Sunday, November 30, 2008

ren's Solar Flare


Solar Flare
21.5 inches high x 11.5 inches wide
velvet, cotton fabrics; cotton, silk threads; yellow colored pencil

I get lots of inspiration from this NASA website. Today's piece is a continuation of my solar series and, unlike the Solar Orbs from Challenge #26, which were supposed to be monochromatic but looked much more analogous, this one fulfills the monochromatic task much better, eh?

And value: hot white center of the flare, out to black-on-red velvet. I hope this is what the challenge meant us to do.

Friday, November 28, 2008

Challenge 27

Challenge # 27 – Friday, November 28, 2008

Guest Hostess – Linda Cline

Working in Series: Continue working with the theme that you have chosen, or you may decide to work with another theme. Whatever works for you is fine; as long as you are enjoying the journey.

Color Concept: Value
Pick any color scheme you want to work with; however, you must include at least one very dark color and one very light color. The very dark color can be black, or you may choose a color very close to black such as a very dark navy blue. For the light color, you may choose white, ivory, or a very light tint.

Concentrate on value and not on color. You might take a picture of your composition and convert it to grayscale to see if you are using value effectively.

Composition Concept: Close up or Far view
Choose to work with a very close view or a very far view of your subject. Think about zooming in or out with a camera.

Imagine design elements from your series close-up. You might enlarge the design elements, and let them be cropped by the edges of your composition. More attention might be paid to the details within the shapes that make up the composition. Try visually cropping completed quilts in the series to search for new design ideas.

Now imagine the same design elements far away. What kind of environment will they be in? Perhaps your design elements will be many and clustered or scattered across your composition. Perhaps from a distant view they will appear more as texture instead of individual shapes.

As an example, if your series is about trees, you could zoom in and create a quilt about a branch, leaves, or the texture of one leaf. Or you could zoom out and focus on the forest. If you zoom out far enough, the individual trees might disappear as their shapes merge and become the shape of a clump of trees seen from far away.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

dragon in progress

This is the dragon I am currently working on. I tried very hard to follow the set guides for this time...Perspective - which I don't think I did too badly with and Monochromatic, which I seem to have lost along the way. Several of the fabrics I started with didn't end up in the composition, and then I realised the dragon's features were lost and I wasn't sure just stitching would show them up. So I chose paints in the monochromatic scheme, but of course they were metallic blends. So the silvery turquoise one reads as silver when you paint it on green and the goldy green one reads gold.

The "shadow" was originally teal green (scraps from this skirt), but the dragon and the "shadow" were too similar in value. So, I painted it with olive bronze to darken it...but only the bronze shows! (I have used these before and only saw the other part of the colour!)

As you know, my dragons usually have a story. Well, I started out thinking this was a spring dragon, but when the "shadow" started looking like a lily pond, I realise it was a pond dragon! I think it still is, but it lives in the pond of the Princess of the ?, who has had special bronze lily pads made for the dragon to rest on. It is a very lucky dragon. (Or will be if I can get it right) I am still learning the rest of the story.

Anyway, I will continue to work on it and see if I find out what is missing. I am going to create more texture on the dragon body. I think I have managed to salvage the value, so I am giving up trying to get the monochromatic thing going again. Here is the photo with the colour desaturated, showing the values. Not wonderful, but alright.
I am not sure if I will keep working this right now, or hang it up in my studio till I see what it needs, if anything, before I stitch into it. I had decided these would be studies, but when I thought perspective, I found it hard not to do a whole dragon. Any advice will be gladly considered.

By the way, I went for those colours because I wanted to use the background. It is one I did with flour resist. It seemed very dragon - atmospheric. It is actually much bigger... I cropped the photo. I haven't decided how big it wants to be yet.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Succulent

10 x 13½

A close-up of a succulent which shows the plant in perspective was used as the basis for this piece. A combination of quilting and painting adds color and texture. My process is described in more detail in a few entries on my blog beginning October 31st. I like how this quilt came out, and will make more similar to this.

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Orange Leaves #2


I liked my first quick version of the fall leaves enough to want to improve it. So one fabric leaf was removed and many more were added. The ones on top are just stitched at the top of the leaf so they hang freely. As I worked, I kept seeing snakes under the leaves though, so a trip to Walmart and a friendly grandmother helped me find a bag of small, rubbery, colorful snakes. These were attached by sewing right through them with invisible thread. So they do not conform to the monochromatic part of the challenge at this point!

I really like the idea of putting the leaves (which are composed of two layers of fabric with felt inbetween) on top of the felt backing. It is very easy to just cut an irregular border. I may add another layer of felt on the back to make it stiffer and hid the stitching.

The grey background is the floor porch-not part of the quilt.

Learned a lot, enjoyed it, and looking forward to Nov 28th.

Nancy Schlegel

Friday, November 07, 2008

Changes to Green Fence





Thank you all for your encouraging comments. Taking your suggestings to heart, I have made changes to my Green Fence quilt. I have cut the left edge to the fence line as several of you suggested, and it does look better this way. Also paintsticks were used to add interest and shading, and sashiko quilting is added in the foreground (as this is a Japanese garden in my garden series). FMQ was added to the background, though this doesn't show up well in the photo.

I really appreciate your comments as I learn a lot from them. I have not had any art training, but am having such fun with this! Linda Mac in Wyo

(Pre-changes photo added by Cynthia for comparison)

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Just Passing Thru



After I started this quilt I didn't like what I was doing at all. So I did some revising. It isn't totally monochromatic I don't think. But, my sister told me it was. I am anxious to hear what you all think.

City Across the Bay


Comments welcome. It was fun and challenging.

Carol

Monday, November 03, 2008

Green Trees


Challenge #26, Perspective in monochromatic. Keeping with my theme of trees. I have mixed feelings about this piece. It was challenging (no pun intended) to complete this.

Judy Whitehead

Dwellings


16" X 20"
Black fabric discharged with Jacquard Discharge Paste
Painted with watercolor dyes
My piece doesn't exactly meet the challenge of being monochromatic. I had this idea of quilting a design on black fabric and then discharging different quilted areas so they would appear like old stone huts. Then I made a pathway leading past the huts and off into the distance. The top seemed too empty so I threw in a stylized sun. After discharging the various areas I painted them with yellow and yellow-orange watercolor dyes. This was a fun piece to make and I believe I will refine this technique and use it in the future.
Thanks for looking. Your comments are always welcome.

Just Under the Wire


I am a “newby” to the group as well as art quilts. I missed the first challenge due to traveling but hope to have the Seeds of Time completed in the next two weeks.

I was intimidated by the thought of a series so decided to do geometric shapes and then realized I have always wanted to do something with Time so will do both.

Just Under the Wire is my challenge 26 done in orange. All but the background fabrics are hand dyed and I played with some of the decorative stitches on my machine. My machine and I weren’t getting along as well as I would have liked but that too, is part of the learning curve. Piece is 11 x 15.

The title of this quilt may indicate when most of my challenges will be posted—Just Under the Wire as I tend to work better with deadlines looming.

Thanks for the invitation to join this great group with so many fantastic quilters.

Pam

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Once


22 1/2" x 20 1/2"

I've had in mind to do a blue mostly monochrome piece for a while, but the last time, it came out green! And here, my original thought was to have a sunrise, but when my husband first responded by calling it a moonrise, and actually pulled out the piece that I used for the sky, it became that, complete with his suggested title!

The ocean and stream are a mid-blue satin, the moon and reflection are a pale blue. The rest is mostly cotton, the flower on the lower left is cut from a drapery remnant from our new curtains, and the deep blue pieces with the black flowers at the bottom are polyester. I used some Angelina fiber to add depth to the stream and tone down the moon's reflection.

I tried to achieve the perspective aspect by having the stream flowing off to the ocean be wider at the front and narrow off to the distance. The moon's reflection also helps to see the ocean surface. And the shape itself, narrower at the top, may also suggest distance.

11/17 I've just finished the edge today, so I replaced the photo.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Arched Window


My quilt is from a photo I took in Sept while visiting Fort McHenry in Baltimore. I enjoy taking photos of architecure and distorting the scale, proportion and perspective. The barred window was in the courtyard of the fort and I took several pictures until I was satisfied. My series is supposed to be circles, so by using the curved edges of the arch and the bars, you could say I did use circles. The shadows are achieved w/ pencil and oil pastel, the bricks are quilted as is the texture on the right wall. My quilt measures 17"x21". (The above-mentioned photo is in the Yahoo folder.)
Andromedra....

Inspired by an episode of Project Runway (there they took photos of NYC at night as the basis for their garments). Foundation pieced with 279 pieces in the arc alone. Bobbin quilted with metallic threads.
I actually did this for a local show (and got juried in from a national field), Night Visions III, now at the Coconino Center for the Arts (Flagstaff AZ).
Difficult to photograph but it shows beautifully!
Comments of course, welcome!


Friday, October 31, 2008

Dreamscape 3 - Uluru

This challenge was very challenging for me, despite being the hostess. I had lots of fun and learnt much; even though it may not be evident from the result.
Uluru is the aboriginal name for Ayer's Rock in Central Australia. A hot place, hence I chose orange as my colour.
Dingoes are associated with Uluru for many reasons...some of them malevolent. Hence the evil stare.
Any comments welcome,
Anna.

Autumn Poeville, by Penny Irwin

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

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

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

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

Serenity


I challenged myself to actually get the challenge done this time, and to try and interpret a photo in such a way that I got the general impression of the scene, without too much slavish attention to detail. I had a lot of fun with this picture, but found it very challenging to keep it monochromatic. I haven't sewn anything down as yet, so will repost when I have it finished.
Valerie F.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Inuksuk through a window


This month, we are looking at Innunguaq through another inuksuk that forms a window, called a niungvaliruluit, which frames an object or a place in the distance.

So, I pulled the fabrics from my gray piles, and the sky just had a hint of blue-green compared to all the other colors, but it turned out to be quite colorful next to the grays, as was the grassy fabric. Not quite monochromatic, as it turns out. But even though it isn't all gray, I was having so much fun making it that I couldn't get rid of the "pretty" fabrics. Wish I had more of the mottled stuff - it looks like rocks covered with lichens, which ar about the only plants that grow that far north.

This was really fun for me, and I found myself working quite a bit bigger and bolder than usual. This quilt is about 18" x22." Thanks for a great challenge!

OUTSIDE MY BOX




Here is my RED Quilt for challenge 26..."Outside MyBox". My series is "Shapes". I really love working with monochromatic themes. (Some of you may remember challenge #6 :)) This quilt was a real toughie for me. Iused light pink satin; raspberry red silk shantung; burgundy suedecloth; and a very dark red (almost black) sparkle organza fused over black satin. The top left 'rays' corner is paper pieced and the rest is all separate pieces (120 of them) fused and then double satin stitched.


I have yet to block and face it to be finished.


It measures 22"x29"


GREAT challenge Anna!


I would love any and all comments:)


Cherie

Green fence


With this challenge, I finally found a use for the green wood fabric that I've had for years. I used commercial fabrics, as I am trying to use up some of my stash. I pulled out all my green fabrics and was able to use six in varying shades from yellow-green to olive to dark hunter green (tree trunk). This is the second in my garden series. It has minimal quilting, but I will likely add more later, as well as some shading/shadow. I was also able to use some nice hand-painted Japanese green silk thread, which I couched along the pathway.
Since I am a newbie, I welcome all comments and suggestions. Thanks, Linda Mac in Wyo.

Rhoda ch#26


I hate to miss a challenge, but I can tell you using only my left hand was a huge challenge as was monochromatic color! I chose brown and hope that I achieved some perspective. It is a real challenge working with one color. you might note that I snuck in a bit of burgundy.
Carrying on with my women at work theme I'm sure that you can all guess what these gals profession is.

I look forward to your comments.
Thanks for the great challenge Ann.

What IS That? #2



Originally this was going to be done in blues...lol..but I changed to browns. This is the 2nd in my what is that series and is 15x18.5", I was going to do them all 12" but decided to mix up the sizes for a more interesting quilt after the 12 months.
I held this item in front of me at an angle and took a picture, converted it to black and white and then drew it. I then used fusible webbing to make the various shapes, fused and then sewed the edges. Unfortunately I am out of batting so this will be added to the rapidly growing piles of things to quilt!
So what is that? :-D

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Between Here and There



This was a fun challenge! I have set criteria for myself in these challenges to keep it small and simple, and use things I already have. I had to dig to find enough tints and shades of red fabrics (without having to get out paint, etc.) in my stash. I don't have a huge amount of reds, but that's the color this piece needed to be.

Continuing my series on diabetes, this piece represents the target blood sugar range...where a "normal" person just is and where a diabetic person has to work hard to try to be. Somewhere between here and there: 70-100. It's about 10" square.

Thoughts? -Karen

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Cut Loose


My goal for this year of FFFC's was to simplify and to use everyday objects - preferably found in my sewing room. I have done both of those things in this piece but I don't think it is in the same series as my September piece.
This work was created by holding a pair of scissors in front of me and taking a photo. I then went into photoshop and simplified the picture, turned it into a B&W and dropped out the background, including my hand. I then added back a little color in gray-purple tones. I printed the photo on silk organza and overlayed that on a piece of cotton I had colored using shibori techniques with fabric paint. I quilted it to emphasize the design of the background fabric and then added a row of beads (which don't show in the photo) with lots of loose threads hanging off the bottom. The finished piece, not including the danglies, is 11 1/2" wide and 10" high.

whoops - I forgot the picture so here it is - Pat


I found this picture in Scientific American and knew immediately that I wanted to do it. It seemed to meet the challenge well so this is it. I hand dyed the cloud, fuse pieced the light and used commercially dyed fabric for the dark infinity. Deciding on the amount of quilting for the triangulation effect was most challanging. I am new at art quilting and need all thre input I can get so have at it folks. Thank you!

Pat

A Long Day by Cynthia Ann Morgan


Blue Monochromatic piece showing perspective, fused applique, hand dyed and commercial prints, size 32 x 36", unfinished.


I was surprised by the variety of blues I found in my stash...that was fun, as well as playing with the perspective of the path and the scenery in the distance. I'll finish it when I return from Houston with a few more details, possible cropping and lots of quilting.


Comments and suggestions welcome!

Cynthia

Monday, October 27, 2008

Wandering Spirit



This is my fastest fast Friday ever…. It had to be as I leave for Vancouver B.C. first thing tomorrow am. It actually is a work in progress, and is a continuation of my “spirit” series. Using some rust printed fabric that I tried for the first time a few weeks ago, the orange color family of was my natural choice for a monochromatic color scheme. An attempt was made at a feeling of perspective, only in that some layers are clearly behind others. The perspective concept is hard to do with a “spirit” theme. Some shading may be added when I get a chance to start working on this again. I am looking forward to keeping up with this challenge from my Mom’s computer, and to finishing my piece when I return home in a week. Any ideas of how this needs to be quilted are appreciated, and of course I always welcome critiques.

Blue Shapes


This is my answer to Challenge 26. I continue to work in my 'Stripes' series. The monochromatic color scheme is blue. I needed to get this done especially quickly before leaving for Houston (for the first time). I combined the challenge with my own desire to play in Photoshop in a new way. I created the image in photo shop, printed on fabric, quilted, added some hand stitching around a few shapes and here it is.

Any comments you would like to make would be appreciated. I am especially interested in the effectiveness of the almost squares in the upper right. (I know that they do not contribute to the piece being as cohesive as it could.) Which one do you think is the closest?

Sunday, October 26, 2008

ren's Solar Orbs

Solar Orbs
11.5 inches wide x 17.5 inches high

Here's my study in yellow-orange and perspective. I didn't mean to have the rays go outside the orbs, but then when I got going in free-motion, it just happened. I'm not yet good at doing straight lines by free-motion, so this was exercise in that, too. I guess I should have photographed this on a dark background. SO much to learn!
Comments welcome!

Challenge 26 - Winter Twilight

Continuing with the theme Branching Out - my piece is Winter Twilight.

I choose the monochromatic blues since that is the most of I have in scrapes. I don't feel like I have a good range of blues but it seemed to work out - I wish I had more medium values. I used the light values for the horizon and the ground and the dark values for the trees. In order to show perspective I used used scale - smaller and larger trees in the distance. I also did very simplified trees. To highlight the ground and the sky was done primarily in the quilting lines - snow drifts for the ground and bubbles for the sky.

The final size is 23 x 32.

Lisa
In Seattle

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Challenge 26 - Monochromatic Perspective

Challenge #26 – Friday, October 24th ,2008

Guest Hostess – Anna Koziol

Working in a Series:
Continue working with the theme that you have chosen, or you may decide to work with another theme. Whatever works for you is fine; as long as you are enjoying the journey.


Color Concept: Monochromatic

Monochromatic is defined as one color. In a monochromatic color scheme, the colors in the design all come from the same color family.

“The most important ingredient in this color scheme is value – the contrast of light and dark hues. This contrast can be subtle, softly contrasted, or strongly apparent. When working with a monochromatic color scheme, keep in mind that a design is far more striking or interesting when value or intensity changes are present. For instance, if you want to create a purple design, you can use pure purple and any of its tints, shade or tone scales to create a good value contrast.” Joen Wolfrom…excerpt from Color Play.

The monochromatic scheme can be a difficult plan to work in (I have never done it…yet) ,the fabric must strictly adhere to the monochromatic guidelines. If your fabric choice is limited use paints or crayons to extend your monochromatic palette.

A monochromatic design will help us to see subtle differences in value.


Composition Concept: Perspective.

Perspective is a subtle form of geometry; it represents figures and objects not as they are but as we see them in space. (Geometry represents figures not as we see them but as they are. The science of perspective gives dimensions of objects seen in space as they appear to the eye of the spectator.

One way to develop a feel for perspective is to copy or trace the lines of a photograph, translating it to a language of lines.

Perspective is a word but also a concept. Things that are closer to us always look bigger than they would if they were far away; a beetle can look bigger than a bus if a beetle is close enough. Things also appear to change shape depending on where they are in relation to you (or where you are in relation to them). A table will look very different if you are standing on top of it, or sitting on a chair looking at it, or hiding underneath it. This applies to most other things.

Try looking at things from different angles and distances in order to see how they appear to change.

Tips for creating perspective (summarized from Gloria Loughman’s book – Luminous Landscapes)
Overlapping Objects…..using overlapping objects in the foreground to hide or partially obscure objects in the middle distance
Objects in the Distance….placing large and small versions of similar objects in a design
Detail….the amount of detail you can see depends on how close you are to an object. Objects lose clarity and detail as they are placed further back in a composition.
Converging lines…when considering design features such as roads, rivers, buildings, walls; remember that the lines made by these features converge as they move away from you.
Aerial perspective….is the effect of distance and atmosphere on color. Colors become duller and lighter as they recede into the distance.

Castleford Weir

Castleford is a town in West Yorkshire in the UK. It began as an important Roman settlement, later one of the major mining and industrial towns in the North of England, but more recently has fallen on hard times after pit closures and industrial decline. As part of a regeneration project a new award-winning footbridge has been built over the weir over the River Aire. I have taken this as my theme for a series of quilts for FFFC. The first is based on the mill-race:
I decided I needed to go for the subtle end of my chosen complementaries (blue and orange) with lots of greyed colours in various shades, which I dyed using colour-gradations between Procion MX Blue 2G (sometimes called cobalt, a sort of indigo blue) and orange which I mixed.
A slightly different way of using complements, but I hope I'm not cheating and it comes within the rules:

I decided on a strong vertical composition, simplifying and elongating the image in the photograph and eliminating the perspective to produce a flat poster-like surface with the water-shapes being simplified too. The whole thing has been fused to a dark-blue base fabric which I've allowed to show in places because I didn't want the effect top be too smooth.

Critiques most welcome!

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Rainforest Dragon


"The leaves moved slightly to reveal a splash of red. At first, she thought it was a red poison dart frog...but suddenly she knew she was looking into the eyes of the rarest dragon of all...the Rainforest Dragon."

That's the story. A lot of my work has a bit of a story to it. I am going with my dragons for this series. So, I thought the green with the red would be good, and then the rainforest and the idea of eyes that would be mistaken for poison dart frogs could be the idea. It is a bit of a horizontal composition...(but not dead flat.)

If you can't tell where the dragon is...well, he is camoflauged! However, he is laying down with his chin flat on the floor like my dog does sometimes. You can only see the front part of his head. Are the leaves sticking up ears? I don't know, what do you think?

I found a wonderful batik at the quilt shop in the market which was perfect for the background for the rainforest. I also got the leafy one at the same time, not sure if I'd use it. but it was perfect for the camoflauge part. I fused it and fussy cut the bits out. then FME over them to hold them down. the eye is a sparkly stretch with those fake sequins on it. I thought it was suitably glistening for dragon eyes.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Challenge #25: Circle Series WIP

I'm a new kid on this block - and this is my work in progress for Challenge #25. I decided on a series theme of circles - since it has been n important symbol throughout my life. I disliked the first thin I made however - so I started again. This was a mono print that was then discharged and over painted. I am doing the surface in hand embroidery - some of which you can see in the photo here. The embroidery will take some time - so I will be late if getting the final touches on this piece. I am thoroughly enjoying learning about the tremendous talent in this group! Thanks for taking on some new kids !
Marie Johansen
http://zquilts.blogspot.com

Monday, October 06, 2008

Verticals: Renamed "My Silk Garden Wants to be a Garden Fence"

27" x 19", silk, cottons, satin, ribbon

I finally decided to make use of one of the silk scarves my son brought me from India, cutting the borders for my main vertical lines. The two blue fabrics had practically the same orange color in their patterns so they seemed to fit in well. The backing is white satin, which shows through in a few places. The pieces are lightly stuffed with Polyfil to create some three-dimensionality. I surrounded the three butterflies with very narrow blue ribbon.

As with many of my pieces, I mounted this on foam core, and I made a narrow border of the white satin, which wraps around the foam core and is hand-stitched.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

June Roses




My series is Seasons and I started with spring. The orientation is diagonal. Colors red and green. I quilted the whole thing first and then sewed ribbon on for the fence. Then I appliqued silk flowers onto it. Size: 19" x13-1/2".

A Friend to the World







This is my first in a series of Native American Symbols. Right before the challenge was announced my sister came home from Arizona and gave me a book of Native American Symbols.. this was perfect timing. I paged through the book and found the owl. My time is pretty limited when it comes to my art so I thought I may have bitten off more than I could chew.. but, I finished it in 10 days. I love the color purple so I knew I wanted to use that with a complimentary color. I choose the purple/blue and the yellow/orange. I think these colors worked pretty well with this challenge. I like to raw edge applique with wonder under. All of my fabrics are cotton except the white is satin. And all of my pieces are stitched down with monofilament thread. I also like to embellish. I put a few crystals on the piece and some of that new shimmery ribbon with fusible glue on it. I always have fun with the quilting. I'm not a very good free motion quilter but, these fast friday challenges will give me a chance to improve. The quilt is 24.5 x 9.5 Laura Krasinski

THe first photo I posted looked more pink...I took this one in natural sunlight and the color is much more true. I deleted the first photo.

Signs of Fall


A day or two after this challenge was issued, I happened to be riding through the mountains on a rainy day. The sky was gray, the trees and the hills on the whole were still mostly green but now and again I saw the bright red of vines that creep up the trees and add a burst of color. I thought :"This is it! This is a complementary color scheme with some neutrals." I did not have a camera at the time but tried to keep these images in my head as I made this quilt. I cut all the pieces freehand and pinned them down, moving things around adding and subtracting until it had the look I wanted. The vines are done with needle lace (embroidery done off the surface and then attached). This let me avoid the pitfalls of heavy thread work on a quilted surface.
I would call the composition predominately vertical because of the trees but it definitely has horizontal and even diagonal elements. I guess nature does not go strictly by one set of rules. The size of this quilts is 22" x 14". I welcome your comments and/or critiques.

Detail showing one of the vines

Falling Leaves


This is a work in progress. Finished size is approximately 23" x 24". Commercial fabrics. Thread painting is mostly King Tut varigated threads.

I chose to work with fushia and lime green as my complementary fabrics. Design is diagonal with the background fabrics moving from left to right and the leaves falling from right to left.

The leaves are fused on and then thread painted using varigated threads. To complete this I will be using varigated threads to quilt leaves in the background and border.

Comments most welcome!

-- Joanna Strohn
Posted by Picasa


Hi, I am a newbie, and this was my first Fast Friday. I have been looking at all the beautiful art in Challenge 25 and I feel privileged to be part of such a talented group.
My first piece is titled Garden I. The background was a UFO that I was inspired to modify and finish since red/green and diagonal lines could be used. I thought the red/green colors were meant to be the prominent colors, but I see by the comments and art displayed, that some interpreted this to mean they were to be the only colors.
This was my first experiment with making flowers with polyester organza which I painted and then melted the edges. I also used pinking-shears on used "color-catcher" sheets for some petals, and put old buttons in the centers. The bees were hand felted. The piece is 16 x 20. I plan to add vine quilting in the border (other ideas?). The background piece was quilted vertically before adding the diagonal trellis pieces.
I welcome any and all comments. Since this is my first try at this, I really would like to know if I am on the right track. Linda M

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Challenge 25 - Moonlight Walk by Cynthia Ann Morgan


Here is my piece called Moonlight Walk . The first in a scenes-with-moon series inspired by japanese woodcuts. The composition is mainly vertical. I used mainly purple and yellow (though the photo looks more pinkish and bluish...it really is purple). I didn't intend to use the large amount of green in it, but it needed it, so it is not a true complementary color scheme.


The piece is 24" x 36" and constructed with fused applique and lots of little zig zag stitching to catch the edges. I'm trying to work a bit bigger this year and I'm seeing that with a detail piece like this, it is much easier to work big.


Critiques welcome!

Cynthia