Leaf in the Fountain

Here is my small project in response to this challenge to create something in the chiaroscuro style. I used a photo of the fountain at the Cheesecake Factory as inspiration. I wish the green receded more into the background. The photo has more depth and mystery. This is not quite finished… not trimmed or bound or even signed yet.

Enjoyed the challenge, thanks for hosting, Susan. As usual, I'm enjoying the posts and comments - always learning something new.

Fall Pennants

Early for a change...

This challenge fit in with another project I needed to finish this week. A swap of fall pennants. The photo shows one face up and one face down. I began with a triangle and cut oak leaves out of the side. The applique fabric was backed in MistyFuse and I switched the oak leaves from one side to the other so that the fusing worked.

The applique fabric was rusted and I had a really hard time sewing on it. Had to help my machine push through it once or twice.

Now I see a face in the triangle and I want to try an even more figurative Notan just for fun. Thanks for the challenge, it was excellent timing for me.

Thank you for choosing Andy Goldsworthy for inspiration for the FFFC. I used disperse dyeing on "faux silk" polyester with just a simple bit of quilting and cropped it digitally. No binding on it yet. I may add another round of quilting between the leaves with a loopy loop in it. Not sure though, seems too frivolous for such a formal design. If I repeat this design on another piece of cloth, I plan to move the very first leaf on the paper pattern so it is more in line. Or I might cut it a little smaller. Refining the design is easy in disperse dyeing. There's a process photo on my blog.

Looking forward to your comments. Feels really good to participate again after sitting out a few months.

:Diane

Woven Earth

Still working small in order to finish; this one is about the size of a potholder (grin). I printed two pieces of non-woven polyester interfacing with transfer dyes - one black and one chartreuse. Then I cut them and wove them into the earth shape. The blanket stitch came next - without it the earth looked more like a green chicken ready to roast. I did some machine stitching in black trying to keep them parallel but I must have felt the beginnings of the movement of the plates in my sewing room ...

Anyway, I am pretty proud of my edge stitching. I cut the backing a smidge larger than the front and as I stitched the extra green rolled around and covered the batting. Just what I planned.

Looking forward to any comments you care to leave. Thanks for the challenge.

Circles

Although the photo is cropped, I have not actually bound the edges yet. Today was a holiday and so I spent most of it working on this challenge. I had the idea for awhile and my sewing room was recently decluttered for its other use as a guest room over the holidays, so finding stuff and actually sewing was amazingly easy and quite satisfying!

The circles done by Kenneth Noland appealed to me and I did a lot of quilting on this even though his works seem quite flat because I needed some practice. I like the way the turquoise silk pops out. The edges of it are raw and already fraying so they are "softened." I didn't fuse everything down. I cut open rings to avoid having so much bulk to stitch through. I just used a few dots of glue to hold them until I quilted. The center circle is more greenish yellow that it appears on my monitor. I'm tired after a full day of sewing, but it was really fun to do something so different.


I look forward to your comments.
:Diane - yarngoddess

Earth as Haiku

Update September 2011
The earth needed more stitching and a hanging device. I painted the edges of a canvas to match the fabrics and now I'm finally ready to call it "finished." I'm just working on clearing out some WIPs and putting them in the upcoming sale.



I believe I like it hanging on point rather than square. The quilting is not done to perfection but with the layer of sealer on it the holes would have been more ugly than just poorly controlled stitching in my opinion.




earth circles around
rotating through the seasons
slowly years fly by

Still a work in progress, stitching yet to be done.
This was a great challenge. I've enjoyed looking at everyone's photos and reading the poems. Hope to go through again tomorrow and make a few comments. Even though it's Halloween, I won't be witch-y!!! :o)

:Diane - yarngoddess

work in progress - Diane / yarngoddess

Updated, October 29, 2010
I've added white pencil to the yellow sunlight areas and quilted the dark purple shadows. I have a lot of thread ends to bury tonight. I'm considering whether to quilt the yellow areas. It would have to be in at least two different colors I think. Not sure I'm up to that much burying.


Blogger isn't my usual platform... hopefully you can see two photos. One is a sewer drain in a parking lot and the other is the beginning of my quilt for the Challenge #49 Chiaroscuro. I have begun on the upper right of the quilt. I'm excited to actually have an idea that I want to work on with fabric from my stash. I'm fusing these on the wrong side of a commercial fabric that looks hand-dyed. I'm interested in comments and hope to finish the cutting and fusing tonight.

It took me awhile to sift through the impossible dream quilt ideas to get to one that was more do-able. I took a lot of new photos and looked through all my old "artsy shots." In the end I had too many ideas! Several are resting in the trash bin. I do appreciate the pressure of a deadline and hope to do better next time. I have thoroughly enjoyed everyone's photos and learned so much already from the work shown and the comments offered.


October 4 Update: The fusing is done.



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