Monday, October 30, 2006

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

What is Hiding Behind The Words?


This is my maiden voyage with this group (having just gotten back from a trip AND starting a new job last month!).

The poem really had me going. I read it about 20 times before it started making any sense at all, and that understanding was marginal at best.

What IS hiding behind the words? What was Carroll thinking (or smoking!?!) when he wrote it?

My first thought was a Kilroy-was-here type image, at least the eyes, and nose :-) with the words of the poem cascading over an open umbrella. I guess I felt pretty overwhelmed by all the nonsense words.

I wanted to play with image transfer, specifically words, and began with the poem on a gold batik. Then I played with the text in a textart program, creating the circle, and printed it on organza. The rest just sort of happened and the Kilroy idea was gone!

The eyes are fused to the batik and highlighted with chalk and white acrylic paint. Thank goodness there is a website that show you how to draw dragon eyes!

The organza was partially fused and the texture is from the quilting, outlining the eyes and creating a nose (did you notice it's slightly out of joint?) and tree elements in the outer border.

I'm not 100% thrilled with the result, it has an other-worldly character that was a surprise. More alien than Jabberwocky... but then, maybe the Jabberwocky is more alien than we know!

Thanks for looking!

Wendy in Flagstaff

[I had a hard time uploading the photos of this quilt. The upload page says it was completed but for some reason, it didn't upload til the 3rd try.... Thanks for your patience... this is my first go-round with Blogger!]

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Snicker Snack


So I have to admit when I read this poem I'm just didn't know what to think. I don't recall having read it in school. Then I googled it and thought - this is stupid - the only thing that remotely made sense to me was a "snicker snack"
Not at all in the sense of the poem but more for chocolate, caramel and peanuts. So I grabbed my chocolate fabric - pintucks in caramel thread - and peanut beads. I'm done - but not technically - I may just reuse the background for something else - I'm not sure what to do with the piece.

Lisa - In Rainy Seattle

The Jabberwock


I chose to be a bit less 'dark' as I depicted the Jabberwock. Since it's however we view it I chose to look at it as the coming winter. Many things are dark then and cold with stark branches, shorter, darker days, etc.
I used cotton fabrics with the background piece my own hand-dyed fabric. Although bright blues it can also show the frigid colds being the death of all living things for a period of time. The leaves are all various batiks. I also depicted the death part as the leaves dying and one falling off the branch. For texture, the various fabrics of course, the stitching of veins on the leaves, finely stretched and separated yarn for the cold, blowing winds and white seed beads for snow flakes.

Jan Johnson

The Jabberwock Cometh




Even after reading this several times since Friday morning the only image that stayed in my mind was that of teeth, claws and fiery eyes rushing through the woods. SCAREY! So as I posted on the group, I decided to look through a child's eyes and "saw" that those 3 things were all a small child would see if this came at them! So basically this is the 5 year old Cathy's "monster in the closet"...or Jabborwock! I purposely made it as a child might, simple , almost silly,shapes. My almost 4 grandson says it looks like a scarey monster, my 22 yr old with Down Syndrome and therefore much younger in "mind" wants it for a Halloween mask, my 17 year old says it looks stupid...lol...so guess I hit my age group! Anyways, the bacground is flannel, eyes and hands cotton, mouth, red and black satin, and the teeth and claws are...teflon?..the stuff inside potholders. I quilted it pretty heavily ...actually embroidering over all the pine needles to make them stand out more. Also I quilted it in such a way that it is bumpy,,,like the pine cones stick out to make it look more like the woods surrounding him. The odd shape is to focus more attention on the elements of the creature. And tried something new on the binding..twisted tulle in a lighter green, to represent the safer, lighter place where the Jabberwock DOESN'T live.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Jaws that Bite, Claws that Catch


I love this poem and had a pretty clear picture of what it would be from the start. In my interpretation the Tum tum tree is the "monster" with jaws and claws and glowing red eyes. The grass is blowing in the vortex around the sundial in a primordial forest.
The Vorpal Blade awaits the hero.
I used textured paint to create bark on my tree, lots of metallics (which makes it hard to get a decent picture). Another fun piece.

I would love comments, please.
Cherie Brown, Del Mar

Friday, October 27, 2006

Challenge #2: Jabberwocky

Challenge # 2 - Friday, 27 Oct 2006

Challenge # 2 Hostess - Rhonda Blasingame

Theme - Abstract, based on "Jabberwocky"

Design Element - Texture

--- Design and complete a small work using your interpretation of the Lewis Carroll poem "Jabberwocky." The poem is included at the bottom of this email and is also posted in the Yahoo group site under Files section.

--- Texture can be achieved through many different ways: the use of color, contrasting prints, different fabric types and materials or surface embellishments and fibers, the use of quilting itself to add texture, the use of trapunto, pleating, scrunching and other fabric manipulation.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Falling into the Depths of Despair


Figured I may as well put it here too, so I can see what everyone thinks of my "1 day NEED to do it NOW" project.
This is a therapeutic little quilt that I woke up the other morning envisioning in my head complete with name that I knew had to be made for the challenge. I have been really down in the dumps for several weeks now and have not been able to sew or design at all because of it. At another time in my life when I had a similar problem I made a wallhanging called Hurdles and it seemed to relieve the stress, so I decided to try again. This is the result.
I originally envisioned it as a whirlpool sucking me down to despair ...but just couldn't get the spiral of fabric to cooperate with me!
The hands are stuffed slightly and are reaching out for somebody to save me...quilted in the red in front of her are the words "help me"...the beads under her spell "despair"
And it worked,,the simple act of creating this little 11" square helped , I am not fully renewed in spirit but much better today. May have to change the name as somebody suggested to "Climbing OUT...."

Friday, October 20, 2006

Autumn is Coming - by MAK


Oct 2006 Fast Friday Fabric Challenge
Created by MAK

- Autumn colors were used

- Depth created by color and inset circles - some circles are behind others.

The dimensions are 2 ft x 2 ft -

The quilt is now traveling with Rainbow Resource Co - as a booth model.

SPOOKY AUTUMN

This photo is my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge....I've been trying to put my photo's and description on FFFC Blog I hope this will be successful...the second photo is how I hang it from the corner with a plastic curtain ring.

SPOOKY AUTUMN ... Details I wanted to do this first challenge as I will miss the next one I will be in Houston Oct.23 thru Nov 6. I made Spooky Autumn and decided it needs to hang by one corner. Size 13x12 the top(the tent shaoe) 131/2 x13 the bottom (the v shape), just one plastic ring to hang. The size came to be quite a surprise to me as I just trimmed the edges with my rotary cutter and no ruler. First I pieced the top and put together with backing and batting and quiltedit. Next I added fused halloween fabrics..ghosts, pumpkins, black cat, spider-web, bats and a long snake-like strip across the quilt.To this I stitched fluffy yarn and the double faced leaves I stitched only down the spines and curled the edges I hand sewed a plastic spider on the web in the leaves.I finished the edges with an overcast stitch and added more fluffy yarn to complete the quilt. By the way...upon examining my quilt I have two white dots!! The ghost has two little white eyes...LOLOL


Janice Simpson In Marquette Michigan...Let me know what you think...I've changed the name from "Spooky Fall Colors" to " Spooky Autumn"

Autumn's Transition--Photoshopped

Hi Julie,
Here's the photoshopped version of your quilt critique. You can move it underneath your post, delete it, or whatever. Hope it helps. The truth is, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I was getting weary of all that wordy explaining without being able to simply point at what I mean and move on. I'm more of a visual person.

I changed some of the colors' saturation and values, shifted the center tree a bit and made it a little larger, and faded the back tree more into the background, as well as removed the brown hill of leaves. I also narrowed the third band of green so it would appear to lie flatter.

laura kong (diva of quilts)

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Posting to this blog...

If you are having trouble posting your challenge quilt, this is the post for you!
Go to http://blogger.com/ and sign in.
You will be taken to your "dashboard".
On the dashboard, click the green plus
sign to create a post.

This will bring you to a WYSIWYG editor.
Click the button in the tool window that looks like a little landscape next
to the spell check.
This will open a new window that will allow you to
upload pictures.
Click "browse" and search your computer for the picture of
your quilt.
Select how you would like the picture to look~ small image or
large, and do you want it centered or to one side?
Click upload image.

It may take a few moments to upload your picture if you did not resize it. Be patient!
When the picture is uploaded, that screen will change to show a blue "done" button. Click it!
That window should disappear and the picture should be in your wysiwyg editor.

Below the picture type your description. Include the size of the piece, your artist statement, ask any questions you might have of your fellow critiquers.

When all is said and done, click the orange "publish post" button on the bottom.
This will take a moment, so let it load. When you get a 100% message, click the tab above that says "view blog". This will open the FFFC blog in a new window.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many people use Picassa!

It is a wonderful program and makes creating posts a simple process. Simply visit the website by clicking here and download the program. Further help with this program can be found on their website.

They have a special button just for blogger users that says "blog this". When you select your quilt pictures, click the blog this button and make sure that you are posting to the FFFC blog. Type your artist statement and publish.

It is really a great program.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To comment/critique on the quilts of others, click the comment link below their post. It will open a window for you to type your response to their quilt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This blog is just for FFFC quilts! Please do not post pictures of other quilts on this blog. Those will be removed. Please post only pictures of quilts made for FFFC challenges.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can also send an e-mail to Tobi or Cynthia with questions or problems!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Art show quilt

As requested here is a picture of the art quilt I entered and won best in category and best in show...not the best picture... but here it is as it hangs at the show. Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Autumn Branches by Linda Cline - Revised


There was one branch in the quilt I made that bothered me, because it was larger than the branch it was growing out of. It irritated me enough that I decided to reconstruct that part of the quilt. I took out the quilting from just the offending part, unsewed the seams and reconstructed it with tiny little appliqué stitches and a bit of additional background fabric. The supporting branch is now slightly larger,
and the branch growing out of it slightly smaller. The branch still grows larger than the base near it’s middle which is a bit strange, but it doesn’t irritate me every time I look at it. I am happy with my quilt now. I will now be able to display it withouth thinking "I wish I would have".


Here is the original blog post where you can see the before picture.

Conclusion: Yes, you can fix patchwork after a quilt has been quilted. It is much easier to fix before you have done the quilting.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Harvest Moons













Here is Harvest Moons. The fabric is ArtFabrik by Laura Wasilowski. Fabulous stuff. I free motion cut the fabric, heavily quilted it and then appliqued the moons. I think I will remove the moons, make them slighly larger and reapply them. (Thanks to the use of Misty Fuse, I can do this with a little bit of heat.)













Everyone I know who has died, has died in the fall. This fall brough two deaths -- my uncle and my friend's mother. They were waning at the time of this challenge and both died within a week of my finishing this piece.

Spawning Salmon River Run

Measures 8.5 x 11 and is done horizontally as opposed to vertical as were the Journal Quilts.

Here on Vancouver Island and its Salmon Capital, the early morning mist slowly rises, revealing nature's annual phenomena... the spawning salmon river run. The fish come in here from the Sal Water and wait for the tides to rise and up the river they go. A feasting time for the birds, particularly the carrion bords, crows and seagulls.
I tried to depict all this using silk organza[the mist], painted fish [Koi in this case... loosly called salmon]a silk leaf [ depcting the alling leaves] and beads together with metallic thread to reflect the water and the moist air as the mist rises.
Additionally, I have placed a crow feather [black] at the top and a gull feather [white] at the bottom. A hapless star fish waits, too, for the rising tide, but for other reasons.
I know the sizes are not porportionate to each other and this was deliberate.
I look forward to your comments. Posted by Picasa

Friday, October 13, 2006

Autumn Glory


10 3/4" W x 8 1/4" H

Hand painted sky fabric, applique, strip piecing, trapunto, machine quilting, embroidery.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Autumnal Swirl



I used silks for the leaves, and the camera has a hard time reading them because of the shine they give, so they look abit blurred, but I wanted to use a flash to show what I did with the bark of the tree. A few leaves have copper coloured sheer on top of them.


I layered sheers on top of swirly turquoise coloured fabric, and then did FME over the top. I used the heat gun to melt some areas back to show the underlying fabric. This created the texture of the bark, and the revealed glimpses is like the turquoise coloured moss that grows on some of our trees.

The leaves are free cut. Most are brought forward by having a dark leaf shape under a lighter one. Then most are caught down with a fly stitch, and highlighted with beads. The swirls of wind are done with dark and light copper metallic thread.

The binding is shot silk dupion, and is gold, but shifts to reddish orange. I feel I have crammed the swirl in abit, and perhaps would have had more freedom with it if the piece was larger. It is 8 1/2 x 11 in.


I added a no flash image of the piece I did. The leaves come out looking dark and blurry because the camera has trouble reading the shine on the silk (I haven't learned all the fiddly bits of the camera!) However, perhaps you get a better idea of the dark bark. The synthetic organza sheers were black on top of silver (giving a grey effect) on top of a thin turquoise and blue silk with paisley- like swirls.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Autumn in Torrey/ revised

Here it is with faced finishing instead of ribbon, and I quilted the tops of the clouds with white silk thread. You canbarely see it, but it seemed to define the clouds more without spoiling the wispy effect. What do you all think now?

1st Challenge


I'm posting a picture of my challenge piece. I know it has a lot of problems...and no name. Please help me!

Challenge #1 - Suggestions



Hi again,
I just read a comment posted by Jean, and she asked about my thought process in putting together my colors & fabrics in this way.

Well... there is a story there, so I thought that I would post it in the body so everyone could see it. (and i cant figure out how to reply to a post!)

The fabrics came from a grab bag of Starr fabrics that I purchased in Chicago. They have several color combinations and I just love the "Harvest" Colors. Fall is my favorite season.

I had the bag out to show someone and i thought that it would be a perfect source for my challenge piece. And it would force me to stick within a set limit of options for color. I have a serious issue with over working anything that i am working on. I just keep at it until it's a mess....

Anyway, I had my color set (after filtering through the bag and cherry picking), what i needed next was a design. My fist choice was leaves and trees, but i thought that many people would be looking in that direction. I usually do projects were the subject is clearly identifiable, I think it comes form too many years of life drawing classes. Suffice it to say , I have a hard time doing anything abstract(in fact i keep thinking, "what if i put beads on in a leaf shape...). So, I thought I would attempt to do something completely different and work with rectangles. although I stuck to the organic shape when i was quiting, I had to counter my rectangles with curves...couldn't help it.

I hope that this answers your questions Jean, oh and it does not have a title yet....any suggestions?
-------------------------------

Monday, October 09, 2006



Spiraling into Winter is paper pieced with 9 cotton fabrics. It was pieced in four 1/2-square triangles--2 of them reversed. This is a method I have done before but am working at getting things square and a with visible motion. It is machine quilted with King Tut thread. This is the first time I've used the thread and was extremely pleased with it. The quiltlet is small--only 9 3/4 inches square.

I had a good time with this challenge. Comments welcome.

Sally

sewinginsa


Fall Guy

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge #1 part 2

I've had to remove the hair & start over! In my haste to see if I could use the element, I neglected to figure out that it might ravel after it was attached. When I was moving the piece around to finish the profile & do some quilting & adding other elements to complete, that's exactly what it did....RAVEL! So I'm back to square 1 as far as using the orange bag for hair. Since I had gotten such posotive feed-back on using this material in the 1st place, I'll need to come up w/ an alternative method of attaching it! (SIGH)

Rose Glow Fields

By Joe I think I've got it..... a post on the group site!

Thanks for the help !

This piece is 13 by 15.

I will appreciate any input.

Jacque Posted by Picasa

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Fall by Joanna Strohn


I would very much appreciate comments on my quiltlet "Fall". I am new to art/abstract quilting and eager to learn. I'm mostly self-taught between books, QuiltUniversity.com and a few classes. I have not had any art training since high school though I had a career where I had overall responsibility for the advertising materials I created. But quilting is a bit different that having a large art staff at my command!

My construction steps are here.

Please see the comments below the photos for my thoughts as I did this project.

I'm considering adding a few beads at the tops of the leaves. Thoughts on that?

Thank you so very much for sharing your thoughts.

-- Joanna in Tucson

Fall Colors

Here in Northwest Florida, Fall is still pretty green. But in my mind I remembered all the spectacular colors of the season from the few years I spent in Connecticut. So I had vision of a swirl of color and tried to create that memory.

I started with silk, which I painted in shades of oranges, with some green and purple thrown in. The colors looked appropriate for a pumpkin. I then stamped the silk, added a little Angelina fibers, and some paper leaves. So to soften it I covered the silk with two layers of organza. The first one was an old yellow scarf and I was not happy with the results, so I added another layer of a different color. I then quilted it, burned away a few layers in places, and stitched on various strips of organza. To give it dimension, I embellished it with fibers, beads, sequins, and parts of an old earring.

This was a fun challenge; I look forward to the next.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Untitled by Brenda Jennings


This has been fun. I had not intended to make such a large piece (it is about 30'x40"), but the background just kept growing as I kept adding more of my favorite fabrics. My quilt is intended to be an abstract of trees/leaves in the woods. I created the background out of 1.5" (finished) squares. I was hoping to create a feeling of depth with the use of color and value. The "tree" shapes are fused over the background. They are also intended to increase the sense of depth. The whole thing is free motion quilted with King Tut (background) and Sulky (trees and borders) threads. I have not added an actual 3D object to
it, as I just felt like it was "done". I welcome any comments. Thanks.

Autumn in Albuquerque


This is my challenge piece, "Autumn in Albuquerque".

The idea behind it was--Autumn here in the Southwest is usually a little later than in other parts of the country. When I looked around, I saw a lot of green still, and what I really noticed was an abundance of yellow and purple flowers. So I knew that I would use the new yellow/purple fabric that I handdyed a couple weeks ago. As for the 3-D element, I have been wanting to do a quilt with the pleats that are a different color on each side, and this was the perfect opportunity. I used green on one side, and the yellow/purple on the other side to symbolize the change of the seasons from Spring and Summer greens to Fall. The background is black with irregular dots of yellow, tan, greens and turquoise-- colors of the SW.

This is my first attempt at blogging, so we'll see if it works!-- Elizabeth in NM

Autumn Branches


14 x 22; Cotton, silk; Machine pieced, raw edge applique, machine quilted.

I had several rejected ideas before I settled on one. Washed and dried a silk remnant to use as the backgound for my idea. When I got the silk out of the dryer, my final idea got rejected and I did something totally different with it. The quilt took over on this one, and I didn't know where it was going until it was completed.

I used Rosalie Dace's "Skinny Bit" technique that I read about on Gerrie Congdon's blog to dissect the light blue silk I had and insert branches.


I decided to keep the frayed edges on the silk. I raw edge appliqued it to a top and bottom border. Then I sewed on a side border. Then I decided to add another branch that would also overlap the borders.

Depth in this piece was achieved by the foreground branch being brighter, warmer, and larger. I also tried to add dimension to the branches by piecing the larger branches with multiple shades of fabric.

A few things bother me. The large branch near the top left corner is larger than the branch is it growing out of. The light blue silk should be the most distant in the composition, but the fringe being on top of the other fabric makes it rather ambiguous, and it has a high sheen which makes it the most noticeable fabric in person.

I'm not sure what I'm seeing as far as subject matter. Does it matter? What do you see? Are these trees or branches? Are they falling over or being blown by the wind? I noticed when I was nearly finished that the two trees (or branches) are nearly identical. The furthest almost looks like a reflection in glass.

I was reminded while making this piece how much fabric gets distorted and shrunken with this type of free form piecing. Getting it to all fit together was a bit of a challenge.

This was fun. I took a while to get started, but once I did start, I worked intuitively and the quilt almost made itself.

Any comments and suggestions will be appreciated.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Maple Leaves

Maple Leaves is 16 x 22" and is constucted using hand dyed fabrics, fused applique, trapunto, and lots of free motion quilting. The 3D elements are individual little quilts that are pieced or fused and stiffened with a glue & water solution to hold the curvy shape and come off the surface for a bit more depth. I was going for both movement (with the varying positions of the leaves and the quilting lines) and depth (with the trapunto on the tree, varying sizes of the leaves indicating some close and some farther away, as well as the little 3D quilt blocks which cast shadows). My traditional roots show up...the smallest 3D quilt block is the traditional pieced block called Maple Leaf.



Remembering New England




Being a transplanted New Englander (I'm living in Alabama now) my first thought when I saw fall colors was the changing leaves.

I started out by selecting a piece for the sky and appliqued a photo transfer of a mountain. Then for the ground covering I spread out the little "dog ears" that are cut from triangles, covered it with tulle and quilted over them to keep them in place. There was too much white so I colored over them with a green marker. It was supposed to represent a field that was still green with flowers scattered around. The picture kind of wiped out the green and gave it, in my opinion, a frosty look. I like that better.

The big tree in the center was a copy of a tree in my yard without the leaves. It and the other tree to it's left were partially thread painted to give them some dimension.

The other trees and deer were fused on and appliqued down with invisible thread and quilted with gold metallic thread. The sky was quilted with invisible thread.

I love 3D and embellish everything that I can but for this the 3D was my biggest challenge. I couldn't think of anything that would look right. Finally I started a mental litany of things I had used previously and when I got to "twigs from the yard" I decided that would solve my problem. It doesn't really show up in the picture but the little dead tree with the branch going over the deer is a real twig.

BTW- my sister, who's husband is a hunter, couldn't figure out why that deer has horns and spots. I have since removed the spots so he is now full grown. I had just cut it out and never gave it a thought.

Betty

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Autumn's Transition



11 1/2" tall x 9" wide

Fused applique with heavy machine quilting

This quilt was designed to show the transitions of Autumn. The first tree represents early Fall with mostly green leaves that are starting to turn red, yellow, and orange. The second tree is mid Fall, with mostly brown leaves with highlights of the other colors, some leaves on the ground. The tree in the background represents late fall with its nearly barren branches, brown, green, and orange leaves at its base.

I have added the dimension to the quilt by showing the depth of the scene. I used 3 different greens to create rolling hills and added purple mountains in the background.

Things I would change~ I didn't have enough time to machine satin stitch the appliques like I would have liked to. It would be a better quilt with finished applique pieces.

Also, my binding is not even around all the edges.

To my critique-ers~ I love the nice "that is pretty" comments, but please do suggest a couple things that would improve the piece! I have tough skin and can take it.

Thanks for looking!

Julie of Calicodaydreams Posted by Picasa

Autumn Walk



I wasn't going to post here. I know this piece has a lot of problems and it seemed silly to bother you guys with it. Then I realized that you may be able to see other things I could have done differently that would help, so here I am. The whole thing is pieced on a longarm, the tree trunks are a quilt as you kind of thing. The trunks in the foreground have more wadding in them so are very three dimensional in the flesh. Sadly that doesn't show in the photographs. The leaves are tiny scraps of fabrics from my other fall quilt 'Golden Storm'. I think this design could work but it needs more contrast. If I were doing it again I would also make the tree trunks thinner, to me they look too chunky. I quite like the way it looks like the leaves are pouring down a funnel. It wasn't what I was aiming for though, it is supposed to be a path through a very dense forest. Would the path look more path like if I moved the vanishing point lower? I put it up high because it seemed to make the trees look taller, but now I am not so sure. I was also looking for a dark almost claustrophobic atmosphere, again I think that sort of works but not as well as it could.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Last Holdout




I already know that there needs to be improvement in the binding process...what a wavy mess!

I tried to fix the original piece (without tree or leaf) by adding a focal point.

Any suggestions welcome.

Marlene

Autumn Blues


I've posted my piece Autumn Blues. It measures 21x28 inches.

My inspiration was the the bright blues of the sky during the fall.

My extra challenge to myself was only to pull from my scrap box - no cutting into fat quarters are any yardage.

This is so cool - I've been taking some design class for the past two years and have focused on leaves - this year I plan to branch out. Anyway so the subject matter was perfect for me. I met the 3D aspect by painting dryer sheets and using copper wire to relieve them from the surface. I used scale to show perspective for the leaves and sky. Also I spaced my quilting to hopefully give some perspective.

Lisa - In Sunny Seattle

Autumn in Southeast Texas

My piece was inspired by a tree I saw last spring while fishing at Toledo Bend in East Texas. It was the curliest tree I had ever seen and all the roots were on top of the ground. My daughter was with me and had her camera but she wouldn't take a picture because she said it looked too scary.
Southeast Texas doesn't have much of an autumn. Our grass doesn't even turn brown until the first frost and we may not even get that until February. Some years it doesn't even get that cold. We don't have the beautiful fall colors that other parts of the country have, but in the fall we have the most beautiful skies. This is my interpretation of the fall colors.
My piece is 12"x12 1/2". I used cotton fabrics and cotton batting. The sky fabric is one that I hand dyed. I fused the pieces with wonder under and quilted it with rayon threads. My 3D elements are the leaves. Although you cannot see them, they are held down by the quilting and stick up off the fabric backing. I fused the binding. All in all, it was a fun piece to do.