Arizona Sunset

I took a photo last year in Arizona at sunset of the adobe house next to our condo. The little bird sitting on the top was what attracted my attention. The trees lined along the horizon line let the sunset show through their limbs.

It was interesting cutting out the trees for this as I concentrated on just cutting out the negative space. After I finished I wondered if this was really a good representation of negative space or a silhouette. What do you think?

I Love Detroit

 

 

Using negative space, the key emphasizes the Detroit skyline, including the Renaissance Center, the Penobscot building and the Ambassador Bridge among others.

It was designed in Make the Cut software cut out with my electronic cutter.

I would love suggestions on how to quilt it.
I designed it with two versions. One has a circle for the keyhole and one with a heart...which one do u think would work better?

Feedback would be very much appreciated.
Thanks
 

Lady in Heels

We have been on the road a lot recently, and I spotted a lady in heels, filling her tank.  Snapped a quick reference photo, and tackled this using negative shapes.  This was quite a challenge, but I like how she is turning out.  No telling when it will all get appliqued and quilted, so I am posting another pinned piece.  I hope everyone sticks with this challenge, even if it gets difficult.  I am excited to see what we all come up with!!

Challenge 85 September 2013

Karol Kusmaul, hostess

Theme: Negative Space

Due Date: October 5, 2013

When I was in college, our drawing instructor stacked up an odd assortment of stools, old chairs, manikins, and wadded up newsprint.  We had several assignments using this mountain of stuff as our subject matter.  One day, our assignment was to draw the air around the objects, NOT the objects themselves.  In other words, we were to focus on the shape of the spaces between the objects. 

This is a technique recommended by Betty Edwards in her well known Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain books.  Betty tells about Bugs Bunny running through a door and leaving a rabbit shaped hole in the door.  If you were to draw the shape of the door (or the negative space), you will have drawn the shape of the rabbit. It is amazing how well this technique can improve the way you see and draw.

Try it with fabrics!  You can use real objects or photographs you have taken.  You can use any subject matter that has interesting shapes or openings.  

Here is one of my son sitting at a counter.  It is on my list of projects to finish one day!!!

  

Having taught this technique in my high school art classes, I was always impressed with the resulting drawings.  Give it a shot!!!  You might try a quick fabric study of a chair that has interesting open spaces.  Don’t cut out a chair shape, instead, cut out the shapes of the air around the chair.

  

Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real" subject of an image. The use of negative space is a key element of artistic composition.

Here are some examples:

http://painting.about.com/cs/paintingknowhow/g/negativespace.htm

http://blog.insightsoft.ae/22-artworks-with-clever-use-of-negative-space/

http://painting.about.com/od/paintingforbeginners/ss/negativespace.htm

http://www.tutorial9.net/articles/design/enhancing-your-art-with-negative-space/

http://www.boredpanda.com/negative-space-illustrations-noma-bar/

http://www.behance.net/gallery/The-Art-of-Negative-Space/1316541

  

This is an image of a drummer.  As in the one with my son on a stool, I started with some  wild fabrics as a background, then added shapes for the negative spaces.  The wild fabrics became my positive shapes.  You may want to simplify and use solids or more tame fabrics.

  

 

Here are two paintings by Hessam Abrishami where negative space is emphasized.  It really is as important as the positive figures!!

Here is the same idea in a small watercolor study.  If you paint the negative shapes, then the positive ones appear.

Finally, a student piece that plays with positive and negative shapes, as well as implied shapes, where your eye completes the tank top on the right, even if it is not delineated. 

And one last word: have fun with this!

Boysenberry Fog

Challenge #84 finally!

I put this together tonight.  It is made of a variety of materials in circular and oblong shapes.  Comments welcome!

Six Sonner Suns

I have (finally) finished my circle-themed quilt. Six Sonner Suns is about our recent trip to Germany to visit my husband's aunt and uncle. We are all Sonners (4 by birth, 2 by marriage). We traveled around the green countryside and enjoyed lots of sunshine with blue skies and some clouds. We even found a strawberry farm run by Sonners. It was fun recreating the colors of the trip and adding happy family photos. This quilt is part of my family history series, which is evolving into family travel.

A Jungle of Tomatoes

25" x 17½"

Last year I came up with A Neighborhood of Zucchini so this year it's back to the garden with a Jungle of Tomatoes, and I couldn't even keep it contained within the original space I had started with!  And that's also what made me take more time in completing it, I'm afraid.  The leaves aren't quite right for tomatoes, but the jungle aspect certainly comes through!  What doesn't show as much are the bits of highlight I put on the tomatoes.

Later is better than never!  Your comments are always welcome.

Road Racer

This is a portrait of a ten year old girl as she was about to begin her first motorcycle road race of the day. She was dressed in all pink from her helmet to shirt, pants, boots, and gloves. She was as determined as the predominantly male contestants. While not exactly just circles, there are a lot of circles in this piece. It is destined for the SAQA trunk show in 2014.

I've written a bit more about it on my blog--sylviaweirart.wordpress.com

Forest

Forgive the pins, as this is as far as I've gotten on this piece.  I was rebelling against what I call 'lollipop' flowers, so I made marshmallow ones instead!  Had fun with lots of recycled fabric prints, and playing with light against dark in this one.  Critique is welcomed. 

Sowing Circles

While flying over Colorado I saw the irrigation circles and immediately knew I needed to make it into a quilt.  This one measures 22"x24".  It is machine appliqued and quilted - no fancy techniques.

Galactic Billiards

The first thing I did was make stratas in two colorways using 1 1/4" strips of hand dyed and batiks.  I then used my Olfa circle rotary and cut circles in different sizes.  I appliqued these onto a backing of velvet encrusted with glitter using satin stitch.    Next, I layered a deep purple-glitter tulle over all, stitched around the circles, then quilted the background in circles.

I actually had no idea where I was going with this when I started...just chose the colors and went for it.  My husband thinks it looks like billiards...thus "Galactic Billiards".

I have always loved working with circles, and have made many quilts based on circle themes.  I really had fun with this one!

It measures 18"x24"

Comments and critiques welcome and appreciated...Cherie

Running in Circles

Running in Circles or Spinning my Wheels is what I feel like I've been doing all summer trying to keep up with the yard work and weeds.

I tried a new technique (to me) by taping a thumbtack onto my sewing machine next to the needle.  Then when I put the quilt sandwich down the tack holds it in place, causing the stitches to form a perfect circle.  By moving the tack closer to the needle, or further away, the size of the circle changes.

Size is 12 inches square on a hand-dyed background.

Challenge #84: What Goes Around Comes Around

Host: Tobi Hoffman

Due: August 31, 2013

Theme:  Exploring the Circle

Design Element: Circles and arcs.  The circles can be part of the fabric patterns, actual full circles, and/or the quilting pattern.  Let them overlap as much as you want, or make concentric circles or offset concentric circles.  You can distort them or use ovals, particularly where perspective might show circles from the side.

Style: Aim for a pictorial or symbolic quilt rather than just a repetitive pattern containing circles as in traditional quilts.  Mandala patterns are acceptable, but try to get away from the traditional. 

References:

The Circle, The Wheel of Fortune & The Rose Window

http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/math5.geometry/unit9/unit9.html or 

http://tinyurl.com/FFFC84-1

Circle Symbolism

http://enthusiasticartist.blogspot.com/2011/01/circle-symbolism.html or http://tinyurl.com/FFFC84-2

Circle Symbols - What Do They Mean?

http://webclipart.about.com/od/businessoffice/ss/Circle-Symbols-What-Do-They-Mean.htm or http://tinyurl.com/FFFC84-3

Mandala Symbolism:

http://www.michaelbrown.org/HTML/mandala_symbolism.htm or 

http://tinyurl.com/FFFC84-4

 

Plotting a Circle in Perspective (Technical)

http://studiochalkboard.evansville.edu/lp-circle.html

And maybe not directly relevant, but fascinating (meaning, I couldn’t resist):

Mysterious Underwater ‘Crop Circles’ Discovered Off the Coast of Japan

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/09/mysterious-underwater-crop-circle-art-discovered-off-the-coast-of-japan/ or http://tinyurl.com/FFFC84-5

Examples in art:

The Giving Circle, by Lorraine Landroche

http://quiltforchange.org/2013/07/the-giving-circle-lorraine-landroche-of-west-warwick-rhode-island/ or 

http://tinyurl.com/FFFC84-6

Lucina Lighting the Way, by Mary Veneecke

http://quiltforchange.org/2013/07/lucina-lighting-the-way-by-mary-vaneecke-of-tucson-arizona/ or http://tinyurl.com/FFFC84-7

My Dresden, by Anita Peluso

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bloominworkshop/5924452298/in/photostream/

Art Made Entirely of Circles by Ben Heine

http://twistedsifter.com/2010/04/digital-circlism-ben-heine/

Megan Aroon Duncanson

http://www.artistrising.com/shop/artist/16911/Megan-Duncanson.htm

And above all, have FUN with this!

Bridges

Book cover for Bridges of Madison County.  I tweaked it a bit from the photo posted in Yahoo Groups.  I know my focal point is too centered.  Tried to offset that by adding the bright flowers on the left. Maybe cropping away some of the left side would also help. 
I have not participated for a long time.  Tobi gave me a push, so I'm back.  I DO love challenges, but you know how life gets in the way. 

Karol Kusmaul
Inverness, fL

Fantasy Book Cover

Cone Flower

Framed 10" square

  

Because of my love of plants and gardening, I have many gardening books.  My frustration with all of them is that they try to cram too many photos or a photo of too many plants on the cover.  Because of this, I decided to create a book cover that I would like to see.  I also was so fond of my idea, I thought it might make a nice series.  However, because of the strictness of my design, everything had to be exact.  It was much easier on paper than fabric.  Paper doesn't stretch and move, sometimes with a mind of its' own.

 

Because my original photo was very busy with other flowers, it had to be painted over a LOT!   I used tiny, iridescent seed beads on the top of solid small seed beads.  Those glaring dots in the photo are reflections of light.  I stretched the center of the flower with the round handle of my scissors.  Then I beaded it and stuffed it.  After mounting on the foam core, the perimeter of the 'cone' didn't want to lay flat.  I stitched the edges down with clear poly.  Now it has the depth that I wanted.  I like a lot of depth and texture.  I first stitched the petals to one layer of poly batting and a thin backing.  After stitching all of the petal veins, I cut around the petals so there was no batting between.  Then I made the usual layer of top-batting-backing.  I re-stitched around the petals so that they would have dimension.  Then I quilted the rest of the piece.

 

Stranger in a Strange Land

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein was one of my favorite books, it was absolutely the most influential book I've ever read. I read it when I was 15, about the time you start to think as yourself, and it taught me to think about fairness, love, acceptance, and most of all, truth. Do you remember the Fair Witness concept?

 Yes, its view of women is dated, but they were always treated with love. Then there's the whole question of the true identity of Valentine Michael Smith. I recommend a reading or rereading of it to everyone. Anyone younger than a Boomer should keep in mind it is historical science fiction.  It is also the first part of a trilogy and really more spiritual than science fiction.

I uploaded two images; the first is my book cover (I love this challenge!) and the second is the cover as experiment. I'm going to finish it in the manner of Susan Lenz, a tutorial of which is on her blog, http://artbysusanlenz.blogspot.com/2007/07/how-to-make-in-box.html

I look forward to your comments.  

Suzanne Thompson

www.texturedwords.com 

Lord of the Rings

16" x 13½"

It will come as no surprise to those who have seen my early entries that "The Lord of the Rings" is my favorite book so it was my immediate choice for this challenge!  My initial idea was to have just the hand reaching up to the ring strung on a chain, with the title and author, but my husband felt I needed to include the Eye of Sauron.  For that, I used Angelina fiber with some black strands to be the cat-like pupil of the eye.  I used two layers of dark blue organza to somewhat mute the background; both the eye and the hand are between the two layers.  One mistake was to stitch the chain and ring last, because when I was placing them, I found that the chain needed to go behind the eye, and that was a bit tricky!

And while I normally go with less regular shapes, that's not the way books are made, hence the rectangle!

I look forward to your comments.  Thanks for the fun challenge, Sharon.

Alice in Wonderland

A friend of mine was sketching for fun and when I saw this sketch I immidiately thought of  Alice in wonderland.  It is made with commercial and hand dyed fabric.  It is hard to see the quilting in the photo but it is there.  The "hole" is paper pieced and the tree is raw edge applique. The piece measures 7x17".It is fun to be back in a creative space. 
Thanks for the fun challenge.

Pat Havey

Positive Hand Gestures

Based on one of my favorite books, The Power of Positive Thinking by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

 Designed in Make the Cut software, thread sketched portraits, Tsukineko ink, free motion quilted on Moire fabric.

Five Smooth Stones

 I am not sure how I am quilting this, or even if I am, I may stretch it onto a frame the way it is or use some other method to attach it to a canvas or board. Also not sure if I want to add words. I am liking the simplicity of it the way it is.
The color is off, the background is supposed to be stark white, but I can never get a good shot in here at night no matter how I try.
As soon as I read the challenge for this month, I knew I wanted to do this. I have read this book many many times and it never fails to touch me. I chose to reproduce a painting done by Sara Kent, one of the character's in the book. Everytime I think of this book the description of this painting is always one of the first things to come to my mind. I added the stones to represent the title. they will be sewn on using tulle to hold them..

Not sure if we were supposed to include this, but I thought a description of the books would be nice so others could go look for them and read them if they wished.
(following blurb from Amazon, link to site included)
Five Smooth Stones was written by Ann Fairbairn, and first published in 1966.
It is the story of David Champlin, a black man born into poverty in Depression-era New Orleans who achieves great success and then sacrifices everything to lead his people in the difficult, day-by-day struggle of the civil rights movement. Sara Kent is the beloved and vital white girl who loved David from the moment she first saw him, but they struggled over David's belief that a marriage for them would not be right in the violent world he had to confront. Likening the struggle of black Americans to the “five smooth stones” the biblical David carried against Goliath in lieu of arms, this novel’s range encompasses decades and continents—but that range is insignificant compared with the intimate picture of its hero’s irresistible warmth and inner conflicts. , this epic has become one of the most loved American bestsellers.

I enjoyed this, even as simple as mine is. Thank you Sharon for hosting a challenge that I feel  has rekindled the spark I used to have for creating with fabric!  Sorry I was so long winded! LOL

Challenge #83: A new Cover for your Favorite Book

Host: Sharon Robinson

Due: August 3, 2013

Theme:  The title or subject of your favorite book

Style: This can be a representational quilt that illustrates a person, place or thing from the book,  or an abstraction that captures the emotions and essence of the book.  It can be fiction or non-fictional, serious or humorous.  Imagine the latest edition on bookstore shelves, with your art on the cover!  Your piece can start out the size of a book, or you could do a large piece and assume it would be reduced in scale for the cover art.

Technique:  Any technique you choose

Design Element: Line – Optional.  If this topic seems too wide open to you, try also incorporating the design exercise of using the element of “line” to portray your subject or theme.  There are as many ways to use “line” as there are works of art:  http://tinyurl.com/googlemodernartline

Some ideas that came to mind for me are:  A portrait of Jane Eyre or the girls from Little Women, a landscape of the windswept mores of England…   You could use humor or a pun: A Catcher in a loaf of Rye Bread?

Non-fiction: One of my current favorite books is about Climate Change – so I could do a quilt depicting the melting ice in the Arctic.  I’m also reading about Joseph Albers and his color studies, so I might do a quilt based on his ideas:   http://tinyurl.com/Albersbook

If you don’t really have a favorite book, or are stuck on how to interpret it, just go to Amazon Books and browse the cover art shown, but don’t just copy it – look at how the illustrator chose to interpret  the book.  For example here are many different ideas on “To Kill a Mockingbird” http://tinyurl.com/Mockingbirdcoverart

You could select a favorite book from your childhood, or one you read to your grandchildren:

http://tinyurl.com/childbookillustrations  Again, don’t copy the illustrations, but be inspired by them.  You could do a piece inspired by the style of some of the great childrens’ book illustrators.   http://flavorwire.com/306958/the-20-most-beautiful-childrens-books-of-all-time/5 or http://tinyurl.com/kncf4oe

Abstract art lends itself to book covers easily. It can even make “Ductal Carcinoma in Situ” look interesting!  J   http://tinyurl.com/abstractcovers

A couple more links to book cover ideas:

http://tinyurl.com/bestbooksyear

http://tinyurl.com/googlebookcovers

And some art story quilts, showing how other quilt artists have told stories with their work.  But remember if your piece will be on the cover of a book, keep it simple and eye-catching!

http://tinyurl.com/googlestoryquilts

Don’t get stuck on which book to use, or how to interpret it “correctly.”  This is really just a prompt to get you brainstorming and inspired!   Most of all, have FUN!

Indian Maiden

It has been some time since I did a fabric piece.  But I still remember how...must be like riding a bicycle.  Anyway, my inspiration for this challenge was 'Indian Maiden at Stockade' by Charles Marion Russell painted in 1892 (first image image). 


I've used more of a simplistic cubist method of abstraction of the figure.  The background...is different altogether in that I liked the look of the block figure against this pattern.  In addition, I've tried to give it some foreground/ground using organzas at the bottom.

All comments welcome!  

The Sentinels

The Sentinels was inspired by the painting (above) by George Caitlin. Caitlin painted mostly scenes of Indian life as well as many Indian portraits. I first saw his work in the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC where there is a large permanent installation  of many of the portraits. I liked the lines and shapes in this particular painting; the embellishments are the decorative stitches around the spheres, in the striped fabric, and on both sides of the blue area. My quilt is approximately 24" x 18".
Ann In Fallbrook, CA

Bison on the Plains

Charles Russell has many paintings depicting bison/buffalo on the western plains.In most cases they are running or stampeding with lots of action.

I tried to think abstractly, and failed yet again (my mind just doesn't work that way).  I copied several abstract pictures from the net and took only those to my studio for ideas.  I went through my scraps of hand-dyed fabrics, finding the three here.  The grass one is colored with crayons by rubbing, which I thought would work for abstract.  But then I found the scrap with the three bison and thread-painted them to give them some color.  And of course it became too realistic to be abstract.  In Russell fashion, I added clouds of dust by using wool roving and hand needle-felting it in place.  A tiny scrap of gold became the lightening that caused the stampede.
Thank you for this fun Fast Friday project.

The Outlaw

I have only a passing interest in Wild West Art, but it is easy to see that Frederic Remington's Bronze "The Outlaw" is the favorite of many. My piece is fused fabric using ideas taken from Pablo Picasso.  I was out the door to go fishing in Idaho - grabbed a bag of scraps, my sketchbook, etc (no sewing machine) and my computer.  After a quick stop at Walmart, I was ready. But by the time I got to Jimmy Smith Lake, I had no internet access.  So, I had to improvise a bit on the cowboy because I couldn't remember what he looked like!  It was a challenge - would have liked a wider array of fabrics.  I used tulle to create shadows on my whole cloth background, but when I tried to fuse the pieces down, I couldn't use a hot enough iron or the tulle would melt. At one point I resorted to glue.

 

My embellishments include hemp for the reins, and small beads to attach all the limbs paper-doll style.  This was a fun challenge, but I see I have a long way to go. I am humbled by the talent in this group, but even it we don't like the challenge, we learn from it.

Fur Traders Descending the Missouri

Hi all - thanks for letting me join the group. I've created my first challenge piece; it's nowhere as amazing as the other recent posts, but I tried new things and learned from it. First, I decided to interpret 'Old West' a little differently. After all, at one point the Ohio territories were the old west. The artist I picked is George Caleb Bingham and the painting, from 1845, is found here. It's worth looking at a variety of versions, because the coloring is subtle, and there's a wide range of colors and values on-line.
This is the fastest quilt I've made - about 2 days / 6 hours. New to me were the machine I stitched the layers together on, a 1955 Singer 401. It's also the first time I've worked with Misty Fuse, and first time trying large free-motion circles. I'm not happy with the fabric I chose for the grey clouds on the right - the value is too dark. I am very happy with the reflections in the water, and with the circles I stitched after I decided I had to mark the top and then sew. So I'm glad I finally committed to making a quilt! - Lisa in Pennsylvania, aka DippyDyes

"Wild" West

Even though he did many paintings of western scenes, when I think of Remington, I think of his bronze sculptures, so I chose “The Outlaw” for inspiration. By use of color, line, and shape, I improvised my own form of “abstraction” in an attempt to capture the energy, drama, and movement of the original work -- just not in a representational way. The overall shape references the sculpture, but the colors and surface design techniques are in keeping with my own artistic point of view.

If nothing else, since I finished it yesterday on July 4th, it has an explosive, fireworks feel fitting to the day, hopefully not unsimilar to the explosion of power represented in Remington’s “The Outlaw.”

The piece is 13.5” x 17”. Feedback is welcomed!

Robert Hartley

Wild West Landscape

At first, I wasn't sure what I would do with this challenge. Then I found this painting in the first website listed. I loved the purples and browns, and the lovely sky above the mountains. I found several purple and brown African batiks in my stash, along with other batiks and hand-dyed fabrics. 

My abstract interpretation of the painting is a faux-bargello landscape, and I did some embellishing with some of my favorite matte beads, in purple, bronze, green and brown. (The beads don't show up very well in the photo. )

My quilting echoes the shape of the mountains; the finished piece is about 20" wide, and 21" tall. 

In spite of the fact that the "Wild West" paintings are not among my favorites, I enjoyed this challenge.

Marilyn Foulke

Louisville, KY

An Art Quilt Piece from my collection

Acid Attack 2006

I won this art quilt way back in 2006 during the second Quilt Swap featuring members of the Quiltart list.  I had it hanging in a hallway in our Sacramento house. We moved a year after the swap and it has been hanging in my studio ever since.  I am posting it now because it was made by Jan Johnson who is the leader of this month's challenge.  I wanted to thank her again for the wonderful gift and to let her know it is still on display in my home.

Sylvia

Challenge #82: Masters of the Old Wild West

Theme: Masters of the Old Wild West

Technique: Abstraction

Hosts: Pam Clark, Jan Johnson

Due Date: July 6, 2013

Using the one of the Master Painters of the Old Wild West (Frederick Remington, Charles Russell or any other Old West Artist), select a painting to use as your inspiration, but create a quilt that would be an abstract of this painting. You could use Pablo Picasso's Cubism using cylinders, spheres, cones, triangles, cubes, etc. to depict your Western Painting in abstract style. Use at least one form of embellishment. Be sure to either show the painting you used for inspiration or tell us the title and artist of the painting you selected (providing a link would be fine).

Charles Russell paintings: http://www.charlesmarionrussell.org/

Frederick Remington paintings:

http://fredericremington.org/frederic-remington-master-of-diverse-media-p484.php

or http://tinyurl.com/FFFC-82-1

Background info on Pablo Picasso

http://www.pablopicasso.org/

Picasso's Cubism Period where he used cones, cylinders, spheres to depict the natural world.

Go about 2/3 of the way down the page to the black and whites of bulls and notice the progression from 3 dimensional to just lines made of shapes, but we can still tell that it's a bull.

http://www.pablopicasso.org/picasso-paintings.jsp

Samples of Abstract Art Quilts

http://artquiltsbyjean.com/products-page/abstract-quilts/ or

http://tinyurl.com/FFFC-82-2

There are a great many abstract quilts on this page.

https://www.google.com/search?q=abstract+art+quilts&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ny22Ub_WBYPErQHCrIEQ&sqi=2&ved=0CDMQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=738 or

http://tinyurl.com/FFFC-82-3

Here is a link showing Cubism art.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cubism&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=tCy3UdKJLoiM0QGjg4HwDw&sqi=2&ved=0CDkQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=738 or

http://tinyurl.com/FFFC-82-4

Here is a link explaining the concept of Cubism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism

In this link below, Elizabeth Barton's "Edge of Light" uses abstract art to depict a town.

http://elizabethbarton.blogspot.com/2009/04/elements-and-principlesspace-deep-or.html  or http://tinyurl.com/FFFC-82-5

Here's an example of an art quilt by Barbara Strobel Lardon showing how she analyzes the tail of an owl and selects just

the right fabric.

http://bslartquilts.blogspot.com/2013/01/shake-those-tail-feathers.html or http://tinyurl.com/FFFC-82-6

And one final note: have fun with this!

How to label a blog entry - revised!

When you have written your blog entry, add labels by clicking on Labels on the right.  A box will appear, with a crowded scroll box below it showing ALL of the labels that have ever been used.  As you type, the labels that contain what you are typing will appear below the entry box, and you can use the down arrow to select one of them or simply complete the typing.  Click "Done" to finish.

Two labels, and only two labels, should be added to your post.  One is the challenge number -- and it will be on the list, because it will have been used to post the challenge itself.  Enter that, then a comma, and then enter your name.  Because you have used the labels, you do not need to put either of them in the title of the post.

O is for found Objects, or Oh, look what I found!

All the discussion about FFFC has kick-started me to finish this piece, which measures 13" x 10".  Found Objects, including washers, a ring, and oval earrings, were encased under a damask napkin by hand stitching around them.  This was bordered by hand-dyed cotton fabric.

Thank you all for the great discussion.  I think it gave us all that needed push to get things done.

V is for Viktoria

V is for Viktoria

Close up of embroidery

Bits of trim and Jewelry

Since someone else posted a previously completed Alphabet quilt, I will share mine.  A couple of years ago my guild did an Alphabet Soup challenge.  Each artist was given their letter in fabric and had to use it on the front of the quilt.  Quilts were to be 18"x 24".  Each artist got to select their letter from list of remaining letters.  By the time I got to select there were only a few vowels and V left,   I chose V.  

My daughter was named after my grandmother.  I used the German spelling of Viktoria.   My grandmother did wonderful embroidery work.  I have several pieces of her work.  My daughter does lovely cross stitch.  I  immediately had an idea for this piece, I tried to make it look like Victorian crazy patch.  The floral embroidered motifs came from a maternity smock that I had made and worn when expecting my daughter.  For some reason my mother had cut of the motifs and saved them.  I had done the little house cross stitch many years ago and never framed it.  The buttons are vintage and come from my late mother's button box.  As well as the brooches. The lacy trim came from my daughter.  She had pulled all the filly decorations off a lampshade and gave me a box filled with bits of this and that.  I tea dyed the letter V's, they were on a white background.  It was a very satisfying piece to make.

The collection was hung in that year's quilt show.  It also was on display at the HMQS quilt show, and at the Springville art museum's annual quilt show. I can't quite remember what year it was made.  I am not where I can look at the label today.

Q is for Quilt

All this lively discussion in the past week encouraged me to  post this piece which fits the current challenge, although it was made for a different challenge group.  "Q is for Quilt"  and a few other things.  The small yellow quilt hanging off the bottom is a six inch nine patch quilt with 1/4 inch squares.   Other items beginning with Q were added using ATP- a first for me.  The quilting includes cursive lower case q's, too.

Peggi Yacovissi, Wellsboro PA

Road Trip!

"R" is For Road Trip!

This is a collage of several small postcard-style quilts that show a road trip through the Southwest. The background is a city skyline while the border represents the wide open road. Text includes not only the free-form cut letters, but  also the background map behind the two figures. My quilt measures 22" x 21".

Pouring T

21" x 17"

I seldom include letters or words in my pieces, but the challenge called for them, hence, Pouring T, quite literally!  I tried cutting the letters out from fabric, but since I was unwilling to sew all around the edges for each letter, I tried out a technique that came through Joggles.com recently.  They had a video of printing using adhesive foam and pieces of foam core for printing, and since I always have loads of foam core scraps, I gave it a try.  The printing came out a bit light, but I filled in the T's with the same marker I had used for ink, and outlined the H2O steam and felt satisfied with the result.

At first, I was going to crop the kettle, but it wanted to be included in its entirety -- though it didn't want to have a handle!

Thanks, Ann, for a fun challenge.  I welcome any comments.

Fresh Fish!

This piece began with sun dyeing muslin using Dye-na-Flow, cut paper shapes, and plant material [read: weeds!] from my yard. It’s a fun, quick and easy process. A fellow art quilter loaned me a wonderful Fred B. Mullet fish stamp that I applied with black and gold textile paints.

As I worked on the piece, this narrative kept going through my head: Five fancy fish, freely floating, fleetly flitting, and fitly finning from Fiji to France, from Finland to Formosa. Fascinating, friendly…and flagrantly flirting! -- Fresh Fish!
I had notions of somehow including that text via free-motion quilting, but I’m just not that good! Maybe one day.

12"x26"

Enjoy, and feedback welcomed.

Robert Hartley

S is For Smile

 

Take a smile. Or two.. Or three…

The Daily Smile Countdown!

Beads, buttons, charms, lace, lock washers, sequins, trims, washers, yarns, zipper.