Jackie #11 Celtic

I've finally finished a challenge. I enlarged and traced the central motif from Motif celtiques by David Ballade. I sewed around the motif & then painted it with Inktense water colour blocks mixed with Golden GAC 900. I also used Luminere paints. The writing was done with FW Acrylic Ink. The celtic knots on the corners was done with a stamp I had carved.

The words are from a poem by the Breton poet, Anjela Duval. I wrote in the Uncial hand which is a Celtic hand. It's 18"x18". Grandparents came from Brittany, the Celtic part of France. I enjoyed making this.
Jackie in Edmonton

# 9 Jackie Black & White

Black & white challenge

I finally did the black and white challenge. I drew zentangles with a Pigma micron pen. I divided the large square into 4 inch squares, then divided each 4" square into parts and did a different design in each. I used a red micron pen for accents. I then quilted around each section and in the white area. I put red piping around it. If you want to know how to zentangle, check the zentangle websites. They're really relaxing. They can be done on fabric or paper.
This was given to my cousin for a table topper.

Jackie Doll in Edmonton

Delia #11 Celtic

I have just about finished my piece but am posting as I am not sure how I will finish it.

Will I put boarders or burn around it. I will let it sit for a while and then decide.

I machine felted the background with wools and wool fleece. Before putting the applique on.

It is the

Ireland_Ballycrovane_Henge.

I hope someone recognizers it?

Keep stitching

Delia

Marian has set the challenge and it is ANIMALS.
See what we can all come up with.
Delia

I am sorry to say this is the first challenge that I have missed. I do plan on doing it but I have had a terrible time the last 2 months with my Mother so sick. 5 weeks in hospital but at last it seems to be setting down. We have had to move her into a home as she needs 24 hours care now and the hostel just can not do it for her.
I am hoping to do a bit of work on the challenge today. At least I do have the picture I want to work from.
Delia

Margaret #11 Celtic

WOW Margaret has asked me to post her last 3 challenges. I am impressed.

 I have been doing some catchup so the pictures for the black and white and celebration challenges are here as well as the Celtic challenge. I made a quilt for a graduation gift and the school colours happened to fit the challenge, there is more black and red than white but I like it.

 The celebration one is my take on a trip my children took me on last summer to celebrate my birthday when they arranged a fireworks display by the lake we were at.

I call the Celtic collage spirits in the clouds and it reflects some things I have seen in my travels as well as my own feelings about that time in history. Hope you all enjoy them.Margaret

Well done Margaret

Delia

 

Margaret has chosen the below challenge for the next one.
It will be due on the 31st July, Have fun with it.
I come from a Celtic background so my challenge is to create something from the ancient Celtic world
Hope this interests people.
Margaret

Delia #10 Beauty from Ashes

Hi All

This is my Beauty from Ashes and I called him SOOTY.

He is done on a piece of my sun dyed fabric. I think he looks a bit scared and just running out of a fire.

I am still to put on his whiskers and do the edging. I am not sure if I will just bind it or add a black boarder and then do a scroll around the edge.

I will post whatever I decide to do.

Keep stitching

Delia

Julie #10 Beauty From Ashes

It feels good to be on board with a challenge again and with time to actually quilt.
I was surprised to be selected to set the challenge.  Setting the challenge raised the bar for me in making me find time to finish a challenge again.  Thank you for the opportunity.

Here is my submission for "Beauty From Ashes":

This quilt is about 19.5" square.  It will join my rotating "welcome" quilts on my front door.

The story behind my quilt follows.  I have fallen in love with dying fabric.  Yes, it takes a lot of time and energy.  Yes, it is hard to actually cut that fabric after all you've invested in it.  This fall I found what I believed to be the PERFECT project for my hand-dyed fabrics.  It was a mystery quilt for the Carol Doak Yahoo! Group.  Here is the quilt (only a top to date) that I created following her mystery:

This quilt top is actually 42" square.

When you are foundation piecing you cut away a lot of little pieces of fabric.  I just couldn't bear to toss out even a tiny piece that had been trimmed off.  So I saved all those pieces, large and small, in a gallon ziplock bag.  This was my challenge.  What could I do with these "ashes":

I played and played and thought.  I pieced, or crumbed together the four corner blocks.  I liked them, but they just didn't do anything for me.  Then I remembered that I had made all of the blocks per Carol Doak's instructions, but decided I wanted to change the color in one patch on the four corner blocks.  So I remade them.  My original four blocks I decided were more "ashes" from the first project.  Here they are:

As you can tell, these became the center of my "Beauty From Ashes" quilt.  I filled in again from my precious ashes to create setting triangles between the 4 crumb blocks and the center star.   For the border and binding, I went to a small yardage "leftover" from the mystery quilt.  The backing is the only thing not related to the original quilt.

Thank you for allowing me to challenge myself and make be make something of my precious scraps.  Which are now meager, but not exhausted.

Tammy #9 Challange black and white

Sorry, I am a little late with this, been away on vacation.
I wanted to see what would happen if you kept cutting and sewing, cutting and sewing, etc. So I made a string block with only black and whites, cut it and resewed about 6 times, and this is how it turned out. Only thing is it is very thick, but will make a great mug rug or coaster without a liner.

Julie set the challengs as Beauty from Ashes

Beauty from Ashes is what Julie has chosen for the next challenge.
The challenges will be over 3 months from now on.
This one will be due 30th April.
Delia

Mirian #9 Challange Black and While

Marian  has asked me to post her challenge.

I love the palm trees.

I simply drew the very simple palm trees onto black fabric with bondaweb ironed on.........On white fabric I simply stitched a black line for the horizon and some stitching for the water. I then added some black tulle to five the impression of water. This piece only took a few hours to lcomplete.

The second piece was my attempt to make a black and white landscape using just a little red. It didnt turn out great.....but I learnt from it.

NEXT CHALLENGE

Hi Girls
I have asked Julie to set the next challenge.
Delia
I am sorry it is a couple of days late.
Do you agree if we make this challenges 3 months not two?
If so it will be due on the 1st May.
Delia

Delia #9 Challange Black and White

Sorry I am late posting. I just forgot the dates.

 This is my black and white challenge. It is a queen size quilt. I made it with the fat quarters I was given in a black and white swap a few years ago. I added the bit of red to give it life.

I also make this centre with some of the scraps that were over.

This was fun making.

Keep stitching

Delia

Jackie's #8 Challenge Oriental

I'm sorry this is so late. I was in Europe from mid Nov. to the beginning of Dec. & in Mexico in Jan.

It's a wall hanging done with machine embroidery (Kimono Art by M'Liss Rae Hawley). The hanging is done in cotton with a silk border. The thread is Sulky.

Joan Duggan #9 Challenge Black and White

I I call this "The Missing Piece". It is four feet square. The idea came from a bead project I was working on. The beads don't look anything like this - it just evolved. The black outlines are Japanese Kumihimo braids that I made from some thick and thin yarn which gives it an uneven texture. The hand dyed puzzle pieces are all stipple quilted. I like the contrast with the commercial black and white fabric. The shadow outlines aren't exactly what I'd hoped for.

Sue M #9 Challenge Black and White

For once I have finished my challenge on time. I started off thinking of Zentangles and this led to my final design.

It is inspired by one of the pieces my youngest daughter made in her final year of high school.

I've added a picture of the actual statue below. This piece, along with a few others are now residing in our garden. Quite a talking point amongst visitors when the see them for the first time.

I have used a variety of black & white fabrics to create the torso highlighted with black sating stitching.

The quilt measures 19 x 14.5" or 48 x 37 cm

Delia #7 Challenge Celebrate

I know I am late but this is my celebrate challenge. I am celebrating a dream trip that I took a couple of years ago to Canada. I brought this panel in Vancouver and have now put it together. It was not a big panel but I loved it. I did not want a wall hanger. So I cut each picture out and then added fabric strips around them to make it bigger. I now have a quilt I can cuddle up into at night and remember my trip.

It is 52' square.

Keep Stitching

Delia

Delia #8 Challenge Oriental

This is a postcard I made. I used a piece of bamboo for the feet to stand on. I cut the person out of fabric and used ribbon to do the umbrella. Quite simple but effective.
Delia

Next Challange due 31st of Jan. 2012

Hi Girls
Jaon has asked me to post this for her.

I would like to go back to colors. I would like the next challenge to be Black and White and one more color (any or all shades of that color).


(i.e. Black and white and red, or black and white and green)

I would like to take you up on your offer to post to the groups.

Thanks,

Joan

Sue M #8 Challenge The Orient

Sorry to be late revealing my challenge quilt. Life has been conspiring against me this weekend. My photo editing program decided not to work, I had to remove and re-install it.I'm happy with my little quilt, it's a very simple design, I think it may need a bit more quilting though. I'm thinking of adding some reeds or grasses in the bottom left hand corner.
The quilt measures 18.5 x12.5 inches.

Cheryl #8 Challenge Orient

This convergence quilt was made with fat quarters. Being a fabric junkie, I tend to purchase things only to say “What the heck am I going to do with this?” 

Typically you would use 4 different fabrics, but I really loved the Japanese print so in using 2 fat quarters of the same print I was able to keep both the koi and the flowers.

The gray fabric reminded me of stones in a pond. Selecting the 3^rd fabric to not interfere was a bit more difficult. I bought this fabric a long time ago. It’s actually white-on-white, but I was messing around with staining the fabric and soaked it in some red wine. Turns out, it was just the color I was looking for! 

The piece measures 34” x 30”

Margaret #7 Challenge Orient

The wall hanging is called Aspirations2 and the symbols from the top are prosperity,frienship,happiness,longevityand courage.

Margaret

Margaret #6 Challenge Our of Africa

The bag is for the out of Africa challenge. One of the ladies in our quilting group has a niece who does medical voluteer work in Africa and she brought back some fabric for her aunt to make some quilts for fund raisers so some of the fabric in the bag are left overs from that, the fabric had a very different hand to it but interesting to work with.
Margaret

Jackis #7 Challenge Celebrate

I decided to write the word "celebrate". I wrote "celebrate" with black ink and a 1/4" calligraphy pen. Then I traced it on black fabric using a light table and white pencil. Then I did reverse applique with different coloured fabrics underneath. I decorated it with foil, shimmer spray, pieces of glass, & 'jewels'. It's about 12"x12".

I hate to be late but this time I am caught out.

I have to admit I have been away most of the last two monts and have not done the challenge.
In saying that I am away again next week and I will take a machine wiht me and see if I can make it while away. It is my husbands fishing trip so I am hoping I can do some sewing.
I hate to be late and it is not me but this time I am caught out.
Delia

Cheryl #7 Challenge Celebrate

This was a very difficult challenge for me. At first I thought “Celebrate! There are so many things I can do!” it was more like too many things I could do and my mind couldn’t settle on one or how I wanted to represent it. I started off with a very literal translation, which led to a more philosophical translation, but then how to express it? I finally decided I wanted to do something with text. So without divulging the crazy workings of my brain I decided that my challenge would represent that Life is a Celebration, whether moments in time or the journey. I decided upon the journey, which reminded my of one of my favorite quotes, something one of the yoga instructors ends our class with:

Be Aware of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words.
Be Aware of your words, for your words become your actions.
Be Aware of your actions, for your actions become your habits.
Be Aware of your habits, for your habits define your character.
Be Aware of your character, for your character defines your destiny.
                                                                             Author unknown

Since transcendental thinking got me this far, I decided to do something with  the ‘Om’ symbol.

It is reverse appliqué (I think that is what it is called-first time I have done this!) but I like the effect of the ragged edges after washing. I won’t bore you with all of the philosophical references I was making here. I love denim, and if I were a fabric, denim would be a good representation of me. I need to add some beading or bling. A jewelry-making friend is going to take me on a field trip to a bead shop, but I need to decide what I am eventually going to do with this piece. I may distress it a bit more…I was thinking of making a portable carrying tote to take supplies to class, kind of like the needle rolls. Hmmmm......

Bern Challenge #6 Out of Africa

Here finally is the quilt top for my Out of Africa Challenge quilt, The blocks are mostly from a swap I did about ten years ago with my online Southern Cross Quilters group (Scquilters for short). I sent out feature fabric that I had bought in bundles from the Unique Spool quilt shop in the US. These are what I call African tribal fabrics, made in Africa with African themes and bright colours.

My own block that I sent out with the African tribal fabrics is the yellow sunburst block, which is the third block from the left in the second row from the bottom of the quilt. I just love making the sunburst blocks and they are dead easy using paper piecing.

interspersed the pieced blocks with the African tribal prints and some suitable batiks and I am quite happy with how the quilt has turned out. I will say that I got lots of exercise running around the bed in the guest bedroom, constantly swapping the blocks over to make the colour balance work.

I am going to name the quilt " I know a place in Africa: in memory of Karen Blixen (author of the book Out of Africa)" since I loved the book and the film and more importantly Karen's spirit. The book was written in Karen's pseudonym of Isak Dinesen but I preferred to use her real name in the title of the quilt.

Here too is the back of my quilt. I learned from a wonderful fellow Australian quilter, Adina Sullivan, years ago, to try to match the backs of my quilts to the subject/colour of the quilt top. Quilt blocks that did not quite "gel" with the ones in the front were included as well as two prints, one of African women, that I had collected years ago, were used in the back. My friend Dolly is going to quilt the quilt for me on her Happy Jack quilting frame. I don't mind quilting small quilts but this is a queen size bed quilt! Leave such tings to the experts I say!

Sue M #6 Challenge

It has taken some time but my African challenge quilt is finally ready for display.

As you do, I did a google search for Africa and came across the Tinga Tinga drawings and paintings.They are the inspiration for my quilt.

The quilt measures approx 14.5 x 14.5 inches (37 cm square).

Miriam #6 Challenge Out of Africa

Miriam