for the layers and clouds and not too much quilting. Size is 19 x 23"

Lots of fun!

Comments and greetings welcome!

Cynthia

Snow Birds

This is not what I started out to do.
The photo is taken from our garage across the driveway to the house across the street. I only cropped it a little - it already had a high horizon. Printed it onto prepared 8 1/2" x 11" fabric. Then I copied bird photos onto a sheer gray fabric and a sheer woven white fabric. Added them to the empty snow area, quilted a little, outline stitched the pictures, and it's done.
I'm not totally satisfied with the piece itself, but I learned a lot from printing on sheer fabrics. I ironed the fabric to freezer paper, printed the photo, always with a misfeed first, then peeled off the freezer paper and backed the photo with misty fuse, ironed between two teflon sheets. Then fused those bird photos to the big snow/house photo. I'll definitely try this again, maybe with a better composition next time.

"Real Ghost" Janice Simpson

This is my "Cheater" Quilt made for the Journal Pages.

They were not private investigators or apprentice ghost-hunters, to be sure...Simply two gentlemen interested in...

The Supernatural.... These words printed on silk using computer..free form cut.. edges burnt with a sodering iron..misty fused to the quilt. I sketched my ghost and ghost hunters on a small tablet while traveling. For my ghost I tried several methods...paint netting..and lightweight iron-on interfacing (Transparency)and I chose the interfacing. The ghost was ironed down and outlined with glue and foil.The ghost and ghost hunters were free-form cut with sissors..a raw edge finish for the ghost hunters. The quilt is my original design.

I wanted to finish a quilt for this last challenge and hope to do better in the next round.

Janice Simpson

A Troubled Spirit

It took a while for me to get rolling on this challenge, since I usually do abstract work which doesn’t go hand in hand with a horizon line. When I jumped in I didn’t have any particular direction, but started with a piece of fabric I had rusted. I added lines with a permanent black pen to create the center portion of the piece. Color and shading was then applied with Berol pencils. Sewing two pieces of fabric together to create the “horizon line” came next, and then the rusted fabric was trimmed and set upon the background. To add the transparency, sheer silk fabric was used. There are two layers, attempting to look like dripping paint that come down from the top and partially cover the “heart”. This part of a poem by Longfellow kind of speaks to me of what this piece is saying.

“I see the lights of the village
Gleam through the rain and the mist,
And a feeling of sadness comes o'er me,
That my soul cannot resist:

A feeling of sadness and longing,
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.”

From Longfellow’s Poem The Day is Done

Comments and suggestions are always welcome, let me know what this piece is saying to you. I cropped this from the original and feel it works a little better.

Challenge 36 - Rain Falls

Continuing on my theme for this year branching out - here is my piece Rain Falls. Measures 10 1/2 by 22.

I took an more abstract tree branches with wool yarn - with wool roving foliage - then tulle as rain. The wool roving and the tulle are for the transparency - the horizontal horizon worked perfectly with the trees. Looking back over this past year I noticed I tended to do portraits size rather than landscaped.

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

One challenge split between two pieces from Sandra Wyman

Bit of a cheat this month: two journal quilts done as part of a UK Contemporary Quilt project.

The first (above) is the composition with the horizon in: called Not All Who Wander Are Lost it began with my taking the scenic route to CQ's Summer School, through a part of Northern England called the Forest of Bowland, when I came across this landscape of fields yellow with buttercups, green hedges, blue hills and blue sky. It's silk habotai overlaid in places with chiffon, all machine appliqued from the back (no fusing) and then stitched. I hand-dyed all the fabrics. Tolkein once lived in this area and used local place-names in his books.

The second piece, my August journal quilt, was finished this weeekend, and shows The Strid, a harmless-looking but lethally deep fissure in the River Wharfe in Yorkshire. Set in beautiful woods and one of my favourite places.

I started with hand-dyed silk charmeuse in pale sand-colour under the water; silk habotai in greens/browns; and rayon satin in a darker blue. Over this came multiple layers of hand-dyed silk organza - everything from vivid yellow-green through red-brown to deep violet on the rocks, which were then covered by a rust-brown piece; blues, golds and pale rust for the water, covered by plain white; and blues for the water at the top. Finally stitched with rayon threads - it needed shiny threads to glisten and throw back extra light.

I don't normally do landscape quilts so this is a new departure for me...

Addiction, A Trap, A Prison

This piece was made in transparency as I worked to come to grips with how an
addiction can overtake someone's life and they think no one knows....

I reworked the 'fabric' of a previous challenge, used Organza, fused and stitched the man shape to the back of the Organza and draped behind the figure a
coarse net which is what comes down to a point.
Technically there are 4 layers and you can see right through it.
Click on it to enlarge and you will see how some of the words to the poem are visible in the piece itself. [representational]
I used twine interlocked and twisting to portray the 'trap'.. the fabric bars..
the 'prison'.
It is intentionally sombre and simple.
Size: 24 x 60

This is the poem I intend to place at the top... as an epitaph:

Addiction, A Trap, A Prison
Torn and shattered,
Nothing in life mattered,
Not family, not friend,
Too many fences to mend.
Trapped! Imprisoned!... a life shattered.

A slave to my vice
I was not even nice,
I withdrew, I hid,
Not a response to anyone's bid.
Trapped! Imprisoned!... alone with my vice.

A family loved me, but I could not see.
I was alone, that is how it would be.
Nothing in life mattered,
It was torn and shattered.
Trapped! Imprisoned!... Just me....


Comments welcome.

Addendum:
This is not quite finished... I will do the sides of the organza, perhaps burning, and when I attach the poem, I am also thinking of a 'key transparency'..a symbolism, of course, indicating there IS a way out....
I sure appreciate the comments thus far.
I am awaiting your comments before ... closing the chapter'.
Thank you so much, so very much.