The Rock Composite

When we received this challenge, I had two thoughts: Another theme word that is  “all over the place”.   This one is going to provide enough building materials for at least a small little piggy’s house, one that “The big bad wolf can’t blow down.”  As usual, all over the place is my salute to all of you, because the creative artists among this group never disappoint.  I even had a thought of my own, which I have shared in the banner to designate the theme of the collage.

I started with row two: I wanted to put the quilts with “people” together. Yes, I’m taking poetic license by calling Carolyn’s quilt “people,” but it works in context. It’s a beautiful piece, works well with the twins and Sara and Jane’s idea of a “rock” is touching. Personal note, I’m married to a “rock” also.

Row one and a touch of row four: The plants make wonderful cornerstones. The baby in the tree is a heart-warming touch and close enough to Dee’s twins that Alice and Dee can sing Rock-a-bye together. 

The reason for the touch in row four:  I struggled with where to place Gail’s and Teresa’s quilts, even parked them off to the side temporarily until the rest of the rows fell into place. Then, I discovered how neatly they highlight the top and bottom of the collage with those wonderful colors.

Row three: Pure rocks, as simple as that.

Row four: I really liked the effect of the round pebbles and the striations in Jane’s “rock”, which made this row work. The bright colors in Teresa’s geode [one of my favorite gems] provides a wonderful anchor.

About the banner: When the challenge word was announced, I would have guessed someone would choose one of Ansel Adam’s photographs to illustrate. His “rocks” are world famous and really big rocks. You didn’t so I did, please forgive my intrusion.

Ya’ll have done it again – great job.

Randy

P.S.  Once again, I am posting for Randy.  Wow!  He's out-done himself this time, with getting this composite done in record time.  But as he said in his email to me, "What else do you do on a day too cold to work in the shop, outside, and ACE is not on your schedule?"  [Note to Mavens:  Randy works part-time at Ace Hardware in China Spring.  Can you imagine a better sales person that Mr. Randy, who personifies "Do It Yourself" skills?]  Alice

Sara's Rock Quilt

Peter is my rock

I enjoyed this theme because there were so many places to develop it. I remembered that my husband said his name, Peter, as derived from greek, means rock. Peter has been my rock as he has supported me through my most nightmarish experiences. My quilt was produced using thread sketching on some fabric that I had dyed yellow many years ago. I chose yellow since it is one of Peter's favorite colors. This is a very abstracted sketch.

Thread sketch of my rock, Peter

I used this picture which was converted from color to black and white.  

Quilt was based on this image

I actually did the thread sketching twice. The first was done using a tracing on some very old Sulky Solvy stabilizer. I pulled off all the stabilizer I could and then I stuck the piece into cold water. I really liked the thread work on this but unfortunately the ink that I used to trace the image (a Faber-Castell pen that was supposed to be permanent) stained the fabric. I may try to salvage this piece later using dyes (Peter wants me to try tea dying). I tried again by tracing the image onto tracing paper and stitching through the tracing paper with 1 line of stitching. I then removed the tracing paper and went back over the image with more thread. In both cases I used brown rayon thread with a thin polyester bobbin thread. I stitched through a quilt sandwich. I finished the completed piece by quilting with yellow rayon thread on my domestic machine.

Initial thread sketch with staining