Bridges

Book cover for Bridges of Madison County.  I tweaked it a bit from the photo posted in Yahoo Groups.  I know my focal point is too centered.  Tried to offset that by adding the bright flowers on the left. Maybe cropping away some of the left side would also help. 
I have not participated for a long time.  Tobi gave me a push, so I'm back.  I DO love challenges, but you know how life gets in the way. 

Karol Kusmaul
Inverness, fL

Fantasy Book Cover

Cone Flower

Framed 10" square

  

Because of my love of plants and gardening, I have many gardening books.  My frustration with all of them is that they try to cram too many photos or a photo of too many plants on the cover.  Because of this, I decided to create a book cover that I would like to see.  I also was so fond of my idea, I thought it might make a nice series.  However, because of the strictness of my design, everything had to be exact.  It was much easier on paper than fabric.  Paper doesn't stretch and move, sometimes with a mind of its' own.

 

Because my original photo was very busy with other flowers, it had to be painted over a LOT!   I used tiny, iridescent seed beads on the top of solid small seed beads.  Those glaring dots in the photo are reflections of light.  I stretched the center of the flower with the round handle of my scissors.  Then I beaded it and stuffed it.  After mounting on the foam core, the perimeter of the 'cone' didn't want to lay flat.  I stitched the edges down with clear poly.  Now it has the depth that I wanted.  I like a lot of depth and texture.  I first stitched the petals to one layer of poly batting and a thin backing.  After stitching all of the petal veins, I cut around the petals so there was no batting between.  Then I made the usual layer of top-batting-backing.  I re-stitched around the petals so that they would have dimension.  Then I quilted the rest of the piece.

 

Stranger in a Strange Land

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein was one of my favorite books, it was absolutely the most influential book I've ever read. I read it when I was 15, about the time you start to think as yourself, and it taught me to think about fairness, love, acceptance, and most of all, truth. Do you remember the Fair Witness concept?

 Yes, its view of women is dated, but they were always treated with love. Then there's the whole question of the true identity of Valentine Michael Smith. I recommend a reading or rereading of it to everyone. Anyone younger than a Boomer should keep in mind it is historical science fiction.  It is also the first part of a trilogy and really more spiritual than science fiction.

I uploaded two images; the first is my book cover (I love this challenge!) and the second is the cover as experiment. I'm going to finish it in the manner of Susan Lenz, a tutorial of which is on her blog, http://artbysusanlenz.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-make-in-box.html

I look forward to your comments.  

Suzanne Thompson

www.texturedwords.com 

Lord of the Rings

16" x 13½"

It will come as no surprise to those who have seen my early entries that "The Lord of the Rings" is my favorite book so it was my immediate choice for this challenge!  My initial idea was to have just the hand reaching up to the ring strung on a chain, with the title and author, but my husband felt I needed to include the Eye of Sauron.  For that, I used Angelina fiber with some black strands to be the cat-like pupil of the eye.  I used two layers of dark blue organza to somewhat mute the background; both the eye and the hand are between the two layers.  One mistake was to stitch the chain and ring last, because when I was placing them, I found that the chain needed to go behind the eye, and that was a bit tricky!

And while I normally go with less regular shapes, that's not the way books are made, hence the rectangle!

I look forward to your comments.  Thanks for the fun challenge, Sharon.

Alice in Wonderland

A friend of mine was sketching for fun and when I saw this sketch I immidiately thought of  Alice in wonderland.  It is made with commercial and hand dyed fabric.  It is hard to see the quilting in the photo but it is there.  The "hole" is paper pieced and the tree is raw edge applique. The piece measures 7x17".It is fun to be back in a creative space. 
Thanks for the fun challenge.

Pat Havey

Positive Hand Gestures

Based on one of my favorite books, The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

 Designed in Make the Cut software, thread sketched portraits, Tsukineko ink, free motion quilted on Moire fabric.

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

Challenge #83: A new Cover for your Favorite Book

Host: Sharon Robinson

Due: August 3, 2013

Theme:  The title or subject of your favorite book

Style: This can be a representational quilt that illustrates a person, place or thing from the book,  or an abstraction that captures the emotions and essence of the book.  It can be fiction or non-fictional, serious or humorous.  Imagine the latest edition on bookstore shelves, with your art on the cover!  Your piece can start out the size of a book, or you could do a large piece and assume it would be reduced in scale for the cover art.

Technique:  Any technique you choose

Design Element: Line – Optional.  If this topic seems too wide open to you, try also incorporating the design exercise of using the element of “line” to portray your subject or theme.  There are as many ways to use “line” as there are works of art:  http://tinyurl.com/googlemodernartline

Some ideas that came to mind for me are:  A portrait of Jane Eyre or the girls from Little Women, a landscape of the windswept mores of England…   You could use humor or a pun: A Catcher in a loaf of Rye Bread?

Non-fiction: One of my current favorite books is about Climate Change – so I could do a quilt depicting the melting ice in the Arctic.  I’m also reading about Joseph Albers and his color studies, so I might do a quilt based on his ideas:   http://tinyurl.com/Albersbook

If you don’t really have a favorite book, or are stuck on how to interpret it, just go to Amazon Books and browse the cover art shown, but don’t just copy it – look at how the illustrator chose to interpret  the book.  For example here are many different ideas on “To Kill a Mockingbird” http://tinyurl.com/Mockingbirdcoverart

You could select a favorite book from your childhood, or one you read to your grandchildren:

http://tinyurl.com/childbookillustrations  Again, don’t copy the illustrations, but be inspired by them.  You could do a piece inspired by the style of some of the great childrens’ book illustrators.   http://flavorwire.com/306958/the-20-most-beautiful-childrens-books-of-all-time/5 or http://tinyurl.com/kncf4oe

Abstract art lends itself to book covers easily. It can even make “Ductal Carcinoma in Situ” look interesting!  J   http://tinyurl.com/abstractcovers

A couple more links to book cover ideas:

http://tinyurl.com/bestbooksyear

http://tinyurl.com/googlebookcovers

And some art story quilts, showing how other quilt artists have told stories with their work.  But remember if your piece will be on the cover of a book, keep it simple and eye-catching!

http://tinyurl.com/googlestoryquilts

Don’t get stuck on which book to use, or how to interpret it “correctly.”  This is really just a prompt to get you brainstorming and inspired!   Most of all, have FUN!