This photo does not do justice to my little quilt! The idea here was to portray a day at the beach, where no one wants to enter the water. I used tissue paper, angelina fibers, heated and distorted chiffon, and text from an old book. That blackish blob is also chiffon but like the angelina, it just doesn't photograph well. The edge is finished with decorative yarn. I will probably add some beads and other doodads to give it more personality. Maybe you would all like to come to CA to see and appreciate it in person - LOL!

Ann In Walnut, CA

Coffee Cups

14" x 9"

My intention was to create a quilt with a sketch like quality, with the window screening to depict crosshatching.

I began by tracing a sketch onto white fabric, layered it, and free-motioned the outlines in black thread. The screening was difficult to mark, so I laid it on top of the quilt while cutting, so I could use the outline quilting as a guide. I painted the lightest shade of screening with white fabric paint. The screening is edge stitched down with free-motion ziz-zag.

I’m debating if and how to finish this. I think I might have liked it better if I had used some color in it. Maybe I could add a wash of paint. The quilting and appliqué caused some puckering, but not so much that I couldn’t fix it with more quilting.

Suggestions are welcome.

Up the Lazy River

Since I don't have the energy to make a new one and Cherie and Ricky said to go for it - I am using the first one I made for Challenge #7 this month. After I got it finished a friend said "You should do something out of the ordinary so I put it aside and made something else.

The background was painted on Tyvek with various paints. The sand is covered with tea dyed cheese cloth and there is a layer of organza over the water.

I quilted the sky, mountains, sand, and water first which made a bubble out of the trees. To flatten it out a bit I cut across the trees and inserted some upholstery trim which I dyed green. When I pulled the bottom part up and sewed it to the trim I liked it better. To me, that made my painted trees look like a reflection in the water.

The bird, fish, and turtle were all in my stash of stuff and the rocks are from a broken necklace my kids gave me many years ago.

The size is 19-1/4" x 17-1/2".

Tokens

This was a great challenge. My first hit was washers, those round metal things with holes in them... from the hardware store. I spent $3.25 on those (but didn't use them all). Then I was off to Target for some stuff and saw bamboo skewers, $1 for 100. But I had them at home....

The background is a brown mottled fabric over batting. I started with yard woven sort of over/under the skewers, adding a washer when I felt like it. It took on a rather Asian character, the washers reminding me of Chinese coins.

Minimal quilting, just to hold the top two skewers and the ends of the rest of them (and yes, a Bernina's zigzag is wide enough to jump the skewer and not break the needle!). The back is just a facing, hand stitched in place. The sleeve is actually a space between the batting and backing, pretty clever, eh?

Critiques of course, are welcome. (And thanks, Marilyn, for brainstorming names!

Wendy in Flagstaff

Sol's Glory

19"x17"

I tried a few things on this quilt I have not done
before. I started with tissue paper sundyeing for the background of the sky and water, used a combination of polyfill and dryer lint for clouds and used organdy overlays on both sky and water and mountains. I used expanding paint, micro beads, mica dust, tiny seashells and polished pebbles for the sandy beach, and a sheet of mica from some angel wing mica I found in the hills of North Dakota.

This was really up my alley as I love trying things not normaly used with fabric quilts. I would appreciate any comments and or critiques...
Cherie

Day at the Beach...Challenge 10

I started working on this around 11 this morning and just finished it now, a few minutes shy of 2AM. It just grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go. I knew what I was going to make as soon as I read the challenge Friday, just needed to gather the materials.
I used..Angelina, batting, and tulle for the surf, a tiny straw basket and straw hat, little bitty sea shells, a hair net, teeny pebbles from the beach, and wooden beads for the "floats". I am pretty sure that tomorrow I am going to sew some clothesline around the edges as the binding instead of the green that's there.

Challenge 10

Theme ~ Project Runway Challenge
Elements ~ Technique-based Exercise

Challenge Host ~ Rhonda

Starts ~ June 22nd, 2007
Please post your quilts by ~ June 30th, 2007

This month, we're going back to the original inspiration for Gena to have started this group. That's right! A Project Runway style challenge!

Your mission is to use one thing on your quilt that is NOT from a fabric store. Hardware store, grocery store, dollar store, whatever.... (I'm flashing on the ironing board covers and shower curtains and candy necklaces from the original PR show) and your limit is $5.00.

You have one week to design, shop, and complete the quilt. Make it work!The $5.00 applies to your specifically purchased non-traditional element only. You don't have to count fabrics you already have and batting and backing. Your element can be fabric such as napkins from the grocery, bandanas from the Dollar Tree, whatever, or it can be a non-fabric item such as hardware, paper, silk flowers, whatever.

The sky is the limit on this one. Dig deep for that creativity!

Challenge 9

Made of paper towel and alcohol inks.

Discharge experiement

This quilt was created by discharging brown Kona fabric with bleach. The tree was then raw edge appliqued on the background.

Discharge From Black

So this is my attempt for Challenge #9. I used solid black Kona fabric. All of the shapes are freezer paper stencils. The large flower misted with bleach, while the spirals were painted with bleach. I thread-painted the flower and free-form quilted the background. Now that I see the quilt in a photo, I realize that it needs a bit more and was thinking of adding some beadwork to the upper right corner, and maybe to the spirals as well. Any suggestions?

Ann

Springtime

Okay, so I'm late, and it's not bound yet, but it's done and quilted. This was an experiment using Sharpie pens and alcohol. I drew in some designs with colored Sharpies, then used alcohol - either sprayed on or dripped on. On some layers, I sprinkled salt, which drew the color out of those spots. It's totally colorfast when it dries. Learned that yellow and orange sharpies don't do very well. Freemotion quilted with rayon threads. Size is 8.5x11" and I'd appreciate some suggestions on binding. - Marilyn

Satin Flower

Finished size: ~20" x 20"

This is made from silver-gray satin with a thick layer of batting so that when I thread-painted, it created depth automatically. For the flower, the thread-painting made it too flat, so I made strips of ruffles and hand-sewed them on, then I used Lumiere paint on the edges and on the leaves. And yes, it is not a real rectangle, the curve on the right is the way I chose to make it, or rather how it chose to be, and the left side also slants somewhat in. And at that, it is actually more rectangular than most of my recent work!

Using a single fabric is quite a change for me, since I usually take the patterns and pictures in the fabric to create the picture.

Dawn

Name - Dawn - finished size 15 1/2 by 18

I painted a plain white fabric with acrylics.

So I put another scrap fabric over it and found a really light section of the fabric piece. Not on purpose but interesting how that worked.

I didn't like the proportions so I cut curves and re pieced the fabric - then I added some embroidery thread to highlight details and give it a little more pop.

So I don't find the acrylic paints yielded the bright colors - I'd love to have other ideas for painting fabrics. I guess on this I made the piece work but it wasn't what I had planned.

Lisa - in Sunny Seattle

Squeaking in under the wire!

I finished in time! Barely..lol Anyways, the first photo shows the original white Kona ready and waiting to be transformed. The 2nd photo is my inspiration piece....one of those online "answer a few questions about yourself and we will make a painting that reflects YOU" things. I loved the painting they produced and said that someday I would recreate it for use as a wallhanging. What better time than now?
The 3rd photo is my version, slightly different, but not enough to matter! It is still VERY wet, but it will have white binding, not sure of the quilting yet, I didnt water the paint down too much so it may be hard to quilt, I may just do some tacking here and there,,or maybe not, have to wait and see how it dries.
I used acrylic paints, most for fabric, some not and water. Might do some beading when it is dry, not sure yet. I DO know that in the blue space, bottom left I will be putting my name in Japanese and maybe somewhere to the right the symbol for "hope"...seems to fit the "feel" of the piece.

Beaded Lizard

I used a gelatin monoprint and encrusted beadwork for this challenge; plain white muslin with acrylic paint. I've been reading with interest the posts about this technique. I actually didn't follow the instructions exactly - instead of applying the paint to the gelatin and making the design in the paint, I made the design in the gelatin; applied the paint; and then imprinted the fabric. The blue came out a little bit darker than I wanted but I'm pretty pleased with the results. I also used a small stamp with yellow/gold paint to add a bit more to the design. After the paint dryed, I quilted it and then beaded it. I just zigzagged the edges and mounted it on a fabric covered canvas. I made a few more prints on some additional fabric that I really like and am looking forward to working with. This was a fun technique and I really want to try it the right way next time!!!

Painted Flowers

12 3/4" x 14 7/8"

This was my first attempt at fabric painting. My husband gave me a collection of Jacquard fabric paints two years ago at Christmas. This was my first trial with them. I used several types of paint so I could see what each did.

The fabric I used is quite old—not antique but have had it for at least 15 years. It was left from doing a small quilt. It has a lavender background with flowers outlined in white with gray within the white borders. The white is almost like paint. In fact, I could hear a distinct popping sound every time the machine needle when through it. I did border my quiltlet with it but didn’t have enough for the backing. I used a gray cotton sateen.

I also used many different threads---made by several companies and also different weights and fiber content. Some I would not use again with fabrics as dense of these.

All in all---an interesting challenge.

Sally K. Field

Chains of Love

"Chains of Love Unbroken" was constructed to depict how I'm feeling right now. My mother is dying and I've been on a roller coaster ride the past 5 weeks dealing with this. I found chains in my husband's junkpile here on the farm and attempted (not as successfully as I'd hoped) to make prints of them on a solid piece of black sateen fabric. I stitched around the finished chains in wavering lines with varigated thread to depict the fact that love may waver sometimes but is always there through good and bad. I carried this out to the edge by cutting the borders in wavering lines and then simply zig-zagged around to finish the edges. I free-motion stitched using a varying size zig-zag stitch hearts all over the quilt to show the love I feel for her right now and all the good and bad times included.

Jan Johnson