The One That Got Away (I know I'm really late!)

My home guild does charity quilts all year long. We support a variety of shelters for displaced women and children, especially those who are homeless after domestic violence. The committee makes kits that we can pick up and complete. Easy peasy. I grabbed a kit last month and found that the focus fabric was this great underwater print with funky fishes and plants. I kept thinking this could be an aquarium!

So, doing double duty (FFC and a completed quilt for the guild), I started playing with attic windows... and lo and behold, the colors in the kit sort of fit this challenge! What got very interesting was the flow of the blue thru the quilt (I wish I could have photographed what I saw thru the Ruby Glass! It was very cool). And since I limited myself to the fabric in the kit and nothing from my stash, the borders looked a bit barren, so I cut out some of the motifs from the focus fabric and raw edge appliqued them into the border. Finished size about 40 x 54", machine quilted and bound. Comments of course, are welcome!

Through the Fence--stitched

I have finally done the miles of stitching on this little piece. I really like the end results but would think hard about doing something with this many stops and starts again!

Through the Fence

After arriving home late Sunday from a 2 week, 3500 mile car trip and getting done all those things that need attention, I really wanted to do this challenge.  We had a laptop with us--so I knew what the challenge was about.  I even went to the store and bought markers, scissors, and tape.  I played with an idea and was fascinated by it.  

This little piece is 14" square. 

Everything is attached with WonderUnder.  I made the petals for the flower and attached them to the background.  Then I took a rotary cutter and made curvy cuts.  The pieces were then fused to the "fence". 

My colors are yellow, yellow-orange, orange.  The "fence" (grid) is blue-violet.  The quilt is not backed or been to the sewing machine.  I had a good time with this.  Even though I'm late I just couldn't let this pass me by!

Now that I have this "done", I have visited the photo collection and the blog to see what everyone else has done. It has been hard not to look ahead of time!  There is some wonderful work.  This year the challenges based on design and color have been great.

Sally

Dragon

Here is my effort for this challenge. I have to say that I have a very good excuse for being late - I was attending an art quilt retreat most of last week. My dragon is two shades of yellow ochre with fins of the complement of lavender. The background is also analogous - green and blue. The dragon scales are each cut individually, fused then stitiched with gold thread. I added some sparkle to the fire with Angelina nd holographic thread.

Washday Blues

"Washday Blues" is finished. You will note a bit of happiness for this hard working gal in the water bucket. There is lot's of texture in her dress and the cloth she's holding, I had fun with this one!
Continuing with my 'woman' theme, and thinking about my Mom and grandmother and the hard work those pioneer women did, brought this one to life. My grandmother had a scrub board and washing machine like this one.
I've used the analogous hues of red to
yellow orange, and the compliment of blue.
I wove the background fabric, and am quite pleased how it turned out, it is a grid isn't it?
Great challenge Joni

Fly Over

I knew exactly how to do the grid for this. I used a technique I read in Stitch magazine (a British embroiders guild magazine) by Sandra Middleton. I have used this technique in several different variations of my own on other projects. It is one of those techniques that makes it look like you worked very hard. However, it is mainly about fusing and slicing fabric.

What I couldn't work out was how to get it to fit with the dragon series. I showed some friends from my art group. One lady said it looked like a city from above...and so the idea was born that the dragon was flying overhead.

I used orangeyreds, peach, through to yellow, but not pure yellow. So, I used a bluey-purple for the complementary. I happened to have a sheer synthetic organza shot with the deep peach and bluey purple, so I have made a "shadow" of the dragon over the city.

And so, the Dragon Sentinel flies over the city in a routine surveillance round, protecting and keeping watch over those in his charge.

This slightly to the side photo shows the shadow better. It was taken before I did the edge stitching.

The piece is 6"x12".

escalators

I had a very hard time getting started on this challange but once I started I found it to be a lot of fun. Thank you for the stretch! This piece is 23"x 30. My colors are red, red orange, red violet with a complementary of green. I pieced, fused and quilted with varigtaed thread. All comments and critiques are more than welcome.

Pat Havey

Saved by Cynthia Ann Morgan

I’m not going to finish on time and want to take a lot of time putting in some more details and on the quilting of my piece. It’s 37 x27” and based on a vintage Japanese woodcut of a myth depicting a royal child being saved by lightening.

I used the framing concept as incorporated in the scene. Analogous colors are Red through Yellow Orange with blue complement. I’ll post the final version, but it will be weeks! Comments welcome...please and thank you!

Thanks for a great challenge, Joni. This might be my favorite color concept yet.

Cynthia

Earth, fire, wind, water

This challenge came exactly at the right time when I needed a small project to get myself back into quilting after the local quilt guild quilt show that I was co-chair of was over. My theme is what ever is going on in my life at the time-and I think this fits my theme in that I was ready to do something fun, not too mentally taxing, and just for myself! My inspiration was a quilt on my computer without any name attached to it-its definitely not a copy but used the idea of the square within a square in different sizes. My analogous colors are blue and green, with the compliment of rust-orange (one of my favorite color combinations). It turned out to be 38" x 26"-kept growing as I kept having fun with it. It still needs quilting and maybe some embellishment with dark orange thread or beads or whatever. Thanks for providing just the impetus I needed this week to get back into gear, Joni.

Mahjong Impressions

With many different images floating through my head, I started sketching rectangular patterns in an attempt to create a grid. What started to emerge was a stacked collection of tiles that reminded me of a Mahjong game board. (I play way too many computer games). I started thinking this could be the source for a new series using the grid construction. I started this piece by selecting my analogous colors, yellow-green, yellow and yellow-orange, and adding a purple as my complementary accent. I made each tile a separate little quilt-let, and finished the edges with the pillow-case method. Then I was forced to put it the whole design into my drafting program to play with the relationship of the pieces. So much for artistic expression. I guess the word “grid” brought out the draftsman side of me. After printing out my pattern, the whole piece was carefully pinned to my design board, and I took the photo at that time (this morning). The tiles still have to become attached to each other, so any comments about my arrangement can be fixed. I like the basic result of this piece, and wish that it could be a little larger. Please note that the tan background is my design board and not part of the piece. One thing learned is that it sure is easier to quilt and embellish a small piece, however the logistics of putting it all together is quite a challenge in itself. I look forward to making some more quilts using a grid construction, and also look forward to any comments I may receive. This was a fun challenge for me.

Trellis

After a two month sewing hiatus, it felt good to play with fabric and my machine. I made my grid on Monday but wasn’t happy with the outcome as it looks more like a background. I thought about adding some dimensional flowers as the grid reminded me of a garden trellis.

Tuesday, I decided to draft a new quilt with a garden trellis as my grid challenge when my daughter came to town unexpectantly. I do plan on making the trellis with a variety of dimensional flowers and experimenting with some of Kumiko Sudo’s origami designs. This will be one of my retreat projects.

This was a fun project for me as I enjoy the random cutting and piecing with no plan or design in mind. I do think I will cut off the black border and square it up as it isn’t enough out of square to look like part of the design and add some surface embellishment. For now, it will hang on the design wall until something comes to mind.

I used blue-violet, violet, red violet, purple and fuchsia for my analogous scheme with chartreuse as the compliment. This piece measures 16”x 18”.

Thank you, Joni, for the challenge and as always, each challenge is a learning experience with all the great concepts and examples.

Comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Pam

Fragility

I LOVED doing this one and just may be off on a new tangent.
Shopping for the fabric was fun, putting it together was even more fun.
I hope I got the 'GRID' part of this challenge. I used Joen Wolfram's
Color tool and used the 7 colors. My main color was 'yellow' and I went from there.
I used threads in the same color and the beads pretty much fit as well.
I used a yellow poplin for the background, it only shows in small bits. I drew a 2" grid all through it. From there, I tore my Dupioni silk into approximate squares and laid them out on the grid. I added over top , etc... all along the grid line drawn underneath. I hand stitched using a 'ladder' stitch. I also tore organza into 'bite-size' pieces and laid them out in an overlapping diagonal toward the bottom.
I used stitches, a button, loose threads and beads to embellish. As you know, Dupioni silk frays like crazy, so in straightening my fabric, I pulled the fraying threads toward the selvage. I cut that off, rolled it into organza squares, letting the threads hang down. I wrapped the 'tubes' in embroidery floss, tied into the top knot a 4 stone Svaroski crystal pendant [green] and stitched them on with a bead at the top. It is bound with a sheer.. also torn and see through edges. Beads embellish the edges in the binding.
I called it 'Fragile', I think because of the fragile system we live in.. re: swine flu, faltering economies, age and the frailties associated there. Add to that the incredible 'show' of support for Virginia Spiegel's Cancer fund-raiser.... me remembering my own asleep in death.... just made me think FRAGILE. That is why I like the torn edges, the threads and see-through frays.
I look forward to your comments..... and your 'what-if's'...
Carole

Lollypops

This is a silly little quiltlet - no series, no theme, just a quick experiment. Therefore, I don't expect a lot of praise... The squares are woven and fused onto a foundation, then the stems and flowers were fused on, as well. The quilting uses one of my favorite variegated threads, and the wavy vertical lines that I've begun to use a lot. My main question - Does it meet the challenge?

The size is 8 1/2" x 7 1/2"

Grasses

As so often seems to happen, this piece started with what I thought was a simple, quick idea. Ha! If I had known how many hours it would take to accomplish, I would have changed the plan from the beginning.

Almost every quilt I have ever made has been designed on my morning run. This is a rare exception as I woke up the morning after the challenge was posted with the design in my head. I made the monoprint of grasses several years ago and had no idea what I was going to do with it until now. The first problem was that it was on a small piece of white fabric so I overdyed it chartreuse and at the same time dyed another piece of fabric the same color so I could applique the print to the background and have it look like it was one. Then, my plan to use commercial fabrics for the squares just wasn't working so I dyed several more pieces of fabric to get my analogous blues and greens as well as a magenta complement.

Once I had my print appliqued to the background I created a grid using 1/8" pieces of tape that I cut from a 1" roll of blue tape. I fused the 1" squares to the background and then quilted the whole thing.

Of course I didn't even think about the binding when I started and now I have no fabric left so I am dying yet another piece chartreuse so I can match the binding to the border/background. The finished piece is 14" x 21".

Green Mile Squared

I was in the process of making this quilt for something else and it pretty much fits this challenge so I'll post it. The analogous colors are lime green, yellow, and orange with the compliment of purple. You have to look to find the yellow which is yarn wrapped around the 3 middle pieces and the purple and green are the dominant colors. I call it Green Mile Squared since the green cuts through the middle of dark and light purple and it is definitely a grid pattern.

I pieced together the green and purple squares going from dark in the lower left to lighter in the upper right. Orange squares were scattered around to give it some 'oomph'. I splattered paint around after the quilting which is also in a grid pattern. It seemed to need something in the middle so I wrapped a yellow and purple yarn around wooden skewers found in the grocery store and stitched them in the middle of the quilt.

THE REASON I WAS IN THE PROCESS OF MAKING THIS IS BECAUSE I JUST FINISHED A BOOK STUDY OF KATIE PASQUINI MASOPAUST'S BOOK "COLOR AND COMPOSITION FOR THE CREATIIVE QUILTER". IT MADE FOR A VERY GOOD STUDY AND LOTS OF LESSONS INVOLVING JUST WHAT THIS CHALLENGE WAS ABOUT. I'D RECOMMEND IT FOR ANYONE.

Yards and Masts

"On another day, she wandered with him, hand in, hand, along the deserted paths of a garden whose creepers had been cut out by a decorator's skillful hands. It was as though the real sky, the real flowers, the real earth were forbidden her for all time and she condemned to breathe no other air than that of the theater. An occasional fireman passed, watching over their melancholy idyll from afar. And she would drag him up above the clouds, in the magnificent disorder of the grid, where she loved to make him giddy by running in front of him along the frail bridges, among the thousands of ropes fastened to the pulleys, the windlasses, the rollers, in the midst of a regular forest of yards and masts."

from chapter XI Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

I constructed two wonky strata's , embellished with strips of wonky cut sheers. Then I cut them into strips inserting the alternating stratas. Finally, I further embellished and quilted, reinforcing the grid pattern.

My colors are blue-green, blue, and green with red-orange as the complimentary.

The piece measures 11"x15"

Joni, this was a terrific challenge! I had so much fun with it, I intend to continue with a series of grids. Thanks for the inspiration!

Comments gratefully accepted

Cherie

Challenge #32

Challenge #32 – Use Grid or Framed and Analogous + complement
Hostess – Joni Feddersen

Color Concept: Analogous colors with a complementary color
An analogous- complementary scheme utilizes related hues lying adjacent on the color wheel with a hue directly opposite to these. Why is this an effective color scheme? An analogous color scheme is calming and pleasing, but can be unexciting. Adding a complementary color can add excitement, tension and emphasis as well as move the eye around the piece. Analogous with complementary can be less jarring than using just a straight complementary color scheme. It’s the best of both color schemes: the beauty of analogous with the drama of complementary.

Composition Concept: Using grids/frames
This is a broad composition concept and can be taken various ways. As in traditional quilting, grids (blocks) and frames (borders) have been used for years to add structure and unity to the quilts, but that is just one way to interpret this challenge.

There is a diagram of framed and grid composition in Katie Pasquini Masapust’s book Design Exploration for the Creative Quilter. See it here: http://tinyurl.com/d7vhmn

The famous artist Piet Mondrian introduced grids to the art world as a simplification of the relationships between color, size and shape.
Works by Piet Mondrian can be seen: http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/d/destijl.html

Adding structure with the use of grids can have several benefits. It makes the eye move in a controlled manner and can draw the viewer to a particular focal point. Grids can be used in many ways as we will see in some of our quilt examples.

http://www.eleanormccain.net/Pages/GalleriesGrids.html

http://triciamckellar.com/art/grid_collages.php

http://www.quiltsbyvalerie.com/archgallery1A.html

http://quiltart.com/gallery/colsh.html

http://www.yde.dk/charlotte/english This is another example of both our composition and our color concepts for this challenge.

Setting your masterpiece in a frame is another way to interpret this challenge. Just as an artist frames their painting, an art quilt can utilize this concept to enhance the design. Framed examples:

http://www.davidwalker.us/Pages/QG_MonolithSeries.html Look at “Monolith 1”

http://www.davidwalker.us/Pages/Q_SelectedWorks3.html Look at “Anja’s Choice”

http://www.jilljensenart.com/Gallery-Nature.html Look at “Scarab IV”

http://www.lyrickinard.com/abstract.html Look at “Gold Leaf”

Examples of subtle framing used as part of the design:

http://www.artfabrik.com/galleryone.htm
http://www.barbaratriton.com/fiber3.htm
http://www.ruthbmcdowell.com/clients/rbm/recent.cfm


Don’t forget to have fun with this challenge!