Kathy's "Whale of a Tail" Tale !

  

OH BOY !     I had a blast with this MM Challenge  :-D

Many of you know I spent 35+ years in Anchorage, Alaska before relocating to Texas 10 years ago.

In Alaska, we were constantly exposed to and aware of the Culture of the "Native Alaskans" that include Eskimo, Tlingit, Haida, Inupiat, and other regional Native Peoples.  

Other well known "peoples" who now inhabit the Great State of Alaska include a very strong presence by the U.S. Military, the United States Government, Explorers, Seekers of Gold, and, of course, all those who are involved in Alaska's other major economic resource often referred to as "Black Gold"  OR  "BIG OIL"  !

Getting back to the Native Culture, of particular interest to me was the Tribal Art associated with the Native Tribes.   Wherever you'd look …  in the Museums, in the buildings that house the Federal, State, and Local Governments, in the Schools, and of course in every gift / tourist shop (!)  you'd be immersed in "Native Art" that's completely saturated with images from Nature.   These images pay homage to the Animal "mascot" for each of the tribes.  [It actually took me quite a while to figure this out !]

When our challenge word "TALE" was presented to us, I reflected back on the Alaska Native Tribal Culture, and chose a "Whale."    More specifically, I chose to present my interpretation of a " 'Whale's Tail' Tale."  

This Challenge Quilt is 11" x 14" and is made of cotton fabrics, and tulle.   The Whale's Tail is appliqued onto the background sea and sky fabrics.   The "Free Motion" quilting represents the gorgeous Alaska sky at sunset, and the ever-moving ocean.    As this Whale dives back into the very deep, and frigidly cold Arctic waters, he churns that water;  his 'splashes' are illuminated by the brilliant sunset that's reflected by the small beads representing water bubbles.

  [YES....  I  MISS  ALASKA !  ]

 

Nedra's Tale - The Tale of Peter Cottontail

When I was a little girl this was one of my favorite books.  I loved looking at the pictures and was always concerned for Peter - the hazards in the garden were quite scary as was Mr. McGregor!!!  I could relate to Peter's antics - wanting to sneak in to eat the fresh vegetables!!  My family had a garden and I did the very same thing with carrots and tomatoes!!  Our garden wasn't so threatening thank goodness!

My goal was to depict some of the pictures in the book in a very playful style.  I had seen some machine quilted work done with black thread machine stitching which gave that feel so I used that technique.  I drew most of the objects myself and used fusible for those.  The cabbage and radishes are fussy cut from commercial fabrics and fused.   Decorative stitches were used for the vegetables in the garden and there is some machine stitching to suggest bushes to border the garden.

This was quite fun to work on though stressful.   We just returned to Savannah for the winter a week ago and I've had to unpack, clean, settle in AND finish this.  I don't work well under pressure and would have liked more time to tweak it.  It's done and I'm pleased with the whimsy of the piece but would work on the garden more.  The rows are a bit wonky and it came out bigger than I envisioned - I wanted a more subtle background.  C'est la vie!!!

Carolyn: Granny's Tale

We made a trip to North Carolina to visit my maternal grandmother when our children were 12 and 6.  A bent-over but jovial farm wife, Granny loved to tell jokes and tales. We took a tape recorder to record her talking to our girls in her colloquial mountain speech.  The girls asked her about school and this is what she said:  

“I grew up in the Appalachian foothills with two sisters and one younger brother.  We were short of money, but we were happy.  We had a one-room schoolhouse right next door to the church house with just one teacher. We walked barefoot along a little path through the forest to get there, and toted our lunch in a tin pail.  Sometimes I didn’t want to go because the woods were dark and I was scart.  I only went through 3^rd grade.” 

My quilt is a tribute to my Granny.  I drew a pattern for the path, grass and woods, and created the background with cotton, silk and hand dyed fabrics from Frieda Anderson and Mickey Lawler. The quilting was done with Ricky Tims Studio Colors thread, which has a nice sheen. The flowers are hand-embroidered with Laura Wasilowski’s hand-dyed thread using her whimsical ideas. I found a picture in a coloring book of a little girl in a bonnet, and used that image to create the barefoot little girl.  When all was finished, I added a tiny bow to her apron that I made with hand-dyed yarn purchased years ago in Houston, along with her small tin pail. I’m sure my Granny never had such fine school clothes, but for my quilt, I wanted her to have only the best!

Alice's TALE Quilt: Who's That Nibbling at My House?

I loved fairy tales as a child.  My favorite tale was Rapunzel, but Hansel and Gretel was a close second.   As a mother, however, I felt uneasy reading this story aloud to my children.  A father who takes his children into the forest and deliberately loses them?  A witch who puts Hansel in a cage and feeds him until he’s plump enough to eat?  This is the stuff of nightmares!  I wonder why the story fascinated me so much as a little girl?  Perhaps it was because the children are so resourceful: Hansel drops bread crumbs, hoping to use them to lead him and Gretel back home, for example. (Too bad the birds ate them.)  And Gretel saves her brother and herself by shoving the witch into her own oven!  I’m told that psychologists explain why children love these sometimes-gruesome fairy tales because in them often children are strong and victorious.  Think of Jack defeating the giant in the Beanstalk story.  So many examples!

I decided to depict this story for my TALE quilt.  I have collected small pieces of wool fabric over the years, and I’m surprised that this is the first time I’ve used them for a MM quilt.  The witch’s cottage was made of gingerbread, so the brown wool was perfect for it.  I depicted Hansel and Gretel as a gingerbread girl and boy.  I had some Christmas fabric that included the peppermint candies used that to decorate the roof and form the stepping stones leading to the house, as well as the candy canes that adorn the door.  Dark blue wool worked well for the background.  I attached the various elements with embroidery floss.  This embroidery was actually the only “quilting” on the quilt.

I also used the candy Christmas fabric for the back of the quilt, and I had some candy-striped fabric that I used for the binding.  TALE was my theme word, and I had the most fun ever making this quilt!