The Green Man

OK, now it's getting very late, sorry, I have been having trouble with my upload speed today. (The joys of the country)
I had lots of ideas for my piece, and you have all seen the back.

Well, I had an idea, one that I have had in my mind for over a year now, and so basically, I just made a collage on top of my little quilt.

It's very dimensional (seen here from the side)

And there are lots of different green fabrics ( stiffened with medium or PVA), then beads and buttons and yarn and thread, and a bit of paint and...nail polish

I don't have much green stuff left!

It's a green man.  Which I thought was a Celtic legend, but apparently it is found in most cultures' history.  You can read about it here.

And here he is looking at you!
As it is now very close to the witching hour over there (it's tea time Mon here), I will just post.
I am so impressed with all the other work, I felt a bit shy putting this one up, lol.  But it's what I wanted to do.
Only one more theme until it's MY turn (I have no idea)

Green...in green...on green!

I initially drew a blank with this one, but I grabbed my pencil and started writing words that suggested "green".  As the list grew an idea started to take shape. Here is the result.

I thought I would print the words out on different green fabrics, but after several failed attempts, gave up that idea.  Besides I had to get packed for my trip to Empty Spools and I would let the idea percolate for a while.  Good thing I chose to wait because a trip to a quilt shop in McMinville, Oregon on the way there provided the perfect fabric to put my idea in motion.

You can see the fabric piece here.   Half the width of the fabric was used for the background, while the other half was used to make the words. 

I felt the piece was a bit "top heavy" so to balance it out I added small embellishments; a leaf that I made from two layers of tulle and some frog buttons.  I would like to add some beads vertically to the left of "fern".  What do you think?

Go Green!

As usual I spent most of the two months time frame given for 'Green', to brainstorm, doodle and sketch out ideas. Then once I made my decision there was no time for turning back or making additional quilts as some members have done! And as usual, no matter how much planning goes into the quilt there is always so much more time needed to make little decisions that crop up unexpectedly. For example, I had made a gradation run of ten greens but only needed five of them ..... how many hours should it take to pick out the five I want to use and the order I want to put them in? Well, finally I made that decision and here is a photo of step one completed.....

 Thankfully I had sketched out umpteen variations of where to place my flowers and had chosen the placement I wanted. So I cut out and stitched on the green tea wrappers.

 Then I added something I hadn't planned for; I decorated my flowers pots. I had planned to make pots from used coffee filters but at the last second I decided to add flower petals and seeds, held in place with tulle and stitching.

 Flower petals came from Tazo's Wild Sweet Orange tea wrappers. I like using Tazo wrappers as they have a waxy backing which irons nicely onto the fabrics, holding it perfectly until I get it stitched.

 Pounding the beer caps flat was not as easy as I thought, but once I ruined a couple I got the hang of it. A few hammer holes made it easy to stitch the caps in place; then some satin stitching around the edge and the addition of fuzzy green yarn (another not planned for addition) to add the feeling of grass or simply some textural interest. I had planned not to do free motion quilting but I missed something in those open areas so played with the idea of writing (Go Green, Live Green, Eat Green) or adding some quilting but finally.....

 I finished my Green quilt with some simple lines of heavy stitching which I felt tied the sections together.

Thanks Lisa for a fun challenge!!!!!! And don't forget, "GO GREEN"!

My little gem and weeping raintrees

Working with green fabrics was an exercise I need to explore more. I can’t say I’m already liking the colour, but I have some favourites in the scala of greens. I was inspired by minerals (gemstones) that my mother collected (jade, emerald, malachite, peridot, calcite, moss agate and serpentine). Gemstones are often composed of flat faced crystals which reflect light to all sides. I sketched some ideas and finally chose for a diamond shape, consisting of four fabrics. All fabric pieces are fused to a background fabric and raw edge appliqued by machine after I basted the little quilt.

My little Gem, 16" square

I used sharply edged quilting in part of the diamonds to illustrate the crystals and finished the quilt with a non-mitred facing.

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But (I hear you think), what happened to the green quilt idea without green fabrics? Well, that one was made very quickly after I heard about the theme.

Living green was on my mind. More and more rainforest is destroyed to meet the demands of the developed world's paper industry. I try to live green in my own little way, but I use colour catchers when I wash my finished quilts. That way I’m also contributing to the (not so necessary) use of paper. Normally I would have thrown the used catchers in the paper wastebin, but I started to collect them with the idea to recycle them one day. 

Raintrees

The used tissues have the most fabulous soft colours and some stay neatly white. I did cut small strips which I stitched together to symbolize the trees of the rainforest that are chopped down. When the top was finished Mr DC said it looked a lot like rain. He didn’t know about my idea behind the quilt, so that was really nice to hear. I quilted straight lines in the middle of all the strips and I loved the simple look and the faded colours and thought that adding anything would ruin that look.

weeping rain trees
made from colourcatchers, 16" square

But the message was not quite clear yet, so I had to add something. I made green water drops with watercolour pencil and Sigma pens. My rain trees are weeping green tears.

It’s always good to try out stuff, but I like the quilt better without the tears. I didn’t finish it with a binding, but just stitched along the edge at 1/8".

I had a lot of fun working from two totally different points of view to make my green quilts. Thanks Lisa, for a fun theme that got me thinking outside the box!

Nicolette

Spring Green

Thanks for a great challenge Lisa! I thought about this one for awhile, but living on the wet west coast of Canada, we're pretty much surrounded by green year round.  Being spring, inspiration and fresh greens abound.  I think green and I think ferns.
I started with these

cut some squares, played with some layouts

did a little applique

and then the fun stuff for me - some thread painting and free motion quilting!

and here's my interpretation of the theme

Spring Green

I'm really happy with how this turned out.  Don't forget to go check out the other Tanglers! 


Happy quilting!
(this post has been scheduled to appear on Sunday, May 27, as I may be otherwise occupied in Halifax and not able to access my computer!)

A New Leaf

While pondering the “green” challenge”, the idea which came to mind repeatedly was leaves. I began by making square blocks of green fabric loosely based on the log cabin pattern. Each block contained at least one fabric with a leaf pattern. Although I liked the direction this was taking, it was not really breaking any new ground. Then I saw a PBS program, Craft in America: Threads, which featured among other artists, Faith Ringgold. One of her works which was based on eight triangles in a rectangle, was inspired by a design used by the Kuba people of the Congo. Miss Ringgold has frequently used variations of this design in her work.

 Incorporating leaves into this geometric pattern became my goal. Gloria Muddle’s technique of painting on fusible web and adhering the painting to fabric described in the February/March 2012 issue of Quilting Arts inspired me to try printing leaves onto fusible web. This method was fun and yielded varying degrees of success. Printing on fusible web instead of directly onto the fabric meant that I was not ruining fabric if the leaf print was unsuccessful.

New Leaf - Challenge 6

Detail

Could it be???

Might I have made two (2) quilts for challenge #6???

hmmm...

I may have....

A little green

With only a small amount of time left before reveal day, I thought now would be a good time to give you a small amount of peeking at what I'm getting ready to reveal.  So here ya go!

That's enough for now.

Cooking up some...

GREEN!!!!!

Nine (9) more days until the big reveal!!!

hand quilting

I thought I would share something green with you.
Here is my first piece of hand quilting,

My stitches are very big, but I think it's OK for my first go.  I used some perle cotton which I had hand-dyed green and the piece is actually medium dark green, although it looks blue here.
Now what has this got to do with the challenge?
Well, it;s green.  But really, this will be the back of my piece, although none of this will be visible from the front at all.
Oh, and yes, it is a bit wrinkly.  I had just handwashed it to remove my guidelines when I took the picture.

Pulling greens

a variety of silks and cottons and velvets so far, with maybe some netting in for good measure

I think I need to add some more.  Have you gotten started yet?

Did someone say green?

Look what I came across while travelling to Asilomar for the Empty Spools seminars.

Yup I'd say that's pretty green.  And so are these....

They were selling them at

more green

Hmm, Green and Brown.  A new fashion trend?  Or just a new TT challenge?  Picture by Billy Lindblom via Flickr creative commons  Just type in GREEN

four leaf clover love

I know I’m too late for St Patrick’s Day, but I love these four leaf clovers.

Umm...

Did I mention that I like green????!!!!

green no 1

photo by Chris Bogle via Flickr Creative commons

Hey! George Washington and I have something in common!

Green is our favorite color!

I have been thinking about my turn as the 'theme selector'(it is a serious role!)
for some time
and...
I have finally decided that the theme for challenge #6 is...

In preparation for this post,
my research has made me realize that green is quite a versatile word!!!!

According to Dictionary.com, the  word, green, can be:

1.  a noun, 'a color intermediate in the spectrum between yellow and blue.'

2.  an adjective, 'not perfectly developed or perfected in growth or condition; fresh, new', 

 or 

3. a verb, 'to restore the vitality of'!

The word, Green, is used in may phrases/idioms/words, such as...

green with envy

green around the gills

greenback

green thumb

(...I could go on all day!!!)

How about a plate of green eggs and ham?!



There is even a city named Green in Ohio! Cool, huh?

There is wonderful website I found while researching my challenge theme

and it has a wealth of information about how the color affects us physically, 

as well as the cultural/religious/political associations of green.
You might find some inspiration there!

Kermit the Frog, long known for his color, confides that it is not easy being green...

Even so,
it has become more popular to "Go Green." It is a term used to describe the process of changing one's lifestyle for the safety and benefit of the environment. According to eHow.com there are 3 changes most people make to "go green." They begin sustainable living, use environmentally friendly (or green) products, and they begin recycling and/or reusing as many products as possible.

As I look at the calendar for May, 

the weekend of May 19th is really, really not a good time for me.

I will be in costume-chair-for-the-spring-dance-performance overdrive!!!

So, in order to maintain my sanity and ensure that I, too, will be done on time,

I am going to give the green light (ha, Icouldn't resist!) for

challenge #6 reveal date to be: May 27th!