First Freeze

I am back again after the summer hiatus.  We spend those months with our children and grandchildren, so all my time is taken up with making memories to last me through the winter.  That being said, this challenge called to me and I developed several ideas, finally settling on this piece of fiber art.
The base fabric was made with one of my new favorite tools, the Gelli Plate.  I used several different techniques to build up the surface texture including brush strokes, stamps, and tree stencils.  I was very taken with the ghosting which occurred on the right side of the piece.  I also really like the ethereal feel of this piece.  Can you see the bird up in the bare limbs of the tree?  I decided to finish this differently than I usually do by mounting it on a black canvas and adding some old jewelry findings, metallic skeleton leaves, and some decorative trim.  I am really happy with the end results and I am sure that I will be playing with these techniques again.
Thanks for a fun and interesting challenge!

"Lets Make A Deal!"

I fell in love with the theme of doors for this challenge.  It is my belief that our lives are a direct reflection of the choices which we make.  We do not know what doors will open and what doors will close as we walk down the path of our life.  However, the decision of the path we will take is usually left up to us.  The title references the old game show "Let"s Make A Deal!".

This photo of doors for sale was enhanced through the use of Photoshop Elements.  I printed it on Lutradur treated with Golden Digital Grounds.  The background is a monoprint which I did a couple of weeks ago using a Gelliplate.  I then freemotion quilted the foundation, adhered the photo to the quilted foundation, added a decorative ribbon behind the photo, and then added the black bias tape around the photo.  I raided some of my old costume jewelry to add the embellishment at the corners of the photo.  I will eventually be mounting it on canvas to complete it.  This is the first challenge which I have done in a while, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

                                                                          



Warhol Meets Adams Meets O'Keefe

As you can tell by the title of this piece, I had some difficulty focusing on just one artistic style. What I finally came up with was a cross between Andy Warhol, Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keefe. Andy was represented in the multiple prints of a single image along with the use of the color red, Ansel's influence was the black and white photo print, and Georgia's nod was the close-up of a flower. I began by using a close-up photo of a rose which I had taken and altering it through PSE to sharpen it and remove the color. I then printed it onto fabric, creating three images to use. Here is where I wish that I had taken more time and used Digital Grounds on my fabric before printing on it. This would have given me a more saturated sharp image. I then cropped two of the images and left one complete. I placed the images on the black and white background and added the red and black framing around them. The quilting is very simply done, as I knew that it would not show on the patterned fabric.

'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!

Poppies in the Moonlight

Another challenge finished! I finished the quilting on this and it will be framed for my daughter. Only one more to go.

This piece began as fabric which I had ice dyed. In looking at it my eyes piced out the poppie shapes immediately and I decided to make them the focal point. I first stitched/quilted around them and the light green areas in the fabric. After that was done, I used fabric paint to highlight the shapes and to darken the blue areas so that the poppies and green areas would come forward. I am in the process of doing denser quilting in the blue areas and will add some beadwork when the quilting is complete. Then I will mount it on a canvas.

Louise Page

Eucalyptus Rainbow Tree

I have finally finished this challenge which I began in February of this year.  I trapuntoed the colored pieces of bark and then quilted them with black metallic thread.  I then quilted the background bark using a pattern which mimicked the shape of the colored pieces.  I added a light coating of Shiva Paint Stick to the dark bark to add dimension and interest.  I am very happy with the finished product and will probably explore it more in future projects.

Okay, I decided to come out and play after many months of inactivity. It wasn't that I didn't follow the challenges and map out a plan, but I just didn't get any farther than the planning stage. Oh well, that is water under the bridge now and I choose to move forward rather than dwell in the past.

For my line reference I chose the beautiful bark of the Eucalyptus Rainbow Tree. I must admit to taking artistic license in interpreting the bark, but I am more of an organic line person than geometric. My color scheme was taken from a photo of the tree bark. I cut my pieces and then fused them to the background foundation piece attempting to leave interesting negative shapes. I will eventually trapunto the bark and densely quilt the background to complete the piece. I just wanted to get the piece to this point before the week ended. Thank you Cynthia for the nudge towards completion rather than perfection!

"Pina Colada Anyone?"

I am a little bit behind the ball, but decided after having commented on the works of others meeting this month's challenge, that I should get busy and get something done.  The foundation for this piece is fabric which I sunprinted a number of years ago.  I used rice paper, maple leaves, and water lily pads.  My intent was to invoke a feeling of the tropical jungle with it's humidity, heat, and lushness.  I inked the large parrot in the foreground and then colored it with Inktense Pencils and Neocolor II Watersoluble Crayons.  I then added metallic highlights with gel pens and then re-inked some of the black lines.  The silhouette of the parrots in the back was done with black ink.  

The plan is to trapunto the parrots and leaf shapes and then do free motion quilting in the background.   I would also like to add some type of border on two sides of the piece.  Any and all suggestions and comments are welcomed.  This doesn't feel like my best work, but I have been in a slump, so hopefully this will put me on the right track to begin creating again.

Louise Page

I am about a week late, but I have completed the latest challenge for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge group. This month the task was to create a piece in the Art Deco/Art Noveau style. I was excited about doing this as I had purchased some books from Dover dealing with this subject matter. I had perused them many times, but had not gotten around to using the designs for a project. That coupled with the fact that I am determined to use up some of my fabric stash, led me to creating a slightly Asian style Art Deco work.

I began by drawing my own Art Deco pattern after looking at some of the shapes used in that style of art. I then ironed fusible web to the back of the butterfly batik panel and cut out a circle shape. Then I drew the cutting lines on the piece and cut it into sections. I kept some of the sections and discarded the others. I cut out a black circle a couple of inches larger than the batik circle, layed the batik sections on the circle and fused them. I added a few of the discarded sections in order to create more interest in the piece. After this, I stitched the sections down, added some quilting around the flowers and leaves, and then quilted the black background. I used a varigated King Tut thread by Superior to stitch a decorative motif around each section to lift them of the background more. I finished the outside of the circle with the same thread, but a different motif. I then added piping around the edge to finish it off. I am disappointed because the circle is not perfect, but am not willing to pull the piping off at this point.

This is the first quilted piece which I have sewn on my Janome 7700, and must say that I am very impressed by this machine and the free motion quilting capability which it has. I loved my Viking Designer 1, but this machine is light years ahead of it in this area. A lot of improvements have been made in the last nine years (I bought the Designer 1 in 2002) and I am just beginning to experience some of the strides which have been made. What a blessing this machine is going to be!

Challenge 56/Splintered Leaves

I had already been thinking about what I would use as a background for the next challenge, one of my UFO's! I had another one in mind, but after digging through my stash underneath the bed in my motorhome, I came across this piece and decided it would work with the challenge theme of Nature's Rhythm. I began with a piece of sun printed fabric which I had done about five years ago. I had already trapuntoed the leaves, but was not enamored with the results, so I put it away, as I seem to do with a lot of the pieces which I am not happy with. Little did I know, that I would eventually pull it out to recycle, redesign and rebirth it!

The piece had already been trapuntoed and layered for quilting before I rejected it. All I had to do was finish the trapunto and cut away behind all the leaves. After that, I took it to my cutting mat and began disassembling it with my rotary cutter. Then I fitted the pieces back together in a fashion which looked good to my eyes and joined them with a zigzag stitch. After that, I layered a thin flannel backing behind the piece and begin quilting the open areas and around the leaves. I enhanced the trapuntoed leaves with jaquard and setacolor metallic paint. I made 1/4" bias tape and applied it first with glue and then decorative stitching to cover my joining stitches. My plan is to attach it to a prewrapped canvas and hang it as a piece of wall art. It measures approximately 18 x 20".

I am very happy with the way the piece finished out. I really like the color combination and the happy accident that the trapuntoed leaves form a diagonal pattern. I am wondering if I need to somehow enhance the quilting in the right top corner to make the piece more visually balanced. I was thinking about darkening the background behind the leaves to lift them, but this is supposed to be an abstract, so I am not sure that is warranted. I also want the colors and interesting paint patterns to be apparent. Any and all comments and suggestions are welcomed and appreciate.

Starting with the UFO



Finished 'Splintered Leaves'



Wind Dancer

I am late on this challenge, but since I missed the last two completely, I am happy to finally get something done. This challenge was fun and initially I had a couple of ideas, but settled on doing a female Native American dancer. I traced the image onto white fabric using pen and ink. I trapuntoed the figure and then added batting and backing and quilted the entire piece before adding color. Initially I had an orange painted background, but could not make it work to my satisfaction, so I repainted it with brown and copper mixed together, added more dark brown and finally finished with copper highlights on top. I used Inktense Watercolor Pencils, Tsukinkeo Inks, gel pens, and Jaquard and Setacolor paints. I tried to do some highlighting and shading. I did not get a good mixture of contrasts in the piece, which I think would have made it more successful, but will chalk that up as a learning experience. I do like the movement in the piece which I think was achieved through the background quilting. The piece measures approximately 14 x 24 inches.

FFFC 52 "Endless Summer"

Okay, this group is really pushing my boundaries, but in a good way. I was going to use the holidays and travel as an excuse to not complete this challenge. The real reason being that abstract quilts are a new venue for me and understanding the colorfield concept was difficult for me. But hey, I am three for three for these challenges, so I forged ahead! A post a couple of days ago cleared the waters a little for me, so I went ahead and attempted a piece.

I have titled my adventure "Endless Summer" which is what I am wishing for in the subzero temperatures of Spokane, WA. I chose the colors of blue (for the sky), green (for the plants), and yellow (for the sun). I pulled out a piece of white silk and used my dyes to paint it, which is another first for me. Once the foundation was done, I struggled with what to add to it. I have been reading some posts about lutradur and it's transparency, so I decided to paint it with the same colors. After it was dry, I sliced it and diced it and then rearranged the pieces into a grid pattern. I think that if I had diluted my dyes more, the grid would have blended more into the background, but I didn't really consider this until everything was already put together. I then quilted it with vines and leaves, and yes, those are the sun's rays peeking out of the squares! I echo quilted around the grid and am thinking that I will add more rays on the outside of the grid. I believe that it loosely fits what I understand to be the colorfield style. It is okay if I didn't hit it on all levels, because I love my piece and it brightened my otherwise very cool day!

Garden Globes

I have to admit that this was a difficult challenge for me as I have not done an abstract piece per se, even though I have been quilting for a number of years. I have seen a lot of abstract pieces which I have coveted, and have contemplated playing with the style, but had not followed through. I am not really in love with this piece, but I will definitely play with this concept in the future. Thanks for pushing me outside of my box.

That being said, I decided to use circles as my shape, and fit it into my self selected theme of botanicals. I used some of my photos and some from the Morgue Files and played with them in PSE 9. I applied a free action (which I downloaded from the web), called Crystal Ball to each of the photos and then printed them onto fused fabric treated with Digital Grounds. I then fused and cut out organza and the black and white circles. I quilted the background with circle motifs prior to placing the fused pieces on top (after several attempts to find a suitable placement). I used gel pens to add some bling to the flower globes and then stitched everything down. I then did some bobbin work (my first time) on the globes using some Razzle Dazzle from Superior Threads. I thought about adding some beadwork or paintsticks on the background circles. Any and all suggestions are welcome.

Louise's Autumn's Farewell

I am posting my piece for Challenge 50 entitled 'Autumns' Farewell'. I began by taking a picture of fall leaves and manipulating and enhancing it in Photoshop Elements until I was happy with it. I then added another layer of branches in PSE made to look like a stamp. The top layer was of the haiku I wrote. I then merged all the layers together and printed them out on white fabric treated with Digital Grounds by Golden. (I am a firm believer in using the Digital Grounds to treat the fabric because it really enables the print to be much brighter and clearer.) The bottom piece was done by layering pressed, dried leaves between two layers of fusible web. I placed this sandwich onto of black fabric, layed netting over the top, and fused all three layers together. After joining the two pieces I highlighted three of the leaves with inks and then threadpainted and quilted it. I was even able to complete it within the week, so I am very happy about that!

Louise

'In The Spotlight' - Challenge 49

I am a little late in posting this challenge piece, but decided to upload it anyway. The photo is of a dahlia which I photographed and manipulated in Photoshop elements with some special lighting filters. When I was satisfied with the changes, I printed it onto white fabric treated with digital grounds. I placed it on the yellow background fabric, did some threadpainting, and then quilted it. I then added the black and white border around the dahlia. I was very happy with the finished product.