Quilt Challenge - Macro

The latest challenge for the group Art Quilts Around the World was the word "Macro" from which we were to create a small quilt. The member who put forth this challenge referenced "macro" as close up photography, which gave it a new meaning for me as I always thought of macro as a little mini-program that is written within a piece of software that is used to perform some function.

With the idea of close-up photography, I had two thoughts run through my head, both of which centered around my sweet puppy Leo. At the time that the challenge was set, I was in the process of getting him tested to try and determine why he continues to have upper respiratory problems and one of the things that the vets recommended was that he had some issue with the cilia in his lungs. I did a Google search for photos of cilia and found a number that could have been translated into a quilt:

I opted against these because 1. I imagined having to get a feather boa involved and not sure that would really represent the direction that I want to take my art and 2. these photos are more of microscopic photography and didn't really fall into the meaning of macro photography.  

So, I opted to go with my second thought, which was to take a close up picture of my sweet Leo's nose and go from there. The only problem is getting him to sit still so that I can actually get a good picture of him because every time I pull out the camera he is nosing right into it and sniffing. I ended up taking this picture of him:

and zooming in to get the section of the nose that I wanted to focus on:

and ended up creating this quilt:

You will notice, perhaps, that the image is reversed on the quilt from the picture. That would be because I'm still trying to figure out how to make all of that work right, but I'm getting there. I really enjoyed doing this quilt and I have introduced myself to the joys of thread painting, or at least my version of thread painting. Every one of these challenges is making me a better artist as they force me to move well beyond the comfort of squares and triangles that I use in my normal bed quilting world. I still have a long way to go, but I'm loving every step of the journey.

And just for good measure, here is a shot of Leo watching over my studio while I work:

 

Road Less Traveled



This month for Art Quilts Around the World (AQAW), we were challenged with coming up with a quilt that represented "The Road Less Traveled". Here is what I came up with:

When we were first given the challenge topic, I immediately knew that I wanted to do a Mariner's Compass and I was originally going to add some song lyrics that reflect traveling on a road (e.g., Long and Winding Road, On the Road Again, Highway to Hell, etc.). However, I attended a retreat at my church to kickoff a nine month small group that I am facilitating that discusses our spiritual journey. As part of that, we discussed a Rumi poem:

Come, come, whoever you are
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving
It does not matter
Ours is not a caravan of despair
Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times
Come, yet again, come. 

After reading and discussing this poem, I decided that I wanted to include those words on my quilt.

I really enjoyed this topic. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and for the most part, I think I achieved it. It is far from perfect, but I'm happy with the outcome. I was challenged to find a simple Mariner's Compass that would fit on the size that we work with, and as you can see, I didn't quite make it, however, I'm okay with that as I like the look of how two of the points are chopped off allowing for the idea that it goes beyond the page (I tried to back the compass and thought of having two points extend beyond the actual quilt, but it didn't turn out the way that I imagined, and I ended up removing the backing and going with this). I also hadn't intended to go with a black and white and sepia quilt, but when I started pulling fabrics, this is just what I saw...sort of like an ancient map. Getting the actual compass onto the backing...well that was a challenge. I ended up using my go to material (Wonder Under), but it wasn't as neat as I wanted it to be especially when working with all the added seams on the back of the compass. I'm also not overly thrilled with my wording on the quilt. I used the alphabet that comes with my machine and while I really like the idea, the execution isn't to my liking....for one thing, I didn't put in lines first on which to follow and therefore the text isn't spaced well and it went all wonky. Lastly, I don't like to bind quilts, primarily because I'm lazy and which is why I have a number of quilts sitting in my studio sitting there finished except for the binding. But, I really don't like binding quilts this size because I worry that it can overwhelm the quilt, however, for some reason I felt strongly that this one required a binding, a stopping point, and I'm happy with the final look.

All in all, I'm very happy with how this one turned out. I learned quite a bit about myself in working with this one, so yay me!! 

Art Quilt Challenge - Opposites Attract

I was a little challenged with this theme as I wasn't really certain what I wanted to do. As I look through the pictures that I downloaded to use as inspiration, I see a lot of Yin/Yang in various colors. I have black and white hands holding. I have images of good and evil struggling. My first plan was to do a fire and ice Yin/Yang.

However, one evening I was standing outside with the dog as he did his final checking of the house and yard for bedtime. While he is performing his duties, I try to find the moon and acknowledge its beauty in the sky. This evening, the moon was just a tiny sliver and I stood there and watched it. It suddenly dawned on me that the moon would not be visible if it were not for the sun as the light of the moon is just the reflection from the sun and the reason it was a sliver on this evening was because the Earth was casting her shadow. And that is when I decided that I wanted to show these two bodies.

Here is my Opposites Attract quilt:

I wanted something that would express both the warmth and glow of the sun as well as the dark of the night...but that is a lot to try and express in a small quilt. I used the remains of some strip sets that I put together for a previous quilt for the warm tones and added some blues. I then attempted to do a bargello for the background. The part that I am happiest with is my actual quilting. I'm not a very good machine quilter, yet. I have a tendency to get really nervous when I'm quilting and get stuck not knowing what I want to do or where to go next. Therefore, with this quilt, I drew my pattern out on paper and pinned it to the quilt and then just traced the pattern with the needle. It still isn't perfect, but I'm happy with it.

I am participating in a quilt challenge from Art Quilts Around the World and today I reveal my latest work.

When we were given the challenge of "Out of Asia", I had no idea what I was going to do. Soon there after, though, I was sitting listening to a speaker talk about spring and the trees blossoming, which made me think of a trip that I had made to Washington, D.C. for the Cherry Blossom Festival, and I immediately sketched out what I wanted to do.

I originally planned to figure out how to make origami fabric cherry blossoms, but after a couple of attempts I decided that it just wasn't for me. This got me discouraged and I started thinking about other things that would be considered "out of Asia". I thought about doing a rendition of a Buddha, as I am also learning some about Buddhism and meditation. I thought at one point as I looked at the oil seeping out of the wrecked Arizona at Pearl Harbor that I would do some abstract play on the idea of the oil slick and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but I quickly set that idea aside as my previous quilt had been oil-slick-esque. I then started doing some research on Japanese beetles and thought doing a big beetle would be an interesting take.

Sadly, time was passing and I still hadn't made up my mind what exactly I was going to do. That is until one day as I was walking through the halls of the office building where I work and I came upon a picture of a cherry tree in full bloom with Mount Fuji in the background. Now, I have passed this picture hundreds of times, so I'm sure the image was planted somewhere in by subconscious, but when I saw it this time I knew that it was meant to be....whether I did origami cherry blossoms or not.

Therefore, here is my abstract of Mount Fuji with Cherry Blossoms:

I broke down and used silk flowers and a hot glue gun, but I still like the effect.

And, now on to the next challenge....I really need to just stick with my first thought as I seem to keep going back to what pops into my head when we first get the challenge.

Quilts Challenge - Carnival

So, I finished the second challenge from Art Quilts Around the World. This time the challenge word was "Carnival". When I first thought about 'carnival', I thought of Carnival in Rio or Venice or even Mardi Gras. I had my first thought for a design and then decided that I needed to do a little more thinking. So, I did an image search for Carnival and found a number of different pictures of masks and parades that I thought I would try and use. Here are some of the examples:

I then started thinking about other types of carnivals and came onto traveling carnivals, carnies, and carnival games:

So, carnival games led me to think about the movie Big and the traveling carnival that the family went to at the beginning of the movie and thought that I would do a Zoltar quilt...but then thought about other freaks and geeks associated with carnivals:

But, then I ended up just going back to my original thought... A wilted feather in a puddle of oil at the end of the carnival parade....


Full Quilt with Mardi Gras bead sewn into the border.



Close up of the feather and the quilting

What I learned from this challenge is that I really want to work more on my quilting. I've done long arm quilting in the past on much larger pieces and that was so much easier than working on a smaller piece and controlling it all. The other thing I have learned is that I'm not a big fan of doing hand work. I had to hand sew the beads around the edge and I do not have the hand-eye coordination to thread a needle.

Portrait Quilt Reveal

Today is the day that I get to reveal my portrait quilt that I've been working on as the challenge for Art Quilts Around the World. So Here is the big reveal....

This is the front. I took a silhouette of my face and then retraced it smaller a couple of times. I then overlaid them using tulle to get the see-through effect.

This is the back. As you can see, the outline of the silhouettes show through on the back. I then looked into what my name meant by going to Kabalarians.com and did some investigating. That investigation was very enlightening and I took what that provided me and wrote out on the back what my name means and other details as to who I am. I really enjoyed learning about my name's meaning and what the next chapter of my life is meant to represent.

Here is a couple of close-ups of the writing on the back. I used a rubber stamp and fabric ink as well as various colors of Sharpie pens.

Here is a little bit closer on the mesh silhouettes.

I learned a lot while working on this quilt, not only about myself but with some of the materials that I used. I want to do more with writing on my quilts in the future, but the fabric that I use needs to be a tighter weave. I also have determined that wonder-under does not work well with tulle....I'll need to figure out a different way  to adhere it if I use it again in the future.

This was a great challenge and I really enjoyed it and definitely looking forward to the next art quilt that I create. 

Picture Challenge - January 7

I am working on a Self Portrait challenge as part of the on-line quilt group that I've joined, Art Quilts Around the World. The final reveal is on January 31st, but this is a snippet of what I've done thus far. 

New Challenge for ABBA

My Mom (Creative Crone) was recently invited to join an international on line quilting group called Art Quilts Around the World.

Well, when I replied to the group's blog about how excited I was for my mom and that I'd like to join, as well, I just haven't had a lot of experience at art quilts, one of the members reached out to me and invited me to join the group as well....even as a beginning art quilter.

So, my new challenge is that I will be taking on their challenges and stepping into making art quilts. I've very excited.... it will certainly be new for me. The first challenge is to create a self portrait. Hmmm, what to do....