The Jean's Bag AKA "Cut-Off Legs"

I'm always cutting "off legs" for my family and just couldn't throw them out...maybe I can do something with them!!

I sewed the legs together using decorative stitches and verigated thread.

Bag lined with millenneum 2000 fabric (got to use it somewhere)...

Bag handle part of an old metal belt...

Bag closure..a plastic paper-clip.It closes over back and front...when opening: clip to back of bag.

Embelishments:

Block printing with wooden blocks purchased at the IQA show in Chicago.

Two really old buttons given to me from my sister (Garage Sale Nut and Flea Market Fanatic) . She got them from a Flea Market or was it a Garage Sale??

An old doll pin I made many years ago.

Left-over beaded coins on the bottom of the bag.

If I had more time I guess I could add more embelishments!!I'm just happy to be on time. Janice Simpson

I've thought of other ideas for these "cut-off legs...marbel bags, crayon bags, camera bag,ect.ect.

Tea is a drink best served HOT!

For this challenge, I wanted to explore the aspect of 'shape'. By that I mean, joining quilted panels in such a way as to create 3 dimensional pieces...... For some time I've been interested in creating garments that fit the body's curves and not boxy, shapeless covers. I've been experimenting with princess lines and darts and ways to eliminate bulk. At the same time, I've been thinking I needed a tea cosy and I'm a very practical gal.....

This time, instead of concealing the joins, I chose to keep all the seam allowances in plain sight. I wanted to exploit denim's lovely tendency to ravel but I guess it will require more trips through the washing machine to get the full effect.

This tea cosy is made of 2 layers of recycled jeans denim with a layer of batting in between. It insulates VERY well. Free form flower embroidery is addictive and satisfying. The cosy measures 14 inches wide by 9 inches high.

ren's red crows

Red Crows

5.25 inches high x 11 inches wide

Well, here it is, unfinished but you get the idea. The fabrics are indeed denims, just not the traditional heavy blue stuff. I decided to stamp on the lighter stuff, much like I did for the art apron I had made from a set of overalls, according to instructions in one of the last Cloth, Paper, Scissors issues. These crows are a part of a larger hunk of denims; I was thinking of making postcards. Don't know if that will happen from the rest. Ah, well. This challenge is done. Looking forward to the next!

FFFC - TIF Tote

I would have had this done sooner but I was waiting for TIF to post it's theme before decorating so that I could, hopefully, combine the two. It's theme was "What do you call yourself and Why".

Recycling is right up my alley. I recycle everything I can. The jeans were my Mom's. She would be very happy to know that I could use them. She was always a recycler - a lot of it by necessity.

The handle and belt are neckties.

The designs were done on the embroidery machine and the lettering is hand embroidery.

Betty

Shirt off my back

I've finished my piece - Shirt off my back.

Actually one of the hardest parts of this challenge was to find the denim - just did a goodwill drop - most of jeans go to garden work pants - then none were ready to be given up to the challenge. I did find the denim shirt that had been hanging up looking for a patch in the back for about 4 years at least. I was trying to get a stripped shirt but my husband wouldn't admit that any needed to be tossed. Of course yesterday I put on one of my stripped shirts and saw a huge stain.

I used my orange scraps for the square and kept sewing - I didn't expect it to be so large - finished size is 27x24. It's quilted in an orange variegated thread.

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Rhoda, Challenge #20 'Forever in Blue Jeans'

Here is my interpretation of Challenge #20, not having much for blue jean fabric in the house, I borrowed some scraps from friends. The song 'Forever in Blue Jeans' began running through my head when I first read this challenge. So here it is.
The dress, clothes on the line are made from Jeans. The rest is scraps from my scrap box, old buttons etc.
Can you see the cat? I should have used a lighter fabric for her.
I did a lot of hand stitching prior to machine quilting it.
Great challenge, I look forward to critique of this piece.

Bouquet on silk

Not denim................but it is recycled silk.
I have never done anything quite like this before, I have
to say I 'loved' doing it and it may become my statement.
Silk is second to none. This is totally free-motion thread painted, then I used colored pencils to color the flowers within the outline stitching.
What are 'dents' are from the pins, and I haven't finished the edges yet. I am hoping for some candid comments and suggestions for the finishing.
They say, no border on art quits, binding.....skinny at that, so what do you think? I
am tempted to do a machine scalloped edge and a skinny binding in something pale, may be very light turquoise?
Comments please...... and thank you........

Make Love Not War

This is the image that materialized while I was at the Holland Performing Arts Center in Omaha listening to a Mozart symphony. You never know.

I can see that the butons might not be bright enough, but they are the ones I chose from my mother's and my mother-in-law's button boxes.

I did originally mount the front on a quilted flowered square with the fringe hanging down, but it wasn't working for me, so I just made it into a flat bag, with a plain piece of denim on the back and two simple handles. Everything is stitched from the top. I even know who I'm going to give it to - she will love it because she's a 21st century hippie!

Blue Jean Journal

I am taking an online journal class with Sue B. (By the way this class has been great.) You can check some of the journals that have been produced by the class at:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/suebjournalmaking0308/pool/

I dug into my hubby's closet and pulled out a pair of jeans that were un-wearable in public...and begged for them. I cut them up and looked for areas that didn't have holes. I decided that I would make a journal cover for my Friday Challenge.

I was able to use both back pockets and the button.

After making the journal I was fixing to trim off all of the frayed threads...but then I decided that they added to the over all design. I did add a few choice phrases to dress the journal up a little.

Best of all I still have a few hunks of jean fabric to use in another project.

Ann Morrell

"Star Spangled Banner".

The stars are recycled jeans with a gold metallic knit behind. The background is a "sky" fabric that I painted. The bargello is cotton, velour, lame', silk dupion and metallic brocade. I echo quilted with monofiliment.This was a lot of fun to do...especially the 'pockets'... LOL

As always, I welcome any comments and suggestions...

Cherie

Challenge #20 - April 2008 The Jeans Challenge

Challenge # 20 - Friday, April 25, 2008

Guest Hostess – Priscilla Stultz

Theme or Technique - Continuing on the recycle theme from last month.
“The Jeans Challenge: Recycle, Reuse, Reinvent with a pair of discarded jeans”

Design Concept - Using the elements of design create something using line and shape.

Due: Saturday, May 3rd

Recycle "Keys"

I finished this FFFC on time but was leaving for the IQA quilt show in Chicago and didn't have time to take a photo and post.

For the background I used a muslin machine practice piece. The hotel "keys" my husband made holes in them for me to sew them on...old car keys and even an old skelton key..and a couple of old buttons. We were following our grandson Jack around for his college Tennis... he's in his first year at Lake Superior State. Maybe I should have named it Keys to Tennis!! Size is 9 x 17"

Janice Simpson

challenge 19

Party time was made from a collection of beer caps collected by my son in law. He loves micro brews and wanted to save the caps in a way that he could hang on his wall near his home computer. I quilted a fabric sandwich first then added the caps with holes punched in them and added large beads in between the caps. It was a fun project and he appreciated the time that I spent to make it. Great Challenge

Leave No Trace

When we are camping, we are always told to leave everything as though we had never been there. We always take a bag a clean up our camp area before we leave, sadly, often leaving it cleaner than when we arrived.

I took a picture of the desert near Borrego Springs, CA and enhanced the color. I then extended the horizon with similar fabric. After slashing and inserting strips, I collaged several "found" items - bottle tops, corks, Cal Trans fencing and some odds and ends.

Spring is in the Air!

16" x 15"

This is the season which seems to take forever to get here, and then is over too soon! The spring was torn from an old school notebook and touched up with some green paint. The styrofoam balls were left over from last month's challenge, with fabric paint used for the buttons and carrot nose and some twigs for snowman arms. And while I started. this time, with a square, I framee it with some stuffed polar fleece like a frame cut from a big snowball.

Challenge 19 - Journal Cover by Joanna Strohn

Front cover: 8" x 10 1/2"
Fits a standard composition journal

I didn't think I'd be able to participate in this challenge as I'm busy making samples for classes I'll be teaching. However, Friday night (when all the shops were closed, of course) I discovered that I had mismarked one of the projects -- a journal cover. The inside was finished but the outside was just a tad too small ... I'd marked the wrong journal. Gnashed teeth!

I decided to make lemonade. Grabbed my container of scraps that had fusible on them. ("Always keep your scraps," I tell my students, but I'd decided I'd better do some clean-up in the studio and these were going to the garbage.) Looked for inspiration. Leaves, of course!

Started cutting leaves. Decided to make this a practice piece for some thread painting and free-motion quilting. Couched a yarn scrap for a stem.

The thread painting is inspired by Ann Fahl, the journal cover technique is from Jake Finch, and the leaf quilting motif was from a recent workshop by Frieda Anderson.

This was fun, educational, saved some scraps from the landfill, and will be more ammunition when I tell students to never throw anything away!

I always appreciate comments!

-- Joanna Strohn in Tucson, Arizona

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.

Green flowers

I finally was able to finish another piece. I am a packrat anyway never throwing away the smallest piece of fabric. I made 'flowers' from old pop tabs that I colored, used buttons for their centers and twist ties for the stems. The leaves are from an old Christmas decoration. The background is all snippets of fabric I just couldn't toss and it came in handy for this challenge.

Challenge #19 Rhoda Forbes

I am posting my 'something from nothing' challenge. On the urging of a teacher I went to the Salvation Army and purchased old clothing. This piece is made from snippets and pieces of that old clothing. The piece depicts some of my favorite things.
I had hoped to have it stitched etc., but just haven't had the time, so am posting it in it's raw state.
Thanks for the challenge Wendy.
Rhoda

PAINTED LEAF

This piece is about 18" square. It was one of my first attempts at making an original art quilt about 4 years ago. It was moldering in a closet with some other "failed" attempts. I brought it out and attacked it with paint after reading "The Painted Quilt"by Laura and Linda Kemshall. I painted the leaf with two colors of metallic paints and the body of the quilt with some acrylics mixed with textile medium. It made the leaf and the quilting pop and greatly improved the quilt so that it is no longer bound for the trash. I will note that the painted areas are now pretty stiff so using the acrylics prior to quilting probably wouldn't make for a pleasant quilting experience.

Thanks for any comments. I'm snowed under with work for the next two months so won't get to comment like I usually do.

"Spring Reflections"

For this months challenge, we were to use recycled materials. I have chosen an old pair of jeans with a hole in the knee, scrap fabric from a shirt I made last year, plastic orange grid from an orange sack, foil wrappers from chocolate eggs, a couple of unused pieced rectangle I had laying about, some blue tulle, and a bit of gold fusible foil. I wasn’t sure how I would combine these items, so just started laying them about until I liked what I saw. The colors remind me of green hills, orange poppies, and reflections in a blue pond.

My husband suggested that the bright green pieced rectangle seemed out of place. I added turquoise squares on top of it to relate it to the lower pieced square.

I am deciding whether I should put a binding or a facing.

Update April 3, 2008: I have decided to bind the quilt with blue chambray, and I have updated the photo.

There is a Hole in the Ozone

There is a Hole in the Ozone

This challenge was a lot of fun for me, I had been saving a container made from corn just waiting for some way to use it for the “Go Green” challenge that Quilting Arts is having. This was the push I needed to get started. I spent Thursday night in the kitchen with the fan running burning away on this poor piece of plastic having too much fun! When I had finished with this I went of a quest for materials digging through my husbands shop trash can. I came up with several products we are using on our screen porch project. So here is a little diagram of what was used where.

The Sandpaper was really fun to paint, and I loved the texture of it, however it was difficult to use from a practical point of view. The quilt is the required 5”x5” for the “Go Green” challenge, which for me is way out of my comfort zone to work that small. I learned a lot on this challenge – thank you Wendy!

PS: I took the photo of the quilt off this posting as not to disqualify it for the Go Green Challenge. It can be seen by our members on the group site. Thanks Cynthia for the instruction.

Cosmic Whirlpool

I don't often do abstract but this challenge seemed to call for it. The fabrics are all leftovers from various clothing projects and include velvets, rayon, polyester blends and even some cotton. The wire ribbon is off my Christmas present from my SIL. The beads and sequins are from my "loose stuff" jar and the driftwood is ancient juniper from my yard. The large silver starfish is a souvenir from my one trip to IQF in Houston in 2004.
The entire piece without the sticky out parts is about 24" in diameter.

ren's rags

The finishing here still to be done includes some quilting and beading and figuring out a hanging device, but this is pretty much it. The overlay is silk organza with embroidery and beading from a silk dress that I had picked up at a church sale somewhere. The base is many of the labels that I had taken off the many men's ties that I have taken apart for their silk and wool.

I was keeping the labels in a little bowl, knowing that I would do something with them one day. And then this challenge came up and I immediately pulled out the bowl. I spent an entire day laying out the labels onto fusible batting, then ironed them down. I need to quilt and embroider over the organza to hold the labels in place for the long run.

I call this piece She and He in 1950. It is 14 inches high by 10 inches wide, so far. The hanging device might make it longer.

Self-Portrait?

This one was fun! I started off with the background, which is a poorly done machine quilting sample piece, made out of scrap fabric to begin with. Except I decided to use the former back side (with all the eyelashing and bad tension) as the front - the other side looks much more normal. I turned the sides to the new back and stitched them in place for binding, trimmed the length and added leftover binding from a previous quilt to the top and bottom. I took thread snips from the wastebasket next to my machine and couched them in place around a previously stitched circle. Then I added all of the fabric covered buttons from the box given to me by a friend of my mother. The facial features are scraps from the floor, covered with a blue veggie net and zigzagged in place. And in place of hair, I added a tiara created from scrunched up aluminum foil and stitched down.

Finished size is 8.5x11". Everything in it was here in my sewing room.

It may not look exactly like me, but I certainly feel like this some days. If you think of anything else that it needs, let me know. It makes me smile!!

Marilyn Rose

Wetlands

OK, I can't wait any longer... y'all have done such a great job of taking this challenge and making it work! I'm amazed at the ingenuity and variety of materials in these quilts! The biggest danger of this challenge is that none of us will ever throw anything away, ever again! One quilters trash is another's treasure!

Part of this challenge was generated when I started looking at the mesh bags fruit and veggies come in. Now what can I use that for? I tried using them as an overlay, but they were just not dense enough to make an impression, but I still kept about 10 of them on my design wall. One day I was absentmindedly twisting one around my finger and then I got it.

The cattails are twisted veggie bags, ends sewn together and soft sculpted, then hand sewn. The stems are needlepunched yarn, and hand dyed fabric (background and leaves, piping and binding) was leftover from another project. And the medallion is from a wind chime that died on my deck during our hard windy winter. I added some bronze paint for patina.

Comments, of course, are welcome!

Making Tracks

I just happened to have some Easter egg foil laying on my table, and as I had experimented with it before, thought I might try some more. I dug into my stash of chocolate foils, and started to play. The inner layer was sew-in interfacing. I also found a piece left from the previous experiments, so that got added to the layout. The 2 chicks seemed to want to go into the picture, so they did. I decided to lay a piece of bridal tulle on top, (left from some work for a wedding). In previous experiments, I sewed directly on the foil, but when using machine patterns, the foot made train tracks. the tulle knocked the shine back a bit, and when I stitched it, helped it from getting the extra marks.



The piece from before already had some stitching on it, so when I started stitching round the shapes, I decided to go with at least one of the patterns; a more complicated feather stitch. It was serendipity since they look like little bird footprints! So, I carried on with this throughout.



I sewed round all the shapes, but the birds. Then I cut a piece from a silvery coloured plastic shop bag for the backing. I went round the birds, and then more of the shapes, and then decided to go for broke and try some quilting. I also edged it with a sort of satin stitch, but it didn't work as well as on fabric.



Along the way, I decided it had to be called "Making Tracks"!

Loose Threads

Those tangled loose threads when the fabric comes out of the dryer are so pretty...just had to use them somehow!

This piece is postcard sized...5 x 8" and uses the wads of thread, bits of ribbon and trim and machine "lace" and quilted down with metallic thread to create a colorful mess!

Cynthia

Lost in Flight

this MADE me realize I keep far too much 'stuff...junk'...

Spring is here, with little flowers trying to bloom, lots of birds... some to stay, some in transit. The right side of the piece is to depict the startled flock that takes to the air, the others are smaller.... higher up...and more right. In their haste, feathers fall, I pick them up.....here they are. The orange and the yellow are from the same species [by the shape], and the blue from the Stellar Jay. A small bit of 'fluff' lies in the grass below. The flowers are made from those plastic rings that keep a pack of cd's from moving about, I cut them in half and stitched them down on a small piece of silk. The grass in the front is painted dryer sheet, and on the left... right in the corner is a piece of that plastic found as a divider in the sushi take-out tray. By the way those 'birds' on the right were going to be 'inchies' but I couldn't be bothered. Too fiddley.

I should add that the background is Dupioni silk. I love to quilt on it and have to confess I did all the quilting first.... except on the right side.

Everything is something that would have been/should have been thrown out or left on the ground if I wasn't such a packrat!!

Comments welcome and appreciated.

Window Wonder

This piece is "painted" using recycled clean-up paper towels from my fabric painting sessions.

I have included a picture of the picture in progress, along with the 'pallet'. I tore the shapes freehand and placed them on the painting, lightly glueing the very edges as I went along.

The pieces blend into each other seamlessly and look like all one piece...amazingly fun!

This was so interesting and fun to do, I will absolutely do this technique again!

Comments welcomed (and appreciated!) as always...Cherie

I actually completed several recycled collages this last week for Fiber Art for a Cause and I think they meet the criteria for this challenge.

The one posted is What Flower Is This - it started with a scrap of fabric as the background and I frayed the edges. Then I added satin, torn paper pieces, netting, plastic curtain rounds, and embroidery thread --- all stuff I had laying around. Lately I've enjoyed incorporating paper into my quilts - there's such a great selection of papers that the scrapbookers use.

It's 7x9 mounted on an 8x10 mat.
Kathy Angel Lee

Inside the Box

OK - so I finished my piece Inside the Box.

I took an empty paper towel roll and cut it into pieces about 3/4 inches wide. I then wrapped each piece with yarn. I used only scraps and pieced the background. The back is using strips from large quilts that I cut off after quilting - and the polka dotted fabric is leftovers from a recent quilt. After quilting it I sewed each circle to the quilt. The binding was precut and left over from another quilt.

So probably not enough recycled material. Therefore I name it - Inside the Box. Finished size 15x18. I did not buy a single new item for this.

Lisa
In Snowy Seattle - snow in March!

Galveston 2005

I started with the seagull feathers I picked up on the beach in Galveston when we went to IQA in 2005. I used a photo I took there, printed on fabric fused to wonder-under (which worked beautifully!) and extended the sand and the sky with pieces of color catchers from my washing machine that matched. Then I added light blue tulle fused with misty fuse in several triangular layers over the body and the border, and did a little quilting and a little machine embroidery. My favorite is the feather stitch used on the real feathers. Maybe you had to be there.

Size is 10 1/2" x 14 1/2"

Reuse, Recycle, Redo

This challenge was right up my alley! It took 5 minutes to grab the piece of rusty metal that's been sitting on my sewing table, dig up the rock from the depths of a drawer, find the orange onion bag, cut up a tyvek mailing bag, and find the quilt sandwhich that I never used for the previous challenge. It took more time to paint the quilt top bright blue, from a bottle of acrylic paint left over from a commission, then paint the tyvek with copper paint (brand new-whoops). The medallion on top of the rusty metal came off my last tiara, the metal rings came from the junk covering my husband's woodworking bench, and the gold "stars" had held pieces of chocolate candy that I got at Christmas. Who says chocolate isn't a good thing! The last item, the nail, I picked up from the slush on the road on my walk today and added it in when I got home.

I had used apiece of rusty metal on my 2007 Journal Quilt and vaguely remember spraying it with something like polyurethane. Everything on the quilt is stitched down with Nimo thread-and there was no way I could figure out how to recycle or reuse some thread! If I was really keeping this quilt, I would adhere things more securely but for just taking a photo, I did it quick and dirty. I did not finish the edges either.

I find the challenge in using embellishments like this is to not just dump them on the quilt but to arrange them in a design that is interesting, not overdone, and connected.

Thanks for the challenge Wendy!

Nancy Schlegel in cold, snowy Albany NY-how about our next challenge being about spring!

Fantasy World

I decided to come out of my reality box for this one. Maybe I should
crawl back in.
This is what I used:
Pre-fused pieces ironed onto an upholstery sample that was given to me.
Clouds are batting and the grass is painted batting. The batting was
cut off the edges of a previous quilt.
The skulpy buttons I made years ago and the crocheted flowers are the
strings from fair ribbons.
Leaves are from silk ribbon flowers that I bought at a tag sale years
ago and the stems are yarn made from left over fleece.
The green flowers are painted bubble wrap.
Backing is also an upholstery sample.
I used left over bindings used on other projects.
It is 17" x 13"

Challenge 19: Recycle

Challenge # 19 - Friday, March 28, 2008

Guest Hostess – Wendy Wetzel, Flagstaff AZ

Theme or Technique - “Something From Nothing”

Recycled or Environmental Art Quilts

Design Concept:

Our local art center hosts an annual competition and show called “Recycled,” which features artist interpretations of ingenious ways to use materials that would have found their way to landfills and recycling centers. Over time, artists in this show have also highlighted environmental issues including air and water quality, global warming, and the preservation of wetlands and greenbelts. This challenge was inspired by those efforts.

Core concepts:

1. Integrate at least one found object into the piece (you can use more, or make the whole piece from recycled stuff). This can be ANYTHING! An item found in nature, a treasure you saved from the trash, a soon-to-be-discarded item of clothing. Look around you and use your imagination.

2. Think WAY outside the box in terms of materials. Paper, foam, plastic, etc etc etc!

3. Don’t buy anything new for this challenge. Recycle a prior FFC (or any other quilt ) that doesn’t ring your chimes or dive into your stash for fabric, materials, and/or embellishments.

4. The quilt design (subject, image, or pattern) and techniques are the maker’s choice. Abstract or realistic, the challenge is to integrate materials not originally intended for textile art and/or those destined for landfills. Let your found objects inspire you!

You Could Be A Multi-Millionaire

I found my spam when I signed up for Publishers Clearing House Sweep-stakes!! Everyday a new e-mail...Millions waiting for me.

The first page I designed using letters and graphic's from Print shop's Art gallery. ..The second page also from the gallery..I just added the words Don't enter contests on line....Spam...Spam...Spam. I had these pages printed and ready for the FFFC and we went out of town again....

So here it is late but done with-in the weeks time limit. I finished off my Spam with Batiks.

I'm printing out the words on the second part as they are so small but a perfect connection to my spam.....

I was planning to send you a rabbits foot for good luck, but the Animal Rights people said no way! So I decided to send a horse shoe, but all I could locate was a cow! Then I decided to send a 4-leaf clover but I just couldn't find one! Finally, I settled on a penny I've carried it around since childhood but then I needed it for sales tax....

So if your hoping to receive a token of good fortune from me, all I can say is...

Don't enter contests on line...Spam...Spam...Spam

Won't Forget Last Night

Somehow the thought of a magical evening brings to mind fireworks - and not the 4th of July kind.

My fireworks are all fused - my sewing machine did not like that, plus all of the quilting with metallic thread nearly sent me over the edge. My last thought was to bead heavily in sparkly beads, but decided to call it done and move on.

Comical Little Stick

Better late than never - so I finished my spam quilt - using the phrase - She'll laugh at your little stick.

So basically I pieced a bunch of colorful comical sticks for your amusement.

I must admit it was really hard not to find "clean" spam.

Final size - 9 1/2 x 13 1/2

Lisa
In Sunny Seattle

Black Hole

This piece was based on a SPAM subject line that said
" Black Hole" I fused misty fuse to black batik and then started chopping hand-dyed colored fabrics and letting them fall randomly in a circular pattern. I then chopped black fabric up after fluffing and straightening a bit . I fused the fabrics to the background. I started quilting in the center and moved in a spiral outwards

This is the detail of Black hole.

It measures
23 x 32.

1 Day Trial?

I didn't have much Spam that brought word pictures to mind. However, I had the idea to use the whole concept of receiving Spam. Then I got one suggesting a 1 day trial of a CD. I am sure many would agree, Spam is more than a one day trial! I used junk mail to cut words which would be similar to those in Spam (similar annoyance!) One piece of junk mail happened to have the computer. I over painted the screen, and placed some of the images from the junk mail onto it instead. I also printed out "only 1 day trial!" in a starburst shape. Then to allude to the dangers of the Spam, I also printed "Mwahahaha!" in a thought bubble which goes off stage, so to speak.

For the background, I used letters on my sewing machine to sew the word Spam onto paper. (The paper was actually a photo copy of vintage adverts from a 1939 newspaper with similar claims to Spam and junk mail, but after the treatment, they didn't show up.) After stitching, the piece was soaked in coffee, and then most of the paper rubbed off. The result helps to beging building up the layers.

When I had laid out the bits of paper, I fused a thin layer of sheer papery stuff over everything which held it all in place. Then I stitched a few more of the words "Spam" to bring more colour and to tie the whole together.

It is not a master piece, but it has been an interesting excercise.

Sandy in the UK

Self Portrait ... got milk #17

I just figured out how to get back on the blog... found my password.

Here is last months challenge. I made her lips to big ... whited them out... can you tell?

Just so you know I don't look this blue... my hair usually looks this good though !

: )

The extra 2" will make a difference

Better late than never! This was a fun challenge!!!! Being a Mac person, I rarely have spam with a subject line. My dh did have one---and this was it. I think I horrified him when I told him that I was going to make a quilt with that subject. When it was done, he had a real laugh. This is very simple--but it meets the challenge. Sally