Acceptance

I missed the part about 3 colors, but this is my entry...I hope it fits this month's theme.

Acceptance

A bit of back story here..skip if you want, but I felt it had to be included snce it is a very large part of this quilt.

After 4 yrs of a very dark period in my life (3 dear friends and my Mother dying within months of each during 2010..among other things) when I was emotionally unable to do any quilting, I began dabbling in various other forms of art a couple of years ago, but my heart has always wanted to go back to quilt art. I did the book cover challenge and not much (if any) before and none after, and was determined to do more but there was a block. I have many sketches for work and I would often pull fabric for one, only to put it all away when it just wouldn't inspire me.

My daughter is giving birth to another grandson for me in June though and I HAD to make a quilt for him, so that got me actually creating new work. But still I couldn't do anything for myself..until this one.

When I read the challenge I went through my sketches and noticed I have a lot with these curvy shapes in them, so I picked one that fit this month's theme and went to work. I enlarged the sketch, chose the fabrics, figured placement and fused them all down in one afternoon. The block is gone! I have 12 more enlarged sketches waiting for me after the baby quilt is done.

"Acceptance" is large, 25"x33" and is done with fusible applique and represents a simple but true message:
"Don't try and copy what others wear or how they act. That often leads to a dark hole of depression. Be yourself and soon they will begin to accept you for the wonderful, unique individual that you are."

And to me personally it represents the end of a long depressed period and the joy of returning to doing what I love!! Also a reminder that I may not always be happy, and am not perfect, my work may not be museum quality or worth thousands of dollars, but it represents ME, who I am, what I aspire to be, and I just need to enjoy the process and not stress out so much :-D

Five Smooth Stones

 I am not sure how I am quilting this, or even if I am, I may stretch it onto a frame the way it is or use some other method to attach it to a canvas or board. Also not sure if I want to add words. I am liking the simplicity of it the way it is.
The color is off, the background is supposed to be stark white, but I can never get a good shot in here at night no matter how I try.
As soon as I read the challenge for this month, I knew I wanted to do this. I have read this book many many times and it never fails to touch me. I chose to reproduce a painting done by Sara Kent, one of the character's in the book. Everytime I think of this book the description of this painting is always one of the first things to come to my mind. I added the stones to represent the title. they will be sewn on using tulle to hold them..

Not sure if we were supposed to include this, but I thought a description of the books would be nice so others could go look for them and read them if they wished.
(following blurb from Amazon, link to site included)
Five Smooth Stones was written by Ann Fairbairn, and first published in 1966.
It is the story of David Champlin, a black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who achieves great success and then sacrifices everything to lead his people in the difficult, day-by-day struggle of the civil rights movement. Sara Kent is the beloved and vital white girl who loved David from the moment she first saw him, but they struggled over David's belief that a marriage for them would not be right in the violent world he had to confront. Likening the struggle of black Americans to the “five smooth stones” the biblical David carried against Goliath in lieu of arms, this novel’s range encompasses decades and continents—but that range is insignificant compared with the intimate picture of its hero’s irresistible warmth and inner conflicts. , this epic has become one of the most loved American bestsellers.

I enjoyed this, even as simple as mine is. Thank you Sharon for hosting a challenge that I feel  has rekindled the spark I used to have for creating with fabric!  Sorry I was so long winded! LOL

Melvin, the Spotted, Ridgebacked, Fuzzy Headed Pigasus!

As our space ship begins it's descent to planet Loopiland, I glanced out the window to see this wondrous creature waiting to welcome us! It seems that because Loopiland is mainly water, many of the mammals who live there have evolved to fly as a means of getting around.

The ridges on his back are made from felt, his hair is red and purple yarn which was fuzzed using a cat brush, his tail is a pipe cleaner and his wings are part of a pair of fairy wings I got in the costume section at Dollar Tree. I had a lot of fun creating Melvin. There was a companion piece to go with him planned but I ran out of stuffing..lol

Monogram

Here is my entry. It's an 8.5" square of computer paper. I used a BIC fine point Mark-It and a Pilot V Ball fine point pen to do it. I do wish I had chosen a different, lighter background for the upper right corner but it was too late once I started..LOL
I made up a few, and used a few "official" patterns. Already I can see that this could become an addiction. I had something else I was going to do for this, but I had started fooling around with the L in this one and was liking it so decided to go with it.
The scanner didn't do a good job of copying my cat and bird tracks, but overall I am pretty happy with this and enjoyed doing it!

The Devil in Her Heart

I chose The Devil in Her Heart as my inspiration. This was made on a 12x12" piece of thin plywood. I used fabric, magazine photos, colored pencils and markers. The words I used on it are little sections of the lyrics to go with the images I chose. Basically the fortune teller is trying to tell the man that the woman is no good and will hurt him, he is denying it and saying she's an angel and mentioning the things he likes best. I don't have the proper equipment to use with collage yet, specifically a brayer, fingers don't work well smoothing out photos from magazines so I have wrinkles, but I enjoyed making this anyway!

"Mother Nature's Gift"

After a long absence from quilting or sewing of any kind (we're talking a couple of years I think!) I decided it was time to get back to it. And this challenge was the perfect place to start!
I started a couple of sketches but wasn't happy with them, but yesterday while walking to the store with my grandson I saw all these "whirlybirds" on the ground and it hit me!
The seeds  were collected by my grandson and me on the way home, I wrote the Haiku last night, and made the design today.
It is not quilted, the seeds are laid on the fabric and Haiku was put on in the computer, the leaves are laid on fabric also, but are ready for fusing.
I'm not sure how I will attach the seeds or what to do to them to preserve them, I may just put the fabric on a board and glue the seeds on then frame it behind glass.
Not sure yet, but at least I broke the long dry spell!!
I am pretty sure I have 4 of the principles here..similarity, the seeds, and proximity, also the seeds. Continuation since (hopefully!) the eyes will follow the spiral from the upper corner to the middle, and anomaly by adding the small sprig of leaves.
This is also the 5th in a series of illustrated Haiku that I have been working on. I hope you like it :-)

Visions of Chaotic Butterflies

 I also don't know if I have the color field aspect right..or anything else for that matter!
For this I chose the colors I wanted to use, the 2 oranges and the blue and just cut and arranged until something spoke to me. When I thought it was done I spotted the lime green fabric and just knew I had to add it to that corner.
As usual it needs quilting, right now it is just fused together, quilting will more than likely be echo quilting in each shape and possibly a simple linear quilting for the background. I wanted to get this posted now though since I have a mystery quilt that needs to be cut out in the next 3 days.
After finishing this I was looking for a title so decided to see what each color meant.
Oddly they all represent aspects of ME...so this has become an abstracted self portrait, no wonder I had to use these colors!

In a galaxy far far away....

Took me awhile to settle on a shape, I have sketches using triangles, squares and diamonds. but finally chose circles.
Nothing fancy, just made a bunch of different size circles, found some of my wilder fabrics, with a couple of almost calmer ones thrown in and just kept arranging and rearranging until I  got it the way I wanted, then a bit of pressing to fuse it all down and Voila! A pretty cool galaxy has been born :-D
My favorite is the pink one with the black and white ring going THROUGH it..lol
Right now this is 17x23", it may stay this size because I think adding anything to the edges will take away from it. Have to stitch around everything and quilt it, but I have to get back to work on my grandson's Christmas gift, a skull and crossbones quilt, which isn't even HALF done yet, so finishing it will have to wait until after Christmas. But I did want to get a piece to this stage before the due date.

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.

Hulk Haiku

Here is the 3rd in my Haiku series. "Hulk" which is the common name of this aster. It is still unfinished, needs quilting, binding, and the Haiku put on. Not sure how I am going to do that yet, may put them on a banner, or embroider them, haven't decided. Right now I just added them using the text feature :-)
I found a silk plant somebody was tossing so I brought it home and pulled all the leaves off from the plastic veins. I knew I would use them for something and this was perfect. Didn't have enough for a whole flower, only a half, but didn't like it so went with 1/4. They are attached with invisible thread and I purposely left wrinkles and bumps for texture.
The white part of the flower is 2 layers of batting, which I attached with white embroidery floss. I went over the edges to give it more of a flower appearance instead of a circle. On top of that is a small arc of 2 layers of batting which I painted yellow, again attaching with yellow embroidery floss and doing the same extended stitching. Throughout the top white and yellow areas I scattered some yellow french knots and the bottom white has echo quilting.
I put a detail photo of the center too. I wanted it too look 3D like the leaves and to have a puffy center, which I got :-)
I did this all by hand in one day, just got too hectic around here for me to finish it in time.
My nature colors are pretty obvious :-)
Oh, because I wanted to use the leaves as flower petal, I did a search for green petaled flowers which is how I found this flower. It was the only one that fit my vision. I think I have met the challenge, although after seeing what every one else did I am not sure..LOL
This is 18"wide x 20" long

Desert Rain

This is the first in a series I am calling *Illustrated Haiku*, the verse is my original and first attempt at doing a Haiku..don't know if it is actually one and don't know if it's any good, but I liked it so went with it..lol
Anyhow, my colors are purple, orange and green, colors are darker than seen here, at least on my screen.
It is all hand pieced and made mostly of felt, the middle "painted desert" mountains are cotton. not really sure they give the effect I was hoping for though. The spines on the cactus are made with white embroidery floss, the rain is a metallic thread that has white, light blue and pinkish colors in it and I scattered some silvery bugle beads around too.
I purposely did the Haiku in wavy lines and primitive embroidered letters .
Not sure if I met the pattern part, I was thinking the pricklies of the cactus, the rain, and if you notice I did wavy lines in the sand to represent mini dunes. I meant to do another line right next to each in a darker color to add more contrast,but totally forgot.
This is 8x10 and isn't quilted in the traditional sense of the word, it IS sewn to a piece of card stock and some outline stitching was done through the felt and card stock. It is going to be framed so I didn't want it too thick. The metal brackets you see on the edges now holds a piece of clear glass in front of this, I kept it off for picture purposes. The frame will allow it to stand or be hung.
Feels good to do a challenge finally. Hope you like it, comments as usual are welcome.

Chili

This is not what I originally intended to make for this challenge. In fact I pulled the fabric today for an entirely different piece, but this has been calling to me and calling to me and wouldn't shut up or let me work on anything else until it was done!
Not sure if I met the challenge with it and I am almost embarrassed to put it on here with all the wonderful pieces that are posted already, but I actually like it more than I thought I would...lol. I still plan on doing the other piece now that this one has gotten what it wanted, though it isn't quilted yet. I can do both at the same time when I finish the next one.
It is as you can see, done in reds, with pale pink as the *shine*, the shadow was done using a black fabric crayon. Size is 12x20.
Comments, as always, are welcome :-)

Orchid

I actually painted this on Feb 3, so guess it isn't a *legal* challenge entry, but haven't been able to do anything for a challenge in a couple of months and since I am pretty sure it fits this month's challenge and was made this month I thought I would share it, I want to play too! LOL
Anyway, this was done using watercolors and is on a piece of 100% cotton fabric, it measures out at 11x19, as you can see it is an oval shape. Haven't decided how to finish this yet, had thought of using it to make a quilted purse, or stitching it down to a larger painted stretched canvas, or simply quilting it as an oval and hanging it. Any ideas?

"Just a Pawn in this confusing, sometimes crazy, game called Life"

Not quite sure I have met this month's challenge, but this is the piece that wanted to be made so I had to go with it!
And for once I have actually managed to finish one completely, even to the quilting, which is just a stipple.
It is 21" square, middle section is pieced from 16 of my brightest, craziest fabrics that all have the same colors in them. I like how the diagonal going down to the right bottom has black as the background, seems to cut a path through and ties in well to the border fabric, which also has tiny specks of the same colors in it.
I guess my zinger color would be white.
My son said I should have made the "chessboard" with the right amount of squares, I think it's 64? I thought of that but then they would have been so small and I wanted to show the tiny pawn (me) next to the bigger squares (life)
I think the title says what feelings I was trying to show here...confusion, (the many different patterns) although this could also show joy (all the colors), sadness (the black), and hope (the white) surrounding all the other emotions.
Am I making any sense???? LOL

What IS That? #2

Originally this was going to be done in blues...lol..but I changed to browns. This is the 2nd in my what is that series and is 15x18.5", I was going to do them all 12" but decided to mix up the sizes for a more interesting quilt after the 12 months.
I held this item in front of me at an angle and took a picture, converted it to black and white and then drew it. I then used fusible webbing to make the various shapes, fused and then sewed the edges. Unfortunately I am out of batting so this will be added to the rapidly growing piles of things to quilt!
So what is that? :-D

Hide n Seek

I strayed a tiny bit from the challenge by adding the circle, originally it was just the undersea part, but then the series inspiration struck and this was perfect for the first one, I just needed to add a porthole!
My series is going to be *Through My Windows* and each will use blue and orange somewhere outside the windows.
This is 23x19 and still needs to be quilted

The Path Through My Garden

The revised version, really like the *path* in this one better!

detail shot

The first photo is what I used for inspiration. To make my piece which is 19 x 11" I sewed twisted strips of several different green fabrics,ribbon and yarns on a mottled green/yellow background, using a straight stitch down the middle of the fabrics and a zigzag down the yarns (6 strand emb floss) I just randomly placed these, trying to cover as much as possible of the background, just letting some peek through here and there, to resemble grass,leaves and stems. Then I stitched down the gray path/stair shapes. The flowers are simply snips of fabric layered and tacked down with a floral design in the middle.The flowers are loose except where tacked so they will curl up a bit, the twisted fabrics/yarns/ribbons also stand up off the background. As you can see in the 3rd detail shot. I bound it with a fabric that resembles, ground, rocks and grassy areas. I am probably going to do another one. My winter garden, which will tie in nicely with my seasonal series I am doing!

Mixed Emotions

12" x 15.5" I just used strips, and snippets of fabric as an artist would use his brush, a stroke here, a spatter there, big brush here, tiny one there . I don't see any focus area here, but maybe somebody else does?

Moonlit Orca

I have had this piece of fabric for awhile, waiting for the right project. When I saw it in the store it brought to mind a moonlit sky and ocean. When I saw what this challenge was I knew I had to use this, and the Orca fit perfectly. It is a simple fused appliqué piece, I made the *splash* with a shiny, transparent fabric that resembles fish scales.
BTW, I have 4 more along the same idea with different subjects waiting to be finished. While looking for the Orca I just kept finding other things that would work!

Serengeti Sunrise

I actually made 9 of the same block for this, I have always wanted to do one of these blocks and never did so figured now was the time. And here's a secret..shhhh..lol the corner circles? I sewed them together first and then FUSED them onto the background once it was pieced. So technically I still haven't attempted to make this block but I am very happy with the results anyways!
I am considering whether or not to add borders to this, and I have some small embellishments I want to add after I decide. Will post a completely finished photo then. At this time it is a 24" square
As usual comments welcome :-)