Kathy's Contrast: Organic / Glamorous

  Wow !  What exciting adventure this has been !    New Theme and a new Format !     I spent quite a bit of time thinking about how I wanted to portray "Contrast" and finally decided that:  #1   I would make no new purchases; I'd only use things I already had in my Studio; and  #2    I would include fabrics that are Organic, fabrics that are Glamorous, and fabrics that would complement the organic and glamorous theme.

The picture below shows the black floral fabric I used for the backing and the binding.  The yellow fabric with the small black "bubble" circles was used as the sub-strate for the "glamorous" fabric that's a sheer olive green / bronze poly blend with beautiful gold 'beads' that were commercially attached.  The 'organic' fabric on the bottom right is fabric that I "rust-dyed" here in Texas, using bits and pieces of rusty-stuff I found in the fields around our home in Texas and when I lived in Anchorage, Alaska. 

Keeping with my organic & glamorous theme, I found pictures of the beautiful flowers in a book that used Art Deco designs from 1938.   I made 'patterns' of the flowers using my "Light Tracer" light box which made tracing the flowers a breeze !     I layered the backing fabric and batting, then used "Misty Fuse" to attach the sub-strate and glamorous fabrics to each other.   After pinning all 4 layers together, I machine appliqued the flowers through all  layers of fabric.    Holo-Shimmer threads by Sulky were used to applique the flowers and to create the stems and leaves of the flowers.  (When using any of the metallic threads, I always use a Metallica needle, and "Sewers Aid" to lubricate the thread which helps make the thread more manageable !)

And then my most favorite part of the process....  the quilting !    Taking my lead from the yellow / black fabric, I free-motion quilted hundreds of "bubbles" around the flowers, being very careful not to hit any of the gold beads with my needle.   Are they bubbles ?  Is it the morning mist ?   Is it the dew and the stars in the twilight hours ?

Since this is an Art Quilt and won't ever see the inside of a washing machine or dryer, I tried something entirely new (to me) for the binding.   I cut the binding strips using a standard rotary cutter for one side of the strips, and a wavy-edge rotary cutter for the other side of the strips. I sewed the "regular cut" side strips to the front /side of the quilt, then turned the wavy-edge sides of each strip to the back of the quilt,   then pressed / ironed them into place using "Heat n Bond Hem" iron-on adhesive.    This same process was used to attach the top and bottom binding strips.  And voila !  my bindings were finished  :-D   

I also used Heat n Bond Hem adhesive to attach the hanging sleeve / label.

   "Contrast" is one of the best quilts I've ever made, and I was thrilled to incorporate so many ideas and processes into this new and exciting format !  

Gail's Contrast Quilt: Venn Circles (and the next theme!)

Venn circles or diagrams were chosen to illustrate the contrast theme.   Venn diagrams are interlocking circles showing the commonality of different or contrasting subjects.  The left subject (circle) is a double nine patch representing the traditional quilt.  The right subject (circle) is a piece of deconstructed linen made by Jane Hartfield which represents art quilts.  The overlapping part has elements of both and perhaps is "modern".  Venn circles can be applied to art,mathematics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science.  Venn diagrams can be very complex and involve multiple interlocking circles.  I have chosen a simplified version made of hand dyed cottons, screen printed and stamped linen, bound with Sari silk ribbon.

I choose "modern" for our next challenge theme!

a close-up view

Jane's Contrast Quilt "Blue and Orange"

Jane Hartfield’s Contrast Quilt

“Blue and Orange”

The word contrast sent my mind spinning! There are so many contrasts in my life that I had to really work on focusing on something I could depict in a quilt. First I thought black and white with just a bit of color, then hand stitched versus machine, then old prints versus hand dyed or painted, then curvy versus straight, hard vs. soft, saturated vs. pastel…The list was endless with so much opportunity for expression.

I finally decided on color and shape. I chose a hand-dyed blue velveteen fabric for the background which I contrasted with a commercial orange upholstery sample which I had over-dyed. I quilted the background with square or rectangular sections accented with silk yarn couched in place. Then I appliquéd circular shapes onto the orange square. It is quilted with circles. The binding is made of raw silk which is fused and stitched in place. I like the contrast of the complementary color scheme and the shapes of circles and squares in a variety of sizes.

 

 

 

Tricia's Contrast - Spring / Fall on Lake Willoughby, Vermont

My husband's family has a house on Lake Willoughby, Vermont.  It is in the Northeast Kingdom.  The view from the house across the lake and into the notch is always amazing! We were recently up there with the fall colors emerging. I thought it would be interesting to show the contrast of the view in the spring with new leaves with how the colors change in the fall .  I took the left side of the notch and made the spring leaves and the right side  created the fall leaves.  It was a natural break between the mountains.  I used fabric, machine stiching and Pental pastel dye sticks to enhance the colors.  In looking at all of our photos of the two seasons I also noticed how much our yellow raft contrasted with the  blue lake so I included the raft.

Carolyn's Garden Contrast

My hobbies are quilting, gardening and playing the dulcimer. I was honored early this year when my niece asked if she could be married in our backyard.  The wedding took place this past June.  She had been a widow for many years, so it was a joyous occasion for the entire family.  I spent all Spring adding flowers of every color to our garden with the help of a gardening friend.  When the word "contrast" was announced, I immediately knew what I wanted to portray in my quilt.

In Dallas, there are two gardening seasons - Spring and Fall.

"Garden Contrast" highlights the beautiful color palette I can still see every day as I look out the window of my studio.  The vivid colors of red, yellow,  gold, purple, lavender, orange, white - and yes, even blue - gaze back at me as I work on my next quilting project.

I used a soft lime green Kaffe hot shot cotton for the background with a band of black and white 100% cotton fabric to simulate my window.  The flowers and leaves are batiks fused with Wonder Under.  I used 50 wt. Presencia thread on the flowers and a contrasting green 50 wt. Aurifil thread for the detail in the leaves.  The centers of the flowers were free-motion stitched using zigzag and circular designs.

Alice's Contrast Quilt--The Spirit Tree

While thinking about my Contrast design, I first thought about using my favorite complementary colors—blue/green and red/orange—since  complements contrast so beautifully. My first quilt was pretty but too simplistic, a green tree against an orange background, and it didn't have any emotional content for me.  

Meanwhile, I read the book THE INVENTION OF WINGS by Sue Monk Kidd.  This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.  Its intricate plot is too complex to summarize here, but it involves the relationship between a young slave girl named Handful, given to the daughter of her owner as a birthday present.  This book is all about the extreme contrast between the lives of slaves and that of their privileged, wealthy owners. Thus I decided to base my quilt on this book.

Handful’s mother told her about an African custom of choosing a tree to be a Spirit Tree, and so she and her mother choose such a tree.  When they steal a spool of red thread from their owners, they begin to wind the thread around their chosen tree, an act symbolizing the rebellion they feel but cannot express openly.  That explains the name of my quilt and why there is red thread embroidered on the tree.

Too, quilts pay an important role in this book.  Handful’s mother frequently makes quilts that symbolize the legend that some of their people are able literally to fly to freedom.  Her favorite colors are black and red.  Thus the background for my Spirit Tree is a mini-quilt of red and black flying geese.  

I felt to give further homage to the book, I needed to include some literal wings.  And so, superimposed over the tree and the flying geese is an image of a goose in flight.  I used a copyright free image, but I agreed to cite the source of the image.* I printed this image onto ExtraOrganza, made by Jacquard.

I fused the green batik tree onto the background with Wonder-Under.  I reinforced this with tiny zigzag stitching.  I hand quilted using Perle cotton threads, black around the flying geese and red for the thread around the tree and around the perimeter of the background. I made this quilt bigger than usual and then attached it onto a 11” x 14” artist’s canvas.  I loved using the new rectangular format!

a close-up of the goose in flight

*PS For some reason, Blogger gave me an error message when I tried to do the link.  So here is the citation:  <ahref="http://www.geekphilosopher.com/GeekPhilosopher.com/photos/photos.aspx" target="_blank">GeekPhilosopher: Instant download of free stock photos, images, backgrounds, and desktop wallpapers. Pictures can be used for personal and commercial web sites.</a>

Nedra's Contrast - Savanna Stripes

When I saw Kate Wilhelm’s photo of a zebra in her calendar of South African images, I knew that was what I wanted to use as my inspiration for contrast.  Despite a very involved process of messages and e-mails I went through to contact Kate (including finding another photographer named Kate Wilhelm and a fiber artist too), I was able to get her permission.

Following the suggestions from many of you Mavens, I tried to use water soluble stabilizer but it was fruitless – it gave me fits as I did not have an embroidery hoop in my transported supplies in Maine and I was not happy with the warped results.  I thank you all for your help, but I started to thread paint the zebra using my own difficult process.   I outlined the copy of the photo with a sharpie and then printed it onto traditional stabilizer ironed to freezer paper and put in the printer.  I began the tedious job of straight stitching to fill in the sections of the zebra in black and white thread because I was too afraid to use free motion stitching as I knew it would twist and distort the shape.  After what seemed like weeks of stitching and diligent pressing to maintain the shape without distortion, I had my zebra “colored” in.  Amazingly with my careful process it was only slightly mishapen.  I then satin stitched it to the background and continued to fill in with free motion stitching for more depth and shading.  White tuille was used on the hind quarter of the zebra to replicate the shading in Kate’s photo.  Hand stitching with white DMC thread contrasts with the fine black lines in the background fabric.  The red print seemed to be the perfect frame for the zebra, but when finished it still seemed to need something.   I hand stitched a bit more with black DMC thread and added a few black beads for a little more contrast.   I hope Kate sees my rendition as she asked for a photo and the link to our website which I’ll give her. 

Here is the website if you’d like to see the photo I used – the zebra is on the November page of the calendar.  

http://www.redbubble.com/people/cinnamongurl/calendars/861345-south-africa-peripheral-vision?p=calendar

 I really enjoyed this theme.  Even though I had originally voted to stick with the 12 x 12 format, I went with the 11 x 14 as it worked better with the design.

Lois' CONTRAST- Noni's Grapes of Piania

My grandfather, my Noni, picked grapes in Tuscany and made his own wine. My grandmother, my Nona, told stories of stomping on the grapes with her friends in her youth. They lived in a stone house that was built around the year 900 that still stands high on a mountain top. Their wine cellar was a tiny space under this ancient family home. Old casks were used to store each year's wine production. My mother was born in this house and the family stories of the fall wine production are a part of my heritage. 

 We recently visited a winery, and  what a contrast. The two story high gleaming stainless steel vats, and the miles of high tech piping all connected to some sort of computerized control system certainly produced great wine, but for me lacked the romance. 

I recently visited a mom and pop farm in PEI Canada, where a small family was making felting equipment , spinning yarns and combing  roving. The wool came from the animals on their farm, just outside the door of their small shop.  Intrigued by their needle felting supplies, I had to give it a go. So with a book, and some of their hand made roving I returned to Atlanta. The contrast between the city of Atlanta and the pastoral Prince Edward Island caused me to think about how differently so many things are made. 

Somehow these contrasts resulted in my making  my first needle felted piece.  combined with of course some thread painting!

Andrea's Contrast Quilt: Autumn In Boston

hand dyed cotton, commercial cotton, screen print, printer,

machine pieced, fused, machine quilted

Initially, I must have jotted down at least 8 different ideas for this theme, as it really captured my imagination.  I then put all ideas aside until September.  I narrowed the list down to one, but before I started to work on it, I had the occasion to email a friend regarding what the weather could be like in Boston in October, as she was planning a short visit.  Due to that email I went in a completely different direction.  ( I'm always amazed when things like that happen! ).

I love the contrast in the fall between red, orange, yellow, and green leaves against a clear bright blue sky, so this is what I have tried to represent.  A maple tree in a neighbors' yard started to change colors sometime in August and the fallen leaves were actually pink and green, which fascinated me.  The color pattern on these leaves reminded me of my snow dyed fabric, so I knew I wanted to "feature" these particular leaves.  I used my printer to make color copies of the leaves on to fabric.  

I also wanted the quilt to include examples of both high and low contrast, which is why I screen printed the building in blue, as close to the background as I could without it disappearing, to represent low contrast, as does the portion of the left leaf that is on top of the strip of pink/orange snow dyed fabric.

I have really enjoyed working on, not only this particular theme, but the new 11 x 14 format as well. 

CONTRAST - Carol B's

This is my rendition of Contrast. I chose the word, then I did what everyone else in this group probably does, just go blank and scratch my head in puzzlement. What am I going to make?

So I played around with the word….black & white is contrasting, so are a lot of other colors, but I wanted to make something totally different and out of the ordinary. I decided to do, my daughter Sarah, who has very light skin and dark hair = CONTRAST.

First I asked permission to use a photo she had which was a gift for a friend - well she is an adult and I didn’t just want to take her photo without permission.

Then I did some photoshop stuff with it, like change it to “posterized” which gives me about six colors to choose from, rather than look at the subject/colors all at once. It broke the tones up so I could see where to make transitions.

Because the original pic was square, I had to get this enlarged somehow, so I used the copier at work and did it in sections. (Since then a friend has given me an enlarger!)

I then outlined the sections and used a black magic marker to divide up the colors, and then numbered them. Luckily for me, I found a person who does fabric dying in all the shades I was looking for (skin tones) at the Mancuso show in August.

The piece is not sewn, but fused, and I framed it as well.  I thought it would look better this way. I did try some sewing, but it was very distracting and I just wasn’t happy with it.

Photo testing for Randy from Alice

I put this post up for Randy, after he had an inquiry about photo sizes on the blog.  Interestingly, these gorgeous flowers were taken in Boston at the home of Linda and Joe Hicks, when Bob and I were there, one of the stops on our recent cruise.  Andrea was also invited to the gourmet luncheon that Linda prepared for us, and she was the one who brought the beautiful flowers!!!  Behind the flowers is one of Linda's striking paintings!  What a nice visit with the Hicks and with Andrea!

Here the photo is with "small" size selected.

This is medium

 This one is large

Displaying the Quilts

This narrow wall is what you see as you walk
out of my quilting studio.  To the
right is the laundry room.  To the left
you can see a portion of the bookshelves
in this hallway where I keep all my quilting books
and magazines, as well as some of my very
favorite novels.

I wrote a previous blog about how I am displaying some of my quilts, but I have added to the display.  I covered two insulation boards with pale yellow flannel--the color of the majority of the walls in our house.  Then I chose my favorite 12 of all of the quilts and pinned them to the boards.  The top board is actually nailed into the wall, but the bottom one has to lean against it. If I nailed it and cleared the baseboard, it would cover the switch plate!

The other six quilts might end up upstairs in the grandchildren's guest bedroom.  All of them are more "kid friendly," and of course not EVERY quilt can be a favorite!

Here are close-ups of the two boards pictured above:

From left to right:  row 1--Strong and Interwoven;
row 2--South and Spiral; row 3, Cell and Canyon

Truth to tell, these six are my top six favorites!
Row 1:  Harmony and Mystery; Row 2:  Comfort and Communication;
and Row 3:  Translation and Friendship

The Friendship Composite

 

I have been out of town since the day after our last Reveal, so I am very late getting this posted!

I always enjoy reading Randy's rationale for why he puts the quilts where he does!  So I thought I would just copy here what he sent to me:

Row one:
Kathy's image just seemed to fit to start off the page--as a nice label.  Barbara's kids then lead us into Andrea's and just a bit of color for a nice transition to all the color below.

Row two:
The eye is hit by that tremendous splash of "Color my world friends" (to steal Jane's words.) We have our grandson this week so Alice's quilt and our favorite flower tugged a smile and a hug (and we've seen that field) (and one of my favorite quilts of Rita's is a sunflower quilt), which leads to  Janet's philosophy, good friends are often opposites--so that row just came together very nicely. 

Row three:
Started off to be the row of people's faces, first and last.   And the middle, you say? You can't read Nedra's description without coming away thinking friendship of a global and personal level, especially "the rings." 

Row four:
Sara's quilt and this row does a magnificent job symbolizing that we all find "the wind under our wings" in different ways.  

Row five:
This row allows me a personal "rant" so please tolerate.  It's short. We have access to so much electronic gadgetry today we are forgetting how to forge long-lasting friendships face-to-face. Carol, Judy, and Carolyn have reminded us how important this is to our well-being.

Thank you all for allowing me to be a part of such a talented, creative group.

Randy 


And thank you, as always Randy, for doing such a super job of putting together our composites.
And how fun it was to read the "whys" of your arrangement!

MAJOR CHANGE!

So sorry, I realized that I posted a word that was too much like one of our other themes (translate)! Must have been due to my shock at having to choose another word so soon :)

So the new word is CONTRAST - hope to see lots of great work in October.
Carol

Kathy's Friendship: "For Good"

The theme of "Friendship" proved to be a very unexpected emotional journey for me.   I looked up friendship in the dictionary, and not finding any of the definitions very inspirational, decided to just ponder the subject for a while.     And then, watching bits and pieces of the Tony Awards on a Sunday evening, I heard the song,  FOR GOOD,  that still brings tears to my eyes.   ("For Good" from the Broadway Play:  "Wicked" in a lyrical conversation between Glinda, the "Good" Witch, and Elphaba, the "Bad" Witch.)

I was able to retrieve that segment of the Tony Awards on our DVR, and took a "video" of it on my iPhone.   I've since played and re-played that 3-1/2 minute iPhone video dozens of times (still brings tears to my eyes !); have Googled the song to get all the lyrics, and finally, paid-for and down-loaded the sheet music from an on-line service called "Music Notes" that I frequently use.

Because of the emotional impact this song has on me, there was no doubt that "For Good" had to be my Friendship theme.   

And, my apologies to Alice, but with this being our last MM reveal for this round, I took the liberty of changing the parameters just a bit.  "For Good" needed more space than the allotted 12" x 12" and so, as my final challenge quilt, I made my quilt into 4 separate 12" x 12" pieces and bound them together as a quilted 'book' that I can read over and over again.      The pictures I've attached don't effectively convey how the 'book' looks in real life, and the lyrics are so important, that I've taken another liberty, and have included them below so you can experience them for yourselves:

FOR GOOD 

I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason,

Bringing something we must learn.

And we are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them,

And we help them in return.

Well, I don't know if I believe that's true,

But I know I'm who I am today because I knew you.

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun,

Like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood,

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you, I have been changed for good.

It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime,

So let me say before we part:

So much of me is made of what I learned from you,

You'll be with me like a handprint on my heart.

And now whatever way our stories end,

I know you have rewritten mine by being my friend.

Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea,

Like a seed dropped by a sky-bird in a distant wood,

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

But because I knew you... Because I knew you...

I have been changed for good.

And just to clear the air,

I ask forgiveness for the things I've done you blame me for.

But then, I guess we know there's blame to share,

And none of it seems to matter any more.

Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun

   (Like a ship blown from its mooring by a wind off the sea,)

Like a stream that meets a boulder half way through the wood,

   (Like a seed dropped by a bird in the wood,)

Who can say if I've been changed for the better?

I do believe, I have been changed for the better.

And .... Because I knew you ....   Because I knew you....

Because I knew you...

I have been changed

     FOR GOOD

Peace and blessings to all the Dear Mavens.   I look forward to our next round of challenges and continuing our extraordinary "Friendships" !

 [I used the 4th page to print out the MM information about this quilt.   Picture not provided.)

Judy S.- Friendship in First Grade

In first grade I became really good friends with a girl named Stephanie. Her dad was in the army and when I found out she was moving away I couldn't believe it. Nobody moved away from our small community.
Mom realized how hard it was for me to lose a friend. She took a plastic bleach bottle and cut a girl out of it. Together at the kitchen table she let me draw her face and hair. I wrote her name on the back of the head so that I wouldn't forget her name. Mom sewed shorts on her and shoes. Then we made clothes that looked like some of the dresses she wore to school. I sewed sequins on her clothes so that she would have shiny buttons.
It's been a lot of years, but you never forget those difficult good byes. Mom did a special thing to help me remember Stephanie and enjoy the friendship we had.

Gail's Friendship Quilt

No greater love than to lay down ones life for a friend.   Based on 1905 painting.  I can't post any details right now.  In ER w Mom.  Possible broken rib from fall.  Hand dyed fabric by Helene Davis of Paducah.  Raw edge appliqué,Setacolor paint, netting overlay, straight line quilting.  All to enhance the dreamlike atmosphere.

Sara's Friendship Quilt

I had a really difficult time approaching this last theme in our series. My mind kept coming up with possibilities. I thought of asking my BFF for her fabric scraps to piece a quilt (because friendship is sharing fabric) but she lives on the other end of town and I did not have time in the schedule to visit her this month. I thought of an image I remembered of the backs of my daughter and her best friend feeding ducks in Houston's Herman park when they were in grade school. Alas the photo is my daughter's album was not the best quality image. I thought of the stuffed lamb ("lambie" ) that the girls used when my family's move meant they would not see each other often - lambie went to live in the other's home every time the girls got together. I learned about lambie after my daughter died when lambie went to live with her friend. I kept cycling back to an image of hands since the touch of a friend's hand is so important. I used that imagery in my comfort quilt (busy hands and the hands of a friend) so I wanted something different. I spent much of a month dithering like that. One of my guilds challenged us to make something inspired by a song. I decided to look up songs about friendship and found Bette Midler's " Wind Beneath my Wings". The song reminds me of happy work days at Compaq computer where Rod Canion would play it at company meetings. It also reminded me of a friendship quote I found "We are all angels with only one wing ... we can fly only embracing each other". Once I quit mentally exploring the concept and settled on one concept the quilt practically made itself - once again I learned that to get anything done I need to create "a box" to keep myself restricted on a direction and then get to work.
Here it is:

I created the feathers using some fabric I painted while working on a class assignment with Katie Pasquini Masopust. I wanted a controlled palette of neutrals so I created them by painting fabric with complementary colors (using mostly dyna-flow paint). I had just the right couple of pieces and found a perfect printed sky fabric in my stash. I quilted the tail feathers using gray cotton and the rest of the piece was quilted with Sulky monofilament thread - all on my domestic sewing machine. I did start this series with the goal of trying out something new with each quilt. This time it is pre-painting fabric and a single fold binding that I learned in June from Gwen Marston.

I really enjoyed this project. Jane,this was a very appropriate finale word.  It was so great to meet so many of the people who created this blog last October and it was wonderful to be forced to create to a deadline (my dithering and re-thinking often takes over actual creating something). I must admit my self-challenge to use a new technique with each quilt was starting to feel restrictive but it was certainly worth pursuing. I look forward to the next new and different round.

Barbara's Friendship Quilt--"Follow Me"

This quilt had to be of my two favorite small people, my grandchildren.  I loved this photo of Jude taking Jozy to school and knew that I would use it in a quilt.

The background is made in the style of English appliqué artist, Janet Bolton, a technique I used before in my Communication quilt.  The background is done first using pieces collaged together mostly raw edge and stitched by hand with Perle Cotton thread.  I have a large collection of fabrics in this color and made this background before I knew what I was going to do with it.  I enlarged the photo, drew their outline, made some artistic changes and additions, fused the silhouette with Wonder Under onto hand dyed fabric and stitched the edges with sewing thread.

It has been fun watching the friendship develop between these siblings ages 4 and 2.

Tricia's Friendship Quilt - Millie and Pearl

This is my grand daughter Pearl and our dog Millie.  I was having a hard time deciding what to create for our friendship quilt.  I had finally decided to use a photograph of our two dogs.  They really care about each other.  Then our son and his family were visiting for a week over the 4th.  I was sitting in the room when Pearl went over and kissed Millie.  I was able to get a quick shot of them.  I decided that was the perfect image I wanted for my friendship quilt.

I had never created a quilt with a person or an animal before.  It help that Pearl's face was in profile.  I am happy with the quilt but would like to take some classes to learn how to thread paint people and animals.  Since I was working at the last minute I had ordered some flesh colored fabric but it has not yet arrived.  I went to the local fabric store and found the flesh fabric.  I think it would have been better to have a little more color.  It was fun and I have a new challenge to work on.  Anyone have a suggestion for a portrait teacher?