OMG

OMG Ladies the challenge pics are wonderful and later today I will post on each one. But all I can say is we are a very talanted group wouldn't you say.
Well I am in and I am so sorry that I worried some of you but I was a little worried myself. See I have fibromyalgia but I don't want to talk about that just enough to say that I had to stay in the hospital for a few days. No pun intended but I was in a tangled mess for a little bit....but feeling much better now. Needless to say that did put a hold on things and my sewing room is not together yet but will get there soon. I am just paceing myself.
Ladies your quilts are just awesome it has just blown me away. I am so glad to be a part of such a talanted group of friends. I have missed you all and tried to get my husband to get in and post for me why I was in the hospital but he does not know a thing about computers and he just could not find his way around. But I have not read everything but I did see where we are going to add our info to the database which is good cause then if we do not hear from someone we could always check on them.
I did see our next challenge is "celebrate" which I think is wonderful and already have an idea for it...but first let me put the last finishing touches on my first challenge and get a pic out to you all. It should not take very long. My husband will help me find the box that says challenge and then I will take it from there.
Just so you all know I am going to take each picture posted as they come up on my screen and then post to you individually but in no certain order cause I feel like I need to catch up now. I also feel a little bummed cause I was not here for the reveal and missed all the excitement but I am not going to dwell on it too long and just be happy that we have begun an extended family. The reason I know that is cause since I have been away I have thought of you all quite a bit and wondered what was going on. Then when I did get the puter up I was in the hospital and well the rest you all know. Yeah I am so proud of all of you your challenges look awesome and I will hurry and get mine out and then we will be complete....
From someone who has missed all of you I will check in later.....

Love & Hugs
Sharon

Round Two

So now that we all have the first challenge under our belts, I guess we are ready for our second.  We have had time to celebrate our first results.   Actually we all have a lot to celebrate.  We can celebrate life; the birth of a child, reaching a goal, surpassing a milestone, a birthday and so much more.  We can celebrate our willingness to encourage each other, celebrate our diversity and best of all celebrate our everyday blessings. 

So have you got the idea yet?  Yes the next theme is "CELEBRATE".  The Oxford dictionary defines the word celebrate this way:

publicly acknowledge (a significant or happy day or event) with a social gathering or enjoyable activity:they were celebrating their wedding anniversary at a swanky restaurant; she celebrated with a glass of champagne; wildlife campaigners celebrated after their victory 

perform (a religious ceremony), in particular officiate at (the Eucharist):  he celebrated holy communion

Honour or praise publicly:  a film celebrating the actor's career

So there you have some thoughts to help you get started.  Let's keep the size the same as the last one, 16 x 16 inches.  Oh yes the reveal date....  Let's make that August 18th.

A simple game



 Well here it is!  Kitty's Kradle!  It took some time to come up with the idea.  I started to think of all the games that are played with technology today and realized that some folks will never know the wonder of games like jacks, marbles, hopscotch, or even a simple game with string.

I had recently taken a class using EQ7.  That's when fate jumped in.  For practice we were to draw the quilting block Cat's Cradle from scratch.  That was it!    I sought out various strings and ribbons I had in my stash and envisioned couching the string over a background of the blocks in such a manner that it was easily recognizable to anyone who had played the game.

I started to play with some of the layouts in EQ7 and realized that a baby block setting would also fit within the theme of games.  Let's face it; didn't we all play with blocks as little ones?  All I had to do was get it to a 16" x 16" size.  Paper piecing help me to complete the small intricate pieces of the blocks.

With the cats fused onto the background fabric it started to take shape for me.  I agonized over the placement of the string but nothing seemed to look right.  I finally decided to couch wool around the outside edge to represent the string.  I also finished the edge; something I had never done before to finish a quilt.

Let me say that I am thrilled to be part of such a creative group of women.  You are encouraging, fun loving and enthusiastic!  I can't wait for our journey to continue!

Voyage of Imagination

Well, it's just after 5 am (Thurs) here and that means it's about lunchtime (Wed) there.  I have been popping in and looking at the quilts coming up during my breaks.  They are all so wonderful and so different.

Unfortunately, since it is the middle of the night, I haven't got a wonderful photo, only one taken with my camera. as DH's big camera wouldn't work for me and he is fast asleep.

This is called "Voyage to Imagination, and is based on a vintage postcard.  I wanted to capture the joy of being a child and simple games that are the best memories.
The sky is felted on satin, the ocean is fused sheers with some stitching,  The rocks are fused sheers using my soldering iron - no cutting there and the rock pool is organza, burned with a heat gun to make it puckery, then beaded.
The children are mostly needleturn applique and have needlepunched silk hair
The doll is polymer clay and the boat is some twigs and a bit of bark.  I made these into a little brooch that clips on.
There is also a fair bit of threadpainting.

Even though I had a lot of problems with this piece and some of it is not how I imagined it, I am pleased with the overall picture.  I had to re applique the little girl's face three times before I felt it was good enough to go on with and there are lots of mistakes - so does that mean I learnt a lot?

I am so glad to be a part of this group and can't wait for the next challenge!
I am so excited by how everyone's work has come out - Cheers, everyone.

Net Play

"Net Play" is my creation for "Games". After spending most of our two month creation time making numerous sketches along the theme of games I settled on my favorite game and sketch. I wanted to try a new technique, new to me, so I used Terri Stegmiller's mosaic technique for my background. (You can see one of Terri's pieces that inspired me over at my blog.)

 I did some measuring and transferred the marks to my background for net placement.

With the background completed it was time to see if those sketches transferred well to fabric. I tried some of my original placements for the balls and spent a LOT of time trying to come up with the right fabrics for the balls, even considered using some wallpaper samples as the colors were right.

After days of playing with fabrics, paper, placements and photos of each one, my husband asked what it was I wanted to convey with this piece. I wanted the viewer to enjoy the visual design of the piece and if they considered the title and the elements of the piece they would see it was about tennis. He suggested I include some court lines but literal placement only added busyness so I decided to use another technique I had been wanting to use. I used three layers of tulle to create a translucent court outline and put it in the area that needed another element of design.

I was happy with the added court but the balls weren't working well. I wanted to create depth and a single path. My two sets of balls created confusion for me. Finally when looking at the photos I'd taken of numerous option, the winner jumped out at me. I had thought I would add quilting or stitching lines to represent the tennis balls but decided against that as I like the idea of balls or bubbles as well as tennis balls moving across the piece. I didn't want literal.

Thanks team for a fun and enjoyable two months with our first challenge. I'm looking forward to our next!

One Step, Two Step- Beverly

 'One Step, Two Step, I Step, You Step'

 I wanted to depict the word 'Games' because it conjured up so many childhood memories for me.  My family played card games, my grandmother would get down on the floor with me and play jacks.  We raced and jumped hurdles in our large back yard.  We played Scrabble and dominoes.  And we played board games, which is the concept I finally chose to work with.

We played Monopoly and Life.  I played Chutes and Ladders and Candyland with my children when they were young.  What you see here is my own invention which my daughter claims looks like something Dr. Seuss would have come up with, hence the name.  I suppose that, given more time, I could have devised some nonsensical rules to play on this board!

I usually like to use my own hand-dyed fabrics, but somehow the bright commercial prints seemed right for this piece.  There is one bit of hand-dye, can you find it?  The background was quilted first, then the 'road' appliqued on.  I wanted the quilting to be a contrast to the curvy lines of the road, but with some variety to add interest.

I have wanted to use buttons in a quilt for a long time, and this was the perfect piece.  I was lucky enough to find a pair of button dice, the final touch.  The 'road' is edged with fusible metallic flat thread, then zig-zagged with monofilament.

Once I settled on a design, I had a lot of fun with this one.  I knew I'd succeeded when my eleven year old granddaughter looked at it for the first time and said, "It's a board game!"

Alphabet Soup!!!!!

My recipe....

starts with a word game for inspiration...

(I looooove word games!)

and then....

1.Mix glue and water, place freezer paper on flat surface (ie floor)

2. Rip up tissue paper

3. Cut up a crossword puzzle book

4. Glue down tissue paper and crossword pieces onto muslin background

5. Create paper cloth (a la Kelli Nina Perkins)

6. Create a grid on freezer paper

7. Lay grid on paper cloth

8. and 9. Use a variety of mixed media (including Lutradur, Transfer

Artist Paper, painted fabric, hand dyed fabric,
diluted fabric paint, rubber stamps,

water soluble crayons, stencils, paintstiks, punches,
paper cloth remnants, painted baby wipes, stitching)...
and create ~1 inch alphabet squares (121 of them)

10. Make a mess!!!!
 11. and 12. Fill up the grid with the letter squares and then adhere with gel medium

13. Remove grid and stitch around all the letters (that takes about 3 hours!!!)

14. and 15. Quilt the words from the Word Search

16. Bind quilt with painted muslin

and then,

you have Alphabet Soup!!!!

Now I'm ready for Round #2!!!!

Ready or Not!

- 99 - 100! Ready or Not, here I come!

I choose the game of Hide and Seek and have used a variety of techniques, including raw edge applique, yarn couching, painting, stamping and free piecing, as well as thread painting and quilting to define the different images.  There are somethings I`d definitely do differently if I were to do it again - it is after all a learning experience, but all in all, I`m very please with how it has turned out!

made good use of a previously woven piece for the background around the fir tree, and thread painted branches on water soluble stabilizer, raw edge applique on stamped leaves in background

I see you!  raw edge applique, thread painting, paint and coloured pencils

This was fun!  bring on the next challenge!

Cheers,

Janet

Who's Who of Tangled Textiles

I am not sure how the idea of a crossword puzzle came to me, it was probably something Beverly wrote in her email describing the challenge. Once I had a format in mind the challenge was how to develop it. I wanted to focus on the group members and their blogs as a way of getting to know the members better.

Once the crossword puzzle questions and answers were constructed I explored several laborious methods of  transferring the puzzle to fabric and decided the most logical idea was to scan the completed puzzle into Photoshop.

The biggest hurdle was printing on fabric. There were problems with color saturation, paper misfeeds and ink smudges.  Perseverance paid off and I finally printed something that was usable.

I used a pillowcase finish for the first time and this technique worked well. All in all, I am pleased with the finished piece. More details are available on my blog.

fifteen-love

on the 15th of June, our first reveal date!

To say that making my first little art quilt using a theme was quite a challenge is the understatement of the year. You all made me feel so welcome in the group and I really achieved my goal thanks to your ecouragement.

I made sketches about throwing marbles, Pétangue, sailing, surfing, labyrinths, pick up sticks, Monopoly, darts, games of the heart, chess and tiddledy wink, but after all these, I decided to go for the game of tennis.



Why? On May 22nd the Grand Slam clay court Tennis Tournament called Roland Gaross started in Paris. I’m a huge fan and always love to watch the matches. One day later I made some sketches. This idea grew on me as I played tennis myself for a very long period of time.



The image was inspired by the pictures they show on TV of the places a tennis player has hit the tennis balls during a game or set, but it also reminded me of the tennis lessons I took, hitting one ball after another to practice.



I used hand dyed fabrics from Africa and one commercial piece. I selected a part of the tenniscourt to create a Mondriaan like, abstract feel. I quilted wavy lines above the baseline, to represent the movements of the players, and I quilted straight lines in the left piece to represent the net. I bound the quilted threads together, to symbolize the broken strings of a tennis racket.



I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out, but taking pictures was almost as challenging as making the quilt. These colours are really hard to photograph!

The quilt represents me well, as I’m kind of a straight forward, what you see is what you get person. I’m not an embellisher, not in my clothing, our home decoration nor in my graphic work. I love minimalism. However... you never know what the next challenge may bring!

Nicolette

just a little tease

More later!

Nicolette

Finished in the nick of time!!

I never thought I'd make it, but I did it.  It's done.  Here is just a little piece.

I tried something new with this one.  You'll have to wait till later today to see the whole thing, though.

Pheeew!

I got it done! 

I don't think this will give anything away!

Until Wednesday!

Getting Close

I have finished the quilting and now have the edge treatment to consider. Yes there were lots of starts and stops and I have many threads to tie.

The quilting is not traditional and I am not using a traditional binding this time so this will be an experiment for me. Of course, the entire project has been an experiment, so the fact that I am not doing a traditional binding should not surprise anyone. With luck, I will be done tomorrow night, but I am keeping my fingers crossed, just in case.

Almost...

Today, I will be sewing the binding on...

and you will see the rest...

 on June 15th!!!

Yikes

Can someone stop the clock!!

Do you see anything you recognize? Will it all come together? YES!!

Six Days to Finish

Will it all come together by the 15th?

Blowing my own horn

I have been featured on Cre8tive Compass magazine by Rebecca Parsons of Artistically Speaking Blog Radio
I often listen to Artistically speaking whilst I am working.  It is a great inspiration to me to hear about other artists.  Also the daily inspiration in the magazine is worth reading, too.

Progress!

I have a sketch, a plan and some fabrics pulled.

Now I just need some time!
 Can you guess what it is???

Sneak Peek

My fabrics are chosen, and I am well on my way!

Moving from Sketches to Fabric

I've finally started into the fabric preparation, collecting, creating stage. I'd love to share the numerous sketches and get your opinions and feedback but that wouldn't be abiding by our reveal day so I'll have to go with my own judgement whether for better or worse and you can let me know where I went wrong at reveal time! It's all a learning process and a fun one too!

Above are some Dyna-flow painted fabrics that may make it into my games quilt and below are some bought fabrics that I am so hoping will work out but if not I'll have a new journal or purse in greys and browns!

Lots to do

OK, time to send a little peek into my piece.

I have put together a materials list for you.

 Medium and heavy weight interfacing and lightweight fusible film.

 Organza (lots and lots especially shiny ones), chiffon, satin, crushed velvet.

 Tulle, Fabric for digital printing, japara, cotton wool.

 cotton fabrics

 lots of templates!!!!!

 Too many samples in my book

 Polymer clay, a piece of bark, some twigs and yarn.

lots of yummy thread.

and beads, beads, beads.

Well, sounds like I have work to do and only ten or eleven days to do it. OMG.  Stop procrastinating.  NOW!

Paper Trial

After having a delightful time with the grandchildren in L.A., it is time to get serious about  progress on the Game challenge.

I have printed a portion of the design on paper and the next step is to print on PFD fabric. Drum roll please!