Playing The Field

This will be around 8.5 X 11" when bound.
Seamed fabric creates a hard edge. One thing I did to mask this was to cut the edges free hand and slightly curved. The edges are still "hard" but not ruler straight. Another thing I did was to use matching colors. The yellow is there to create "vibration" between the two colors.
There were several things I considered experimenting with to give the illusion of painted edges.
Due to the time restraint I settled on painted fusible bond. There were actually two colors of yellow painted onto the glue but the lighter seems to have totally dominated the darker yellow.
The weather did not cooperate. I gave up on the paint drying before Spring, tacked the glue down with the iron and scanned it. For quilting I am thinking putting this over a deep, spongy bat and creating little dimples here and there. I am thinking that will add spots of light and shadow. What do you think?
This was a fun experiment.

Attic Window, by Penny Irwin

Attic Window
Unfinished, approximately 8.5" X 11" when finished.
Pieced cottons

Was going for the look of back lighting.
This looks much better on paper.

This is experimental. I wanted to see what could be done within the time frame using only what was on hand.

For a polished piece I would need a much greater stash of fabrics for fabric editing, more time and possibly some paint.


In Poeville, challenge 31, I was going for a similar effect.

Autumn Poeville, by Penny Irwin

8" by 11"
As some suggested I am continuing "In the manner of Paul Klee" as a series.

Studying his use of perspective I looked at so many Klee paintings that I could see them when I looked away and with my eyes closed!
It appears to me that Klee deliberately obliterated perspective. The sky and Earth are where they belong but values and relative sizes that would indicate perspective are jumbled together.

Klee's painting, Crystal Gradation , suggests the peaks and valleys of a mountain terrain. I based Autumn Poeville on that idea.
Klee's light source appears omnidirectional to me.
To at least acknowledge perspective I cheated a bit by giving the light direction.

Poeville is a ghost town on Peavine Mountain. Seemed appropriate for October.
-----
I have a hold on a book written by Klee. Hopefully it will shed some light on his cryptic painting rules. I would like to know whether or not he obliterated perspective intentionally or if I am way off the mark.

Yellow Post-It by Penny Irwin

7.5" X 9.5"
Yellow-orange and blue-violet
grid

In the manner of Paul Klee's "signs of Yellow".

This could become part of a series based on one or a variety of painters; or a series based on grids or something else I have forgotten.
Or this might end up being a series of one. Depends a lot on the challenges to come.

I enjoy using fabrics as fabric rather than as paint. I deliberately included an obvious print; monochromatic due to the challenge. Otherwise I might have used a multicolored print.
Rather than an element for element copy of the painting, this was a playful bow to the artist's cryptic symbols. I love my art sunny side up!

Cold Hands by Penny Irwin

9"X12"
pieced using freezer paper and glue stick.

One January there was a wet snow during the night and no wind to drift it.
By morning mounds of snow had covered every surface it had touched.

This is a very old gate post. My yard and home are beyond.

Turkey In The Straw by Penny Irwin

8.5 " X 12"
I used the rhythm and repetition imposed by a grid in an attempt to lead the eye; hopefully to the small red rectangle. I also restricted the field to a neutral off white.
I kept thinking of a Japanese flag but was trying to be a bit more subtle.

Jacob's Ladder by Penny Irwin

9.5 " X 11.5"

The quilt block's perspective was skewed in an attempt to make the right side appear to recede. The actual colors are somewhat brighter than they appear in this scan. I used brighter, darker cuts of fabric on the left or "near" side of the block; paler cuts on the right or receding side. I used the "wrong" side of the tan, background fabric on the right.

The double frame is also stretched and skewed.
The vanishing point for both the block and frame was outside the design. I just made dots on the table top.

Nine Path by Penny Irwin

8.5"X 11" Made from several abandoned 9patch blocks. I randomly cut them apart and selected a few to re-assemble on some black Kona.

Objects: Lost & Found by Penny Irwin

8.5" x 11"
Classified ads from a newspaper glued to cheesecloth and appliquéd to a sew & flip base.
I was going for the look of a neighborhood message board that used to be outside a small local grocery before WalMart came along.

Originally I thought to list on this message board things I see when I walk; "Lost" many trash objects. And "Found", signs of Spring and returning life. This proved overwhelming.
Objects lost and found are a mixed message from the Earth. It still has business with us but we are hanging by a thread.

Lost:
one green bead
9 CO2 cartridges
thousands of beer bottle glass shards
uncounted aluminum beer cans and glass bottles
plastic soda straws
plastic cup covers
plastic chewing gum container
3 single gloves, no matches
nails
plastic coated wires
1 single shoe
sunglasses with one lense
Arrowhead mountain Spring water bottles
cigarette butts and empty cigarette packs
2 children's lunch boxes
several short lengths of plastic pipe
a dust pan, ironic?
3 Christmas trees
several tires
road kill fawn, tossed into wild roses.
Black plastic garbage bags filled with leaves and grass clippings (yes, I forced myself to look)
chunks of broken cement, brick and sod
piles of black asphalt and red cinders
Paperback: "Riddley Walker" (good book)
pair of children's mittens, placed together on a large rock

Found: Many familiar birds, insects and animal tracks. (It was all I could do to remember the trash) Found: the willows have returned to life. They have survived many fires and drought years. They once stood as single trees and now are a dense mass of sucker growth; taller and more massive each year. They might one day be single trees again.

Rubbing It Wont Make It Larger

A crayon rubbing, about 9"x11.5".
What can I say?
Penny Irwin, Reno

Blue Door by Penny Irwin

Blue Door
8.5" X 11"
I chose to work with the landscape photo.
My pattern was drawn onto freezer paper. This was pieced together with the aid of a glue stick.
Different values define the areas in the photo. The door is meant to be the focal point and was given a larger scale than in the photo.
The blue and red "door" colors are repeated in a couple of the prints. Vertical lines are repeated in both print and quilting.

Child's Town

The inspiration for this quilt was finding a drawing of a house thatI had made at age 5 -plus the final instruction for the challenge to have fun! I tried to make the houses, trees, hills and car have a childlike and spontaneous look. All parts of the quilt are fused and then machine quilted. I'm not sure how it works design wise, but I do think it shows depth in several ways. Let me know if gives you as much fun as I had creating it.

I tried unsuccessfully to add the drawing I made at age 5-the quilt was not an exact replica but I used the curtains at the windows, the colorful roof and the sun in the quilt.
Nancy Schlegel

Jibber Jabber

9" x 9"
The image is based on a jester's mask and refers to the playful use of words in the poem.
Penny Irwin

Just Beyond the Next Hill

8"x11.5"
Sky is unbleached muslin painted with acrylics.
Cotton prints, aiming for a graduation of values and colors. Had to go with blacks and grays as the leaves were lost on Autumn colors.
3-D objects were a variety of leaves from my yard prepared with the
Precious Petals directions.
I used gold chiffon on the front and gold tulle on the back.
Penny Sue Irwin