Geo I

Kathy... this challenge got me! It was not easy at all... I went out and took a picture of our mountains.

Geo I

Then I defined the lines in Photoshop and set it as background on my computer for a few days to look at and think. We have a favorite spot where we used to stay with our 5th wheel at Hurricane, Utah and I tried to remember some of the colors and because it has been a few years now, I cannot remember the lake, but it is not on the same side of the road as Zion..... and I did add ...I think, anyway... somethings unexpected.. Anyway, I am adding this one to my 'crap quota' for the year.

Because I really want to remember this, I wanted to do a piece for my fabric journal.. so it is 9 x 6 and I have it in my Journal already.

I learned a lot.. mostly what does not work. I had more stitching and I took it out, you can see the needle holes. In this case.. less would be more.

I used a feather to do the 'rock work' because of the size, I couldn't find anything with a small enough point
nor the color I wanted. I am going to post some photos of the feather at work on my blog and will link to it when I do.
I don't really expect any comments, but if you can find something redeeming, I will file those comments
in my Fabric Journal.

Kathy... that was an awesome Challenge.

The Grande Grand

Here's my small piece, about 14 by 10 inches. When I first saw the Grand Canyon I walked into a visitor's center and for the first time in my life I applied the word awesome to my experience and it was the correct use of that word! Both visually and spiritually, the view took my breath away and kept me enthralled for the duration of my time visiting the area. I have tried to capture that image in this piece. I painted on decorator fabric, a textured off white piece, with acrylic paints and a putty knife. My goal was to created layers of color against the blue sky. Light areas on the piece are the background fabric unpainted showing through. I free motioned quilted in a loose pattern for the sky and in a more rigid layered pattern for the canyon rock formations. I satin stitched the edge so as not to cause any sense of hemming in of the great expanse. It is inspiring to me, and maybe will be to you. I can still remember the site and how I felt that day. Thanks for any comments.

Strata

This is my piece called Strata. It is pieced with a curved piecing method, the seams are emphasized with metallic thread in a triple stitch. Each bead is attached individually by hand. The colour is not great, and I had a difficult time up loading the picture. Somehow I got into Picasa, and then it refused to upload the close-up. My colour choices include turquoise and purple with some touches of pink. The piece is faced rather than bound and is 11 1/2" by 10".
Pat f in Winnipeg
aka fndlmous

Geologic Wonder

I used a friend's picture as inspiration (with his permission). I tried to put a link to it but I guess Flickr had other ideas.

Anyway -- I used a paper towel that I had used for wiping paint for the mountain. Feathers for the bushes growing out of the rocks, and just strips of fabric for the rocks at the base.

This was the quickest one I've done in a long time.

Betty

Challenge 46

FFFC Challenge # 46 June 2010 Host Kathy Walker

Geology with Unexpected Colors: ou are free to use whatever techniques and materials you feel your piece requires. Do keep in mind the elements of design, and that value can be more important than color.

When I was in the 9th grade I took an Earth Science class. It wasn’t really what I wanted to take, I would have preferred Biology but for some reason that option wasn’t available to me. Anyway I did enjoy the class far more than I expected to, that class helped to reinforce a long time love of rocks and in interest in the structures of the earth. In Earth Science we studied meteorology, some paleontology and Geology. Geology is the study of the earth itself that includes rocks, their names and how and when they were formed and the structures that rocks form. Included in the study are earthquakes, volcanoes, and now plate tectonics. When I was in school plate tectonics was a crazy fringe idea that couldn’t possibly be true. With the discovery of deep ocean ridges and their upwelling magma we now know that plate tectonics is how the earth’s crust moves and restores itself.

The theme for this month is Geology, you can take whatever aspect that interests you, from a single rock/crystal to the fantastic layers of rock that have been formed over the millennia, creating features such as mountains, or the structures of Monument Valley, or even the grand canyon.

To add a bit of spice to this challenge I have added the concept of using unexpected colors for your piece. If the stones are gray use purple or red, if the layers of the earth are red, and orange, use their complements. Feel free to play with color, if things clash a bit so much the better.
Various quilters have used geological themes in their quilts. I have tried to find as many of those who have quilts on-line as possible for examples.

Links:
Michele Hardy, Quilter now living in Colorado, http://www.michelehardy.com/GeoformsGallery.html

Esterita Austin creates quilts with rock images, http://www.esteritaaustin.com/gallerymain.htm

Denise Labadie quilts the Irish stone landscape, while these are not strictly speaking geological forms they are portraying stones in the landscape:
http://www.labadiefiberart.com/Galleries/Dolmens/Dolmens.html

Brenda H. Smith lives in the Southwest, here are some of her quilts inspired by the region she lives in http://www.brendasmithquilts.com/galleries/southwest.html
A Quilt inspired by a trip on the Colorado River by Donna June Katz A page from Art Quilts a Celebration by Lark Books
http://books.google.com/books?id=du70qFhVwgwC&lpg=PA360&ots=TxhfVXK4Ry&dq=geology%20quilts&pg=PA360#v=onepage&q&f=false

More of Donna’s quilts, scroll down they are at the bottom of the page.
http://www.fiberarts.com/article_archive/gallery/flora_fauna.asp

Handwerk by Bonnie M. Bucknam http://www.handwerktextiles.com/quiltgeology.html

Two quilts of Katie Pasquini Masopust, note her use of colors
http://www.katiepm.com/slotlarge.html
http://www.katiepm.com/antelopelarge.html

Some images to inspire:
National Geographic did an article on the Giant Crystals in the Cave of Crystals in Mexico
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/04/photogalleries/giant-crystals-cave/

Not quilts but Lapidary, Susan Judy a Geologist who uses cut stone the way quilters use fabric, for inspiration only. http://www.stonequiltdesign.com/portfolio.aspx

Magic Mushrooms

Sorry to be so late. Busy as all of you are. Frankly, I couldn't find the inspiration with this theme, however, once started, I got into it!!!

Using batik and hand-dyed fabric I had made a few months ago, I combined these samples with a digitized photo. I used Photoshop to modify the colors and added free motion stitching. Dyed Ginko leaves from Chestertown, Maryland created depth and ryhthm as they fell through my image.

Tree Fungi

Here is my piece based on the Jack-o-lantern tree fungi. I used some scrips and scraps from other projects to pull this together. Although I didn't start this at the first notice of the challenge, due to teaching and other commitments, the piece only took me one evening to complete. The cream silk has gold edged pin tucks and was a trimming from the sleeve of the coat of my first Bernina garment.

Here is a photo when the edge has not been satin stitched round.

Although I feel I managed to suit the requirements of the challenge, the result is not anything I feel I can use as is. So, because I am also trying to do the journal quilts with the British Contemporary Quilt group...continuing the dragon series, I decided to take it further into something that would keep it from being stuck in the back of the cupboard.

So, after the satin stitching....

2 little dragons came along and found it was a wonderful place for playing hide and seek from their friends in the forest. As soon as the counting to 100 finishes, you won't even be able to tell they are there, as they will pull their heads right down into the pocket of the fungi.

Sometimes the little dragons hollow out tree fungi to use as a sort of hanging sleeping bag when they go camping out with their friends. I am sure you can imagine what fun they get up to while they are out there! Of course, they are completely safe, because one of the parents is usually curled up behind bushes not too far away.

I might add a few beads here and there at some point.

Family Tree

I have made a family tree of flower children. Do you know how hard it is to acquire pictures of your children's spouses as small children? HARD! This quilt measures 34x42. The background is strip pieced ,quilted and bound. I then appliqued the tree and sewed all the flowers on. I think there were 43 all together. They include all spouses. Maybe someday I will get all the pictures - I hope. I posted a close up on the yahoo site.

Pat Havey

'Shroom Invasion

Thi is small - only 4.5"x6.5", but I have come to really enjoy working in the small sizes. My split complementary color pallete is blue-green, orange and red. The 'shrooms are cut from the same fabric, a really interesting print that looks a lot like rust. I embellished it with Pigma pen details. This challenge was a lot of fun, even though it took me all week to come up with a design concept that I liked. In the end, I think it was worth the wait!

Orange Fan Fungi

5 X 14
This was fun challenge as I have always had a fascination with mushrooms and other fungi. Betty provided us with some great links for inspiration.

I chose blue/orange as my complimentary color scheme and quilted the blue to represent an old log. I used twin needles to make the ridges on the cups and some metallic turquoise paint to add some highlight to the centers. I did not meet the abstract or stylized portion of the challenge but enjoyed the process and tried different techniques.

Comments are welcomed and appreciated. Thanks Betty for the fun and interesting challenge. Nice variety of quilts has been posted to date.
Pam Harris

Pizza Hot Little Pepper/Button Mushrooms

I had two ideas for this challenge... my first thought was pizza and the other idea is still lingering... so...will have to make it too!! Maybe??? I used Cheryl Phillips ...Cut-around tool to cut my pizza and crust...fussy cut fused peppers and real buttons for the "button"mushrooms . Zigzag stitches on peppers, crust and cutting lines on pizza.

My other idea a deep purple/black background with metalic spider-webs and spiders...

deep in the woods. Three Batik mushrooms free-hand cut and leaves fused.. and some stamped leaves and silk leaves. Mushrooms quilted with metalic thread ..

raw edge finish with irregular shape.loopy stitch over yarn on edges

"DEEP IN THE WOODS"

Fungus Among Us

I browsed through Google images and came across a photo of shelf fungus-then found some real ones on a walk through the woods (on a level, smooth trail!) The fungi were made by fusing two tan (considered very light orange color) pieces of fabric together, then fusing on some blue and red orange or yellow orange fabric similar to the variation in values in the shelf fungus. After scrunching and stitchng the brown background for the tree, the fungus were folded at the top and stitched on the fold so they became very 3-D. Hopefully that shows up in the side view. I haven't finished the edges of the brown tree-still debating what to do there and I may just leave it unfinished as a play piece. It was fun to use unrealistic colors for natural objects and work 3-demensionally. Not sure how abstract it turned out, but at least I got something finished this month!

Nancy Schlegel

Elegy for a Tree

23 1/2" x 12"

The center focus out our back picture window had long been a tall birch tree. As spring blossomed this year, it was obvious from the pieces of branches on the ground, the lack of twigs, and most of all, the fungus growing on its trunks, that it had died. So for me, the focus of this month's challenge was obvious, though the colors were not! The violet, yellow-orange and yellow-green form a split complementary color scheme, as well as adding an abstract element.

In this piece, the trunk is rounded, stuffed with some Polyfil batting, and the fungus sticks out, shelf-like. The background is a single piece of cloth which depicts the leafy background well, and I added another piece to hide the bottom of the trunk.

Comments welcome!

Augie's mushrooms and There is a Fungus Among Us

My grandson Augies had been visiting when this challenge came up. He wanted to help with this challenge. Augie has a strong sense of color and design. He chose all of the colors for his quilt and also most of the colors for my contribution. We started first with my 'shroom village. He cut parts and definitely placed and help with the fusible fabric. I finished with details like grass (when he said Grandma, you need to put some grass on the bottom).

Augie completely designed his own quilt. the only contribution that I made, was rotary cutting and ironing. This is a special quilt for me. He is amazing. Augie (who lives far away from his California Grandma in New Hampshire) is a very grown up 6 years old.

Of ourse, grandma did do all of the free motion quilting on both.

The Changing of the Seasons

This one was very hard for me. It took me five days to come up with an idea. I don't know how to do abstract on purpose and as as for the color I was trying for split complimentary but don't think I succeeded.

The background was a piece of fabric that I did some free motion quilting on. Added the brick wall, machine embroidered the tree on the right side.

The fungi in the bottom left hand corner is supposed to represent the leaves that are piled up in the corner of my house. The 3 Creative Studio's tip of the month was painting with Shiva paintstiks. I used that and scrunched it up for the fungi then I added drops of white paint for snow since there was snow on the original fabric.

It is 15 inches square.

Chanterelles

I used a photograph of Chanterelles as a guide and free hand cut and stitched. It is 3 layers.. altho' the actual backing is batting, the muslin is in the center. I will be using this piece for gluing into my Fabric Journal.

I am showing it in its actual size and in a Tramp Frame.

Chanterelles

Measures.... 8x6"

I am looking forward to your comments.

Waiting for Pizza

I kept thinking of the mushrooms in my frig and decided to use them for this challenge. I took a photo, transferred to fabric, then highlighted with watercolor pencils. It's 6 by 9 inches. Looks like I could have used more value differences seeing it here. I'm glad I at least made something as I have missed the past few challenges due to creative boredom. thanks for any comments, Chris Predd

Challenge 45 - Fun Fungi

Fun Fungi finished size 17 x 25.

OK after looking at fungi pictures - which grossly revealed lots of foot fungus - yuck - I like the round shape - I make it abstract. I decided on a split complementary color scheme of blue-violet, orange and yellow. First I attempted more organic oval shapes - but they weren't looking too good - I then sewed in yellow circles but didn't sew in the orange - I attempted some fancy orange thread work on the circles - but not looking too good. So I did faced funny pieced orange circles. I then quilted the background and found the yellow needed more so did some pebble quilting in the yellow circles.

So it didn't windup looking anything like fungus - but it was fun - and technique filled.

High on Fungi

I am usually one who does very realistic art quilts so this time I stepped out of my comfort zone and went completely abstract with my fungi. I chose to do a split-complimentary color scheme and used purple, yellow-orange, and yellow-greens. I decided to look at a typical fungi from beneath. I broke the head into various waves alternating them with the folds seen under the mushroom with spores. I quilted in either a circular design on the center and outer rings to swirls on the middle purple ring. To simulate some spores on the orange and green I added some beads. When completed I couched different yarns along each wave for a more funky effect. I used a simple decorative stitch over the orange/green seams beading on top of them. The binding 'fell' from a shelf and I decided to use it since although black it contained the colors of purple, orange and green. This was left over from a larger quilt I'd made last winter. The quilt was pieced together using freezer paper and registration marks. No fusible was used in this piece. The quilt measures 15 1/2" x 18".

Red Hat Fungi Funguys

This was a fun challange! I have represented a gathering of many different mushroom at a Red Hat gathering. I used green hand dye for the background, a mans tie for the big hat with lavender metalic lace, red satin overlayed with an open red lace, rayon faille in magenta with pink satin ovelayed with organza for the tops, red satin, red velvet, and chiffon . The eyes are either embroidered or beads. What fun making all the different personalities.

Pat Havey

Woodland Sleep-Over

For the last couple months, it seems I have gone from one looming deadline to the next. This month is no different but I decided I was going to participate in the challenge come h--- or high water. The problem was I could only do so if I finished it by noon today as I am traveling the rest of the week and I had to make it fit at least one other purpose in order to justify the time spent. So I created "Woodland Sleep-Over" as a sample for a class I will be teaching in a couple weeks. The fungus is a shelf fungus which often grows on decaying trees and the colors are reddish brown/blue green and yellow green. It is still unquilted but I hope to rectify that next week. It is a painted wholecloth that started out as a piece of white PFD cotton. It is approximately 18" wide x 24 " high.

Challenge 45 "If Andy had been a mycologist" by Silvia Dell'Aere

(hemmm it's correct to say "had been"?)

Yes, the Andy of the title is Warhol.
I'd like to do a piece in Andy's style since I started quilting, and this challenge seems to be perfect.
When I've read about the split complementary colours I've had hard time choosing which colours use, then I've decided to use them all, and the better way was to do a "pop-art" quilt :) so here's my entry for the challenge:

Every block is made with 3 split complementary colours. I've used the main colour as background of the block, then I've used the two complementay colours for the mushroom.
The mushroom is an earth-star (Astraeus hygrometricus), a kind of fungi that fascinate me since I was child :)

With this little quilt (14"x14") I went out of my comfort zone choosing to do raw edges applique.
I hate raw edges, but in this case I've thought that this technique would be perfect to give the aspect of the scales on the star petals, and I've to admit that I'm quite happy with the result.
The "petal" zone is made by 2 layers. The bottom layer is fused on the background, the top layer is only sewn down without fusing. I've then sew the scales shapes and I've cut away the unwanted fabric between the scales to let show the bottom layer.

Here is a close-up of one block:

I'll be happy to hear from you what do you think about it :)