Army of Ants

It has been a long while since I have been able to do a challenge.  Many life changes that have prevented me from quilting.   I hope to catch up and look forward to next year.

I didn't really fully read the challenge, I checked the first link and immediately thought of an army of ants.  We have many ants that march along our sidewalk.

Final size 8 1/2 x 10 inches.

Lisa
In Sunny for 40 days Seattle

Warhol Bentleys

Having just worked on an auction quilt for my daughter's kindergarten class this seemed somewhat timely.  Granted, I did not look look at my memories but took one of my daughter's favorite icons.  Bentley is her once white now grey bunny, he appears in many of her drawings and paints, he's either features as himself or snowmen or replicated in a rainbow of colors. 

I had my six year old daughter draw just his head then I replicated it on 12 different colors.  For some reason I thought this challenge had the KISS, keep it simple stupid, so that's is exactly what I did.  The added bonus by being a Bentley quilt, she allowed me to work on it without interruption.  Finished size 15 x 20 inches.

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Here Comes the Rain

Finally I've finished a challenge on time.  Actually I have quite a few challenges I haven't yet posted so better catch up.

Here Comes the Rain, since I do live in Seattle,  it has been cold and rainy this week, I figured I had to do rain.  It's a very abstract rain piece about 9 x 16 inches.  The repetition is the linear rain lines.

My new years resolution is to do every challenge, or at the very least get in to comment.

Lisa
In dark and raining Seattle

Challenge 59 - Awaiting a Breeze

Better late than never.

Awaiting a breeze measures 6 x 9 inches.  The dandelion fluff is done with three layers of translucent fabrics.

Comments are always welcome.

Lisa
In Foggy Seattle

He loves me

I did have this done earlier but not posted.

I adore Andy Goldsworthy, I especially like his spirals. My background is my deconstructed. I take a bunch of fabric sew it together, chop it up and do it again and again and again. Usually I'm done when there is an interesting scale to the piece. My flower petals are spiraling. I think if I did it again I'd do a brighter move vibrant pink border in fuchsia. Finished size 21 x 15 inches.

Thanks for letting me host!

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Challenge 54 - Three Daisies

I've posted my piece Three Daisies; not only does it have three daisies but I had made three attempts for this challenge.

Basically I stuck at cool colors turquoise, purple and lime green. Curvy sky and curvy grass. Actually size about 21 x 22 inches.

Lisa
In Sunny cold Seattle

Challenge 52 - Chasing Rainbows

I'm kind of at a loss for this one. I went ahead and attempted it, actually this is my second attempt. The last was just two colors and didn't really pop. It isn't an abstraction of an object. It is so named Chasing Rainbows because of the colors I used, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple. Final size 18 x 13 inches. I quilted in the six colors quilting each shape on the half. Made for an interesting plaid.

Lisa
In Rainy Seattle

Challenge 51 - Hip to be Square

My piece Hip to be Square measures 18 x 18 inches. It has the rainbow dancing squares on a black and white checkerboard. Not too much to say about but it is squares within squares within a square.

Lisa in Sunny Cool Seattle

Challenge 50 - Ladybug Munch

I'm so late, I was rather stuck on the first part writing the Haiku.

Summer sunshine black
polka dots. Time to munch. Red
and green afternoon

The piece is somewhat based on another old one. I pieced the leave and used the quilting as the extra thread work. The light green is more box shaped. Then there are three red beads for lady bugs and three varied size black beads for aphids. The varied aphids are because when I think of polka dots they are different sized.

Fun challenge and a playful piece. Measures 10 x 17 inches.

Lisa
In Sunny but freezing Seattle

Challenge 49 - Dragonfly at Sunset

I've posted my piece Dragonfly at Sunset. The finished size is 10 1/2 inches by 6 1/2 inches.

I played with the lightening in the background rather than the object. The dragonfly is beaded. The cattails are made out of polar fleece. I found the vertical lines fun to use for the landscape rather than the horizontal lines I usually use.

Small fun happy piece.

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Challenge 48 - Daybreak

I'm posted my piece Daybreak - well really - Daybreak2.

I choose the color pallet of daybreak since a new day is always optimistic. My first piece I did a lovely strata - but when I went to embellish it with metal - nothing was working - I couldn't do metallic thread or washers or what not. I usually only add embellishments if the needs it - if it can stand alone then I don't do it.

So I look some leftover pieces of the first quilt - whipped them together to make like music. Then I figured out how to make music notes with cooper wiring. Perfect example of how establishments make the quilt. Finished size is 16 x 8 inches.

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Challenge 47 - Cherry Blossoms 1 and 2

I've posted my two Cherry Blossom quilts.

I've been working on deconstructed backgrounds. Basically I take lots of scraps sew them together - but them up - rearrange them resew then then repeat a few more times. This is a first to use monochromatic - then putting an imagine on top of it. The piece was a little too big so I sliced it in half - I had to make two quilts.

Cherry Blossom 1 - 8 x 14 - used my couched wool yarn for an abstracted tree. The cherry blossoms are sequins with beads. I also did some free motion quilting which is a little difficult since the seams are rather bulky. I embellished with sequins before quilting - next time I'd quilt first.

Cherry Blossom 2 - 12 x 18 - this I took the remaining piece diced three time - then famed each piece. The tree form I did in the quilting. The tree branches are quilted in gray thread, then echoed with turquoise. My initial thought was to have a single cheery blossom in the middle square - but it worked much better to be off the tip of the branch in the lower right hand corner. The cherry blossom is out of wool felt, embroidery thread and beads.

Lisa
In Rainy Seattle

Challange 46 - Sandstone

I've posted my quilt Sandstone. I'm not happy with it - so therefore it waited a long time. At first it included a turquoise sky - but not so much to my liking - I think the unusually colors were what threw it for me. If I did it again - I'd make it more monochromatic in an unexpected way rather than rainbow - minus the blue. Final size about 28 x 9 inches. Still haven't decided if to bind or face.

Lisa
In Rainy Seattle

Challenge 45 - Fun Fungi

Fun Fungi finished size 17 x 25.

OK after looking at fungi pictures - which grossly revealed lots of foot fungus - yuck - I like the round shape - I make it abstract. I decided on a split complementary color scheme of blue-violet, orange and yellow. First I attempted more organic oval shapes - but they weren't looking too good - I then sewed in yellow circles but didn't sew in the orange - I attempted some fancy orange thread work on the circles - but not looking too good. So I did faced funny pieced orange circles. I then quilted the background and found the yellow needed more so did some pebble quilting in the yellow circles.

So it didn't windup looking anything like fungus - but it was fun - and technique filled.

Challenge 44 - Dandelion Dance

I have to admit this was so far outside my comfort zone I almost didn't do it - that and the fact we left for a two week vacation right after this posted. So thank you for making me challenge myself.

I took a photograph of my daughter blowing a dandelion. Granted it wasn't the best picture - she's in a sprinkler - ran some photoshop stuff to soften the edges - outlined some of the areas to define the picture. I think picked shades of red - because red is her favorite color. Did fusible applique - then french knot dandelion seeds.

Over all I'm happy with the results - this isn't a close up quilt and looks better from a far. I'm debating on binding or facing so would welcome any feed back on that.

Lisa
In Sunny then rainy Seattle.

Challenge 43 - Tidal Pool

This piece called Tidal Pool. The finished size is about 18 inches by 15 inches.

The background is pieced to look like the sand ripples as the tide goes out. The stones are 2 layers of fabric plus batting to create a little dimension. The sea stars are needle felted and beaded to appliqué to the background.

Lisa
In Rainy, Windy Seattle

Challenge 42 - Sunset

This was fun. . I actually took a UFO from my stash of them. The sunset I had done was when I first starting playing around with backgrounds. I never finished it because it was kind of blah - I had pieced 2 1/2 inch strips. So I took all the stripes - put in a tuck at 3/8 inch on each seam. Then I staggered the seams. First I tried doing so quilting it at the same time but then just made of a jumbled mess. Then I did the tucks on just the fabric. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to quilt this without losing the texture. I settled on just facing it with a batting and back. Then I thought I'd add some hand stitching but that didn't work - I tried some French knots on each of the tucks - so as for now I'm leaving it as is. I think next them - you know there will be a next time I'll quilt 1/8 inch from each tuck then flap the tucks.

Anyway - it wound up being kind of fun - plus I got to cross a UFO off my list. Final size is 13 inches by 31 inches.

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Challenge 41 - Transformations

I've posted my Transformations quilt about 14 inches by 21 inches.

Honestly the fractured background was the hardest part - I pieced together and cut a few times an abstract tree bark. I then beaded a caterpillar in the lower right corner and a moth in the upper right corner for my winged creature. I picked this moth because of it's complimentary colors of orange and blue.

As always lots of fun

Lisa
In Overcast Seattle

Challenge 40 - The Lone Carrot

Ok - so here it goes - The Lone Carrot - finished size 6 1/2 by 17 inches.

I took a book of Barbara's Puffins - Original. I pieced the back ground in turquoise ranging from dark to light. Then rather than doing a still life - because I didn't have any plants or in my case carrots - I did a gestural drawing of a carrot - couched just a bit of orange yarn for the carrot (kind of like the beak of the puffin) and just a hint of lime green for the leaves. So it probably doesn't quite fall in the still life category but I like the overall results.

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Challenge 39 - Micro Leaf

Here is my Micro Leaf. Finished size is 10.5 x 17.

I used acrylic paints - red and green - red and green mixed make lovely shades of brown. I painted the skeleton. As always - the acrylic paints loose their vibrancy - it had to be saved with the quilting - I had done a similar quilt like this with small circles - then I bead the circles - this time I changed the scale of the circles. I used yellow, red, maroon, two shades of green and brown threads. After is was quilted - I didn't feel the quilt needed an additional beading.

Lisa
In Cool and Sunny Seattle