Feeling the music

 I get ideas in my head when a new challenge is announced

but most of them never come to fruition.

This theme was no exception!

Perhaps some day I will learn the skill of sketching out my ideas on paper!

As the deadline loomed,

I looked at musical photos, 

musical videos,

 and finally

musical quotes.

While I feel like this may not be the most original idea

I resorted to my love of text to portray this theme....

using some musical black and white fabrics (of course!)

that have been in my stash for a while

along with some of my newer hand dyed fabrics

to create this quilt...

Oddly enough,

while I aimed for the 16" x 20" size suggested by Janet, 

my piece came out to be 18 7/8" x 20 5/8".

(Yes, I usually am odd!)

I think I may try to add some embellishing -

I started playing with some beading in the "i"-

(and if I do, I will post an updated photo!)

but I did manage to finish this one in time 

for our extended deadline.

Leftovers

Although the challenger gave us many wonderful examples of "remnants", my immediate impulse was to use leftover fabrics from other projects. Most quilters and fiber artists have an abundance of remnants in their fabric stash and it is always a challenge to use them in another project or maybe even give them away or toss them. This Tangled Textiles challenge seemed like a good opportunity to use the leftovers in a productive and perhaps creative way.

Many of these fabrics were left over from previous TT challenges. Many were digital prints on fabric, gelatin monoprints, or acrylic monoprints on fabric.

The leftovers were sewn together in strips in no particular order, the strips were joined to form a piece of fabric and then the piece was cut into various widths of approximately 18 inch long strips.

I had seen an interesting fiber art piece on the web which inspired me and for that I needed dark fabric interspersed throughout the strips. So I cut apart strips and inserted dark fabric of assorted colors and sizes and then began to arrange them on my design wall.

I arranged and rearranged for about a week and decided that my original inspiration was not working. I removed most of the dark areas and ended up with the work below. I had intended to make this piece in a rectangular format, however it ended up being square.

Remnants

Remnants

Although I brainstormed many ideas for Remnants, I knew I would go with the literal, having SO many remnants piled high in crates. Inspired by bolts of upholstery fabrics I used a few of my upholstery remnants to create this piece. My sketch to get me going...

 

Initial arrangement of remnants of course was changed many times before stitching.....

The hang-tags were made by fusing used coffee filters on both sides of fusible batting. then tied in place with embroidery thread. Rather than a literal price on each tag I experimented with a few of the stitches on my sewing machine.

Thanks for another fun challenge Brigitte!

remnants, remains and fossils

remnants 

A small remaining quantity of something. A piece of cloth or carpeting left when the greater part has been used or sold.

Synonyms:

remains 1. all that is left after other parts have been taken away, used up, or destroyed 2. a corpse 3. the unpublished writings of a deceased author 4. ancient ruins or fossils picture courtesy from: http://www.geosociety.org/graphics/gv/PikesPeak/03fossilWasp.htm fossils The remains or impression of a prehistoric organism preserved in petrified form or as a mold or cast in rock: ‘sites rich in fossils’. derogatory. An antiquated or stubbornly unchanging person or thing: ‘he can be a cantankerous old fossil at times’. I’ve discovered some amazing inspirational fossil pictures on the internet and this idea may lead to my remnants quilt! Nicolette

Does size really matter?

Apparently it does matter when it comes to Subway's "Footlong"  subs (also known as hoagies, heros, grinders, submarine sandwiches).  Two men in New Jersey are among those who have recently filed suit with Subway because reportedly the "Footlong" subs they purchased are not 12 inches or 1 foot as they are marketed. Rather they are supposedly only 11 inches long!!!!!  

Obviously to these gentleman size really does matter!!!

But why am I telling you about this?

Well, the 9 quilties that I made for round one... 

are all the agreed upon 16 inches x 16 inches. 

Even my first quilt for our second round measures approximately :-)

16 inches x 16 inches

However,
as I begin to play with some ideas
for our next challenge, REMNANTS,
the first idea that came to mind may not work
in the 16"x16" format.

So I am wondering....
did we agree to maintain the same dimensional requirements
for our second round????

Or does size really matter???????

All that remains...

is to tell everyone what the next theme is. 

Hmm…Let me see.  I'd just finished my dinner and desert.  I couldn’t eat it all so this is what was left.

While thinking about our next theme I turned on the TV and started "channel surfing"  There were programs about ancient civilizations;

about the results of war;

about renovating and remodelling;

and a documentary about forest fires.

 

I was starting to see a theme.  Have you guessed it yet?  If I add one or two more pictures like this?

 

 

Does that help?  No….Okay I’ll give you the answer.  The theme this time around is REMNANTS.

Just think, there are remnants of the past, remnants of time, not to mention the remnants pictured above.  So there you have it; our theme for this next round is REMNANTS.  I think because February is such a short month, let’s make our reveal date April 30^th.  I'm really looking forward to seeing how everyone interprets this theme.  Remember...take pictures of your process to share.  And if you run into a road block come back here to share