Western Landscape

I too did what Cynthia told us-don't overthink and better done than perfect. It also helped that my sewing machine is broken, it was a lousy day Friday and Saturday, and my husband was busy yelling at the tax program on the computer. I walked by the calendar after reading the challenge and took the Feb photo from that to do my line drawing. Then I picked up the first picture book I found in the living room and found a photo of Seville with colors I liked. Figuring out tones and shades and tints took some experimentation and I'm still not sure if I got colors in all three. What is brown? From Cynthia's color samples, it could be a shade of orange or a tone of red. White was in the color photo, so I wanted to use it as a zinger but am ambivalent about it being too dominant. Anyway, the fabrics are fused onto muslin and will await finishing until my machine visits the repair shop on Tuesday.

Photos in order are: line drawing photo, color choice photo, colors choosen, and finished quilt.



After reading comments and looking at this quilt, I added more "mountains" and changed the white zingers to light yellow. The sky was quilted in an allover pattern. The mountains were quilted in straight lines with curvy lines added in mettalic gold thread for the dark mountain. I think the additional fabrics and shapes help give more interest to the piece and I now give it about a B+. This is a technique that I hope will lead to more abstract pieces than this one turned out to be. I enjoyed the challenge Cynthia.

Notan Snowflake

I started with a circle and cut the pattern to look like a snowflake. One side of the white fabric had some sparkles on it. I realized that since everything was symmetrical, I did not have to recut the cut out pieces to get the right side up. Big time saver. I'm really pleased with how this turned out (except for the top point that isn't quite straight. It 15" x 15" and right now unquilted. I'm trying to decide if it needs to be or just frame it. I know have my snowflake for our Embroiderers Guild challenge too!

Nancy Schlegel

Notan #1

I did a quick cutting of paper to make Notan #1. I cheated by cutting the white paper and placing it on black paper. It was easy to design something that looks more complicated than it was. Maybe not the most artistic notan and definitely low on points for neatness, but a good start. Next one in fabric-maybe use a circle or an octagon for the start? I can see why Cathy said this was addictive!

Pissarro Quilt

I knew immediately which painting I wanted to use for this challenge. A friend and I had gone to the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown MA to see the Pissarro show. I loved the soft green, blue, and peach colors of his Apple Pickers painting. I found that finding a copy of the painting on the internet with true colors was very difficult and even played with the one I found to make it darker and have more contrast-closer to the painting as I remembered it.Looking closely at the painting, I could see more colors than I first realized-shades of blue and green, plus the peach were obvious but there was also small amounts of yellow, orange and tan and dark brown. I tried to keep the color palette somewhat in proportion to the painting.

I used some of the silk fabric that my friend sent me and made a long narrow quilt 8" x 24" to fit an artist canvas frame that I bought. The embroidered flowers came on the fabric as did the buttons on the peach fabric. Working in geometric shapes seems to be easier for me but I'm not sure it is as artistic as decorative.

Nancy Schlegel, Albany NY

Approaching Storm

I mulled over this challenge all week until the Friday night before the deadline. As I was falling asleep, this quilt came storming into my mind. I could even see the grass fabric that I had in my stash. It ruined a good nights sleep but in the end, I think it came out very close to what I wanted. Of course Hurricane Irene having blown through here (no damage to our house) made me thinking about storms anyway.

Everything is raw edge applique. The tree, leaves and woman are fused. I was trying to portray an atmosphere of threat and danger and helplessness. Almost a metaphor for our lives now a days with all the economic and political storms swirling around.

I also wanted to do this for our art quilt exhibit so made it larger than usual for a FFFC project.

It ended up 39" x 25 1/2".

Hopefully better late than never and worth the wait

The second photo is the quilt after changes that I made due to suggestions from a friend to make the woman's shirt purple so it showed up better and a suggestion here on the blog to shade the dark gray into the light gray. I tried it and decided that having more dark gray portrayed the menace of the storm more vividly.

Nancy Schlegel, Albany NY

Art Deco Challenge

With the knowledge that I'm leaving on a trip on Thursday, I decided this would have to be a Frantic Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. So I read some of the descriptions and came up with key words-symmetry, curves, lines. I make a quick sketch on half of an 11 x 8/12 piece of paper, traced it on the other half and went searching for fabric. I came up with black silk from an old pair of silk pants, and gold, silver, and bronze lame. Then I decided to use some copper metal that I had for the circle. I fused the gold and silver lame, satin stitch the edges and stitched a straight line next to each one. The areas in between were stitched in black metallic thread. I put holes in the circle using a nail and hammer and attached the pendant. That may not be quite art deco, but it was the best I could do today and I think it adds to the circle. Since this was just a play piece, I just cut it to size and did not bind it. I enjoyed using the lame that I've had owned for years (and found a whole drawer of it that I had forgotten about!). This is a simple response to the challenge but I'm pleased with it and for actually getting it done.

Dancing in the Rain

A little late this week due to trying to get in 2 last days of skiing and then finishing quilting a charity quilt. Lots of time for thinking in both activities and sometime during the week, this image of flowers dancing in the rain came to me. Of course the image in the mind was horizontal with lots of flowers and the result ended up being vertical with three flowers but this was faster. The flowers and leaves were drawn quickly and freehand on tracing paper, then cut out of fabric and fused. I scrunched the brown earth to give it some texture and covered it with tulle. Then I quilted it with iridescent Sulky thread in semi-straight lines. I think it came out very cheerful and spring like-things I'd like to see right now even if it comes with rain!

My inspiration for this piece came from some words from the book, "Under the Tuscan Sun" which were "bright, colorful and swirly". I can't remember what they pertained to but the image stuck in my mind. I drew a quick sketch and tried several more versions but the first one still seemed the best. With more time, I might have explored a better design. I used my own and some purchased hand dyed fabrics plus a very dark blue (which looks black in the photo) for fabrics. The streamers were quilted using my Acufeed foot on my new Horizon. I found it easy to wiggle the fabric to make the curvy lines even with the feeddog up. The background was free motion quilted in circles with metallic thread-which of course doesn't show up at all on the photo except for a light spot here or there. I have not finished the edges yet-will probably face it. I'm not 100% pleased with the piece but it was fun to do and to use bright colors which I don't usually use.

I posted a horizontal and a vertical version. Any comments on which you like better? The piece is 17" x 21".

Nancy Schlegel

Color Fields

I responded to the paintings of Clyfford Still with his very irregular shapes. I used the back side of a hand painted fabric and some of my hand dyed fabrics. I ironed the background fabric to decobond to make a stiff surface-which I've decided is a pain to use because the bond does not hold well. A few lines of stitching were done on the background to make sure it stayed together. The shapes were cut without planning and moved around on the background fabric to make a composition. The thin purple strips in the large shapes were just left over strips of fabric that got tossed into the waste paper basket, fished out again, cut in narrow strips and glued on. A few lines of stitching were done on the shapes too. I haven't bound this and will probably not do anything more with it. I like the way the colors play with each other but I'm not 100% pleased with the composition. A good practice piece of something I will continue to pursue. The size is 18 1/2" by 19".

I liked the idea of cropping the piece via a photo so here is one result. Any thoughts on whether or not this is am improvement?

Squares Squared

Using squares seemed popular in this challenge, but I had a bag of silk sample squares that I had been sent when I was a Bernina Fashion Show designer in 2003 and this challenge seemed a great time to use some of them. I spray basted the black background fabric to a piece of timtex and drew lines on the timtex to form a grid. I then stitched the lines with metallic thread in the bobbin so it showed on the black fabric. All the silk squares were fused inside the lines, then a second layer was fused on over the intersections, and a third layer over the intersections of the second layer. Even the square beads, a wonderful find at Joann's, were glued on. I stitched a straight line with metallic thread around the silk squares and may do another straight line after I add a felt back to the piece.I enjoyed seeing the interactions between the colors of the fabrics as I layered them. Photographing the piece was a challenge with all the different values and shine of the silk. Best place turned out to be the porch floor on the north side of the house!

The size is 24" x 12".

Comments welcome-great to see so much variety in this challenge.

Nancy Schlegel

Beneath clear, blue seas
Diving on a brief visit
Among colorful fish

I finished quilting and thread painting this quilt on Friday. Lots of practice with my new Horizon that worked perfectly. The white "heart" in the original photo was thread painted with pink thread to make it look like a fan coral. I also added a second, smaller fan coral and a second long-tailed fish. I added a lot of thread painting to the maroon coral on the far right. The fish were not quilted-just outlined stitched and then lightly brushed with gel sparkle paint. Black sea urchins were thread painted on the sand at the bottom plus real shells were added. The coral and the water were extensively quilted and if you enlarge the photo (click on the photo, then click on the enlarged one), you should see these details. I also added several lines of silver thread to mimic the sun coming through the water. The finished size is 25" X 30". This was definitely not a fast project but it was an enjoyable one even if I was pushing myself to complete it. I've wanted to do an ocean quilt for ages so thanks for the challenge that encouraged me to get to it.

Just a note-in real life, seeing the fish and coral while diving is not nearly as colorful as this quilt. You need a light or a camera with a filter to get the true color. But it is a fascinating world to visit if only for a brief time.

Nancy Schlegel in Albany NY

Fall Gold (18" w x 23" h)
Looking out over the lake at the town park, I could see a dark area of trees surrounded by lighter colored leaves, and one branch of a tree with light yellow leaves. When I came home, I found the gold leaves on a garment that I was going to throw out, so I cut them off and made some lighter yellow leaves from some silk fabric. I took one photo quickly and posted it, then this morning saw the quilt in the sun and it looked so much better. So contrary to all previous experience, I retook in the full sun and it shows up much better. Sewing on all 51 of the green leaves was a pain.
I think I should have left more of the dark space showing but I was having too
much fun adding on the gold leaves! It is quilted but I have not decided whether to bind it or face it.

This is cheating to show an already finished project but we just decided to take advantage of some lovely sunny weather and go camping next week, then I'm visiting my sister the next weekend and in between making a birthday card for my niece. Maybe this will inspire some one on their quilt. This was made in 2004 and is only 8 x 11. It does have 3 layers with a piece of tin for the backing, some screening for the batting and stuff appliqued on top. Plus I used duct tape for the binding! I like to use metal also and have sewn copper onto quilts, and used the copper scrubbing stuff (that you can unravel and get a neat mesh) on quilts. Maybe I'll get something new in late. I'll enjoy seeing what others come up with.

Nancy Schlegel (off to packing-bad part of camping)

Trees Are

I read the challenge while visiting our son in Seattle and thoughts of giant Douglas firs and nurse logs came to mind immediately. Then on the plane ride home, I decided to do something less literal and more funky-definitely outside my style. I mused on what trees meant and came up with four statements which I thought I could machine quilt to the borders-again not a new technique for me, but not common either. Looking through my hand-dyed fabrics, I came upon a purchased light yellow green fat quarter-definitely not my usual color scheme. Using all solids is not new but not something I usually do either. I was going to machine couch the variegated pearl cotton but that flattened it so I hand stitched it using a stem stitch. So this quilt came together very quickly and easily and even photographed well on one try early this morning in time to make the deadline. I didn't do anything new technically to me but did try to use less familiar techniques and colors. Very enjoyable and a good memory of a good vacation.

Fungus Among Us

I browsed through Google images and came across a photo of shelf fungus-then found some real ones on a walk through the woods (on a level, smooth trail!) The fungi were made by fusing two tan (considered very light orange color) pieces of fabric together, then fusing on some blue and red orange or yellow orange fabric similar to the variation in values in the shelf fungus. After scrunching and stitchng the brown background for the tree, the fungus were folded at the top and stitched on the fold so they became very 3-D. Hopefully that shows up in the side view. I haven't finished the edges of the brown tree-still debating what to do there and I may just leave it unfinished as a play piece. It was fun to use unrealistic colors for natural objects and work 3-demensionally. Not sure how abstract it turned out, but at least I got something finished this month!

Nancy Schlegel

Fractured Butterfly

I worked on this a bit at a time as I had energy and time available from buying a new TV, recovering from vacation and helping hubby repair a slew of things that broke all at once around the house. It is only 9 x 12 inches and currently not bound, but quilted (finally).
I think I did manage to fit in almost all the requirements of the challenge, while still focusing on my design. My colors are orange, blue and green, which I used in different values and patterns of fabric. I considered brown to be a very dark orange! I used several different types of fabrics in the butterfly-velvet for the body, dupioni silk, decorator fabric, and cottons for the wings. The background is all quilting cottons. Everything is fused or glued down. The butterfly wings were cut according to a pattern, but the background pieces were just free cut and plunked down on top of fusible web. I did end up replacing a blue and a green piece in the medium area today before photographing the piece. I like the movement that the different fabrics in the sky give and the mosaic effect in the butterfly. I'm sure I learned a new technique from this challenge!

Still Life with Vase and Bottle

Rhoda's challenge made me scour my cabinets to see what kind of products I had bought. Dull beige and white adult cereal boxes weren't inspiring; the colorful oatmeal box (contrary to Rhoda's theory!) had too many primary colors in it;finally a box of Asia Specialties noodles with a sophisticated color scheme caught me eye, partly because the blue in there meant I could use the blue wine bottle that I've wanted to use in a quilt for a long time.

The inspiration, the design and the fabrics sat on my sewing table for the week while I procrastinated starting. Finally said "Just do it" Saturday afternoon and finished it in several hours. It is only 8 1/2" x 11", fused, with some basic machine quilting done on it. No binding yet. But I am very satisfied with the outcome and feel I stayed fairly true to the colors and proportions in the box.

Lessons I learned: (1)You will never create anything unless you start. (2)Make sure your teflon sheet is free of fusible gunk before using it. (3) Don't try to do fancy spiral free motion quilting late in the afternoon on black fabric with black thread. (4)Be flexible to make changes even in the quilting stage-the original flowers just keeping saying "yuck" to me so they got pulled off and redone as tulips.

I can see doing more still life quilts in the future having successfully finished this one. Now back to snow shoveling.

Nancy Schlegel, Albany NY

Spinning Out of Control

I started this challenge right away, doing a couple of small sketches that I liked. I picked one and fussed with choosing fabric for it, couldn't come up with anything that worked, so dropped and switched to another sketch. Then I spent last Friday morning procrastinating by vacuuming, dusting and rearranging bookshelves! Finally that afternoon, I picked my fabric and got started. I was really liking the way it developed, so I took my time finishing the design and getting the quilting done. So no apologies for being late-this one just had its own schedule.

My series is what happened in my life in the month-and at first I thought of this as the fireworks for July 4th. Then it hit me that it was a perfect visualization of the health problem that hit in July (which seems to be on the mend fortunately). I set the main element off center-going off the side and top and called it "Spinning Out of Control".

Nancy Schlegel

Earth, fire, wind, water

This challenge came exactly at the right time when I needed a small project to get myself back into quilting after the local quilt guild quilt show that I was co-chair of was over. My theme is what ever is going on in my life at the time-and I think this fits my theme in that I was ready to do something fun, not too mentally taxing, and just for myself! My inspiration was a quilt on my computer without any name attached to it-its definitely not a copy but used the idea of the square within a square in different sizes. My analogous colors are blue and green, with the compliment of rust-orange (one of my favorite color combinations). It turned out to be 38" x 26"-kept growing as I kept having fun with it. It still needs quilting and maybe some embellishment with dark orange thread or beads or whatever. Thanks for providing just the impetus I needed this week to get back into gear, Joni.

This was a busy week and thoughts about the challenge would pop in and out of my mind randomly. Saturday morning, as I was laying on the floor stretching, the whole quilt came through in one flash. My theme is whatever is going on in my life at the time of the challenge and the idea came of a horizontal orientation, with a flock of birds coming back with the spring weather (flying in an S shape formation which is not strictly accurate), and bare trees underneath them at the bottom of the quilt. The birds would be dark blue purple against a yellow and orange sky. As I looked out the window, there was a small flock of grackles swarming into the trees in the backyard!

The orange of the sky and the birds are fused and the trees were first drawn in with a purple fabric marker. That didn't look quite right so I ended up threadpainting them-which was boring as heck and very time consuming, but I finally decided definitely worth the work. The size is 22 1/2' x 11".

Nancy Schlegel
www.nrsquilter.wordpress.com