ren's window

ok, here it is. after detroit this morning, for which I left yesterday, I am now in kentucky and won't see my sewing machine for several weeks. this thing isn't yet quilted or embellished; I expect to have trees and fences going up the hills and a flower box below the window, maybe. I think my greens are too close in tone, but that could be remedied with stitching. anyway, it's now out there. I'm looking forward to critiques!

Challenge 13

Challenge #13 (2nd Year Challenge # 1) - Friday, 28 September 2007

Guest Hostess – Roberta Ranney

Theme or Technique - Architecture

Create a quilt representing your house or another house or building that
made an impression on you. The house may be the house of your dreams (or
nightmares). Your quilt may be realistic or abstract.

Design Concept - Depth
Some of the ways to create depth in your work are (1) use of shadows, (2)
lines converging in the distance, (3) elements decreasing in size in the
distance or (4) use of color to bring some elements closer and others to
recede.

Discussion - The following is included for informational purposes only:

An essay on depth:

http://www.blehert.com/essays/3dimension.html

Examples of quilts with houses/architecture:

http://www.quiltedartworks.com/

http://www.esteritaaustin.com/gallerymain.htm

http://www.auburn.edu/~garmego/arch_quilts.html

http://www.debanderson.net/Pages/Gallery3.html

http://www.debanderson.net/Pages/Gallery4.html


Due - Saturday, Noon EST, 6 October 2007 (but late postings are accepted)

One final requirement - HAVE FUN WITH THIS!

FYI: Your challenge piece could fit the call for entries for the 2009 Quilting Arts Magazine Calendar! The size must be 12” x 12" and the piece must have used some type of embellishment or surface design. Check out the details HERE!

Poppies

My newly up-dated, up-embellished, up-beaded piece.

Personally, I think it looks good. But I need your comments.

I would like to submit this to a juried show. Yes, I like it that much.

With your help, I think it hasa chance.

Carole

The Calm of Night

Only two weeks late...not too bad...LOL

This little piece (11x15 including borders) was done needle felting by hand, not machine.

I didn't draw any pattern or sketch, just went for it putting down whatever felt good.

After the felting, I backed the piece with stabilizer and thread painted/quilted it.

These are both techniques I have barely tried in the past so wanted to play with them. I know I definitely need alot of practice to get it right, especially the thread painting...but I had alot of fun doing it. I mounted it on a piece of mauve sueded pigskin.

As always, I welcome critiques and comments

Cherie

Fish Tank, ~17"x22"

This piece uses only satin plus some Angelina fiber as embellishment. I wanted to re-visit the technique I used in the single-fabric challenge where I used all gray satin with a fairly thick layer of batting, but this turned out much different, in part of course because I used multiple colors. I chose some of the fancier stitches from my new sewing machine to add seaweed, and free motion quilting to add more wave texture. The treasure chest and castle were added at my husband's suggestion, though I had originally intended it to be an underwater ocean scene. The wavy shape was in part because I did not have enough fabric to fill in the rectangle, but then again, I like getting away from a strict rectangle in my pieces.

I may add a bit of beading to the pirate chest, and some random beads for bubbles, but I'm not sure about that.

Beachfire

This small piece (12" square) started as an experiment with some watercolors. I painted them on the fabric and thought it was attractive. I was bored and needed something to quilt so proceeded to quilt the piece heavily. Then I took a beading class a few days ago and decided to use some beads to emphasize the different areas of the piece. My work is rarely abstract so this is a departure for me.

As much as I don't care for beading (kind of like watching paint dry) I'm going to add some more to this piece because it seems unfinished. Any beading advice would be appreciated. Thanks for looking.

Roberta

Poppies of France

My Poppies of France is up... a little late. But, I did get an early start! [smile]I had a lot of fun with this one. I used four different fabrics for the background, cut them into large rectangles, mixed them up and sewed them back together. Then I took my rotary cutter and cut into wavy stips free hand. Next, I laid them out, wove them together on batting,overlaid with tulle and had fun with some free motion quilting. I used some copper netting [coarse] cut on the diagonal for a grid, added the silk flower poppies. I used velvet and a brad on the silk flowers. At that point I sent it in. Cynthia suggested more poppies..clumping... stems.... I did that and added leaves. The additional poppies are free hand cut from felt, as are the centers. again, brads [yellow] and I used Tsukineko ink for the black 'blush' around the centers. Bound it in black.
BTW it is straight on all sides, but since my move and no sewing room, I am using a door with some flannel and have yet to work out the irregularities. I am a 'straight-freak' and make it a must 'learn how to' do when I teach. Pictures sure are another matter.I will look forward to comments.
Carole

Lily Pad Garden

14 ½ x 10

I did the surface design part of this challenge right away. I took hand dyed and commercial fabrics I was not overly thrilled with and discharged, stamped and painted them.

I had taken underwater pictures of the water lilys through the glass wall they have at one edge of a lily pond. My fabrics kept screaming at me to use these pictures for this quilt, but I wasn’t sure they were telling me the right thing. Or maybe I was afraid of doing it wrong. So I procrastinated for six days, and then decided I had better just do it and see what happens.

I spent Thursday afternoon creating the quilt top, and quilted it this morning. I mostly like how it turned out. I need to learn to trust my instincts more.

The quilt seems to lack depth. It isn’t apparent which leaves are closer. They all seem to be on the same plane. Perhaps I could have remedied this by lightening the color of the further away leaves. But I like it the way it is also.

Challenge #12 - "Excess Baggage"

"Excess Baggage" has an upholstery sample for the background. The irregular patches are hand woven fabrics from a student. I love creating texture, both visual and tactile. A few of the elements in my quilt are from the scrapbook section of Michael's - the Chinese knot, the bronze ovals, and the ribbon. Compostion was the toughest to achieve. I had problems placing the rectangles and still creating movement throughout the piece. I think what worked to unify the elements were the "danglies" in the center, and the springs, best seen in the close up on the Yahoo page.

Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Ann in Walnut, CA

Pink Mountains

I hand dyed a piece of fabric using Ellen Anne Eddy's dyeing method http://www.ellenanneeddy.com/

Then I used Shiva paintsticks and torn paper as a template to add the mountains and highlight the moonlight and lake. Shiva is fun to use if you have the patience to wait 24 hours for it to dry!

Cynthia

Challenge #12

The first image is the quilt I made in response to this challenge. I stamped the dark blue fabric with copper circles and some sparkly stuff. The light blue fabric is quilted in circles, and the peach fabric is quilted with copper sliver. I'm not very happy with this particular surface design that I did.

The second image shows part of a quilt I made a few weeks ago, stamping and rubbing with Shiva Paintstiks on the lighter red batik. Then I quilted the checkerboard using copper sliver, metallic variegated thread, and sulky rayon. This piece is piped with a tiny piping I made using a cotton lame variegated fabric. Pretty, but it still shreds. I like this quilt a lot better, partly because there is not so much contrast between the two colors as in the other quilt.

Surface design is new to me, and I welcome the chance to experiment. Comments are welcome!

Just Playing

I made two. They are very small so I will be sending them to Ami Simms soon for her Alzheimer's auctions.
The background was painted using watered down acrylic paints.
Machine quilted around the painted leaves and then silk flowers were sewn on.
A very fast and easy project

Challenge 12

Challenge # 12 - Friday, August 24, 2007 – Due Saturday, September 1, 2007

Hostess - Gena Flatley

Theme - Maker’s Choice

Design Element- 1) A surface design technique either new or familiar to you.
2) Build on a technique, style, thought or design you’ve used in one of this years other pieces.

This month we will extend our comfort zones to include a surface design technique that you have either used before or one that is new to you. Alter a piece of fabric and use it in a small work. The extent to which you use this design element in your piece is up to you.

Share a paragraph about your technique(s) with the group. Include any problems or successes you have.

Surface design is a wide open area that includes dyes in many forms and applications, discharging, acrylic and textile paints, resists, devores, stamps, stencils, rubs, screen-printing, mono-printing, sun-printing, wax crayons and watercolor pencils and embellishments. I’m sure there are many more types of manipulations with which create new fabric designs than I can list here.

Design may be realistic, representational or abstract.

Discussion The following is included for informational purposes only:

I’m including a list of books that have been helpful to me, along with some websites with technique information. Please feel free to share any websites or information you have that may be of interest to the group on this topic.
The Surface Designer’s Handbook – Holly Brackman
Color by Accident – Ann Johnston
Color by Design – Ann Johnston
Art Quilt Workbook – Jane Davila and Elin Waterson
Complex Cloth – Jane Dunnewold
Dyes and Paints – Elin Noble
http://www.prochemical.com/ – website for dyes, books, etc, with many how-to articles
http://www.dharmatrading.com/ – website for dyes, fabrics, paints, etc with many how-to articles
www.pburch.net/dyeing.shtml - Paula Burch has an excellent extensive site with dyeing info

A final note: this challenge may be easy or hard, I don’t know…. Easy because it is wide open, hard because it is not specific, or vice versa. As we’ve worked through this year we’ve tried many different techniques, styles, interpretations, themes…. It’s been a wonderful year for me to see how everyone works in different ways with different styles and approaches. The photos in the files are absolutely inspiring. As a group, you all can be extremely proud. It’s been a wonderful, wonderful year.


Have fun! Gena

Le Talisman, After Sérusier

13½” x 11½”

I didn’t like my last attempt at a quilt in the style of Sérusier, so I had another try at it. This one is a loose copy of Sérusier’s “Le Talisman”. I like this quilt much more than I did my last one. This was fun. I learned more by trying to copy his painting than I did by doing my own things with his colors.

challenge #11

My inspiration was a painting by Paul Klee called "1919", though some references also call it "1914". You can see the painting with this link: www.chess-theory.com/encprd03014_chess_practice_reflections_debates_arts.php

Klee had a wide variety of styles and you will see many of them at this website. I particularly liked "1919" because of its simplicity, use of a bold black outline as well as its child-like quality. My quilt is entirely fused but has yet to get a border.

Ann In Walnut, CA

Klimt Tree of Life 19.5"x22.5"

Well, I'm a little late, but close this time!

I chose to create a Klimt-style tree of life. It is fused from a heavily metallic gold on orange commercial fabric over a leafy green print and a brown paisley print with lots of gold metallic accents. I think that is why I can't seem to get a decent picture of it. I will try to get a better shot when I can.

I quilted this with gold silk thread. I wanted the quilting to be subtle; unfortunately the quilting doesn't show up very well at all, so it was a bit too subtle. I may add some gold beads to the background area to add some more interest. A la Klimt, you can never have too much bling, right?

This was a lot of fun except for cutting out the spirals (aaghh).

Brenda Jennings

Sérusier’s View

16" x 9"

I spent several days procrastinating and looking at Post Impressionism and Fauvism books. Yesterday I decided to take a different approach and picked a photo of mine to interpret.

Then I looked through the books again to choose a painting to use as inspiration to interpret my photo (taken at the Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts.)
I was drawn to Paul Sérusier’s, Le Talisman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_S%C3%A9rusier. I like the unusual colors he chose, and I thought the large flat areas of color would be easy to translate into cloth.

I put the image of the painting away until I had finished my quilt, because I didn’t want to be tempted to copy what Sérusier had done.

I still love Sérusier’s painting, but I don’t care much at all for what have I done. I thought I would use the warm colors for the very hot day, and the cooler colors for bit of shade that the plants were providing. What I ended up with is a very otherworldy looking something. I will call this a fun “learning experience.”

From ERTE'S Hearts and Zephyrs series...my interpretation of "Heart-I Purple".

I have always loved all of Erte's work and really had fun recreating one of his pieces in fabric. It turned out to be the most involved and labor intensive of all my challenge pieces so far, due to all the beading and painting lace with metalic Tsukineko ink. The fabrics are suede cloth , dupioni silk, and a holographic gold. Background is a metalic look cotton.

Comments and critiques are welcome and appreciated......Cherie

Pieces 10 & 11 by Tina Marie Rey

I am finally posting quilt #10 = better late than never. I used washers on a hand dyed and discharged background. I hands sewed them on using red metallic embroidery thread.
It is unnamed.

I then did #11. I used Monet's flowers as inspiration. I had hand marbled the background fabric in an Elin Noble class back in November of 2005. I had held on to it knowing I didn't want to just cut it up. This background is perfect, I think, because it has such a Monet feel to it. Please feel free to critique or comment!

Kandinsky Revisted

I chose Wassily Kandinsky of Bauhaus fame because I really like how he used repetition of geometric shapes in his abstractions, but still had great balance and variety. My piece is based on one of his paintings called Decisive Pink. Comments welcome!

Cynthia

Ala Klee

Several artists came to mind immediately when I read this challenge: Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Georgia OKeeffe, and Paul Klee. I had just done a tiny calla lily quilt for a memorial service, so I wanted to find another motif/design concept. So I turned to Paul Klee.

Klee's Ancient Sound: Abstract on Black spoke to me of blocks in hand dyed fabric. I used only two cuts of hand dye (purple to green, and gold) plus the black. While the photo doesn't show it, the black is extensively quilted for texture, and there are creases in the greens that add to the effect.

I'm thinking now that I could have added a small piping to outline the blocks (6x6") and highlight the central design. Critiques are welcome! And thanks in advance!

Monet's l'Esterel Mountains

Here is my challenge. I confess I did copy with a few small variations.

I used acrylic paint watered down for the highlights. The tree trunk and grass was thread painted and the leaves were snippets.

I added tulle over the top to make it look more misty.

I am also adding a picture of the original.

Quilter's Window

My attempt at cubism. I was looking around the web and became inspired to give this a try, I especially like the works of Juan Gris and Fernand Leger. Not being a great artist, I couldn't get the hang of drawing things the way they did, so instead I used fused applique, made the picture I wanted, cut it into strips and reassembled to get the look I was after. This is based more on Juan Gris' work (notice the door and the window!) or maybe you don't!
For quilting I simply followed the lines of the shapes, then did a curvy line running around the border to break up all the angles. I am really happy with how this came out and know I am going to be making more .

What Would Mondrian Quilt?

Piet Mondrian immediately came to mind for this challenge. A late-night run to Walmart for supplies (I don't own any solid color fabrics), and the fabric is cheap 65/35 broadcloth for that reason. My machine does NOT like to sew that fabric, hence things tended to get a bit wonky when starting and stopping. How would the artist have done the quilting if he had worked in fabric? My decision was geometric, a simple square spiral, the width of my presser foot. Working with an 8.5x11" size in mind, the actual design is minimal in order to have enough room for quilting. It's straighter than it looks in the picture - but that broadcloth warps out of shape all too easily. Perhaps I will do another, of quality cotton fabric, and in a larger size. Certainly the next time I could be a bit more original in my choice of design. -Marilyn

Fishing Bridge

Easily completed since I had the small pieces of fabric already cut. I wanted to create a picture in the style of the wonderful old master, Claude Monet. When/If I try this method again I will use even smaller pieces so as not to get the stringy effect as seen in this piece. I used a solid piece of fabric for the sky and then took the various colors of fabric and placed them around to construct the picture. I then layered a piece of black tulle over all of this, pinned it down (but not enough since they easily move around when rolled) and quilted like crazy to hold everything together. I thought the frame using a woodgrain fabric worked well.

Mountain Pass (Chamonix and Martigny)

10" x 13"

I had in mind first M.C. Escher, and actually bought some fabric for a tessellated picture, but the fabric wasn't quite right for a real Escher effect, so I googled "landscape artists" and found John Robert Cozens, an18th century English artist. I liked his muted but mostly pale palette, but found it difficult to get my picture pale enough. I used the back side of the fabric for the brown hillside and the sky, but even after that, it was too bright. I finally layered two layers of fine white gauze over everything, with a bit more in the sky for the cloud layer, and did some thread-painting.
My intent was to avoid making too slavish a copy but to create a similar feel. It all came together much faster than anything else I've done!

Stone Spiral

What a fun challenge.

The initial four artist I thought of where - Georgia O'Keaffe, Salvador Dali, Picasso, and Andy Goldsworthy - but weird none were on the list - so I stated scanning art work on the list - none of it spoke to me so I went with my initial artist - Andy Goldsworthy. Here is a web site that has a sampling of his work - http://www.morning-earth.org/ARTISTNATURALISTS/AN_Goldsworthy.html

I like him as an artist - his pallet is mother nature and takes only what is available to him to create sculptures and what not. So I took some pebbles - sorted them by value and composed this piece only with my scraps that were in my sewing room - not quite the same as his work - but fun to do anyway. The pebbles were a bit of challenge - I really wanted them sewn on to the pieces but that wasn't a technical possibility all the time so I glued them then sewed them so you think they are sewn on. The piece itself measures 8 1/2 x 7 - I am attempting to work smaller.

Thanks again for this challenge - I have quite a few more pebbles this might be a gateway for a series of work.

Lisa
In Cloudy Seattle

Challenge 11

Challenge #11 – Friday, 27 July 2007

Challenge # 11 hostess: Cynthia Morgan

Theme: In the Style of the Masters

Find one of your favorites on these lists of famous artists or schools of art and create a small piece in the style of that artist or school of art. You could copy or adapt a specific piece of art, but it may be more rewarding to do something original using the style.

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/

http://library.thinkquest.org/J001159/artstyle.htm


Design Principle – Variety and Emphasis (Focal Point)

Sources and examples:

The Quilter’s Book of Design by Ann Johnston, Chapter 3

http://www.brigantine.atlnet.org/GigapaletteGALLERY/websites/ARTiculationFinal/MainPages/VarietyandEmphasisMain.htm

http://char.txa.cornell.edu/language/principl/rhythm/rhythm.htm

http://awesomeartists.com/ART/mTheABCsOfArtEmphasis.htm


Variety – Adding elements that are similar, but different from each other can add interest without disrupting the unity of the whole. Ways to achieve variety: change line direction, change size, change color, change color value, change color intensity, change degree of complexity, change texture, change placement.
Focal Point – Creating one area in the design that captures the viewer’s first glance and sets the direction that the eye will follow throughout the viewing of the design. A focal point will emphasize a specific part of the design, which should contribute to the meaning of the whole design.
Variety creates Focal Points – If one of the variations of the chosen element is in high contrast to the rest of the piece, it can create a focal point for the composition

The Destiny of Flower Children

The Destiny of Flower Children

Burlap and Velor

So, I am a few months late!

I am working to get caught up on past challenges but did meet the time limit. I created this quilt in one night, but it took 2 days to add the binding.

13" wide x 16" tall

Fabrics: burlap and velor for the challenge of working with something you haven't used before, and 100% cotton quilters cottons.

While I must say this isn't the greatest quilt I have ever made, I do like the color, I am pleased with my machine quilting, and I had fun making it! That is the point right? Fun.

There are some things I would change, like my binding is not the greatest (binding is my greatest weakness), and I cut off part of a circle when I added the binding (on the bottom right- I know you are going to look now).

It was a good exercise and it felt good to lock myself in my sewing room for a while and just create!

Waterfall

31.5" x 13.5"

I scoured AC Moore for my purchased item, and a bag of "Iridescent Decorating Shred" cost $4.99, so was just under the limit -- not that I used all of it! It looks like Easter basket grass, except white/clear/silver, probably meant for wedding decoration. Adding the shred was the last step. I made a very thin mat of calypso blue Angelina and used that to partly couch the shred, which, by the way, is awful stuff to work with, and if this ever goes anywhere, it will have to be ve-e-e-ry carefully packed! I used some holographic film thread to hold it together.

The ducks came from a photo I got in New Zealand, a wonderful zoom shot that was only apparent as such when I could see it on the computer. You could actually see a drop of water dripping off the duck's bill! I did a little touch-up with a blue-metallic pen to adjust the ripples at the base of the waterfall, and a little bit of gold to highlight the ducks.

Africa Inspirations

This is my quilt for Challenge #10. About a year ago, I made a little quilt using some shark's teeth from an old necklace that I'd had for years. I loved the way that the quilt turned out, but had no more shark's teeth, so then I went on a mission buying shark teeth on e-bay! Who knew they came in such varieties? These are a long, ivory variety--don't ask me what kind of shark they are from! I also have some little shiny black ones that I intend to use someday.

This photo does not do justice to my little quilt! The idea here was to portray a day at the beach, where no one wants to enter the water. I used tissue paper, angelina fibers, heated and distorted chiffon, and text from an old book. That blackish blob is also chiffon but like the angelina, it just doesn't photograph well. The edge is finished with decorative yarn. I will probably add some beads and other doodads to give it more personality. Maybe you would all like to come to CA to see and appreciate it in person - LOL!

Ann In Walnut, CA

Coffee Cups

14" x 9"

My intention was to create a quilt with a sketch like quality, with the window screening to depict crosshatching.

I began by tracing a sketch onto white fabric, layered it, and free-motioned the outlines in black thread. The screening was difficult to mark, so I laid it on top of the quilt while cutting, so I could use the outline quilting as a guide. I painted the lightest shade of screening with white fabric paint. The screening is edge stitched down with free-motion ziz-zag.

I’m debating if and how to finish this. I think I might have liked it better if I had used some color in it. Maybe I could add a wash of paint. The quilting and appliqué caused some puckering, but not so much that I couldn’t fix it with more quilting.

Suggestions are welcome.

Up the Lazy River

Since I don't have the energy to make a new one and Cherie and Ricky said to go for it - I am using the first one I made for Challenge #7 this month. After I got it finished a friend said "You should do something out of the ordinary so I put it aside and made something else.

The background was painted on Tyvek with various paints. The sand is covered with tea dyed cheese cloth and there is a layer of organza over the water.

I quilted the sky, mountains, sand, and water first which made a bubble out of the trees. To flatten it out a bit I cut across the trees and inserted some upholstery trim which I dyed green. When I pulled the bottom part up and sewed it to the trim I liked it better. To me, that made my painted trees look like a reflection in the water.

The bird, fish, and turtle were all in my stash of stuff and the rocks are from a broken necklace my kids gave me many years ago.

The size is 19-1/4" x 17-1/2".

Tokens

This was a great challenge. My first hit was washers, those round metal things with holes in them... from the hardware store. I spent $3.25 on those (but didn't use them all). Then I was off to Target for some stuff and saw bamboo skewers, $1 for 100. But I had them at home....

The background is a brown mottled fabric over batting. I started with yard woven sort of over/under the skewers, adding a washer when I felt like it. It took on a rather Asian character, the washers reminding me of Chinese coins.

Minimal quilting, just to hold the top two skewers and the ends of the rest of them (and yes, a Bernina's zigzag is wide enough to jump the skewer and not break the needle!). The back is just a facing, hand stitched in place. The sleeve is actually a space between the batting and backing, pretty clever, eh?

Critiques of course, are welcome. (And thanks, Marilyn, for brainstorming names!

Wendy in Flagstaff

Sol's Glory

19"x17"

I tried a few things on this quilt I have not done
before. I started with tissue paper sundyeing for the background of the sky and water, used a combination of polyfill and dryer lint for clouds and used organdy overlays on both sky and water and mountains. I used expanding paint, micro beads, mica dust, tiny seashells and polished pebbles for the sandy beach, and a sheet of mica from some angel wing mica I found in the hills of North Dakota.

This was really up my alley as I love trying things not normaly used with fabric quilts. I would appreciate any comments and or critiques...
Cherie

Day at the Beach...Challenge 10

I started working on this around 11 this morning and just finished it now, a few minutes shy of 2AM. It just grabbed hold of me and wouldn't let go. I knew what I was going to make as soon as I read the challenge Friday, just needed to gather the materials.
I used..Angelina, batting, and tulle for the surf, a tiny straw basket and straw hat, little bitty sea shells, a hair net, teeny pebbles from the beach, and wooden beads for the "floats". I am pretty sure that tomorrow I am going to sew some clothesline around the edges as the binding instead of the green that's there.

Challenge 10

Theme ~ Project Runway Challenge
Elements ~ Technique-based Exercise

Challenge Host ~ Rhonda

Starts ~ June 22nd, 2007
Please post your quilts by ~ June 30th, 2007

This month, we're going back to the original inspiration for Gena to have started this group. That's right! A Project Runway style challenge!

Your mission is to use one thing on your quilt that is NOT from a fabric store. Hardware store, grocery store, dollar store, whatever.... (I'm flashing on the ironing board covers and shower curtains and candy necklaces from the original PR show) and your limit is $5.00.

You have one week to design, shop, and complete the quilt. Make it work!The $5.00 applies to your specifically purchased non-traditional element only. You don't have to count fabrics you already have and batting and backing. Your element can be fabric such as napkins from the grocery, bandanas from the Dollar Tree, whatever, or it can be a non-fabric item such as hardware, paper, silk flowers, whatever.

The sky is the limit on this one. Dig deep for that creativity!

Challenge 9

Made of paper towel and alcohol inks.

Discharge experiement

This quilt was created by discharging brown Kona fabric with bleach. The tree was then raw edge appliqued on the background.

Discharge From Black

So this is my attempt for Challenge #9. I used solid black Kona fabric. All of the shapes are freezer paper stencils. The large flower misted with bleach, while the spirals were painted with bleach. I thread-painted the flower and free-form quilted the background. Now that I see the quilt in a photo, I realize that it needs a bit more and was thinking of adding some beadwork to the upper right corner, and maybe to the spirals as well. Any suggestions?

Ann

Springtime

Okay, so I'm late, and it's not bound yet, but it's done and quilted. This was an experiment using Sharpie pens and alcohol. I drew in some designs with colored Sharpies, then used alcohol - either sprayed on or dripped on. On some layers, I sprinkled salt, which drew the color out of those spots. It's totally colorfast when it dries. Learned that yellow and orange sharpies don't do very well. Freemotion quilted with rayon threads. Size is 8.5x11" and I'd appreciate some suggestions on binding. - Marilyn

Satin Flower

Finished size: ~20" x 20"

This is made from silver-gray satin with a thick layer of batting so that when I thread-painted, it created depth automatically. For the flower, the thread-painting made it too flat, so I made strips of ruffles and hand-sewed them on, then I used Lumiere paint on the edges and on the leaves. And yes, it is not a real rectangle, the curve on the right is the way I chose to make it, or rather how it chose to be, and the left side also slants somewhat in. And at that, it is actually more rectangular than most of my recent work!

Using a single fabric is quite a change for me, since I usually take the patterns and pictures in the fabric to create the picture.

Dawn

Name - Dawn - finished size 15 1/2 by 18

I painted a plain white fabric with acrylics.

So I put another scrap fabric over it and found a really light section of the fabric piece. Not on purpose but interesting how that worked.

I didn't like the proportions so I cut curves and re pieced the fabric - then I added some embroidery thread to highlight details and give it a little more pop.

So I don't find the acrylic paints yielded the bright colors - I'd love to have other ideas for painting fabrics. I guess on this I made the piece work but it wasn't what I had planned.

Lisa - in Sunny Seattle

Squeaking in under the wire!

I finished in time! Barely..lol Anyways, the first photo shows the original white Kona ready and waiting to be transformed. The 2nd photo is my inspiration piece....one of those online "answer a few questions about yourself and we will make a painting that reflects YOU" things. I loved the painting they produced and said that someday I would recreate it for use as a wallhanging. What better time than now?
The 3rd photo is my version, slightly different, but not enough to matter! It is still VERY wet, but it will have white binding, not sure of the quilting yet, I didnt water the paint down too much so it may be hard to quilt, I may just do some tacking here and there,,or maybe not, have to wait and see how it dries.
I used acrylic paints, most for fabric, some not and water. Might do some beading when it is dry, not sure yet. I DO know that in the blue space, bottom left I will be putting my name in Japanese and maybe somewhere to the right the symbol for "hope"...seems to fit the "feel" of the piece.