Castle in the Mist

I worked from a piece I had trialled in an abstracting exercise. Although it looks a little bit like a castle, it was in fact some chemical crystals in a close-up photo. I fused the sheers with Misty Fuse - worked really well. Sometimes when I look at the darker squares near the bottom, I think they are distracting, but I really wasn't aiming for reality, just a suggestion. The quilting over that area in grey-lavender rayon has helped to unify the blocks.

When I saw the button challenge, I imagined I would do a funky piece. But obviously the funky gene is recessive!

Julia in NZ

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

Winter sunshine

I finished this piece made out of scraps. From my initial piece made while at my mothers, I needed to exchange a couple of pieces, but that was a heap of deconstruction to get there. My mental image was of sunshine through a window, with condensation running down. This is rather hard for me to think of, as it is high summer here right now!

Good intentions

I thought about an idea for this challenge, using Vermeer's Girl with a glass of wine for the palette. I had a thing going for retrievers (which is odd because I don't really like dogs), combined with heraldry. I would put the text on a banner. However, I don't think I really want to make it at this stage. I tried some of the colour sites suggested, but none of them picked up the blue of the chair - the same chair that appears in many Vermeer paintings.

As usual the challenge has made me think about colour and construction. I even got the fabrics out and started playing with the black marks on red - ermine, dog paws, etc. Just no follow through!

The trees that learned how to fly

This whimsical piece includes a line of trees I saw by the edge of a canal. They reminded me of a flock of birds. I also wanted the trees to morph from black to white, but I found the final dove looked a bit flat, so I foiled some Misty Fuse for its wings. The dove of peace image with its twig links back to the tree idea. For the edge I did some satin stitch, then a bobbin thread of green wool, and finally a hand-couched yarn right on the edge.

I haven't managed to do a challenge for a while, but with it being school holidays, I had the time as well as the inclination.

A fishy tale

When I read the challenge I was tossing up between foil and some knitted copper tubing that I had. The copper won, and it had always suggested fish scales to me, hence the mermaid. For these challenges I always have to use only what I already have at home. Luckily I had the sea fabric, and some nice grey batik for the rock. The border foliage is fussy cut from a print I have had for 10 years. The edge treatment is satin stitch with banana fibre couched over the top.
She does have a rather Aloha Barbie character, but let's face it, she probably doesn't have a philosophy degree! When I was researching mermaids I read that if you look in a mermaid's mirror you see your true self. The mirror is angelina fused on with black misty fuse. The hair is stitched with copper metallic madeira black jewel.

Size is 16 by 23

silk tree

I made this a while ago from silk fusion dried over the very fissured bark of a pine log. Woollen yarns fixed by embellisher machine and by hand, silk sari yarn hand couched, hand stitched and beaded. I am not one for handwork, but this was fun to do, and is one of my favourites. I've always meant to do another one, so maybe this will spur me on. About 14 inches by 4.

Lavender field

I did a sampler of different techniques. The mountains are Vikki Pignatelli's zigzag tube method, with a fold in the centre to give the two tones. The ploughed field is texture magic, which I hated - the stitch tension was all over the place and I don't like using plastic. The hedges are ruching, one in the centre, single layer, and one at the edge, doubled. The lavender field is chenille method. I don't think I will take this any further. Batting and quilting would only flatten out the textures.

Poinsettia

I did not immediately see myself doing this challenge, as I could not get my head around finding inspiration for a still life from packaging colours. When I saw some of the fabulous work done by others for this challenge, I found myself even less able to do anything.


I couldn't think of anything when I looked in my pantry. I found an ad for pasta in a magazine, but had no ideas for a still life.

Then by serendipity I was taking down my Christmas cards and found this painting by Donald Hamilton Fraser which had exactly the right colours and was a still life!

I free cut the poinsettia (yes, that's right, I did NOT make a freezer paper template - a first!).

One thing I found really interesting, studying the painting, was how to use different colours of thread which I would not normally use. For example orange on the green leaves, and a bright pink on the lighter edge of petals (bracts). Maybe I will get braver about colour choice, but I reckon it will be slowly!




I have not faced this, as I am thinking about matting and framing it.

I really like the various reds with the charcoal and beige. So not my normal colours.

I was not sure why the painter had such a lighter block of colour on the right, but I needed it for the cream of the pasta, so I was quite happy to copy that.

Julia