Challenge 68

Wedding Memory Quilt

Wedding Memory Quilt

I wanted to make a small memory quilt in appreciation of the wedding invitation. I figured I would just stitched them as a straight top with filler between. Then when the FFF Challenge came out, I totally changed my thinking. This Gestalt challenge made a BIG difference in my design = turned it upside down. I wanted the photos to look as if they were casually dropped on a table. Of course, they were carefully arranged according to the Gestalt principals of Similarity, Proximity, and Alignment.

The Wedding Ceremony Booklet top is on the top, touching the family, who are now united by the marriage and the couple. The wedding group photo is on the bottom of everything, because although important, it is subservient to both the couple and the family. The father-daughter photo is parallel to the couple [they are still close, yet have a very different relationship], but not touching. I chose this photo of the couple as they were both intently looking at each other. The small center bottom photo is of the couple lighting the unity candle, another symbol of their pledge of troth.

I had this all laid out 2 months ago when I took it to a guild meeting and someone commented, "Those photos are very antique looking. Why don't you just tuck a little lace under to complete the look." Wonderful suggestion. However, it is not that easy "to tuck a little lace under". The corners need to be square, matched and aligned. I also was unsure of the fusing medium, so when I asked the quiltart group, I found I needed to use Mistyfuse Ultraviolet. So then I had to wait for the mail. Then life interrupted. Now, happily, it is finished.

Under the Old Oak Tree

The Gestalt principles used in this quilt are Proximity and Similarity. The leaves of the tree were fussy cut and individually glued onto the branches. All these small parts became a recognizable tree because of their proximity and their similarity. I made this quilt for my grandson's playroom. He loves farm animals and tractors and at eighteen months can make many animal sounds. The tree took hours and hours of cutting and placement, as well as all the quilting to hold everything in place, but I'm so glad it's finished in a timely fashion so that it can be hung while my grandson is still young enough to enjoy it.

Miss Lena Horn

Hi all, this maybe cheating a little but recently my time has been limited and I really loved this challenge.  My husband's Mother, at 91, is finally slowing down mentally and our daughter is fighting an illness.  We are spending lots of time away from home, both live in NC.
At any rate I loved this challenge and it brought to mind the image that I recently  recently finished for an exhibit at The Art's Center in Clemson, SC.  The exhibit was titled Painting the Blues and was part of a local Blue's Festival.
I Chose a portrait of Miss Lena Horn and used the Gestalt Principal of closure.  I chose a piece of fabric with music notes as the background with black over top.  I manipulated the image in PSE until I had only the black and white image above. 
The image is 12 x 17 and is matted and framed.

Gestalt Leaves

18" x 24"

The gestalt principles here are similarity/differences, and proximity, to create a trio of plants.  I used reverse applique, with the base fabric being a piece of dark brown stretchy velvet, which adds a richness to the piece.  The curlicue pattern at the bottom was part of the fabric when I bought it; it seems that on the basis of a bit of an embroidered pattern, it could be imported for a lower price, as embroidery, rather than as velvet!  At any rate, I chose to keep it, and when I mounted the whole piece on foam core, decided to make the lower edge echo that shape.

Machine problems plagued the sewing of the satin stitch around the leaves, but I managed it on my older machine by going ve-e-e-e-ry slowly!

Comments welcome

Amigos

I was on vacation when this new challenge was posted.  I did not quite understand "Gestalt".  This is my idea of gestalt.  I did not want to see what others had posted until after I did mine, because I did not want to be influenced by what others had done.  I think I'm pretty close.  The finish quilt will be approximately 25"X17".  I don't know why, but the true colors of the quilt is not coming through.  All comments, critiques and criticisms welcome.

"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 :-)

Zebra (En)Closure

When I saw Cherie's theme and read through the various Gestalt principles, the one that spoke to me was Closure. This is an interpretation of a closely cropped image I found in a book somewhere. Once I got started the quilt almost made itself and was a pleasure to create. Overall it measures 12"w x 14"l.

Ann In Fallbrook, CA

Waterworld

I wish I could interpret these challenges a little less than literally, but here it is.  I wanted to experiment with Lutradur and coloured a large piece with Tee-Juice markers. When put on the dark background the colour was lost so I fused two pieces of Lutradur together and then cut out the shapes with an electric needle that I bought years ago to cut templates ( Yeah, that long ago! LOL) Each individual piece is fused to the background and then sewn with a narrow free-motion zig-zag stitch.  The background is narrowly machine echo quilted.  The entire piece is only about 16" square.

The Biker

The Biker is created using the principles of Closure and Proximity. The biker’s head and the bike's wheels are separate from the body made of lockwashers and yet is perceived as a group due to proximity.

 Materials: lockwashers and washers on cotton fabric

Where Ever You Go

I chose to do an abstract for this challenge, I used recycled fabric including upholstery scraps. Quilted with free motion embroidery.

I am not sure what inspired me other than the challenge topic -I am thrilled I completed this wondrous challenge. Cynthia's words "don't over think it" pushed me along. I am traveling a journey with breast cancer and really in a chemo daze.
Susan Ward
 berylsjourneywithbreastcancer.blogspot.com

'We All Shine On'

I have finally finished up my answer to this challenge. I quilted the circles and circle slices, added the sun in the right hand corner, quilted sun rays over the entire piece, and couched yarn around the edge of the sun. I am happy with the finished product and it hangs in our home on wheels!

This was an interesting challenge which provided a lot of options. I decided once more to attempt an abstract since my comfort zone is in realistic portrayals. I was contemplating working with squares and rectangles, but eventually settled on circles. Since I am very involved in getting a piece completed in the next three weeks, I only have the foundation completed for this challenge. I will be quilting a sun with long wavy rays in the upper right corner of the piece. I am also planning on putting stars dancing through the rays, making them descend from the smallest to the largest at the bottom of the piece. Sorry to not be able to complete this in the allotted time again, but I will post a picture when I have finished it. Thanks for stretching me again and helping me to learn new things in the process!

Stalking Cat

I was interested in pursuing the idea of rudimentary shapes suggesting a whole. I did it in reverse, Starting with a high contrast photo of my cat and eliminating shading, and texture. I don't have time to translate this into cloth right now, but I have done several croppings to try to get the least amount of information which will still convey the personality. For example, if I cut to just an eye, two eyes, and /or nose, it could read as several different animals. Very stimulating to think of all the elements that are essential and the others that aren't.

original photo

Julia in NZ

Lunch at the Lake

This challenge was soooo much fun!  I chose CONTINUITY for my quilt.  Hopefully I have achieved it - your eye should travel from fish, to the right and up, ending with the heron.  I decided to enter this now (I have yet to add the binding) since I will be busy for the next few days and not sure I will have it completed by Friday.

This is 29"x18" and most of it was done with cottons.  The water is overlayed with organza so that the fish looks like he is in the water, not on it.  The dragonfly wings are organza and the lily is cut from ribbon. (Hope the fish gets the dragonfly because it would be wasted on the frog since he is about to be nabbed by the heron.)  Your comments are welcome, and encouraged.  I have really enjoyed doing this one, thanks Cherie.    Sandi

Lady Arbor

I have been fascinated with the principles of Gestalt, and in this piece tried to use as many as I could. The sky is woven using many different fabrics for texture and contrast, the repeating shapes represent Proximity. The birds swooping from top, across the quilt and out the side show Continuation. The repeating shapes of the birds- Similarity; the bird flying in the opposite direction-Anomaly; The tree/lady- Closure.

The tree is appliqué cut in one piece using a suede cloth, and the leaves are 'beaded’ netting. The birds are appliqués made from a copper tissue lame fused to a copper suede cloth.

Your comments gratefully received...

Cherie

Cavorting Trees

This picture of trees fascinated me and encouraged me to try the same thing.  It is thread painted, painted with watercolor pencil and sheva sticks, appliqued and quilted.  It measures 10x14".

Pat Havey

La Luna

After reading the challenge, I started googling for ideas and found one that just leaped off the page at me.  This image (8th one down on that page) made me think of some B&W striped fabric I had in my stash, but alas, I didn't have enough of it (and no more at the quilt shop, I checked!).  But I started in, and knocked this one out in 4 hours.

The striped fabric was strip cut and reassembled to alternate the strips.  The inset circle was doing with Cathy Miller's circle technique (found in her songbook, page 41, and I was the hand model!).  Quilted with black and white variegated thread (King Tut!), and simply bound.  Done.

Fun to just play.  A lot of the gestalt work struck me as also Op-Art.... and I love it when things come together so fast!... Comments of course are welcome and appreciated.

Find Your Own Path

I played with several of the gestalt principles using fabric paint and some of my homemade stencils.  None of the samples thrilled me but found I was drawn to the similarity/anamoly principle.  I came up with the idea of individuality and went to posemaniacs.com to create the figures.  Since they are small (entire quilt is only 17 x 21) I used faux suede for the figures to keep the intricate details from unraveling.  I dug the border out of my stash and found a piece of my hand dyed fabric that went well with the rust color in the border.  I finished the edges of the quilt using the pillowcase method.  The only thing I have left to do is quilt it.  I plan to use echo quilting.  I just need to go to the store to find a muted rust thread.

I haven't posted in a while.  Between work and my husband's health, anything creative has been on the back burner.  However, finals are coming up next week and I hope to have some time to play this summer.  This was a really great challenge and I may make another one using one of the other principles.

LindaBN from Louisiana

Challenge 68 - Gestalt Art

Challenge 68:  Gestalt in Art

Gestalt Theory holds that “the whole is other than the sum of its parts”. Kurt Koffka (the whole exists independently from its parts).   Parts identified individually have different characteristics to the whole;

e.g. describing a tree,-its parts are trunk, branches, leaves, perhaps blossoms or fruit.  But when you look at an entire tree, you are not conscious of the parts, you are aware of the overall object-the tree.  Parts are of secondary importance even though they can be clearly seen.

When your first impression of a design is positive, when you instinctively see it as good, it’s likely because one or more “Gestalt Principles of Perception” are at play.

The challenge:  Create your piece using one or more of the Gestalt Principles as described below:

I hope you will find these ideas fascinating, as I do.  Have fun and I’m really looking forward to your ideas!

Cherie

The Gestalt Principles  Gestalt is a psychology term which means "unified whole". It refers to theories of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the 1920s. These theories attempt to describe how people tend to organize visual elements into groups or unified wholes when certain principles are applied. These principles are: Similarity Similarity occurs when objects look similar to one another. People often perceive them as a group or pattern. The example above (containing 11 distinct objects) appears as as single unit because all of the shapes have similarity. Unity occurs because the triangular shapes at the bottom of the eagle symbol look similar to the shapes that form the sunburst.  When similarity occurs, an object can be emphasized if it is dissimilar to the others. This is called anomaly. The figure on the far right becomes a focal point because it is dissimilar to the other shapes. Continuation  Continuation occurs when the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object. Continuation occurs in the example above, because the viewer's eye will naturally follow a line or curve. The smooth flowing crossbar of the "H" leads the eye directly to the maple leaf. Closure Closure occurs when an object is incomplete or a space is not completely enclosed. If enough of the shape is indicated, people percieve the whole by filling in the missing infomation.  Although the panda above is not complete, enough is present for the eye to complete the shape. When the viewer's perception completes a shape, closure occurs.  Proximity Proximity occurs when elements are placed close together. They tend to be perceived as a group.   The nine squares above are placed without proximity. They are perceived as separate shapes.  When the squares are given close proximity, unity occurs. While they continue to be separate shapes, they are now perceived as one group. The fifteen figures above form a unified whole (the shape of a tree) because of their proximity. Figure and Ground The eye differentiates an object form its surrounding area. a form, silhouette, or shape is naturrally perceived as figure(object), while the surrounding area is perceived as ground(background). Balancing figure and ground can make the perceived image more clear. Using unusual figure/ground relationships can add interest and sublety to an image.    Figure The word above is clearly perceived as figure with the surrounding white space ground.    In this image, the figure and ground relationships change as the eye perceives the the form of a shade or the silhouette of a face.  This image uses complex figure/ground relationships which change upon perceiving leaves, water and tree trunk.

.Here is a wonderful little video with Bobby McFerrin demonstrating the theory with music…I love it!

 http://vimeo.com/5732745

Here are some terrific resources for learning about the Gestalt Theory:

http://painting-course.com/445/oil-painting/gestalt-principles-of-art-and-design/

http://daphne.palomar.edu/design/gestalt.html

http://painting-course.com/445/oil-painting/gestalt-principles-of-art-and-design/

http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/gestalt-principles-applied-in-design/

Seven principles of design:

http://artblog.emilygonsalves.com/2009/03/seven-principles-of-design.html

http://www.slideshare.net/wyncko/unity-and-balance

http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~kbroom/Lectures/gestalt.htm

http://artnectar.com/2010/05/fundamentals-design-gestalt/

http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/ss/gestaltlaws.htm