Movement

This is a skateboarder. I think it is more like stop-motion than motion, but it was an interesting exercise. I decided to use the background fabric, as it expresses the tension I wanted to convey better than motion lines...Which way will she go now? (tis a she! I looked into female skaters a few years ago for a project I was doing.) I also chose vibrant fabrics to stand out from the background to express a bit of the excitement. I haven't backed it, but would appreciate advice for edge finishing.
Sandy in the UK

Withered Rose

10 1/2 x 10 1/2

Have I show motion here? I stopped putting beads on for the stamens, because the shininess seems distracting to me. I think I may take them off in favor of more french knots (like I did the pistils).


Update (November 26, 2007):
I have replaced the beads with french knots. I think I like it much better this way.

Windy Day at Nags Head

Size: 14.5" x 10.5"

Susan Brittingham

My husband is a windsurfer, so it was a natural choice to use the image of a windsurfer in order to capture the idea of motion and translate it into visual form.

I found a photo, cropped and enlarged it, then made a line drawing of the image which I printed onto stabilizer. I used mainly batiks and hand-dyes and a few odd scraps to applique the scene. The sail has an overlay of organza to simulate the transparency of a sail.

I used thread painting as my "embellishment". The bridge in the background is rendered in thread, the wake and the waves are also partially thread painted and there is thread work to suggest the marsh grasses in the distance. I used variegated thread to quilt the water and tried to include whitecaps each time the thread changed to a light color. The quilting in the sky is an attempt to suggest the wind.

I welcome any comments or critiques.

Challenge #14

Cosmic Swirl
18" X 18"

Debbie Krueger

Waukesha, WI

Personally, this challenge was right up my alley--I've been wanting to play with movement for some time, and embellishment is second nature to me.

I used commercial fabric for the background and the pillowcase method of "binding" this piece. I used freezer paper to draw my swirl, pressed it to a piece of "unknown" fabric--something fun found in the remnant bin. Then I stitched the swirl down, cut around it, and used a zig zag stitch to secure it. I used fishing "flash" to add sparkle (another on of those things I've wanted to use for a long time) and couched the flash down with amethyst and bronze colored beads.

Here's a close up of the embellishment

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Waiting

my entry for the motion challenge, as the storm approaches, this woman stands, looking out to sea, watching and waiting....I used a scrap of fabric from an old dress and a piece of black lace for her shawl, I still need to quilt and bind this one. Right now I am on a creating spree, when I get several done, I quilt and bind them all.

Swirling Oaks

Here is my Challenge #14 piece- Swirling Oaks- 11"x14"

It looks like many others also thought of wind and leaves for this. It was the first thing I thought of when I read it, because fall is really here, and the winds have picked up, and the leaves are swirling all around.

I used sunprints of oak leaves I did this summer, using colors in orange and green with some burgundy. The sunprinted fabric was backed with Wonder Under, then cut apart, and fused to the batting with a gold-flecked ivory fabric between the prints. The edges of the prints are covered with a yarn in the colors of the fabric, couched with clear thread.

I quilted the outlines and veins of the sunprints with a variegated thread, and stitched some wobbly, curved lines with clear thread to show the swirling wind. The "binding" is the same yarn used earlier couched around the edges. The leaves for the embellishment are "silk" leaves pulled from their plastic stems. I attached them by stitching only on the vein lines, so they are loose on their edges.

The first photo is of the piece placed on a 16"x20" pre-stretched canvas which I would like to mount it to.

The second photo also shows it on the canvas, but with a couple more leaves placed on the canvas outside the edge of the quilt.

I am not sure if I like the canvas left white, or if a color would be better, or if I shoud add the extra leaves, or leave it alone.
If anyone has any ideas, I'm very open for suggestions.

Colorful Chaos - ~20" x 25"

Despite having issued the challenge, not a single advance idea of this piece came to me until Wednesday after it was posted!

I started off by going wild with the shape, then machine appliquéing a couple pieces with plenty of motion of their own. Then I dove into my stash of ribbons and trim, and twisted them around; they got sewn in with beads. This has to be the wildest piece I have ever made!

Beauty Vs. Imperfection

This quilt was meant to be a journery of healing for me. Almost eight years ago I had a mastectomy. Because of the many surgeries I went through that year I chose to not undergo reconstruction, so I have scars on my chest. I am reminded daily of that ordeal - the scars aren't pretty. But I do not wallow in self-pity. The scars remind me that I am a survivor! The quilt is embellished with a descontructed cooper pot scrubber and gold acrylic paint. The triangles are a loosely hand woven fabric that is somewhat frayed around the edges, demonstrating my journey, and that all is not as it seems. I plan on doing a bit of beading in amongst the copper after I have this quilted. It is not finished in that it needs to be backed and bound.

Ann in Walnut, CA

Second attempt at leaves

Here is a second attempt at fusing real oak leaves onto quilted fabric. Now I'm out of oak leaves... This shows more movement, I think, but I can't decide whether I'm looking up at the sky, which I intended, or down into water. The blue hand-dye is by Robbi Joy Eklow.

MINESHAFT

There are many old abandoned mines in deserts and mountains. Sometimes when you stumble across one, it looks like a bottomless pit (it often is!) surrounded by plant overgrowth and rocks. Careful, or you might fall in! One slip of the foot sends rocks and sand tumbling down into the shaft.

Moonlit Swamp

Successive layers of tree appliques in cotton and overlaid with sparkle tulle. The movement is the slow play of moonlight across the water. Embellishments are the twisted bugle beads in a dark, tarnished green/black color and the furry yarn in the tree top on the right. Free-motion quilted, faced, 33x28.

Skippers

Started right away. Worked hard. Didn't finish. In my defense, we had a family emergency. This piece is about 15" x 18", raw edge applique and hand embroidery. I enjoyed all the articles about what creates the illusion of motion in art and I tried to freeze motion. I don't think it works as well as it did in my sketch. Maybe when the rest of the embroidery and the quilting are added.

Through Hail and Ice

I tried to achieve movement through silence.

I drew a duck in flight then fused it in segments to a background which i painted with some metallic paint. I appliqued around the duck with satin stitch.

Free motion quilting with silver holographic thread was used as an embellishment.

Metallic paint for the feet and beak; with shading with fabric crayons to achieve greater definition of the duck and the movement of the wings.

I don't know whether i succeeded with the theme of movement.

I will appreciate any comments.

Anna.

Flight of the Dragonfly

The finished measurement is 13x17. I named if Flight of the Dragonfly - it reminded me of the Flight of the Bumblebee. The background is pieced with various scraps of fabric. The leaves and cattails are appliquéd down with the quilting. The cattail stems are couched yarn. The cattails have a little bit of stuffing to represent going to seed. The flight is beaded dancing in and out of the cattails. Finally a little blue beaded dragonfly to finish it off. As always I did have fun.

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Swirls by Lisa Konkel

This is the first challenge I've completed for this group. My challenge 13 quilt isn't finished yet.

When I read the rules, I kept thinking of swirling lines. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, so I sat down and did a series of sketches. I came up with two I really liked, and started with this one of swirling ribbons. (I'd still like to do the other one too, when I have a bit more time.)

I used sheer fabric and red lame, fusing them down to form the ribbons. This is the only embellishment I have. I have thought about adding beads to form additional ribbons. The ribbons are satin stitched to the quilt front, then the quilt was layered and quilted along the lines of the ribbons. I quilted to the edges of the fabric and then went back to add the borders, which is why those aren't quilted. I like the difference in texture of adding the borders after quilting--it looks more like a frame.

This is really a departure from other things I've made. I'm not sure if I really like it or not, but it was the quilt that was needing to be made for this challenge. I really enjoyed the challenge, especially the idea of trying sketches and then picking one to make.

Challenge 14 - The Wave by Cynthia Ann Morgan

My 17 x 13" piece is based on a 19th century vintage japanese woodcut print, called the "Great Wave off Kanagawa" by Hokusai which depicts an enormous wave threatening fishing boats with Mount Fuji in the background. Mine's not about Mt Fuji or fishing boats...just the motion of the giant wave and all that curling foam. I used hand dyed fabrics, fused applique and trapunto on some parts to give it more dimension. The embellishment part of the challenge is small...just some slivers of foil here and there.

This was a good challenge for me...I looked at alot of art to see what creates the feeling of motion. It really livens up a piece to have some movement and/or rhythm.

Comments welcome!

Cynthia

Storm watch

What fun, I really had to think when the Challenge was posted. Waterand wind kept coming to my mind. So, this is what I ended up with. Ihope I captured the essence of the challenge. I did use embellishmntsto help move the eye around the piece.Thank you for thinking of this as a challenge.

I used a lot of teqniques and embellishments in this piece.

I used my embellisher to texturize the water. Then with cellophane, tyvek, sparkle paint, angelina [from the sheets] ,paint, cotton balls, tuille, hand dyed and painted fabric, it all came together.The water started as a shimmer polyester. Hot fix embellishments and quilting lines move the eye around the piece as we" watch the storm"coming in.

I did something I had never done before and that was to fuse the pieces that make the four wind'y blocks on the left side. I always wanted o do this. But, I wouldn't again. Much easier to piece, even if it was by hand.

I look forward to your comments

Eddy

This is my attempt at showing movement. I began with a piece of hand dyed fabric from Alice Cruz, Della Jane Hand Dyes. The gold lines are Radiance, Copper, "Frize" type yarn. I used my new free-motion couching foot to apply the curvy lines. Then I quilted in gold within the lines, and green outside. This is hard to see. The leaves are real oak leaves that I collected from Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, KY last week. I used Heat 'n Bond Lite and fused them to the quilt.
Then I looked at all your other quilts. Wow! I should have quilted echo lines, which would have emphasized the movement. and, I fused the leaves too close to the edge and they are caught in the binding.

Fire Storm

I finally finished a challenge! It's been awhile. I chose to do a wild fire not only because of the most recent California blazes, but because my niece and her significant other both work for the National Fire Service and fight these terrible fire storms. I plan to give this to them for Christmas.

It didn't turn out quite as I'd hoped but I think gets the message across. I used all scrap pieces and fused them to the fabric using a circular pieces to get the swirling motion of the fire engulfing everything in its path and leaving only tinder behind. I then attempted to add 'smoke' by fusing separated yarn to the sky with fusible, too. Therein lies the problem. The fusible backing shows through in some spots more than others and also fuses the yarn down too flat to get much of a wispy effect. Any suggestions?

Salsify by Kathy Lichtendahl

Here is my second entry to FFFC. I am amazed at how many of us seem to have had the same initial idea of wind as the subject for the movement in our pieces. Especially since it is an invisible element in real life! The timing of this challenge was perfect for me as I just purchased an embellisher with some birthday money and really needed an excuse to try it out. The seed pods of the salsify plant are made from some of the hair off one of my llamas, attached to the background with the embellisher. The curving line of flying geese was a true challenge and I really need to work on coming up with a better method for including them in any future quilts. Any and all comments are welcome!