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

Brillig and Mimsy

This piece was based on my favorite words from the poem brillig , mimsy , slithy toves, and borogoves. I put some of each in there can you find them?

I painted the background with Shiva sticks and did not like it ... tooo flat so I started playing with thread. I also used angelina fibers, copperflakes, and acrylic paint.

measures 16 by 18

I had a blast!

Jacque 

It's just my Imagination!

This is my first try at the FFF Challenge, Bloging as well!

When I heard what the Challenge was, My first thought was to draw a scary looking tree with a sundial, I love trees. I wasn't sure where to start. I left home, thought about it over the weekend and came up with how I thought I might react to reading the poem, while at home alone, in bed, on a cold and windy night, with the trees swaying in the wind, blowing against the window, casting shadows about the room. Now to put that into fabric! I have a very vivid imagination, that's why I don't read Steven King books.
I titled this: It's just my Imagination, It's just my Imagination, It's just my Imagination, long but it fits me!
I used cotton batting, with cotton fabric back and front. For the "eyes of flame", I used red "berries", from leftover Christmas Holly and appliquéd cotton fabric. The Teeth and Claws are made with freshwater pearls. The body is cotton, quilted and trapuntoed, and for the wings of the "shabby-looking bird", feathers. I collected the feathers while hiking in North Eastern Washington State, some years ago. I made the head and feet floating free from the body, it just seemed to fit the "curious looking creature" line, from my version of the Jabberwocky. The closet door is two pieces of cotton fabric, I used this pattern on the door because it gave me the feeling of the light dancing through the trees, pouring in the window. I made a mini green quilt, then stuffed it using poly fluff to appear as if someone was hinding under the covers, it needed something so I stuck a lock of my hair out the end of it. I made the book cover and pages of "Alice" using two different fabrics fused together, written on with a "Zig" pen and I stitched the binding with gold thread. The digital clock is embroidered on black cotton fabric and appliquéd on. Curtains over the star lit window, are made of tulle.

This is my version of the Jabberwocky, Taken from a Glossary of idiosyncratic words, made up by Lewis Carroll:

'Twas four o'clock, and the foul, supple, curious looking creature did spin like a gyroscope and made holes like a gimlet in the grass plot around the sundial:
all miserable and flimsy were the thin shabby-looking birds,
and the lost green pigs bellowed and whistled with a kind of sneeze in the middle.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the desperate bird living with perpetual passion, and shun the fuming furious swift moving creature who's neck bends and jaws snap!

"He took his deadly, extremely sharp sword in hand:
Long time the monstrous and fearsome foe he sought -
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
and stood awhile in thought.

And, as in the state of mind when voice is gruffest, manner goughlish,and temper huffish, he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came blowing in fitful gusts through the tangled and ugly wood,
and singing a fluttering and quivering sound as it came

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The deadly, extremely sharp sword went with a slightly stifled laugh -hurriedly!
He left it dead, and with its head
he went galloping triumphantly back.

"And has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my happily, optimistic smiling, boy!
O fair, fabulous, joyous day! Callooh! Callay!
He chuckled and snorted in his joy.

'Twas four o'clock, and the foul, supple, curious looking creature did spin like a gyroscope and made holes like a gimlet in the grass plot around the sundial:
all miserable and flimsy were the thin shabby-looking birds,
and the lost green pigs bellowed and whistled with a kind of sneeze in the middle.

Tulgey Wood 1

This is my little quilt (9"x 12") called Tulgey Wood l. I would be very interested in getting critiques on it. This year I have challenged myself to work small & show restraint in colour choices. This quilt was also done improvisationally, in about 3 hours, in a departure from my normal mode of working.I just started piling up sheers & fusing them to a background fabric. I added the 'eyes of flame' later in the process & am not at all sure about them. I went to my stash & these were the best eyes I could come up with, but I think it makes the shadowy figure of the Jabberwock look more like an Ewok! Too cute, not sinister enough. Given the chance to do it again I would also place the Jabberwock higher on the quilt (rumour has it the Jabberwock flies).I would also be interested in hearing comments from other people who work improvisationally. What bugged me about it, was that once I had figured out where I was going, the dye was cast & I couldn't go back & adjust things that I wasn't happy with. Do you think that this kind of dilemma tends to cause you to work in a series? Is a piece that is done in this quick and unplanned manner more likely to generate a series than one that is tightly thought out first? Anyway, I welcome any and all comments on this little quilt.  Nan Williams

Grasshoppers Beware

It was a dark and eerie night and the Jabberwocky was on the Prowl.

That was the feeling I was trying to portray.

Betty Donahue

Jabberwocky & the Lost Green Pigs

finished size: 9 X 13
raw-edge applique
angelina fibers
beading
free-motion quilting

Attempting to interpret this poem in an abstract way was truly a challenge for me. I came up with a mental picture of a vicious tree with waving clawlike branches. I was surprised at how many of us incorporated an image of a tree gone bad. My tree was sliced in two places to show that it had been conquered by the vorpal sword (that shiny angelina sliver) and was losing its lifeblood. When I was almost done, I remembered that we were supposed to be showing texture - so my texture is a fuzzy length of red yarn and some green beads; the beads represent the lost green pigs that were mentioned in one of the translations of the poem. There is also lots of quilted texture with pointy shapes. I will appreciate any comments.

Thanks,

Roberta

The Beast of Slithertongue

Beware the forest of growing I's
where even toadstools have found demise,
there roams "The Beast of Slithertongue"
who feeds on gems and gentle ones.

Beware the bog of no escape,
the claw of fears and moss thou drape,
the trees of bare and tugley wood,
of Jabberwock mis-understood.

finished size: 12 1/2 x 16
Trapunto,fusing,machine applique,free motion quilting,beads & gem, various yarns,& wire.

I would very much be open to suggestions/critque
on this, as I had to step back for a day after It took on a life of it's own.
Was definately a multi-learning experience for me.
On a lighter note...The trees are stuffed with a pillow that had exploded in my dryer, so I did use re-cycled elements. Just glad no animals were harmed in the process as the claw looks like the foot of a chicken! Santaria anyone? WINK!

Has thou slain the Jabberwock?

My 15 x 15" quilt is fused applique using a variety of fabrics and fabric manipulation for texture, including gold lame for swords, hand pleated batik for a tree trunk and hand-dyed velvet free motion stitched onto tyvek & melted for some of the grass.

Comments/critique appreciated, please! A couple things I'm ambivalent about....the color scheme and/or the background may be too cheery. And the tree tops are cut off.

Cynthia

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

What is Hiding Behind The Words?

This is my maiden voyage with this group (having just gotten back from a trip AND starting a new job last month!).

The poem really had me going. I read it about 20 times before it started making any sense at all, and that understanding was marginal at best.

What IS hiding behind the words? What was Carroll thinking (or smoking!?!) when he wrote it?

My first thought was a Kilroy-was-here type image, at least the eyes, and nose :-) with the words of the poem cascading over an open umbrella. I guess I felt pretty overwhelmed by all the nonsense words.

I wanted to play with image transfer, specifically words, and began with the poem on a gold batik. Then I played with the text in a textart program, creating the circle, and printed it on organza. The rest just sort of happened and the Kilroy idea was gone!

The eyes are fused to the batik and highlighted with chalk and white acrylic paint. Thank goodness there is a website that show you how to draw dragon eyes!

The organza was partially fused and the texture is from the quilting, outlining the eyes and creating a nose (did you notice it's slightly out of joint?) and tree elements in the outer border.

I'm not 100% thrilled with the result, it has an other-worldly character that was a surprise. More alien than Jabberwocky... but then, maybe the Jabberwocky is more alien than we know!

Thanks for looking!

Wendy in Flagstaff

[I had a hard time uploading the photos of this quilt. The upload page says it was completed but for some reason, it didn't upload til the 3rd try.... Thanks for your patience... this is my first go-round with Blogger!]

Snicker Snack

So I have to admit when I read this poem I'm just didn't know what to think. I don't recall having read it in school. Then I googled it and thought - this is stupid - the only thing that remotely made sense to me was a "snicker snack"

Not at all in the sense of the poem but more for chocolate, caramel and peanuts. So I grabbed my chocolate fabric - pintucks in caramel thread - and peanut beads. I'm done - but not technically - I may just reuse the background for something else - I'm not sure what to do with the piece.

Lisa - In Rainy Seattle

The Jabberwock

I chose to be a bit less 'dark' as I depicted the Jabberwock. Since it's however we view it I chose to look at it as the coming winter. Many things are dark then and cold with stark branches, shorter, darker days, etc.
I used cotton fabrics with the background piece my own hand-dyed fabric. Although bright blues it can also show the frigid colds being the death of all living things for a period of time. The leaves are all various batiks. I also depicted the death part as the leaves dying and one falling off the branch. For texture, the various fabrics of course, the stitching of veins on the leaves, finely stretched and separated yarn for the cold, blowing winds and white seed beads for snow flakes.

Jan Johnson

The Jabberwock Cometh

Even after reading this several times since Friday morning the only image that stayed in my mind was that of teeth, claws and fiery eyes rushing through the woods. SCAREY! So as I posted on the group, I decided to look through a child's eyes and "saw" that those 3 things were all a small child would see if this came at them! So basically this is the 5 year old Cathy's "monster in the closet"...or Jabborwock! I purposely made it as a child might, simple , almost silly,shapes. My almost 4 grandson says it looks like a scarey monster, my 22 yr old with Down Syndrome and therefore much younger in "mind" wants it for a Halloween mask, my 17 year old says it looks stupid...lol...so guess I hit my age group! Anyways, the bacground is flannel, eyes and hands cotton, mouth, red and black satin, and the teeth and claws are...teflon?..the stuff inside potholders. I quilted it pretty heavily ...actually embroidering over all the pine needles to make them stand out more. Also I quilted it in such a way that it is bumpy,,,like the pine cones stick out to make it look more like the woods surrounding him. The odd shape is to focus more attention on the elements of the creature. And tried something new on the binding..twisted tulle in a lighter green, to represent the safer, lighter place where the Jabberwock DOESN'T live.

Jaws that Bite, Claws that Catch

I love this poem and had a pretty clear picture of what it would be from the start. In my interpretation the Tum tum tree is the "monster" with jaws and claws and glowing red eyes. The grass is blowing in the vortex around the sundial in a primordial forest.
The Vorpal Blade awaits the hero.
I used textured paint to create bark on my tree, lots of metallics (which makes it hard to get a decent picture). Another fun piece.

I would love comments, please.
Cherie Brown, Del Mar

Challenge #2: Jabberwocky

Challenge # 2 - Friday, 27 Oct 2006

Challenge # 2 Hostess - Rhonda Blasingame

Theme - Abstract, based on "Jabberwocky"

Design Element - Texture

--- Design and complete a small work using your interpretation of the Lewis Carroll poem "Jabberwocky." The poem is included at the bottom of this email and is also posted in the Yahoo group site under Files section.

--- Texture can be achieved through many different ways: the use of color, contrasting prints, different fabric types and materials or surface embellishments and fibers, the use of quilting itself to add texture, the use of trapunto, pleating, scrunching and other fabric manipulation.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

JABBERWOCKY

Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Falling into the Depths of Despair

Figured I may as well put it here too, so I can see what everyone thinks of my "1 day NEED to do it NOW" project.
This is a therapeutic little quilt that I woke up the other morning envisioning in my head complete with name that I knew had to be made for the challenge. I have been really down in the dumps for several weeks now and have not been able to sew or design at all because of it. At another time in my life when I had a similar problem I made a wallhanging called Hurdles and it seemed to relieve the stress, so I decided to try again. This is the result.
I originally envisioned it as a whirlpool sucking me down to despair ...but just couldn't get the spiral of fabric to cooperate with me!
The hands are stuffed slightly and are reaching out for somebody to save me...quilted in the red in front of her are the words "help me"...the beads under her spell "despair"
And it worked,,the simple act of creating this little 11" square helped , I am not fully renewed in spirit but much better today. May have to change the name as somebody suggested to "Climbing OUT...."

Autumn is Coming - by MAK

Oct 2006 Fast Friday Fabric Challenge
Created by MAK

- Autumn colors were used

- Depth created by color and inset circles - some circles are behind others.

The dimensions are 2 ft x 2 ft -

The quilt is now traveling with Rainbow Resource Co - as a booth model.

SPOOKY AUTUMN

This photo is my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge....I've been trying to put my photo's and description on FFFC Blog I hope this will be successful...the second photo is how I hang it from the corner with a plastic curtain ring.

SPOOKY AUTUMN ... Details I wanted to do this first challenge as I will miss the next one I will be in Houston Oct.23 thru Nov 6. I made Spooky Autumn and decided it needs to hang by one corner. Size 13x12 the top(the tent shaoe) 131/2 x13 the bottom (the v shape), just one plastic ring to hang. The size came to be quite a surprise to me as I just trimmed the edges with my rotary cutter and no ruler. First I pieced the top and put together with backing and batting and quiltedit. Next I added fused halloween fabrics..ghosts, pumpkins, black cat, spider-web, bats and a long snake-like strip across the quilt.To this I stitched fluffy yarn and the double faced leaves I stitched only down the spines and curled the edges I hand sewed a plastic spider on the web in the leaves.I finished the edges with an overcast stitch and added more fluffy yarn to complete the quilt. By the way...upon examining my quilt I have two white dots!! The ghost has two little white eyes...LOLOL


Janice Simpson In Marquette Michigan...Let me know what you think...I've changed the name from "Spooky Fall Colors" to " Spooky Autumn"

Autumn's Transition--Photoshopped

Hi Julie,
Here's the photoshopped version of your quilt critique. You can move it underneath your post, delete it, or whatever. Hope it helps. The truth is, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I was getting weary of all that wordy explaining without being able to simply point at what I mean and move on. I'm more of a visual person.

I changed some of the colors' saturation and values, shifted the center tree a bit and made it a little larger, and faded the back tree more into the background, as well as removed the brown hill of leaves. I also narrowed the third band of green so it would appear to lie flatter.

laura kong (diva of quilts)

Posting to this blog...

If you are having trouble posting your challenge quilt, this is the post for you!

Go to http://blogger.com/ and sign in.
You will be taken to your "dashboard".
On the dashboard, click the green plus
sign to create a post.

This will bring you to a WYSIWYG editor.
Click the button in the tool window that looks like a little landscape next
to the spell check.
This will open a new window that will allow you to
upload pictures.
Click "browse" and search your computer for the picture of
your quilt.
Select how you would like the picture to look~ small image or
large, and do you want it centered or to one side?
Click upload image.

It may take a few moments to upload your picture if you did not resize it. Be patient!
When the picture is uploaded, that screen will change to show a blue "done" button. Click it!
That window should disappear and the picture should be in your wysiwyg editor.

Below the picture type your description. Include the size of the piece, your artist statement, ask any questions you might have of your fellow critiquers.

When all is said and done, click the orange "publish post" button on the bottom.
This will take a moment, so let it load. When you get a 100% message, click the tab above that says "view blog". This will open the FFFC blog in a new window.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many people use Picassa!

It is a wonderful program and makes creating posts a simple process. Simply visit the website by clicking here and download the program. Further help with this program can be found on their website.

They have a special button just for blogger users that says "blog this". When you select your quilt pictures, click the blog this button and make sure that you are posting to the FFFC blog. Type your artist statement and publish.

It is really a great program.

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To comment/critique on the quilts of others, click the comment link below their post. It will open a window for you to type your response to their quilt.

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This blog is just for FFFC quilts! Please do not post pictures of other quilts on this blog. Those will be removed. Please post only pictures of quilts made for FFFC challenges.

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You can also send an e-mail to Tobi or Cynthia with questions or problems!

Art show quilt

As requested here is a picture of the art quilt I entered and won best in category and best in show...not the best picture... but here it is as it hangs at the show.

Autumn Branches by Linda Cline - Revised

There was one branch in the quilt I made that bothered me, because it was larger than the branch it was growing out of. It irritated me enough that I decided to reconstruct that part of the quilt. I took out the quilting from just the offending part, unsewed the seams and reconstructed it with tiny little appliqué stitches and a bit of additional background fabric. The supporting branch is now slightly larger,
and the branch growing out of it slightly smaller. The branch still grows larger than the base near it’s middle which is a bit strange, but it doesn’t irritate me every time I look at it. I am happy with my quilt now. I will now be able to display it withouth thinking "I wish I would have".


Here is the original blog post where you can see the before picture.

Conclusion: Yes, you can fix patchwork after a quilt has been quilted. It is much easier to fix before you have done the quilting.

Harvest Moons

Here is Harvest Moons. The fabric is ArtFabrik by Laura Wasilowski. Fabulous stuff. I free motion cut the fabric, heavily quilted it and then appliqued the moons. I think I will remove the moons, make them slighly larger and reapply them. (Thanks to the use of Misty Fuse, I can do this with a little bit of heat.)













Everyone I know who has died, has died in the fall. This fall brough two deaths -- my uncle and my friend's mother. They were waning at the time of this challenge and both died within a week of my finishing this piece.

Spawning Salmon River Run

Measures 8.5 x 11 and is done horizontally as opposed to vertical as were the Journal Quilts.

Here on Vancouver Island and its Salmon Capital, the early morning mist slowly rises, revealing nature's annual phenomena... the spawning salmon river run. The fish come in here from the Sal Water and wait for the tides to rise and up the river they go. A feasting time for the birds, particularly the carrion bords, crows and seagulls.
I tried to depict all this using silk organza[the mist], painted fish [Koi in this case... loosly called salmon]a silk leaf [ depcting the alling leaves] and beads together with metallic thread to reflect the water and the moist air as the mist rises.
Additionally, I have placed a crow feather [black] at the top and a gull feather [white] at the bottom. A hapless star fish waits, too, for the rising tide, but for other reasons.
I know the sizes are not porportionate to each other and this was deliberate.
I look forward to your comments. 

Autumn Glory

10 3/4" W x 8 1/4" H

Hand painted sky fabric, applique, strip piecing, trapunto, machine quilting, embroidery.

Autumnal Swirl

I used silks for the leaves, and the camera has a hard time reading them because of the shine they give, so they look abit blurred, but I wanted to use a flash to show what I did with the bark of the tree. A few leaves have copper coloured sheer on top of them.

I layered sheers on top of swirly turquoise coloured fabric, and then did FME over the top. I used the heat gun to melt some areas back to show the underlying fabric. This created the texture of the bark, and the revealed glimpses is like the turquoise coloured moss that grows on some of our trees.

The leaves are free cut. Most are brought forward by having a dark leaf shape under a lighter one. Then most are caught down with a fly stitch, and highlighted with beads. The swirls of wind are done with dark and light copper metallic thread.

The binding is shot silk dupion, and is gold, but shifts to reddish orange. I feel I have crammed the swirl in abit, and perhaps would have had more freedom with it if the piece was larger. It is 8 1/2 x 11 in.


I added a no flash image of the piece I did. The leaves come out looking dark and blurry because the camera has trouble reading the shine on the silk (I haven't learned all the fiddly bits of the camera!) However, perhaps you get a better idea of the dark bark. The synthetic organza sheers were black on top of silver (giving a grey effect) on top of a thin turquoise and blue silk with paisley- like swirls.

Autumn in Torrey/ revised

Here it is with faced finishing instead of ribbon, and I quilted the tops of the clouds with white silk thread. You canbarely see it, but it seemed to define the clouds more without spoiling the wispy effect. What do you all think now?

1st Challenge

I'm posting a picture of my challenge piece. I know it has a lot of problems...and no name. Please help me!

Challenge #1 - Suggestions

Hi again,
I just read a comment posted by Jean, and she asked about my thought process in putting together my colors & fabrics in this way.

Well... there is a story there, so I thought that I would post it in the body so everyone could see it. (and i cant figure out how to reply to a post!)

The fabrics came from a grab bag of Starr fabrics that I purchased in Chicago. They have several color combinations and I just love the "Harvest" Colors. Fall is my favorite season.

I had the bag out to show someone and i thought that it would be a perfect source for my challenge piece. And it would force me to stick within a set limit of options for color. I have a serious issue with over working anything that i am working on. I just keep at it until it's a mess....

Anyway, I had my color set (after filtering through the bag and cherry picking), what i needed next was a design. My fist choice was leaves and trees, but i thought that many people would be looking in that direction. I usually do projects were the subject is clearly identifiable, I think it comes form too many years of life drawing classes. Suffice it to say , I have a hard time doing anything abstract(in fact i keep thinking, "what if i put beads on in a leaf shape...). So, I thought I would attempt to do something completely different and work with rectangles. although I stuck to the organic shape when i was quiting, I had to counter my rectangles with curves...couldn't help it.

I hope that this answers your questions Jean, oh and it does not have a title yet....any suggestions?
-------------------------------

Spiraling into Winter is paper pieced with 9 cotton fabrics. It was pieced in four 1/2-square triangles--2 of them reversed. This is a method I have done before but am working at getting things square and a with visible motion. It is machine quilted with King Tut thread. This is the first time I've used the thread and was extremely pleased with it. The quiltlet is small--only 9 3/4 inches square.

I had a good time with this challenge. Comments welcome.

Sally

sewinginsa

Fall Guy

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge #1 part 2

I've had to remove the hair & start over! In my haste to see if I could use the element, I neglected to figure out that it might ravel after it was attached. When I was moving the piece around to finish the profile & do some quilting & adding other elements to complete, that's exactly what it did....RAVEL! So I'm back to square 1 as far as using the orange bag for hair. Since I had gotten such posotive feed-back on using this material in the 1st place, I'll need to come up w/ an alternative method of attaching it! (SIGH)

Rose Glow Fields

By Joe I think I've got it..... a post on the group site!

Thanks for the help !

This piece is 13 by 15.

I will appreciate any input.

Jacque