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.

Beaded Lizard

I used a gelatin monoprint and encrusted beadwork for this challenge; plain white muslin with acrylic paint. I've been reading with interest the posts about this technique. I actually didn't follow the instructions exactly - instead of applying the paint to the gelatin and making the design in the paint, I made the design in the gelatin; applied the paint; and then imprinted the fabric. The blue came out a little bit darker than I wanted but I'm pretty pleased with the results. I also used a small stamp with yellow/gold paint to add a bit more to the design. After the paint dryed, I quilted it and then beaded it. I just zigzagged the edges and mounted it on a fabric covered canvas. I made a few more prints on some additional fabric that I really like and am looking forward to working with. This was a fun technique and I really want to try it the right way next time!!!

Painted Flowers

12 3/4" x 14 7/8"

This was my first attempt at fabric painting. My husband gave me a collection of Jacquard fabric paints two years ago at Christmas. This was my first trial with them. I used several types of paint so I could see what each did.

The fabric I used is quite old—not antique but have had it for at least 15 years. It was left from doing a small quilt. It has a lavender background with flowers outlined in white with gray within the white borders. The white is almost like paint. In fact, I could hear a distinct popping sound every time the machine needle when through it. I did border my quiltlet with it but didn’t have enough for the backing. I used a gray cotton sateen.

I also used many different threads---made by several companies and also different weights and fiber content. Some I would not use again with fabrics as dense of these.

All in all---an interesting challenge.

Sally K. Field

Chains of Love

"Chains of Love Unbroken" was constructed to depict how I'm feeling right now. My mother is dying and I've been on a roller coaster ride the past 5 weeks dealing with this. I found chains in my husband's junkpile here on the farm and attempted (not as successfully as I'd hoped) to make prints of them on a solid piece of black sateen fabric. I stitched around the finished chains in wavering lines with varigated thread to depict the fact that love may waver sometimes but is always there through good and bad. I carried this out to the edge by cutting the borders in wavering lines and then simply zig-zagged around to finish the edges. I free-motion stitched using a varying size zig-zag stitch hearts all over the quilt to show the love I feel for her right now and all the good and bad times included.

Jan Johnson

Never Say Never!

9" x 12"
Bleach Gel Discharged Batik
Machine Quilting with Varigated Thread
Backing is two pieces of black felt


Just before this challenge was issued I was reading Lesley Riley's book Quilted Memories. She covers a number of techniques including subtracting color with bleach. I read and mentally thought "Nah, not for me."

Then came the challenge. I read about black being a mixture of colors. The result can be "surprising" according to Leslie. So when I was at my LQS and saw a black batik that looked solid except for some barely discernable brown I decided to buy some yardage. Still hadn't decided what to to but when I saw "Bab-O Gel with Bleach" at the dollar store I figured, "why not?"

Leslie said the bleaching process would take 2-8 minutes. Per her instructions, I clipped about an inch square to test. No results. Hm. I experimented further and put a length in a cookie pan. Covered with gel. It took about two hours, but the result was a lovely tan batik.

I decided my piece would be a process piece. One of my goals for this year is to really learn to do machine quilting. Earlier this month I took a class from Robbi Joy Elkow where she recommended practicing on two pieces of felt. I grabbed a couple pieces of felt, tore off a section of fabric, used small squares of fusible to secure the fabric to the felt, threaded some varigated thread, and started quilting.

The result is a process piece that was a great learning experience. I still have more of the untreated batik (if I photographed it all you would see if black) and some of the treated fabric. I'll look for more Bab-O as well. For a buck a bottle it's a pretty good deal!

Comments are most welcome!

-- Joanna Strohn in Tucson

http://www.dreamrunner.com

Canyon Strata

I started with a half yard of PFD white and added sun paints, full strength, in bold random stripes. The next color was the one I grabbed out of the bucket. Then I repeatedly sprayed with water to let the colors bleed, and covered it with tulle while it dried (not much of an effect). The strips were cut on the perpendicular and offset to sew back together. Finally the quilting was random, shapes that reminded me of the strata of rock at the Grand Canyon (which is almost in my back yard!). I'm not sure I really like this piece. I think I could have done more planning with the quilting, but I do like the bargello appearance (without all the fussy little pieces!). Self faced binding, and photographed on a black background. Comments, of course, are welcome! Thanks!

"A Study in Stripes"

I chose a 1" wide black and white stripe to work with for my original fabric. I wanted to explore the variations of pattern rather than color for this one. Some of the patterns I started with a plan, others I just started sewing stuff together. 100% cotton fabric, machine pieced and quilted in the ditch. The binding is scraps and off-cuts, some on the bias, some not. Various sizes and styles of buttons.

Finished size 17x19, red bandana print fabric backing.

Coyote Hills Marsh

Whole cloth quilt, painted, 13 x 8.5

Inspired by the work of Deidre Adams, I decided to make a whole cloth quilt, quilt first, and then paint with acrylic paints.

Updated 5/30/2007 to answer questions:

I used the photo as a guide to put texture where I thought the grasses might go. All of the quilting and painting was done unmarked.

I used ordinary acrylic paints. I thought from looking at Deidre's quilts that slightly diluted paint would settle where the stitching was, but it didn't work like I expected. If the paint was diluted or if the quilt was damp, the paint tended to distribute itself evenly regardless of stitching. I got the textured look with darker seams by letting the quilt dry completely and then painting over it with lighter brighter colors, a fairly dry bush, and undiluted paint.

An article was done about Deidre Adams and her quilts in the Winter 2006 issue of Quilting Arts. She works very abstractly, and her quilts are full of wonderful texture. Some of her quilting includes crosshatching and overlapping spirals which I have not used before, so I have tried these in this quilt.

Wild-haired Party Girls at Sunset

I started with this piece of tie dyed fabric. I saw shadowy figures in the pattern, so I played that up by painting dresses on the figures and a sunset sky with thickened dye. Then I quilted around the figures and the sun.

Aurora Luna

This was a potato dextrin resist dye painted fabric . I did pin tuck pleats to raise and accentuate the flowing lines. I also did two double rows of pintucking around the moon, then used four layers of batting to stuff the moon so it would pop. After I quilted it, I painted the white of the moon with Pearlex and applied dozens of swarovski crystals in varied colors and sizes for a starry, irridescent sky.

I took the detail picture from the side to try to show the texture of the tucks and the puff of the moon. I wish the sparkle of the holographic thread and crystals would show better...it is really quite effective in person.

I haven't yet finished the edges as I'm debating whether to face it or frame it. Opinions?

As always, I welcome critiques and ideas...Cherie

Second Chance

Julie--You must have been reading my mind. I liquified pictures of some wall hangings months ago and every time I ran across them I thought "I have to do something with these". This challenge gave me the incentive to do more than just think about it.

I printed my liquified basket four times, sewed them together, stippled, doodled, and thread painted.

My fabric is very boring. I wanted something light to do my printing on. I tried a print and it was awful.

Betty Donahue

Challenge 9

I used a fabric with two different colors in the warp and weft. I thought they would be red and blue, but they turned out to be a bright iridescent orange, and a flat dull reddish-purple. I wove some strips and beaded the intersections, and I fringed two rectanges, using the thread pulled from each as embellishment. I quilted it with YLI thread color Madras, using a fairly flully poly batting which emphasises the hills and valleys for more color changes as you look at it from differnt angles. It was such a fun challenge!

Challenge 9

Challenge # 9 - Friday, 24 May 2007

Challenge Hostess – Julie Everett

Theme - One Fabric

The challenge of this project is you are only permitted to use one fabric to create your quilt! What you do with that fabric is up to you.

Discharge black fabric with bleach
Dye PFD fabric
Overdye an old fabric from your stash
Melt crayons to add color and design
Draw with colored pencils
Paint images
Thread paint
Cover it with beads

You may use a different fabric for the backing if needed, but your binding must still be made of the one fabric.

Here are some links to get you started:

Discharge
http://quilt.com/FAQS/DischargeDyeingFAQ.html
http://www.thomasin.com/cottondischarge.html

Crayons
http://www.crayonsrediscovered.com/

Painted
http://judyperez.blogspot.com/

Dye
http://fabricdyeing101.blogspot.com/

As always, please have your quilts completed and posted with in the week and of course, have fun!

Challenge 8

Sailing through the City

My son was in the hospital for 2 weeks so I missed the deadline but wanted to finish this and share it anyways. May not have met the challenge exactly, this may be a bit more of an abstract? But I like it! I was just going to keep it with the curvy edges but then the urge hit to be a bit more playful and the 2 borders were born , I think they add a lot to the overall effect.
Comments are welcome..

Portal

Size ~ 12 1/2" tall x 10 1/2" wide
Quilt Artist ~ Julie Everett

Inspiration Photograph ~ The Cloisters of Lacock Abbey

Photographer ~ Mark (Please click his name to be taken to his blog full of beautiful photography.)

Comments Welcome!

Challenge #8

I really enjoyed this challenge as I caused me to step outside my comfort zone. The picture I used for its design elements was an advertisement for travel to Disneyworld. It was the candlestick and clock from Beauty and the Beast. The color is a bit off in this scan, so imagine the long hook on the left and the short curve on the right as being bright yellow. My binding is a very intense green. (I am limited in my ability to edit photos - darn this new Vista operating system; my peripherals won't work properly with it!)

I am stumped for a name - any suggestions?

Ann In Walnut, CA

One Zen Moment

16" x 17 1/2"

Cotton and cotton batik fabric
Fused and quilted; echo quilting
Beads/beading around center bead

I'm fortunate to have Ann Johnston's book. I refreshed my memory of some of the design principles she covers before taking book and some favorite photos to the Girls Night Out at the local quilt store where I teach.

I didn't like my efforts with the first two photos I tried. Success quickly came when I starting sketching from the photo of my 1893 Singer treadle. The drawer decorations reminded me of windows.

There's nothing like having an entire quilt store as "stash"! I had been thinking solids but when I saw the batik with the multi-colored squares, I fell in love with it. Then I spotted the turquoise batik. The black has subtle circles on it.

My original concept was to use beads to highlight the colors on the turquoise fabric. However, when I saw the turquoise donut it seemed perfect. I am studying Larkin Van Horn's Beading on Fabric book so decided to try the cabachon capture technique (something new to me). I experimented with bleeding the turquise fabric through the binding and like the effect. I did not feel any additional beading was needed after adding the center stones.

I like the simplicity of this piece. Like much of my work there is more to see the more closely one gets to the piece. It has a complex peacefulness; thus the title.
My inspiration photo, sketch and close-ups are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/shimmers411/ChallengeQuilts
That folder also includes the final version of my "Everybody has blue days (and your cat may hallucinate)" challenge quilt.

Comments are most welcome!

World Windows

Better late than never.... between work and a solo show last week, it was today before I even got back to this!

My inspiration pictures were all of buildings and as I sketched, I realized that everything that caught my eye was a window. One of my favorite images was a sunset over Anchorage AK, taken last fall. The sun seemed to reflect a myriad of colors on the window panes of the Alaskan city. I layered handdyes, and overlaid them with couched silk fiber. I plan to wash this a few times to get the raw edges to fray.

Chihuly Glass

12"x12"

Well, late again, but here is my challenge piece.

When Cynthia posted the challenge, I immediately knew which picture I wanted to use: this shot of a Chihuly glass installation at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus. I have been meaning to use this as an inspiration for a quilt because I love the way the shapes and colors all intertwine.

The sketching exercise was good, particularly the shading, because I did end up using one of the last ones I did, instead of what I would have chosen if I had just jumped in and started the quilt intuitively. I got a bit bogged down on the quilt itself, because as I started looking for fabrics I started reorganizing my batik drawers, and then I started cutting rectangles out for a "quick" scrap quilt for later....anyhoo, then I thought I was going to add big wide borders, and I cut them out, and then I decided I didn't want them, so now I will have to come up with another project for the big wide borders!

This was another great challenge. Thanks Cynthia!

Untitled

9½ x 7, raw edge fused appliqué.

This challenge was hard for me. It was difficult to get away from trying to draw exactly what I saw instead of concentrating on just the shapes. And most of my drawings seemed very contrived. What finally worked for me was concentrating on drawing shadows and negative shapes, and rotating the drawing paper occasionally. I’m still not sure I like my final quilt. It still seems contrived, and doesn’t seem to have much meaning. The quilting in the blue tie-dye fabric seems out of character to the rest of the quilt.

The Black and White of It

My "photo" was a postcard from Berlin. After sketching lines and shapes and shading with grays, black and white, I really liked the looks of it that way and had never made a black and white quilt before...so here it is! It measures 14"x20"

I have 3 other sketches of other subjects that I will also make into small quilts when I have the time. This was really alot of fun, and I would love critiques as usual

Cherie