Zentangle Haiku

I have written two haiku for this piece.

#1:

Stark tranquil beauty

frozen patterns, black on white:

Nature sets her stage

#2:

Calming mind and soul

a string with five, seven, five:

Zentangle Haiku

This has been one of my favorite challenges out of the 50 so far. I love Haiku poetry, and have written several over the last week and a half that I plan to use for inspiration in future quilts. I was sitting all day with my daughter after her back fusion surgery, so had lots of quiet time!

I am also in love with drawing Zentangles, it is a perfect way for me to meditate and relax...sort of a physical 'ohm'. I have created a Zentangle haiku...devided into 3 sections ( upper left- first 'verse' five repeats of pattern; mid section- seven different patterns ; right side and bottom-five feather patterns.) I drew the patterns on white silk dupioni using a pigma pen, then the patterns are all hand embroidered quilting to batting as I stitched, using single ply's of cotton, metallic, rayon,

and feathers are machine quilted. This was a lot more labor intense than I thought it would be, but I loved doing it. Hand appliqued entire piece to black velvet and quilted, beaded.

This is a real departure from my usual...although, I'm not sure what my 'usual' would be...LOL I love trying new stuff :-)

Thanks Kathy for a terrific challenge!

I would love to have any comments, as always...thanks in advance

Cherie

Louise's Autumn's Farewell

I am posting my piece for Challenge 50 entitled 'Autumns' Farewell'. I began by taking a picture of fall leaves and manipulating and enhancing it in Photoshop Elements until I was happy with it. I then added another layer of branches in PSE made to look like a stamp. The top layer was of the haiku I wrote. I then merged all the layers together and printed them out on white fabric treated with Digital Grounds by Golden. (I am a firm believer in using the Digital Grounds to treat the fabric because it really enables the print to be much brighter and clearer.) The bottom piece was done by layering pressed, dried leaves between two layers of fusible web. I placed this sandwich onto of black fabric, layed netting over the top, and fused all three layers together. After joining the two pieces I highlighted three of the leaves with inks and then threadpainted and quilted it. I was even able to complete it within the week, so I am very happy about that!

Louise

Ice, by Sharon Robinson

sky painfully blue  

icicle piercing my heart

his disdain for me

This piece is 12" x 16."  I like my haiku, and I sort of like the quilt, but I'm not sure that it illustrates the poem.   The poem is about emotional coldness as well as seasonal cold.  I think that the icicle might not have been the best metaphor to represent that, because mental images of happy "winter wonderlands" are evoked by the icicle image.   

I really enjoyed thinking up haiku.  As others have said, I'd like to do more of these interpretations.  I started out wanting to work more abstractly, but I didn't like where that took me, so I cut out some realistic icicles.  Then it really seemed to want a horizon line.  Something was still missing, so I added the moon. That was the first thing I quilted, in a radial pattern.  It looked like a big blue grapefruit slice, so that had to go!  This was my first attempt at using metallic thread and I had a lot of fun using it for the free-motion quilting on the icicles.  I thought it would add perspective to have some horizontal lines on the snow, but the thread and I stopped getting along at that point.   So I reverted back to straight lines for the sky area.  Now I wish I'd just left it plain, but I thought they would help with the vertical emphasis of the icicles.  There were a few other technical glitches, but overall I am glad that I was able to finish it this weekend. (Except binding, which will happen this afternoon during the football game!)


Here's a detail shot:

I learned a lot on this challenge, and I'm eager to hear your comments.  

Thanks for a fun challenge, Kathy!

Oceans of Notions

 I have done some editing on my "Oceans of Notions" quilt so I wanted to enter the updated picture. 

I added more sayings and colored some of them to add more color interest. Sorry about the shadow. It really isn't there.

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While cleaning out my notions drawer I came up with the idea of making a quilt out of notions. When the haiku challenge came about the idea grew and this is what resulted. I used purchased fabric for the background (water). The fish is hand painted, fused and stitched down, and decorated with snaps. The fish line is elastic, the scissors are lame and the eel is half a zipper tape. The border on two sides is a measuring tape. I tried to think of all the old saws that deal with sewing notions. Even the word notion has two meanings - as in "I have half a notion". I"m afraid my machine didn't do a very good job with the words so I may have to try some of them again. Thank you for a very fun challenge. My Haiku

Oceans of notions
Names used in unusual ways
Many are a stretch


Pat Havey

Flamingo

In mute solitude

veiled by swirling morning mists

patient flamingo

This still needs the border, which is going to be a 2" dark bright pink, followed by a 1.5" black one, so it looks like it's been matted and framed. The 2 borders will bring this to 12.5 x 15.5". I also plan on writing the Haiku in the pink border.
The flamingo is fused applique, the mist is pulled, stretched cotton filling, used some colored pencils in spots for shading, though you can't really see it well since it is veiled by the mist...LOL
Wondering if I should have used a "water" fabric instead of the one I chose for the background, but I wanted a muted, very early morning appearance, so hoping this background works well for that.
I'm not sure if it needs more "mist" or not, also not sure if I will be doing any sewing on this, I have iron on clear vinyl which I am considering applying to this piece before adding the borders, so that it looks a little like a "glossy" photo that's been matted and framed, what do you think?
I probably should have waited until it was finished to post a picture but I am just so excited to have actually done a challenge after not doing anything with fabric since FEBRUARY that I couldn't wait :-)
I will change the photo to the finished one when it's done though.

Trees Ablaze

'Tis lovely to be
at my window in Autumn
with the trees ablaze. All I had to do was look out my studio window to know what I wanted to do. Both the haiku (my first!!) and the quilt just seemed to appear. I titled my quilt “Trees Ablaze” but was very tempted to name it “Tree-o”. I love play on words and that kept talking to me.

The quilt is 13” x 17”---and is not yet bound. It will have a narrow binding of the background fabric. We spent the day looking at and buying a new pickup truck!

All the pieces of this quilt are WonderUndered and quilted. Had a lot of popping sounds from the needle as it went through as many as six layers in some spots.

I had a good time with this and would be delighted to have comments.

Hide the Moom

misty mountain morn

autumn leaves against the sky

the clouds hide the moon

We've had a foggy fall here. Rainy and mornings where the clouds are just hanging out on mountains. As I drive to work in the mist, the rapidly changing leaves have stood out against the grey skies. The aspen and fire maples provided such a dramatic contrast that I wanted to try to capture that in a quilt.
I also wanted to move away from the pictorial themes we've had this year and move to a more abstract / representational style for the challenges. These are simply rectangles, placed for color instead of shape. I know the challenge talked about using the stitch as an element but this seems to need more simple stitching that moved to the background. So that's what I did.
It measures 18 x 26." Still needs a binding, and I know I'm late... the not-so-fast completion delayed by a crazy busy week at work.
Comments, of course, are welcome!

So Cold This Morning

This haiku was written my mother's lifetime friend, who just turned 100. She sent me a book that she wrote for her 100th birthday, and I chose this haiku for the challenge.
I used a photo of me on my 7th birthday for the silhouette. The blue chair lived in my room until I was in college. I tried to make the picture look cold, except for the shimmery gold moon and moonbeams. The quilt measures about 14" x 12".
I didn't do much with the stitching part of the challenge. I would have made it much more abstract, but I am going to send the little quilt to my mother's friend, with my photo on the label on the back. Of course Marguerite knew me when I was 7. The quilt is an oval shape both for an old-fashioned feel and because there was nothing interesting to look at in any of the corners!
Critiques are always welcome.

Earth as Haiku

Update September 2011
The earth needed more stitching and a hanging device. I painted the edges of a canvas to match the fabrics and now I'm finally ready to call it "finished." I'm just working on clearing out some WIPs and putting them in the upcoming sale.



I believe I like it hanging on point rather than square. The quilting is not done to perfection but with the layer of sealer on it the holes would have been more ugly than just poorly controlled stitching in my opinion.




earth circles around
rotating through the seasons
slowly years fly by

Still a work in progress, stitching yet to be done.
This was a great challenge. I've enjoyed looking at everyone's photos and reading the poems. Hope to go through again tomorrow and make a few comments. Even though it's Halloween, I won't be witch-y!!! :o)

:Diane - yarngoddess

Challenge #50

Golden leaves shimmer
Posed against an azure sky
Rot and make new life


I took a class with Pat Mink in July that concentrated on working in PhotoShop to enhance and blend photographs. The class also concentrated on printing on fabrics. I was interested to see that Louise chose this technique for her challenge as well.

I chose this method to carry out the theme of my Haiku. I decided to use white sateen fabric to give the illusion of shimmer on the leaves. I blending two photographs. One is a maple tree just beginning to leaf out in the Spring. The other is a close-up a golden maple leaf. As I began to quilt the piece I felt the branches of the tree looked as if they followed the veins in the leaf.

This is small for me, it measures about 7" x 7". As with most of my small pieces I decided to frame it and write my Haiku on the mat. I would do it differently next time. My writing is not the prettiest in the world so I would have printed it on paper stock and had a small cut made in the mat.

This was a real challenge for me since I had never written a Haiki or any other poetry. I think that I enjoyed composing the poem more than making the art work. So thanks for introducing me to Haiku. I have not posted on the other site yet as I'm having trouble remembering how to do so and I wanted to get this posted. I will do that later when I have more time.

As always I would appreciate comments.

Boy in the Forest - 10" H x 12" W

"Boy in the forest
Autumn is here yet again
Quickly a year passed."

Hand painted, machine quilted. Since I painted this fabric - sketchy trees and blurry leaves - I envisioned a progression of hazy figures through the woods. Who knew this challenge would provide the opportunity. The silhouetted figure is from a photo of mine that I manipulated in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

A really fun challenge. Thanks so much, Kathy.

I do see a bit of light in the middle of the piece that I need to darken. Any comments, criticisms are as always, welcome.

Betty Warner

Beneath clear, blue seas
Diving on a brief visit
Among colorful fish

I finished quilting and thread painting this quilt on Friday. Lots of practice with my new Horizon that worked perfectly. The white "heart" in the original photo was thread painted with pink thread to make it look like a fan coral. I also added a second, smaller fan coral and a second long-tailed fish. I added a lot of thread painting to the maroon coral on the far right. The fish were not quilted-just outlined stitched and then lightly brushed with gel sparkle paint. Black sea urchins were thread painted on the sand at the bottom plus real shells were added. The coral and the water were extensively quilted and if you enlarge the photo (click on the photo, then click on the enlarged one), you should see these details. I also added several lines of silver thread to mimic the sun coming through the water. The finished size is 25" X 30". This was definitely not a fast project but it was an enjoyable one even if I was pushing myself to complete it. I've wanted to do an ocean quilt for ages so thanks for the challenge that encouraged me to get to it.

Just a note-in real life, seeing the fish and coral while diving is not nearly as colorful as this quilt. You need a light or a camera with a filter to get the true color. But it is a fascinating world to visit if only for a brief time.

Nancy Schlegel in Albany NY

Mysterious Tree

This is my entry for the haiku challenge. I made the tree at the Thursday meeting of my art group. One of the members had taken a class with Nancy Zieman and taught us her technique. We used lots of different machine stitches to create the tree and the ground. When I got home I used a piece of batik and machine quilted it. I mounted the tree on the background, and added a sun. I couched the rays by hand and sewed on trims on the edges instead of binding the quilt.

My haiku probably leaves a lot to be desired, but the challenge was fun. Rosemary in St. Louis.

My haiku:

Mysterious tree

Whispers its old autumn wind song

Plaintive Melody

Harvest Moon

Waning harvest moon

Pale with certain foreboding

Of summer's demise

Harvest Moon

11" wide x 22" high

Batik sky, hand dyed fabrics

Machine quilted, hand embroidered.

Comments welcome.

Thank you everyone for a great challenge!

Rainbow Haiku

My First Haiku

A rainbow

And now there's two
Rain and sun

We've been getting lots of double rainbows this Summer and Fall. After the rain and sun together it's hard to capture the second rainbow with my camera.

The rainbow's come across the sky and disappear into the trees behind my back yard.

For my Rainbow Haiku...I'm thinking abstract....I used all scraps from other projects, the rainbow colors are from Batik scrap-bag purchased at an IQA show, green at the bottom scraps from pine trees I was cutting for postcards.

The sun trimmed edges from a 50th anniversary quilt. All scraps sewn to a rainy grey background.

Serpentine quilting on layered background, next the "trees" at the bottom ..blue eyelash yarn across the top for rain. Sun and rainbow colors finish my abstract Haiku.

Life and Death at once.

Long shadows reach out.
The time has come for sleep. Caught!
Life and death at once.

Whole cloth background fabric, using 'stitch' to define the pretty much dead grasses in the form of free motion quilting. Reverse applique was used for the branches and 'long shadows'. The spiders web speaks for itself..... I used some tulle for some of the web....

Simple, effective... to match the simple, effective words of Haiku.


With this piece I was able to get two-for-one........ here is the reverse side..

14.5 x 14.5

Challenge 50 - Sunset Haiku

A splash of crimson

The fiery orb descended

Only night remains

I love watching the sunset behind the trees in my back yard… and so when this challenge came along I wrote my little poem. The lacy patterns the trees make against the sky just take my breath away, especially when we have a colorful sunset. The background is pieced in stripes of color, the trees and ground are appliqued. I used some thread painting for the sun, and some of the branches. It always seems to be a little sad, when the sun says it’s beautiful goodbye each evening.

Comments appreciated.

Dandelion Ch#50 Rhoda

Thank you Kathy for a wonderful Challenge.

My Haiku:
seed pods billowing
the dandelion releases its
bright glaze of yellow

I had a lot of fun with this challenge. I had a piece of sundyed fabric that was perfect. The dark dandelion leaves were stamped on using india ink. I hand stitched the seed pods  and did some free motion quilting to depict the wind and the yellow dandelions.
The binding still needs to be sewn down, so there is a bit of a bow on one side.
I look forward to your critique.

Drunken Bee

My Haiku is from "The Essential Haiku Versions of Basho, Suson and Issa".

a bee

staggers out

of the peony

by Basho

This quilt measures 8 1/4" X 12".

The peony is hand painted using Seta colors on a silk/cotton fabric to give the peony "shine". My stitch element is the peony center thread painting. I attempted a personal challenge of creating a three-dimensional bee. It is less effective than I wanted in this piece.

Comments welcome.

Thank you for a truly inspirational challenge, Kathy. I think that already each of the resulting quilts has been successful in artistically creating an emotion or mood. Every one of them is beautiful.

Red Head by Cynthia Ann Morgan

I chose a Haiku from the Haiku Anthology of the best English language haiku. Most of the haiku in the book are not the written in the three lines of 5-7-5, but focuses on the substance of what makes a haiku…concision, perception and awareness. There were so many good ones, it was hard to choose. I settled on this one by Raymond Roseliep because of the vivid color it evoked.

in white tulips

the rooster’s red head

flowering

As far as the second part of the challenge, using stitch as a prominent part of the piece: I used a darker thread for the background quilting sort of like a color wash to blend the various colors in the hand dyed fabric background.

Thanks for a fun challenge, Kathy. I’m enjoying what everyone else has done so far, too.

Comments welcome.

Cynthia

Webs & Droplets

Haiku Challenge #50

Sadness in the rain

Remembering the Spider

All comes tumbling down.

If you notice the background, the fabric is split diagonally to represent the rain.

The second challenge was the stitching, so the circles stitched with floss, represent the rings that form after a droplet of rain falls. The spider web in the upper right hand corner is also part of the second challenge stitched with an iridescent floss.

In doing this challenge, I came to realized that I can be very abstract when it comes to art quilts and that sometimes people don't get me.

The rain represents the season.

The spider reminded me of childhood memories, sitting on the window sill looking out the window on a rainy day and the story of the itsy, bitsy spider.

All comes tumbling down, is the rain, the sadness, the spider and sometimes life.

The second picture shows a close-up of the spider web and one of the rings.

Deborah Pace

Missing the Music

When I read this HAIKU poem by Soseki I immediately thought of an old woman thinking about days gone by.

An old woman

draws her shawl closer

scent of tea roses.

I appliqued the woman, crocheted her shawl, machine embroidered the dancers, and hand embroidered the words and music.

I really had a good time making her.

I'm not happy with my quilting but otherwise I like it.

Betty

Autumn Haiku

The Haiku was a fun challenge! Thanks, Kathy.

This is probably the least variety of fabrics I've ever used in a quilt, just 4 different pieces. A year ago I bought the hand-dyed background fabric from Laura Wasilowski at the Des Moines AQS show. Once home I wondered why, but it worked well as the background for this piece so I'm glad I did. It was shades of a light grey-blue, light rose-pink, and light yellow. The first two reminded me of a dreary fall sky telling one winter would soon follow the loss of leaves. I chose a maple tree because when I looked out the window the day the challenge was announced, my maples were loaded with gorgeous leaves that were beginning to fall. Once started the light yellow was too light so I darkened it with a light wash of color by quilting and paints.

I quilted leaves on top of the fused pieces on the ground and then decided to do the same with the tree. The tree's leaves actually ended looking more like oak leaves than maple leaves, but they'll do. Some I left open on the sky fabric. I'd thought that somehow writing the Haiku in the lower left open area would be nice but I feared messing it up so instead added a fencerow gradually disappearing over a distant hill. It ended at 16" x 26 1/2".

The Haiku was written and the quilt over half completed when I decided to change the last line which I personally like better, but others may disagree. I've listed both versions here.

Leaves, orange, red, gold Leaves, orange, red, gold
Gnarled maple dropping its crown Gnarled maple dropping its crown
Which is last to fall? Earth's winter blanket.

Autumn Equinox - by Veronica Von Zwehl

Golden leaves drift down. Blanketing the cooling earth. Autumn equinox.

It would be hard to make a quilt of any other season but autumn. Right now the mountains of western North Carolina are glowing with color.

The quilt measures 16" x 22". I challenged myself to make the quilt without doing some detailed drawings first. I almost always work with very detailed drawings which I often do in color and blow up to scale.

The original quilt measured 24" x 22". I started with the background trees which you can still see. The foreground had a path, shrubs, rocks, vegetation, etc. There were two major problems: one was the proportion (the foreground was just too small relative to the backgroun) and the other was poorly executed perspective (it has been a long time since I studied perspective in school).

Anyways, my solution was to cut off the bottom third of the quilt, keeping the background which I really, really liked. I added the white trees which I felt contrasted nicely with the saturated background.

I'm still going to continue to try to be more free with my quilts and not rely so much on planning and drawing.

Let me know what you think.

Autumn Haiku

8 ¾” x 11 ½”

This is a little one, in part inspired by a recent workshop in color, so I settled on an analogous color scheme of warm colors.   I used Sulky multi-colored thread with some of the fancy stitches on my machine both as applique edges and decorative additions.  I wrote the haiku using a red Micron pen.

I welcome your comments. 

Challenge 50: Crimson Leaves

OK, I admit that Crimson Leaves is not a particularly poetic name for a piece inspired by a haiku. Its the working title until I come up with something better and would love to get some suggestions. Seems that either I have a title in mind as soon as I start or I struggle with naming a piece.

My haiku describes what I see here in the woods in northern Michigan in late October. We are currently having wind storms (gusts to 60 mph) so most of the leaves will be down today I fear. When I wrote it on Saturday I didn't know the wind storms were coming this week.

crimson leaves still clutch
frost-bound branch and pray to thwart
wind's fateful last blow

Crimson leaves 16" x 24" (gallery wrapped).

I was lucky enough to have the background blocks in my stash of wonky-pieced blocks that I like to use for backgrounds. The bluish gray is the color of the lake and the sky lately.

Detail: The smaller branches and the leaves on the trees in the background were created with stitch. I also used the stitched line to suggest wind.

Rainbow Jelly

14" X 18"

pulsating colors
prisms of light float gently
a rainbow of life

by Kay Jay

I used STITCH to define the body and for some of the tentacles. Bridal tulle is edge stitched for additional color and the body has an extra layer of batting for dimension.

Comments appreciated and welcomed.

Thanks Kathy for a fun, thought provoking challenge.
Pam Harris

FFFC Challenge #50 Haiku

Haiku! October 22/due October 30 Host: Kathy Lichtendahl

Inspiration is a very personal thing. Some of us may be moved to create a quilt after viewing a beautiful sunset while others are driven to action by a perceived injustice. One person may find themselves inspired by a memory while another creates after hearing a piece of beautiful music. For this month's challenge I am asking participants to allow themselves to be inspired by words. When Quilts, Inc. announced their exhibit of images and words to be shown at this year's IQF, I began looking more closely at the poetry called haiku. I will warn you that creating these little poems can become addictive! Please note - you do not have to write your own haiku for this exercise. There are many examples of classic haiku by artists stretching back centuries and some of the traditional Japanese poems are truly exquisite. If you do choose to create your own verse, try to follow the classic format: 3 lines with 17 syllables, 5 in the first line, 7 in the second and 5 in the third. A season is usually referenced although the "clue" word may be subtle. The lines do not rhyme. For more hints on writing haiku visit the websites listed below.

The challenge here is not to become a poet but rather to allow yourself to work from the feelings created by experiencing the written word. Please do not do this challenge in reverse; that is to say, do not pick a quilt and then create or find a verse to match. Try to select the words first and then allow the ideas to flow from them. You can be as realistic or as abstract as you like. Please include your verse when you post your photos to the blog.

As a secondary challenge I encourage you to make stitch a strong part of your design. This may sound redundant since just about everything we do involves stitching but I am asking you to take it one step further and plan the impact of the stitch - either hand or machine - as an integral and obvious part of your finished quilt.

Some sites explaining Haiku

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku www.wikihow.com/write-a-Haiku-Poem www.toyomasu.com/haiku/

http://www.simplytom.com/definitions.txl (see the viewpoints section for the feeling part)

http://haikuguy.com/issa/links3.html

Quilts inspired by words:

Susan "Lucky" Shie is probably the best known quilter to incorporate words directly into her quilts.

www.turtlemoon.com/gallery10/2010gallery.htm

Nature Quilts:

Marilyn Wall and Sue Wademan each do a marvelous job of creating moods with their nature quilts. Marilyn's quilts tend to be realistic while Sue's are more abstract.

www.marilynwallfiberartist.com/index.php/gallery/fabricating

www.suewademan.com

Seasons:

Two artists whose quilts evoke emotion by referencing the seasons are Leslie Rego and Alison Muir.

www.leslierego.com/ArtQuilts/Meanderings_by_Leslie_Rego.html

www.ozquiltnetwork.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136&Itemid=114

Other Art inspired by Haiku

http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/HP/Duets/01/CH.htm

'In The Spotlight' - Challenge 49

I am a little late in posting this challenge piece, but decided to upload it anyway. The photo is of a dahlia which I photographed and manipulated in Photoshop elements with some special lighting filters. When I was satisfied with the changes, I printed it onto white fabric treated with digital grounds. I placed it on the yellow background fabric, did some threadpainting, and then quilted it. I then added the black and white border around the dahlia. I was very happy with the finished product.

Chicken's in my Willow Tree!

My inspiration for this FFFC#49 Challenge came from a conversation at breakfast with a group of friends. We were talking about willowtrees. Early in our marriage we had this huge willow tree in the back yard....at Night our neighbor's chickens would come and roost in the willow tree!!!

The new "Super 8".....this sounds like a quilt!!!

My life has been on the bumpy side for some time... my inspiration is there but, I just can't get

myself started. This whimsical quilt has been good for me...it's not quite finished..(I need to do a bit more quilting and the binding). I started with a night-time sky with/stars and sewed the moon into the background using Cheryl Phillips Cut-A-Round tool. Next layering the sky,batting and backing...quilting a serpentine stitch in both directions.the rest of the design was all fused and I painted around the chickens with Lumiere/pearl white paint.

I know I'm very late for this challenge.....I went on line and saw that the new challenge #50 is comming out this week!!!! Where did the time go....SORRY.....Janice Simpson

Monkey Puzzle Tree

Very late...but here's my work for Challenge #47 a quarter section of the tip end of a Monkey Puzzle Tree branch. This little monster is 20" x 20" and when the challenge came up, I thought that hand stitching this would be a breeze because it was so small...WHAT was I thinking! Actually, I don't often use a lot of hand stitching as embellishment so I had no idea how long it would take me.

I hand appliqued a vintage linen like cloth to a batik ground. I back stitched around all the leaves in purple perle cotton, doing a threaded back stitch around the core of the leaves in the center. I used a variagated perle cotton to stitch the long lines on the leaves in a running stitch (plodding stitch might have been more like it as long as it took me), then I shaded the leaves with a long-short stitch combo in variagated darker green DMC embroidery cotton.
You can see the real deal of the Monkey Puzzle Tree here. The Monkey Puzzle Tree (Auraucaria auraucana) is native Chile and Argentina, but is grown as an ornamental in more temperate areas of the US. This one is in Olympia, WA.

Here you can see my stitching a bit more. I did machine trapunto to give the leaves a bit more loft. The background was echo quilted around the leaves in a variegated red/navy/purple thread 1/4" apart.

I like the increased texture from the hand stitching, but I must admit, I wish it were faster! As usual, comments and critiques are always appreciated.

Three Pears - Challenge 49

I am late with this I know, but at least I have it done before our next challenge comes out Friday. I am calling this Three Pears for obvious reasons. I used a photograph to draft the patterns for the pears staying relatively simple with my shapes. Some highlights and shadows were added with Shiva Paint Sticks. The background fabrics are batiks, the pears are commercial hand dyes. Quilting in the background is done by machine, but I used embroidery floss to large stitch quilt the pears. This was fun to do. I love working with high contrasts.

Challenge #49 "Diving Into Excellence" Pam Clark

This is a person diving into a swimming pool. I entitled it "Diving into Excellence. The light source lights up the diver's legs and the splashing water. I used sparkly textile paints, machine and hand quilting and lots of French knots denoting water droplets. I also tried crinkling my fabric for the first time (I can't remember the name of the product I used, but it was a sheet that I stitched onto the back of my fabric and the steam from the iron crinkled it up. I was trying to give the appearance of the water roiling around the diver as she entered the water.) I also cut the diver out and machine appliqued it to black fabric. I added some decorative border beading. It's rather stylized and I've had people react differently to what they see when they look at the quilt. Some see flower petals, some see an elephant, etc. After studying it, they do see the diver, but on first glance, they see something else.