Jackie Doll's #4 Orange, Purple & Blue Challenge

When I heard of the colours, I immediately thought of a sunset. I painted the palm tree with Setacolor Opaque Shimmer Jet Black and used King Tut thread to do the quilting.

Jackie Doll

Sharon M's #4 Orange Blue and Purple Pallet Challenge

Orange, purple and blue.

The colors were a huge challenge for me and then I added 2 more challenges. I challenged myself to use my AccuQuilt Go to cut all my pieces and I also went with the curved border. I started with the applecore die to make my back ground and used 2 shades of orange fabric. Next I used the round flower die to make the vines, leaves and flowers. I used the darker orange for the vines and leaves and did the flowers in shades of purple. I used some of the diferent stitches on my machine to applique the pieces and like the effect. The hardest color for me was getting the blue just right, I made little birdies out of the feather die and every blue I put on the piece just wasn't right. I finally found this speckled blue in a moda jelly roll I had and I love it. The bias binding is also cut with the 2.5 strip die...it was a slow job sewing it on, LOL. In the end I am happy with my table runner, the colors are wonderful together. It is 16 x 25.5".

Judy's #4 Orange/ Blue/ Purple Challenge

I answered this challenge with some springy 3-D daffodils. A learning experience, as I don't recall folding this sort of flowers before. The little bitty quiltlet measures 6" x 7." It's ok. But I don't love it.

Then I stumbled across a Charley Harper Quiltalong currently happening on flickr. The coordinator has permission from the estate for the group to reproduce his drawings in fabric. I googled images and when I saw the cardinal, I knew this is what I was meant to do all along. I intended to use the image for inspiration but I came close to reproducing it.

I love everything abut this cardinal. His attitude. His sharp clean lines. His beady black eyes. His knobby knees. He's actually a tomato color, which I consider a shade of orange. Isn't it? The blue seeds are stitched with lilac thread. The little quilt measures 8.5" square.

Great talk by Prof. David Green - Mixed Media

I listened to a talk by David Green today at Palmwoods. He was very interesting and I was amazed by his work on canvas and then stitched. I talked to him in length and then asked him if he would look at one of my pieces (Elements) He was so good to tell me about how I could make the piece work together a little more. So now I am going to add to the piece. I hope to have it posted in the next week.
I asked if he would come to Mountain Quilters and talk and he said yes. I am just delighted that we have someone like him here on the coast that is so interested in sharing his work and his time with us.
Here is the link to some of his work.
http://web.me.com/davidgreen70/musings/home.html

Delia

Postcard Swap Summer

This is one of the cards I did for a Summer card swap. I decided to do something different to the ordinary and did lizards.

Keep stitching

Delia

Bern's post coppied from our Challenging Ourselves yahoo group post.

Hi ladies, as I type this I am uploading photos of my My Favourites challenge quilt titled "Alaska 2005". The photos are in my folder in the Photos section. I have learned heaps from making this quilt - especially what not to do. I'll tell you about those things another day! I like making my backs "pretty" or suited to the quilt hence the photo of the backing fabric! I added the 3D animals to the quilt because I like a touch of whimsy to my quilts if I can work out how to do it. As the glue is still sticking down the wolf I could not take a photo of the label so I have added it in below. Alaska 2005 by Bern Johnson, January 2011 My husband Barry and I visited Alaska in 2005, travelling from Vancouver, Canada to Whittier by cruise ship and then on to Anchorage by train. These photographs were mainly photos that I took during this trip. Here are the subjects in the photos going down each column, from left to right: 1.Mendenhall Glacier somewhere along the Inside Passage enroute to Whittier 2.Barry and I in Ketchikan with a couple of “locals” 3.Lake Hood Seaplane Base – I believe this is the largest floatplane/seaplane airport in the world 4.Alaska welcome sign 5.One of the many harbours in Alaska 6.Amvets Post 2 in Anchorage (like a smaller version of the RSL here in Australia). It was here that we met a lovely lady (the wife of a Vietnam Veteran) called Linda Oliver. Linda and her lovely daughter Corey (and her sons) showed us a few sights around Anchorage in our last two days in Alaska. We still keep in touch with Linda and Corey and swap photos. 7.Salmon swimming upstream at a stream in Anchorage that Linda took us to. This photo is significant in that it took me something like two hundred photos just to capture one photo of the salmon jumping up to the next level of the stream! 8.Bears playing in a pool in a wildlife sanctuary. 9.Sea otters – how could one not love them? I wanted the quilt to look like photo negatives hanging up in a darkroom, hence the cut-outs (they took ages and the fabric distorted when I cut it out and sewed it but I have thought of a better way of getting that effect without the distortion). Ideally I would have had pegs holding the negatives on to a line (in the darkroom) but they would have weighed it down so I discarded that idea. Like I said before I have learned heaps from this challenge and I am glad that I was able to make it so personal. There are more Alaskan quilts to come (I bought heaps of fabric when I was over there). DH and I were very good at finding quilt shops in towns along the route of our cruise of the Inside Passage but I think I need some easy sewing to do for a while after this quilt! The negatives were the hardest thing - measuring, then drawing the squares then sewing around the square, then cutting the squares out, then zigzagging around each one. Sew 1cm, rotate, sew another cm, rotate, again and again ... aargh! This might be why this was a challenge quilt ... in more ways than one! Bern Johnson

Thank you Chris

Thank you Chris I have done what you asked and the blog is back to where it should be.
Delia

problems

I think we should leave it this way for today as quite often blogger gets working on things and manages to ball it up for awhile. Delia - I tried to see if it helped by changing the background and will leave it for a day or two, then we can decide on the background after we see what is happening. Shirley

Hi Girls

Hi Girls
I am just about ready to post on the site.
Delia

One of my most favorite places is at the shore watching the waves come in. Nebraska is a long way from any ocean shores, so I have come to enjoy the shores of Lake Michigan. It helps that my son and daughter-in-law live in Michigan about 30 miles from the lake. On a very windy day Lake Michigan can resemble the ocean.(sort of) I had fun learning photoshop in working on getting all these pictures printed. I even used the distort feature to create the fill in pieces.

Favourite Places

What a fun challenge. I had such a difficult time trying to decide just what are my favourite places. Finally decided that it must be beside the ocean or water. I tried to make my challenge look like a scrap booking page. I printed a few of the places we have visited in the past 12 months, The Great Ocean Road, Port Fairy and the Sorrento Back Beach. As much as I love to visit these places I have no desire to live in a coastal area. I love living here in the country and wouldn't change it. Sorry for the delay in posting, I had to search for the camera.

My Favourite Places --

One of my favourite places is France. I used pictures that I took on a trip in 2006 and last summer. One of my favourite places in France is Brittany where my father was born.

I used Karin Hellaby's Simple Attic Windows and printed my pictures on TAP transfer paper and transferred them onto the windows. It's 29"x23".

Jazzy, my ShiTsu, likes to sit on my quilts.

Jackie in snowy Edmonton

My Challenge, Favorite Places

Well, I of course had to use the ocean, and a sea turtle`s favorite place. I fused pieces of fabric onto the blue and sand colored fabric. Then started on all hand work. I want this piece to be completely hand finished, so am still not quite down. I still want to add a beaded sea turtle and lots of goodies to my treasure chest, but just didn`t fit the time in before our reveal. This piece may not be done for months, I keep finding things to add to it. I couched different textured yarns and threads for seaweed, and embroidered even more for dimensions. This challenge was very Challenging. :)

Favourite Places

Here is how I chose to interpret the theme of Favourite Places.

It happens to be the favourite place of two cats - a backyard window sill and some kind of box or cabinet. I have too many favourite places to interpret and so I thought I would concentrate on other favourite places. It is all raw, almost all hand stitched and I plan to frame it so that is why it is not quilted - I didn't want the bulk.

Cheryl challenge #2 Favourite Places

Favorite Places

Ia Orana!
I was excited to find out the theme to our latest challenge and immediately knew it would have to be themed around the ocean or beach. I took advantage of the hot weather early on and sun-painted the background before I knew what I would do with the rest of the piece. This was the first time I had used acrylic paint with a textile medium unfortunately the clouds are covered up by the palm fronds. It was a learning experience and I am excited to experiment more with paints. Once I decided how I was going to finish the piece, I really enjoyed the creative process of bringing it all together.

This piece gave me the opportunity to practice my free-motion stitching, which I so desperately needed. Working on a smaller piece is so much easier! The finished size is 15” x 17”. I have not put a binding on the piece yet because I haven’t liked anything I have auditioned. It is hanging now, raw-edged. Something will come to me.

So my favorite place is really anywhere in the South Pacific. This piece is representative of Tahiti, and the hammock is where I spent time relaxing, reading, enjoying a Hinano or two, and watching the sunset.

May your favorite places bring you peace and comfort.

Manuia!
Cheryl

Favorite Place

My list of favorite places is long and sweet and, while none of them are in Kansas, they all look a lot like home.  I chose to illustrate the first backyard I remember with the view from my bedroom window.  The woven background represents a patchwork of backyards mine was part of.  The tree was an ancient, gnarly, Golden Delicious.  Perfect for climbing, hiding, reading.  Of course all this brought to mind ( to haunt me!) Yeats' "Song of Wandering Aengus" and "the silver apples of the moon, the golden apples of the sun."  As much as I like the poem, I soon regretted choosing metallic fabrics as they are so difficult to work with and to photograph.  I fused two pieces of fabric back to back, cut out the shapes and tacked them onto the quilt with handstitched stems and veins which worked fairly well.  My favorite challenge thus far as I revisited a very pleasant time and place.

Delia - Favourite Places

Favourite Places

The back of the piece I used facings instead of binding (mitred at corners) as I wanted a clean edge on the front. This would also be nice on the front to frame a piece.

Close up for the confetti work.

Favourite Places.
I thought and thought what I would do for this challenge. I had different things going on in my mind and could not decide. A couple of weeks ago it all came to me. Favourite Places well my favourite places are my home, the land, dam and gardens. So that is what I did.

It is looking from the road up over the dam to our place. I have not quite got the proportions of the house to the garages right but it is close enough.

First I used the confetti method of cutting up lots of fabric into small pieces of the colour I needed. Blues for the sky and Greens for the hills and randomly quilted them down.

I then appliqué the house onto thick tearaway. It was then stitched to the background.
The gardens were all thread painted on to thick tearaway before stitching to the background.
The road was appliquéd on to the background.
I then thread painting the palm trees on to the piece.

To show you what else you can do I then changed the colour of the piece in my camera program.
Negative Colorize and Sepia

Negitive Colorize

Sepia

I had fun working on this piece.

Delia

MIRIAM - Sunset over Crete

While on a cruise on holiday in October last I took many photos of Crete (as we
pass it in the ship).......The colours in the sea were wonderful and the sky was
dazzling.......I still carry that picture in my mind and so it is "My Favourite
Place" even though I didnt visit the island......My piece is called "Sunset over
Crete"......Cottons, sheers, tulles layered......my favourite technique at the
moment.

Miriam

Favourite Places~ gudrun

I was flummoxed by the plural in this challenge. I 'read' the challenge word favourite to mean my favourite, but I had trouble with places. In a two dimensional small fibre art piece how do I depict places . A single place is easy enough. I did not come with any ideas that covered 'places'...... however there is a common factor in all of the places I consider favourite. So that is how I came to this....

All my favourite places have water and trees. I spend a lot of time on Georgian Bay, Lake Huron....and even when I am not on the Bay you can bet I am near water, or under a tree...usually both.

This is my first finished attempt at thread painting, operative word being 'finished'. My list friend Shirley is instrumental in my continuing with thread painting. All I need do for encouragement and inspiration is look at her work.

Favourate Places

Favorite Places One of my favorite places is in the kitchen and this art quilt all started with a tea towel. I pieced a 9” block on the end with a cut up towel and the design represents a lattice pie crust. I got the wonderful “moms cookies” embroidery design from UrbanThreads then added some appliqué designs around it. I hand sewed the appliqué designs on with WonderFil hologram threads, they are so pretty. Then I added some hand written notes that tell what I love about baking. After quilting and binding my little quilt I glued it to a rolling pin using fabric glue, I was inspired after seeing a Quilting Arts magazine.

Challenge

Hi Girls
I was wondering how many of you intend to reveal your 3rd Challenge next week.
It is important that we know so please answer this post.
Delia

Finally some new stuff to show

I have been so busy lately with work and whatnots, that I have not posted forever.
So I had the last two days off and decided to spend some time sewing.
My friend Kim has been making Twister quilts, and I wanted to do one, so with a little help from my friend, here it is, and also a pic of my Mariners compass candlemat.
Will be back after Christmas to show some gifts I have been working on.

Shirley here

I haven't started on mine - hope to soon. It is bitter cold here in Calgary and

we haven't gone anywhere for over a week. It has broken all records here in

Alberta. I do wish I was 'down under'.

Take care everyone and Happy Thanksgiving for our American Friends. Shirley

I will get to you all

Girls I will get to viewing all the posts in the next couple of days. I have had a quick look and can't believe how far you all have come in your work since the first challenge.

Well done to you all I am excited with what we have achieved.

The grandchildren keep me on my toes and not much time to get on the computer.
I am really enjoying the children.
Delia

Delia challenge #2 Four Elements

I am sorry I did not have time to post about my piece before I left home.

I wanted to capture some of the elements that effect our country and do it with paint and machine embroidery. It was a challenge to me to get the colours right with the painting. I am happy with the results.

The piece is 22inches square or 56cm.

This is fire which see in our country so many times with devastating effects. Flames

flying high into the sky with the bright colours.

We have some of the most beautiful waters and reefs in the world to be found not far from where I live.

The winds with the cyclones that our region experiences so often during parts of the year. Lovely to see the clouds flying past over head when it is not to windy or raining. I have felted wool over the top clouds.
.
The earth with the beautiful colours with the dry spells that we experience.
Australia is know for its fires, floods and droughts. I am lucky I live in a area where we experience a lot of rain, wind and occasionally fire but not the droughts.
I enjoyed putting thie piece togerther.
Enjoy
Delia Australia

CHALLENGE NUMBER 3

Our next challenge is FAVORITE PLACES - drawn by Gudrun and Sharon M and

suggested by Joan. Thanks so much girls.

This one should be a very interesting challenge.

Four Elements

Artist's Statement, I spent more time reading various philosophies based on the four earthly elements, than I did creating my interpretation.

4 elements

I kept coming back to a philosophy that equates air with thought, fire with passion water with serenity and earth as maturity. Musings: fire does not pass through water, fire is reflected in water, thought feeds passion passion falters with serenity thought is in serenity, thought slows and then, no more.

Loose threads, attached with help of wash-away interfacing. on a snippet style background. I too had difficulty with the photographing, what doesn't show well here is the yellow thread 'of air' running through the piece gudrun

2nd Challenge

Joan Duggan - 2nd challenge

I decided to incorporate 3 of the elements in my challenge - air, water, and earth. The landscape is raw edge applique and thread painting. It was inspired by a photo I took of Lake Michigan. The sun was shining on the left side of the picture and that comes across pretty well. I found that the hardest part was stitching all the pieces down. It was a fun project.

Four Elements - Diane

I knew I wanted to do another piece in my "geode" series for this challenge. I decided to interpret the theme in a somewhat abstract way, primarily using color and visual texture to suggest each of the elements, so that each section could fold into a unit representing a single element or be reversed and fold into a unit blending all of the elements. Here is the front, with the elements in distinct sections:


And the back where the elements flow together:


And finally the sections folded into 3-D units. I will probably display them this way, either in a bowl or strung on a single cord.

Fractured Elements

As I was contemplating the Four Elements challenge I remembered a magazine article I read a couple of years ago about fracturing fabric. I located the article and also found a book, Fabulous Fractures by Brenda Esslinger, that described a more detailed, much easier method of completing the fractures. I decided try fracturing photos to represent the four elements.

Four each element I printed 4 copies of the chosen photograph. Earth, air and water were crops of pictures I had taken. The earth photo was from a trip down the Rhine Valley. The air(clouds) and water (glacier) photos were from Jasper National Park. I located the bonfire photo on Wikipedia. It is a photo from FLR002 and can be used with attribution.

After fracturing the pictures I decided to place each picture a compass related to it. I connected the pictures at the corners to show that the elements are connected, but that they also can stand alone.

Gayle