Challenge 51 - One Shape

Challenge #51 November 2010/ due December 4

Guest Hostess: Wendy Wetzel, Flagstaff AZ

Theme or Technique: One Shape!

Design Concept: Theme and Repetition

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

(and for those of you outside the US,

Happy Last Thursday in November!)

I slept thru most of 10^th grade geometry, so I learned it on the practical side as I started cutting up perfectly good fabric and sewing it back together! And shapes are still fascinating me all these years later. The interplay of angles and form …..

We have an infinite variety of shapes to play with for our quilts.

For this challenge, pick a simple shape and using only that shape,

make a quilt.

This is, of course, borrowed from traditional quilting which uses squares, triangles, rectangles, tumblers and a variety of other simple geometric shapes in classic patterns. Think about other shapes as well: circles, hexagons, pentagons, octagons, parallelograms, trapezoids, etc. Consider exaggerated shapes as opposed to blocks. Think about big shapes and little shapes, as well as horizontal and vertical. Think about layers and shadows….

Your quilt should be totally composed of that one shape… pieced, appliquéd, collaged, fused, any technique will work, as long as you only show one shape! You can embellish, paint, foil, stitch….. but just use one shape. One.

Let’s move to more abstract quilts with this challenge. We’ve done lots of pictorial quilts in the past year…. This is a great chance to go beyond that mindset and stretch our wings!

Theme and Repetition: In art, a theme is the overall sense or message of a piece whether it be music, poetry or visual art. Repetition, then, is the repeating of that theme throughout the piece, often with shading or variation.

Consider Beethoven’s 5^th Symphony. Did you immediately hear those opening four notes? They repeat throughout the piece with varying intensity and feeling throughout the body of the work. Spend a few minutes with this video from Fantasia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMnlxYkZKaU

Did you notice how the theme of the butterfly and the triangular shapes repeated through the animation?

Here are some fun examples of repetition and theme in art:

Check the 3^rd picture from the top, Ugo Rondinone's Clockwork for Oracles

http://3rdhouseparty.typepad.com/blog/2009/01/repetition.html

(you can also google the artist and title for lots more images!)

A paper sculpture using just one shape:

http://www.iainclaridge.co.uk/blog/?p=308

I love the title of this one, Compulsive Repetition

http://www.18thstreet.org/_archives/2005/compulsiverepitition/compulsiverepitition.html

Amazing subtleties, Rectangular Green Heart:

http://www.kazuya-akimoto.com/2005/2005contents/4375gallery12.htm

And one of my favorites, using a gorgeous curve:

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/repetition-joe-bonita.html

Value and Contrast: Pay attention to all we’ve learned about value and contrast (and color theory) for this challenge. One shape can be boring if there isn’t contrast. Think about how colors play off of each other to add drama and “pop.”

On to art quilts:

In researching this topic, it was somewhat difficult to find good examples of single-shape quilts. There are certainly traditional quilts that fit this mold (Square in a Square, Thousand Triangles, Flying Geese, Grandmother’s Flower Garden, Tumbling Blocks, Stack and Whack, One Block Wonders….etc etc etc), and you can find scores of examples on line. But those aren’t the focus of this challenge…. Unless you can alter them in some new and interesting way!

Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Fun Quilts have some good examples on their gallery page http://www.funquilts.com/gallery/gallery1.html - their use of lines is especially effective.

Tessellations are sometimes traditional and sometimes art. You can find lots with a google search. Here are some fun examples:

http://www.mathematicalquilts.com – check out the gallery pages (not all are tessellations but lots are just fun to see)

http://nachograndmasquilts.blogspot.com/2010/02/transformation-tessellation-tuesday.html a nice tutorial on creating your own tessellation block from Raymond Houston.

Great use of triangles: Ricky Tims’ Flying Colors

http://www.rickytims.com/gallery/2/ (last one in the Gallery)

And one of mine (JQ Project), using diamonds

http://www.quiltart.com/elements/html/Tseq_wetzel_where_river_joins_sea.html

And finally a trip down memory lane with our own Fast Friday Blog

Brenda Jennings’ Haunted House

http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2007/10/haunted-house.html

Roberta Raney’s Fractured Fire http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2007/12/fractured-fire.html

Wendy Wetzel’s World Windows

http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2007/05/world-windows.html

Carole Grant’s Beneath the Surface

http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2009/11/beneath-surface.html

Cherie Brown’s Lunar Eclipse

http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2010/10/challenge-49-cherie.html

Look around you. Now, run with it!

Due - Saturday, Noon EST, December 4, 2010

One final requirement - HAVE FUN WITH THIS!