He loves me

I did have this done earlier but not posted.

I adore Andy Goldsworthy, I especially like his spirals. My background is my deconstructed. I take a bunch of fabric sew it together, chop it up and do it again and again and again. Usually I'm done when there is an interesting scale to the piece. My flower petals are spiraling. I think if I did it again I'd do a brighter move vibrant pink border in fuchsia. Finished size 21 x 15 inches.

Thanks for letting me host!

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Summer Heat

11" X 13"

The background image of a spring flower was blurred and printed to fabric, cut into 1/4 " strips and placed between analogous fabric strips. The foreground used

photographs printed on fabric and thread painted and thread outlines of coneflowers.

The background was too bright and busy to work with

my initial inspiration and concept derived from Andy Goldsworthy's work.

As a result, the finished quilt is far more representational.

The challenge and research links were great.

Thanks again. Your comments are appreciated.

Thank you for choosing Andy Goldsworthy for inspiration for the FFFC. I used disperse dyeing on "faux silk" polyester with just a simple bit of quilting and cropped it digitally. No binding on it yet. I may add another round of quilting between the leaves with a loopy loop in it. Not sure though, seems too frivolous for such a formal design. If I repeat this design on another piece of cloth, I plan to move the very first leaf on the paper pattern so it is more in line. Or I might cut it a little smaller. Refining the design is easy in disperse dyeing. There's a process photo on my blog.

Looking forward to your comments. Feels really good to participate again after sitting out a few months.

:Diane

Dancing leaves

When I looked at Mr. Goldsworthy's work, it seemed to me that he took natural objects and showed them in unnatural, often geometric forms. In addition, it appeared that he often colored, greased, or otherwise altered the appearance of the objects. I enjoyed using the complex background, but found it difficult to make the leaves stand out against it. The plain diagonal quilting was intended to take the background, back and let the leaves stand out in relief. Thank you for such an interesting challenge. Ticia

Iris Worthy of Goldsworthy

This was a fun and exciting challenge and I am very happy to have been able to finish this before leaving for a week in Cambria, CA. After browsing through several pages of Andy Goldsworthy's artwork, I realized that he often works with circles/bubbles, one of my favorite shapes to work with, both in form and in quilting motif. The bubbles lended themselves well in forming the stem, while leaflike shapes suggest the garden grounds. All of these shapes are used as quiting motifs as well. I haven't added quilting to the borders and don'tknow if they really need to be quilted - what do you think?
Ann - formerly in Walnut, but now in Fallbrook.

Landing Patterns

I was not going to participate this month--too much already on the schedule--but I made the mistake of looking at the challenge description.  Andrew Goldsworthy is way up at the top of the list of artists I admire and I had to do something.

This is a real experiment.  Last year I had harvested some stems to see if I could figure out a way to use them on a quilt but never got around to trying them and thought this would be a good opportunity.

The background is inspired by leaf litter in the late fall when frost is turning some of the leaves icy blue.  I ended up piecing the background--fusing would have been a lot faster.  The more structured--rhythmic--pattern of the sticks was meant to contrast with the randomness of the background.  Now that I know I can work with these stems on a quilt I am planning on doing some more experimenting with them--as soon as my schedule clears a bit.  The quilt is small, 14 x 18".   

Great challenge, Lisa.  Comments appreciated.

Goldsworthy I

Thanks for a fantastic challenge. When I first began to read the challenge I went right to the Andrew Goldsworthy site and was blown away by the images. I love his use of negative space. I quickly jumped into my piece. A while ago I had seen a segment on QA TV about using a quilt-on-top-of-a-quilt and I decided to explore that technique in this challenge. I tried to make the background flow through both quilts, reversing it in the top quilt to play up the positive/negative space. Once the quilt was done I actually went back and read the specifics of the challenge and realized I needed a natural element. As an afterthought I added the four small shells in the corners of the smaller quilt which makes it appear to be riveted to the larger quilt. For the most part, I'm happy with the results, but I can see myself further exploring both the concepts of Goldsworthy and the technique of two quilts combined in one piece.

Measurements are 15" x 25". Comments would be appreciated.

The trees that learned how to fly

This whimsical piece includes a line of trees I saw by the edge of a canal. They reminded me of a flock of birds. I also wanted the trees to morph from black to white, but I found the final dove looked a bit flat, so I foiled some Misty Fuse for its wings. The dove of peace image with its twig links back to the tree idea. For the edge I did some satin stitch, then a bobbin thread of green wool, and finally a hand-couched yarn right on the edge.

I haven't managed to do a challenge for a while, but with it being school holidays, I had the time as well as the inclination.

Geode

13 X 14

I chose a geode eroding out of its host rock as my nature subject. My geologist husband thinks it looks more like a sea creature. My original background idea didn’t work out for the rhythm portion of the challenge so I now have a more patterned background. The background fabric is a decorator fabric sample which looked stenciled and stamped. I added the raw edge cotton and silk shapes and encouraged fraying for my “erosion”.

The center of the geode is a left over piece from a purse I made using Texture Magic™ and the white is from the lining of my wedding dress.

As always, I learned quite a bit from this challenge. Thanks Lisa for introducing me to Andy Goldsworthy.

Comments are welcomed and appreciated.

Pam

Abstract Landscape

An "abstract landscape" for lack of a better name 19" x 29"

I'm not sure if this meets all the requirements of this challenge but it was the best I could come up with in the time frame. I started another piece with more intent but it did not meet my expectations so I have abandon it for now and will go with this one which I finished after reading the challenge.

I began this piece while I was at the Focus on Fiber retreat in Florida last month. On the last day the dye studio was already dismantled and my friend who had brought a spare sewing machine for me had departed, so I was left without anything to work on. I combed the "free to a good home" scrap pile in the corner and started laying out scraps on a piece of batting. I hand basted them then rolled it up and brought it home. My husband had hip surgery earlier this month and my studio time was severely limited. I have two commission pieces underway but they are more complex. Stitching this piece down by machine was relaxing and let me just lose myself in the free motion.

Everything here is raw edge applique. I did not fuse any of the fabrics. I think the background, which is made up of overlapped strips in the size and shape I found them in, looks like rolling countryside. The rest is pretty abstract: Is the black & white a lake? Are those tall shape trees, buildings or rocks? The stitching is all free-motion,

Instead of traditional binding I used a "Bird Ross" finish which is something I have used on reversible garments. Basically I cut 1.5" squares with a rotary cutter with a pinking blade, folded each in half over the quilt edge, pinned it in place, then overlapped another square. I free-motioned over all of it. A traditional quilter called them prairie points but I believe that is a piecing technique. Anyway I thought it fit the raw edge background better than traditional binding.

I may still make another piece for this challenge with more intent. Right not I feel a bit pressured to finish and deliver the commissioned work.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Nature's Rhythm

I'm not sure if I got the challenge right, but this is what I came up with. The quilt is approximately 20" X 20". It is raw edged and the Angel Fish is hand applique. I did some quilting, but it doesn't show very well. I may undo and redo. All comments welcome.

Rain forest canopy

I made this piece using the techniques from a Rose Hughes class. It is taken from a picture of a rain forest from above. It is raw edge applique with all seams covered with trim then hand stitched and beaded. Fun to do and very different for me as I never do hand work if I can help it. It measures 23 1/2 x 29 1/2

Snowflowers

Here are pictures of my response to this challenge. In response to the request for a representation of nature, and the suggestion of some sort of pieced background, the background is inspired by a picture I took of the contours that can develop as an effect of wind action on snow. It is made of muslin and a second piece of muslin that has been stamped with three different stamps and three different colours of fabric paint. The background was then FMQ'd to reinforce the contour effect, in response to the request for rhythm and repetition. The piece needed a focalpoint, so the gold leaves were screen printed. A contour quilted background does NOT make a good surface for screen printing, so I attempted to camoflage the leaves a bit with the ribbons and beads.

Here they are.
Pat F in Winnipeg

SANDS OF TIME

My inspiration for this piece was a Goldsworthy piece with rocks cut in half and arranged in a spiral on the ground.
I discharged the background fabric in mandala style. The shells are stitched in a spiral using beads. The quilting is also a spiral. This design puts me in mind of a fossil in red earth...thus sands of time.

This Andy Goldsworthy challenge was difficult for me to 'wrap my arms around'. Once I conceived my direction, I really loved working on this piece.

Thanks Lisa for a real challenge :-)

Any comments are appreciated

Cherie

Zebra is Looking

" Fast Friday Fabric Challenge 56." Topic of the challenge "Rhythm & Pattern". The three rows of squares represent sky, water and earth. The Zebra is an embroidered piece, I made some time ago, It is recycled from an eye glass case that I never completed. Ha ha ha ! The quilt is small size 9" square, raw edged. backed with jean material which creates an interesting finish to the edge. Recycled scrapes form a tree on the border, threads I have collected mark the ground covering. The Zebra is taking a peek!

Please make comments I love hearing what you think. - Thank You:) xoxo

Furrowed

The fields are being planted here in Nebraska where I live and this piece was inspired really by that. When I saw the challenge, I had just finished this piece the day before and felt it really did meet the challenge. Since I have been unable to participate in the last several challenges, I decided to post this.

This piece was formed fully in my head the night before and constructed from cast offs from my mom's weaving stash. Grey wool and wool blend strips were overlapped to create the ground and fibers and ribbons and synthetic strips were needle felted to the ground.

So after I had it all finished, I went back and looked at the research done for the challenge and really fell in love with Mr. Goldsworthy's work. I have begun another piece and will share it later this week.

Forest Trail

I do love Andy Goldsworthy's work but I found that doing anything even resembling his marvelous work in fabric is hard. My first attempt using rocks failed due to the background. So I tried what you see here. He works with nature and natural colors but I chose to do a weaving forest path in purples winding around the trees and twisting over/under itself. He often uses various natural objects to make a snaky trail within his work. So I wove a piece of natural yarn around the trees. I then used acrylic paint and a stiff brush to dap on color to the very light hand-dyed piece of backing fabric.

Jonah's Mountain

I'm not a fan of pictoral quilts but had to make this for a dear friend's birthday gift (next week)... he took an amazing photo of the sunset over the Mohave Desert and posted it on Facebook. My comment? It's a quilt!

The rhythm of nature is often reflected in the rolling hills and layers of color that we see here in the mountains. Simply layered applique of my newest batch of hand dyes (actually done for this project), with machine quilting.

I love Andy Goldsworthy and have walked his Stone River on the Stanford University campus. His books adorn my bookshelf (eye candy!). But this photo spoke so deeply to me that I just had to follow it's lead.

Comments of course, are welcome!

Winters Tale

Winters Tale

I really like Andy Goldsworthy and like his nature inspired work. I have been working with raw silk, as in fusion, inclusions and a lot of experimentation. When I read the requirement of using an unusual background I thought my silken web looked like the 'ground graffiti' of spring after the thaw. Not unusual to find the skeletal remains of what lived before the snow and ice and that is what my piece depicts. I used the skeletal 'bones' for the rhythm and the flowing water marks to repeat... in a sense.
This piece is on a base of black dupioni silk... the silk fusion stitched through with Honeysuckle [color] floss, then silk thread in my machine for the water..... the Japanese symbol is the 'spring' symbol. It is faced.
It was fun to do and I have another silk work in progress.

I am looking forward to your comments.....




Challenge 56 - Ephemeral Landscape: Spring

I've missed the last three challenges, and will be away three days this week, but I didn't want to let another one go by, so I jumped in with a real FAST Friday attitude.   I decided I wanted to take the Goldsworthy challenge literally.   I had an image in my mind of sewing a range of colored leaves onto fabric in a pattern or rhythm, but when I wandered around my yard, I didn't see any interesting leaves.  Instead I was drawn to the feathery nature of the fennel, and the way it contrasts with the lamb's ears.  Once I collected a handful of materials, a real sense of urgency came over me, knowing I had a limited time until they would wilt and fall apart.   The two batik fabrics came to mind immediately as contrasts to the plants.  So I set out to improvisationally arrange and stitch them.  The idea was that they would be gradually "springing" up from the horizon line on each layer.  But the reality of holding plants in place while running the piece through the sewing machine made that tricky.


I definitely realized how Goldsworthy must feel when he arranges leaves on water...  "Get the Camera, Quick!"  The piece is actually sandwiched with batting and backing, but I don't think it will survive a quilting or binding process.  It's probably already wilted away while I've been editing photos and posting.  Anyway, thank you for challenging me to go w-a-y outside my box.  This was fun.    

Challenge 56/Splintered Leaves

I had already been thinking about what I would use as a background for the next challenge, one of my UFO's! I had another one in mind, but after digging through my stash underneath the bed in my motorhome, I came across this piece and decided it would work with the challenge theme of Nature's Rhythm. I began with a piece of sun printed fabric which I had done about five years ago. I had already trapuntoed the leaves, but was not enamored with the results, so I put it away, as I seem to do with a lot of the pieces which I am not happy with. Little did I know, that I would eventually pull it out to recycle, redesign and rebirth it!

The piece had already been trapuntoed and layered for quilting before I rejected it. All I had to do was finish the trapunto and cut away behind all the leaves. After that, I took it to my cutting mat and began disassembling it with my rotary cutter. Then I fitted the pieces back together in a fashion which looked good to my eyes and joined them with a zigzag stitch. After that, I layered a thin flannel backing behind the piece and begin quilting the open areas and around the leaves. I enhanced the trapuntoed leaves with jaquard and setacolor metallic paint. I made 1/4" bias tape and applied it first with glue and then decorative stitching to cover my joining stitches. My plan is to attach it to a prewrapped canvas and hang it as a piece of wall art. It measures approximately 18 x 20".

I am very happy with the way the piece finished out. I really like the color combination and the happy accident that the trapuntoed leaves form a diagonal pattern. I am wondering if I need to somehow enhance the quilting in the right top corner to make the piece more visually balanced. I was thinking about darkening the background behind the leaves to lift them, but this is supposed to be an abstract, so I am not sure that is warranted. I also want the colors and interesting paint patterns to be apparent. Any and all comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciate.

Starting with the UFO



Finished 'Splintered Leaves'



Challenge 56 - Nature's Rhythm

Challenge #56- Friday. April 22, 2011 Guest Hostess –Lisa Albanese

Theme – Nature’s Rhythm Inspiration – Andy Goldsworthy

Examine the art work of Andy Goldsworthy. He is an artist who takes natural elements and reconstructs them into some unique designs. Be sure to do a google image search of his work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Goldsworthy

http://www.morning-earth.org/artistnaturalists/an_goldsworthy.html

Design Concept – Rhythm and Pattern

In this challenge use the concept of Rhythm and pattern to create a piece.

Rhythm – regular, flowing or progressive. Use an intentional, regular repetition of lines of shapes to achieve a specific repetitious effect or pattern.

Pattern - means the repetition of an element (or elements) in a work.

In this piece use a natural element for your rhythm and pattern.

http://tinyurl.com/3gkn8qa

http://designernet.ning.com/page/rhythm-in-art

Technique to include – Create an Exciting Background

Instead of putting an element on a piece of fabric create a background that is exciting and different. It may not be a single piece of fabric.

Try a monochromatic tradition block background, painting a background to have many different elements, dyeing fabric (shibori or itajime) or maybe some wonky piecing. Make the background different instead of a single piece of fabric to showcase your pattern.

Wonky piecing Tutorials http://tinyurl.com/37mapwz

http://tinyurl.com/3d8dx8t http://tinyurl.com/3nfupjn http://tinyurl.com/ye6l2xd

Dyeing techniques: http://honestlywtf.com/diy/shibori-diy http://tinyurl.com/3c2jque

Some cool background techniques for inspiration.

http://tinyurl.com/fffc1

http://tinyurl.com/fffc2
http://tinyurl.com/3jxlato
http://tinyurl.com/fffc5
http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2010/09/pond_30.html
http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2010/06/family-tree.html
http://tinyurl.com/fffc6
http://tinyurl.com/3stvtms
http://tinyurl.com/3n89lnj
http://tinyurl.com/3rd3wbh
http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2010/02/woven-bird.html
http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2010/01/under-bridge.html
http://tinyurl.com/fffc10
http://tinyurl.com/fffc11
http://tinyurl.com/fffc12
http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2009/07/whimsy.html
http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/2009/04/32.html
http://tinyurl.com/fffc13
http://tinyurl.com/fffc14
http://tinyurl.com/fffc15
http://tinyurl.com/fffc16
http://tinyurl.com/fffc17
http://tinyurl.com/fffc18
http://twelveby12.blogspot.com/2010/09/bleep-bloop.html
http://twelveby12.blogspot.com/2010/05/in-memoriam.html

http://tinyurl.com/4ygmd99

Due - Saturday, Noon EST April 30, 2011

One final requirement - HAVE FUN WITH THIS

Ch #55 Jazz

Very late and I decided to use a piece I made in Pamela Allen's class. I used the palette from a painting that Henry Matisse did, and did my own composition. I call it 'Sisters', my oldest sister plays piano and I always wanted to play stand up bass. Not exactly dance, but I hope it has enough rhythm to meet this challenge. No pre-drawing, the scissors were my pencil, there is a bit of machine quilting however most of it is hand stitched.

Wind Dancer

I am late on this challenge, but since I missed the last two completely, I am happy to finally get something done. This challenge was fun and initially I had a couple of ideas, but settled on doing a female Native American dancer. I traced the image onto white fabric using pen and ink. I trapuntoed the figure and then added batting and backing and quilted the entire piece before adding color. Initially I had an orange painted background, but could not make it work to my satisfaction, so I repainted it with brown and copper mixed together, added more dark brown and finally finished with copper highlights on top. I used Inktense Watercolor Pencils, Tsukinkeo Inks, gel pens, and Jaquard and Setacolor paints. I tried to do some highlighting and shading. I did not get a good mixture of contrasts in the piece, which I think would have made it more successful, but will chalk that up as a learning experience. I do like the movement in the piece which I think was achieved through the background quilting. The piece measures approximately 14 x 24 inches.

Lady in Pink

I'm late. Took a while to decide what I wanted to do.

The girl was put on with fusible web.

Face was drawn with sharpie pen.

Clothes were hand appliqued

Hair - embroidered.

Hand quilted.

Since she is dancing on a stage I framed it with velvet.

Will send to Ami Simms for her Alzheimer's auction or sale.

http://www.alzquilts.com/

7" x 9-3/4"

Canopy Dance

I love photographing bird life. When I visited my parents in Florida earlier this year I ended up with dozens of shots of a reddish egret doing his "canopy dance". This is just how they move when they are feeding. It is graceful and beautiful and a wonder to behold.

As usual, I am trying to kill two birds (not literally!) with one stone. I am giving a presentation on using soy wax in your work to my art quilt group this month and I wanted to create a piece for the challenge using that method.

This piece is not yet quilted but I wanted to offer it up for viewing before the next challenge arrived so here it is. Besides, I am thinking seriously about mounting it unquilted. I am starting to collect a number of bird paintings on fabric that have been finished that way.

Thanks, Linda, for a great challenge!

Common title--Late!

Haven't done too much in the studio lately, but I felt that something very simple would get me there and get a challenge done.

This is all thread and yarn on black felted wool, only 9 x 12". It will be donated to a local charity auction, and I am just glad to have actually finished a project!

Posting problem

I can't seem to get into the yahoo group, nor the discussion blog..  Google doesn't help and the addresses in my roladex are not working.  I want to congratulate everyone on this challenge.  A lot of thought in every piece and some wonderful results.  A broken shoulder and eye surgery have kept me out of the recent challenges, but here's hoping for next month.
Pat f in Winnpeg

Leaves Dancing in Water

I usually really spend too much time thinking about our challenges. This time, I thought "Wow! Now I can make that quilt I did the drawing for in 2004 and never got around to making it...but with moving half of my stuff out of my sewing room....with the "help" of my sister-in-law getting ready to paint and refloor the room, I couldn't find it.

I've also been having horrible problems with my hands (newly diagnosed lymphedema--that is swelling, an infection in my fingernails and my fingernails getting loose from the finger, I'm having trouble doing hand sewing. So...while this one has a binding on the front, I haven't whipped it to the back yet. This is a tiny piece, only 8 1/2" x 6 1/4"...but I knew I'd be able to complete it...quickly for once! Usually with a small piece, I'd face it and not have a binding, but I wanted to frame this one.


My idea was inspired by running across these lovely iridescent sequin leaves. I used a bluish sparkly sheer for the eddy in the water and machine quilted it with a YLI holographic thread. The background fabric is a sort of imitation shibori print. I had to rip out the quilting on one side because it didn't follow the eddy well enough and if I hadn't had to do that, then I would have made the deadline! YAY!

Now the extra good news is that I'm almost done with two examples for challenge 54 and I have the "metallic" one from last year just about done as well. :) I'm making progress!

As usual critiques and comments are always welcome.

Lisa Quintana (Michigoose)

The Dance

This was a delightful challenge!
The Dance

13 inches by 9 inches. Thread Painting, cotton fabrics, netting , Her skirt paper, which I quilted around to make it poof

Challenge 55 "Dancing with the Stars, Pam Clark

I made this piece this afternoon. It's based on a Clip Art. It's machine appliqued. It measures 11.5" x 13". I like how it turned out. My favorite TV show is "Dancing with the Stars", so that's what I titled it.

Dancing in the Rain

A little late this week due to trying to get in 2 last days of skiing and then finishing quilting a charity quilt. Lots of time for thinking in both activities and sometime during the week, this image of flowers dancing in the rain came to me. Of course the image in the mind was horizontal with lots of flowers and the result ended up being vertical with three flowers but this was faster. The flowers and leaves were drawn quickly and freehand on tracing paper, then cut out of fabric and fused. I scrunched the brown earth to give it some texture and covered it with tulle. Then I quilted it with iridescent Sulky thread in semi-straight lines. I think it came out very cheerful and spring like-things I'd like to see right now even if it comes with rain!

Classical Indian Dancers

The Classical Indian dancers’ movement of hands, feet, and expressive face tell a story set to soothing, melodious music.

The fused dancers were designed in Make the Cut software.

Hand embroidery, beads, bells, trims, Paintsticks, watercolors, and machine quilting

It is 36”w x 12” h

meena

Spinning Pinwheels

Dance & Movement

For this challenge I used a tradition quilt pattern. I did not have a pattern only the picture, so this was a double challenge for me. The quilt is approximately 25-1/2" X 40-1/2". The picture doesn't do it justice. You have to squint your eyes a bit when you look at the picture, then you can see the spinning pinwheels. I have not quilted it yet and decided not to add any borders to the quilt. I am really enjoying doing these challenges. I've also decided that I will only use fabrics that I already have in my stash for these challenges. All comments welcome.

Dance and movement

dance like no-one is watching

This piece is  15" x 12".  The background is hand painted, shibori style.  Is the room spinning or is the girl spinning? Or both?
The dancer was traced onto Lutrador and colored with markers, then fused onto the background.  Musical notes add to the rhythm.  A simple piece, and fun to make.
Your comments are welcome.

Essence of Ballet

22" x 15 1/2"

My first thought was to use various pieces of tulle and organza for ballet tutus, but the bag of plastic mesh pieces which I have been collecting for a while called out louder! I then bunched another piece for each, and made the upper bodice, cutting away the center to make arms, with a bit of lace and a couple beads to cover the join at the waistline. I hesitated about actually adding legs, hands and faces, since I'm not good at faces. However, the feeling of movement is there even without actual bodies, so I decided to leave it like that.

I added a scattering of yellow, gold and orange beads over the surface, then used the same lace as part of the border.

The background is a single piece of pastel colors with an overall scattering of gold flecks, but they don't photograph well.

I enjoyed this challenge, and look forward to your comments.