Saturday, August 31, 2024

Tricia's Refraction

Tricia's Refraction of Sankaty Lighthouse 

Even though refraction was my chosen word I struggled with what to create. I must have forgotten what I intended to create. We have a hanging glass star that I photographed with the sun coming thru. I wasn't completely happy with my image but was going to work with it. Then I opened the Nantucket newspaper and saw the photo below by Dan Lion. The caption said "East End Light Show. The beacon of Sankaty Head Lighthouse shines and refracts in the fog Sunday night, creating a strobe-light effect." I thought this is just perfect. I contacted Dan Lion and he was happy for me to use his photo.

My base fabric was cherrywood's hand dyed grey. I used tulle as one or two layers over the white fabric to create the fog. I also painted with a Sharpie paint pen on the edges of the white fabric to soften the edges to help give the image of the glowing fog. 




I have enjoyed being part of this group. Thanks for all the inspiration!




Friday, August 30, 2024

Alice's Refraction: Wine glass with Red Pen  


I confess I had to look up the definition of "refraction" in the dictionary.  Not that that helped me much!  I was still confused about just what this word meant.  My next step was to Google "images that depict refraction."  Aha!  That did help immensely.  I saw a photo of a glass of water with a straw or something similar in the glass.  Suddenly the definition made sense to me.

So I filled a wine glass with water and placed a red pen in the glass.  Then I "posed" this still life on a table with a blank wall behind it and photographed it.   (Wish I'd posed it against something to make the wine glass more obvious!)   This photo was then printed off onto  some cotton fabric which I had adhered to paper with a fusible product.  

I pulled some red and brown fabrics from my stash and cut them into strips and did some fun string piecing.  I then pinned the photo of the wine glass and its red pen and appliqued it to the background.  I bound the little 12" x 12" quilt with more of one of the red fabrics.

So, fellow Mavens, this group that began over a decade ago has come to an end.  Endings are always sad, and I'm sad about this blog's last postings.  It's been for me a mind-stretching experience to come up with little art quilts that depict scores of different themes. How very appropriate that this current theme was one I had to struggle with!  Talk about mind stretching!

 I've met some wonderful fellow quilters from places as different as Massachusetts and Arkansas!  I remember with delight the various times we've gotten together for retreats and reunions.  Once most of us met in Houston during Festival, and then there were the fabulous times we had together in Nantucket and Arkansas.  Thanks again to those of you who made those gatherings happen.  I will miss 'seeing' all of you on the blog!  I plan to be in Houston for just one day in October; I hope to see some of you there!

The steering committee who came up with the idea to start this blog was made up of Judy Steward, Rita Schormann, and myself.  How I miss Rita, who died suddenly and unexpectedly in October of 2022.  I'd like to dedicate this final blog in her memory.  Without exaggeration, Rita was the most talented, meticulous,  and creative quilter I have ever known.  I will always miss her!