Fast Friday Fabric Challenge 43

The theme of the challenge was underwater. I used an extant wallhanging which incorporates a number of thread embellishment techniques including pintucking on the whale's belly, bobbin work, couching and machine needle lace.

I also created a postcard from scratch which incorporates machine embroidery designs from Embroidery Library, and Lutrador used several different ways.

My Favorite Flower Child

Is my only granddaughter, of course! This is a small quilt and will remain unfinished for now since I had foot surgery two weeks ago requiring an incision on the sole of my right foot and I've found my left foot doesn't run to motor foot as well as the right so it will wait for another few weeks to be quilted.
I used a photo of my granddaughter, fused some old flower fabric and mushroom fabric to a practice piece of hand dyed cloth. I then cut petals from some orange fabric and pieced them around her face, fused them in place and then added the bud leaves and stem the same way. I'm thinking that maybe I can make it into a birthday card and give it to her when she turns 13 in June.

April May and June

#44 Flower Children "April, May, and June"

The children are dancing about in silk flower dresses on a quilted background. I rolled the edges to the back...mitered the corners and stitched from the back.

The dolls I had made for some doll pins and they were unfinished. So....I fashioned their dresses from silk flowers and beads...fabric markers for faces and shoes. I sewed the dolls onto the quilt. (16 1/2 X 12).

Presenting Ms. Daisy Gerber

Here is my flower child. Her body is the stem. Her sleeves are the leaves.

Her hair is french knots -- many, many french knots.

I asked my husband what he thought and he said "cute".

Flower Children

I love this challenge idea...it's right up my alley....I have even done a piece with flower ladies in it before..So I am sharing a little piece of that quilt until I get my new "flower children" done. Right now they are taking back seat, to my sea dragon which I am really enjoying too...Donna at The Sea Ranch

Rudbeckia - Brown Eyed Susan

I finished off challenge 43 and saw the new challenge. I had an idea straight away, so set to!

I thought I would base the child on one of my Sunday School children...all of them are from African countries. Then I remembered brown eyed susans, and it all came together.

I had just enough golden fabric for petals left from making a sunflower cushion some time ago. I also had some swatches of a fuzzy sort of fake leather, so used a brown to machine stitch and colour in a little face. I stuffed the middle and then mounted it on a wooden dowel.

detail

Challenge 44 - Flower Children

FFFC Challenge #44 - Flower Children April 2010 Hostess Ann E. Ruthsdottir

Intro: The idea started with an old book I have called, Bird Children by Elizabeth Gordon, copyright 1912. I have the forty-first edition. Ms Gordon is the author. In much smaller print is the artist, M. T. Ross. The book is nothing without the art work, so this surprised me when I finally noticed it. Because this is a book I have always enjoyed for the illustrations alone, I was very surprised that the artist got so little credit Just recently I read some of the verse. However, the big discovery came in the last six months when I noticed on the title page, “The Little Playmates of the Flower Children”. My interest peaked, I went on-line and found absolutely beautiful colored drawings. What other flowers could be 'children'.?

As a person 'of a certain age', I remember Woodstock and flower children. I was neither a child or a flower, but I did wear flowers in my hair. Because the book seemed too limiting, I thought to broaden the challenge.

The challenge theme: is Flower Children: either developing some new 'flower child' similar to the book OR relating to the 'flower children' of the 60's OR, better yet, some inspiration of your own which incorporates one of the basic ideas of the theme.

If you do not feel comfortable painting children, please try turning a fabric print into a flower. For example, a face could be the center of a daisy. In the same vein, a photo could have fabric added to become a flower child.

Colors should be cheerful. No dark, dismal colors, gray or grayed shades.

Techniques should be dimensional, either by inference or in reality. A 3-dimensional sculpture might be the outer limit; the inner limit being a shading to create depth.

References:

Links to Flower Children book drawings. http://tinyurl.com/2vsj3b2
http://tinyurl.com/35j9hdu http://tinyurl.com/325za8z

Photographer Anne Geddes: babies in flowers http://tinyurl.com/263cubw

60's flower children images [Please note that we didn't have color film then, so any color images were 'staged' later or colored later.] http://tinyurl.com/383gufl
http://tinyurl.com/327fmgv http://tinyurl.com/35s9anz

This outfit is soo weird. Yep, I had something similar. GAG! http://tinyurl.com/3958hly

For those of you too young to remember, a little history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie
http://www.laurelrose.com/FLOWERCHILDREN.HTM http://tinyurl.com/2g4zytq
http://www.zazzle.com/hippies+posters

Book by Maxine Swann might give you some ideas: “Sweet child of mine; In her lyrical new novel, Maxine Swann describes the highs and lows of a hippie childhood. ”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxine_Swann

Want more images, check out fotosearch http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/flower-child.html

Merdragon

I am very late on the Fast Friday challenge again this month. But I have been planning to have this fit the Contemporary Quilt dragon Journal quilts, especially as it also included threadwork. I had been thinking to do a dragon based on a seahorse, so this works for the under the sea theme, too. The background print already represents coral, and I am playing with colours to find ways to get the bright fire look using colours other than  normal fire colours.

A simple description this time.

Merdragons are often mistaken for seahorses. However, they serve in the same capacity as watchdogs for the MerPeople. They hid amongst coral that is similar in colour to themselves in the same way that seahorses do. They have the capacity to breath fire under water.

Unlike seahorses, the males do not hatch the eggs in their pouch. Both parents guard the egg sack, taking turns to carry it.

Under the Sea Reflections

April Fools !! AKA …"Under the Sea Reflections"
I got started soon as the Challenge was announced…Today..Thursday before the new Challenge will be given I finished #43…Yes!! The beading...

For the water reflection I matched the flamingo's right side of fabric to the wrong side and sewed the pieces together …used fusible and then fussy cut the plants and birds ironing this to grasses on top and a under-water looking batik on the bottom plus several fish.

My stitching..fancy yarn for underwater plants, stitching around fish, birds and Plants. A couple rows of bobbin stitching with razzle- dazzle thread.  For my non traditional edge finish I used Terry Grant's zig-zag over cording… I used a wider zig-zag width and varigated thread. (I made the edges kind of wavey) I've used this method once before and I like the narrow zig-zag and solid thread.
Great finish for small art quilts!!

Update on Bubba.....

Our buddy Bubba, the subject of my Challenge 38, has passed over the Rainbow Bridge to be with the other furries we have loved in our lives. We think his cancer returned and he was declining quickly over the past 10 days. Yesterday, in the arms of his moms, we sent him on his way. He's had a good run, been loved and given boundless love in return. The quilt has been framed and hangs in a place of honor in the home he claimed as his own. Maybe now, he'll finally catch that squirrel....

In Profile

This is my contribution for the April Challenge. It is small, only 4"x8", but is packed with detail. I used an orange veggie bag, over-stitched with metallic thread for scales, and fused a sheer for the fin. All in all, this was fun. I have been out of the loop for the past few months due to a very demanding teaching schedule and this was just what I needed to get re-motivated.

California Kelp Forest

This is really the underwater piece for the March challenge. I love underwater...being part fish myself, so I posted an older underwater extravaganza while I worked on this one. I wanted to create the flow and texture of the kelp as the currents move it around. the red fish are Garabaldis that live in the kelp. I experimented on the kelp to test different methods of quilting.

Comments and critiques are very welcome because I am doing a series and want to improve.

Carol

Sea Ranch, CA

Golden Sacrifice

We've been a very sick household for the past three weeks, and I haven't even been able to make it into the studio, but I did have a piece I made some time ago that fits this challenge perfectly. The title is Golden Sacrifice, but I just call it "fish". The background is hand painted, the weeds are machine couched yarn and hand beaded. The fish is almost entirely hand done, except the fins that are machine embellished and then the shape has been burnt out of a larger piece of organza. The hardest part was the eye. I even visited the local taxidermist to get a "fish eye", but ended up going to goldwork embroidery techniques and using a tiny piece of padded kid leather.

Three Fishes

This week I've been camping in Asheville NC, and not able to make anything for this challenge. Upon returning today I realized that I have a quilt that I made a few years ago that fits this challenge, and hope you all will enjoy seeing it. I used fused applique and machine embroidered around each fish and around the seaweed. Fabrics from the William Morris collecton were used for the fish. It is really amazing to see the wonderful entries that have been posted for this challenge. Lots of talent in this group!

Under The Sea

I had so much fun doing this.

The fish on top, the sea weed, and treasure chest were machine embroidered

The other fish and the sea horse were thread painted.

The fuzzy things are beads that I made a long time ago just for fun.

Finished off with prairie points.

Challenge 43 - Tidal Pool

This piece called Tidal Pool. The finished size is about 18 inches by 15 inches.

The background is pieced to look like the sand ripples as the tide goes out. The stones are 2 layers of fabric plus batting to create a little dimension. The sea stars are needle felted and beaded to appliqué to the background.

Lisa
In Rainy, Windy Seattle

Postcard from Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles

Orange Cup Corals
5”X 7”

My original plan didn’t work out so in order to save some of the work of the cup corals, I decided to make a snapshot view of them in a postcard format for my challenge. The orange cup corals are made with water soluble stabilizer and thread with glass blobs sewn into the center. I used Peltex™ instead of batting for a more rigid basis to accommodate the extra weight of the glass blobs. Label is in postcard format.

Comments are appreciated.
Thanks,
Pam

Undersea Study

Have not had much time this week. I just read that Virginia Satir wrote "A substitute for time is focus." So here is my response to this month's challenge. A fish underwater on a background that I had started a long time ago for something else. The fish is machine appliqued, a technique I often use. However, this time I did the raw edge applique without using either fusible web or glue. I am reasonably happy with the result and like that it is not so stiff. I have free motion stitched around the fish practicing that feathery stuff using free motion zig zag. Have couched some yarns, some before the applique and some after. They look a bit dull and uninteresting to me. I probaby should have worked harder to get more width and more movement. It is not really complete needs some quilting and binding. When I have more time I might add some bobbin work coral.

Thanks very much for this challenge. It was fun to do and I learned a couple of things from the effort.