Carolyn's Migration

 

I thought of all sorts of things that depict migration, but I finally decided on hummingbirds since they, and Carolina Wrens, are my favorite birds. May and June are the months that hummers make it to our area of North Texas on their journey back North.

 

I first viewed photos of all of the different species of hummers, and found to my delight that they come in a multitude of colors – everything from hot pink to green to purple, variegated and even a deep blue. And so my journey began into the fascinating world of hummingbirds.

Hummers are the smallest of birds. One species, which is only 3 inches long, makes the longest migratory journey of any other bird in the entire world. These tiny birds fly all the way from Alaska to South America on their Winter journey, and then migrate back again the next Spring.

 

My colorful hummingbird is made of various colors of hand-dyed silk fabrics.  The flowers and leaves are from a Kaffe Fassett cotton.  The bird was designed by fusing all of the various colorful components on top of each other one piece at a time with Wonder Under 805. Then all of the components were fused onto a hand-dyed 100% cotton background, and finally stitched with a variety of threads by Ricky Tims and Aurifil.

 

And best of all to my delight, I had my very first hummingbird visit to my feeder today!

 

Kathy's Migration Quilt

                 

                                     [  OK...  I made a slight change to our challenge word.  ]

With all the media coverage about "PEOPLES" from other countries wanting to and trying desperately to escape what's going on in their own countries and seeking asylum in other countries, I decided to morph our challenge word into  "IMIGRATION."

Here in Texas, our Southern Borders are shared with Mexico and Baja California.

And, most definitely, let's not forget our Largest State, ALASKA, that shares a very impressive border with Canada.   If you were at some of the most Northern sections of Alaska (near Prudhoe Bay), you might even be able to see one of our Country's other "Neighbors,"   RUSSIA !

In this "Migration" quilt, one of the images was "borrowed" from the Internet; the other image, "AMERICA," was made on my computer.

Note from Alice:  Kathy took another image of her quilt and asked me to substitute this for her first image.  

Alice's Migration: Flying Geese!

Two ideas occurred to me for this quilt.  One simple, another more complicated.  Waiting until this week to work on my quilt, I thought the simple plan would be most practical.  But alas, simple came out looking simplistic.  Even childish.  So I laid it aside and began working on complicated.

The old traditional Flying Geese quilt block design was my second notion.  But I wanted something more flowing, more swooping, more like how geese actually fly.  Google came to my aid and I came across a tutorial by quilt teacher Gail Graber for constructing flying geese along a curve.  Her step by step instructions were just what I needed.

First I drew the design, using a tool I've had for years but never before used--a flexible and curveable ruler.  Of course it took much trial and error before I came up with a design that I liked.  Once I did, I copied it onto drawing paper.  This was my master.  I then used regular printer paper to trace the design for paper piecing.  

Some years ago at the Houston Festival I bought four or five different half yards of an amazing fabric that has gradations of colors along its width, from dark to light and back to dark.  I used several pieces of this fabric for this quilt.  I knew I wanted my current quilt's background to be blue, so for the flying geese I chose a fabric for the "sky" part of the flying geese that, interestingly, had gradations that moved from yellow to orange to deep red and on to a dark red purple.  I did put in a few pieces of darker violet for the bottom few flying geese.  For the geese themselves, I used a gradation from lightest purple or lavender to dark violet.

When I started the paper piecing, I paired a light goose with the darkest "sky" background, then moved around to a dark goose with the lightest "sky" background.  Once the paper piecing was done (and I had tediously removed all those tiny pieces of paper!!) I decided to use reverse applique to apply the curving flying geese to the quilt's background fabric.  For this I used another piece of that gradation fabric that was primarily blue moving through pink and then purple.  Again, Gail Graber came to the rescue, as the second lesson in her series about making curving flying geese included excellent instructions for the reverse applique process, which I had never done before.  I bound the quilt with the same fabric I used for the quilt's background.  

Links to Graber's instructions:  

https://betteroffthread.com/2013/06/11/paper-piecing-curved-geese-a-tutorial/

https://betteroffthread.com/2013/06/18/reverse-applique-tutorial/

Andrea's Migration quilt

 When Cats Fly

11" x 14"

Raw edge fabric collage.

This quilt is the result of a brief email exchange that I had with Alice Baird and I am so grateful.  I mentioned to her that I was working with the migration definition of "moving from one place to another". My intention was to make something that had to do with my creative 'migration' since our first Material Mavens quilt in 2011. Alice thought of how many times she has actually moved.  This new perspective was my Ah Ha! moment as I moved from one part of town to the other in 2016.  Alice graciously gave me permission to use her 'moving' idea.  Soon after, the vision of a house flying over trees and rooftops emerged.  I wanted to make the house out of one of my favorite Kaffe fabrics using more realistic fabric colors for the background (blue sky, green trees etc.).  The house is rather small and did not showcase Kaffe the way I wanted it to, so decided to try using it as the background.  I then had the challenge of how to make such a bright, large patterned, busy fabric recede.  My original idea for just how the house would 'fly' was to put wings on either side, but as I moved ( migrated! ) with four cats, I thought it would be more fun to put the house on the back of a flying cat!  Now, as I had a flying cat, decided that my trees could be giant tulip-like flowers instead.  After all, this had become completely nonsensical, so why not?

Tricia's Migration

35 years ago when I first moved to Lincoln I noticed a few roads were closed on the first warm rainy night in March for "The Big Night". The Big Night is when the yellow spotted black salamanders and wood frogs cross the roads to get to the vernal ponds. At some point they stopped closing the roads and encouraged people to drive slowly. Not sure how one can really see a black salamander on asphalt at night.

When we downsized a four years ago, we moved to one of the roads that has a salamander and wood frog  crossing. We now go out and walk up and down to road on the first warm and rainy night in March to help the salamanders and wood frogs cross the road before cars come. I wanted to create a quilt with the sign, a salamander and wood frog for our theme Migration.

I took black fabric with highlights and machine quilted it to try to get it to look like asphalt. I photographed the sign and the wood frog and then printed on printed treasures. Unfortunately we did not see a salamander this year. I created the salamander from shinny fabric and fused yellow spots on him.

The Majestic Composite by Randy

I decided to do a background image this time to reflect my definition of the majesty (noun) or the majestic (adjective) nature of our world.  Some years ago my son and I were traveling to Colorado Springs to visit my brother.  He was driving.  We were somewhere between "The Springs" and Pueblo and there is not much to the east but grasslands and flat country.  I looked out the window and saw a pattern of 5 stacked rainbows--left to right.  Yes, I took a photo, but I can't find that image.  It is still somewhere in my collection.  If you will notice the large, first, rainbow, are the colors you all know, top to bottom: red, orange, green, blue, indigo, violet.  Check the outer rainbow.  The colors are reversed.  The red is on the inside and violet on the outside.  That is because the second rainbow is created by sunlight reflecting through raindrops inside the first rainbow--reversing the colors. Enough science; let's talk quilting.  Another majestic creation!

The composite came together mostly by format.

I placed Nedra's striking image in the middle because it was the only vertically oriented quilt.  Nedra, I have a story to share.  Many years ago, while I was teaching biology in Southern Indiana, we were privileged to have 7 students (6 young men and a young woman) attend our school (Vincennes University) from Swaziland, South Africa.  All 7 of them were children of King Sobhuza, but each had a different mother, but that's another story.  All spoke some Swahili and all spoke perfect English.

Alice and Tricia's quilts then tucked nicely on either side because they were perfect squares and each fit a common theme: the majesty of the great outdoors.

Often at looking at an image, a small detail will attract the eye.  I didn't notice until later, but the top row illustrates this point.  I placed Andrea's and Karen's images up top because they were both horizontal rectangles.  However on second and subsequent views, how often have we seen firework displays around tall spheres in the sky?  Also, the Eiffel Tower is a magnificent achievement by man in its setting.  Then notice the white line in Karen's quilt that draws attention in contrast to the white line in the tower, causing you to look again at both images.

Carolyn and Kathy's quilts anchor the composite to say "This Land is OUR Land."  Our land is majestic.  Let's take care of it--please!

What a treat to see your creative work.

Randy

Kathy's "Majestic"

  Kathy's Majestic 

The first thoughts that came to my mind for "Majestic" were some lyrics from my most favorite Patriotic song, "America the Beautiful,"

     "Oh beautiful, for spacious skies,

       For amber waves of grain.

       For purpled mountains "MAJESTY"

       Above the fruited plane.

       AMERICA,  AMERICA, 

       God shed His Grace on Thee,

       And crown Thy good

       With brotherhood.

       From Sea to Shining Sea."

In looking through my Fabric "Stash"  I found this almost as "perfect as could be" piece of Patriotic Fabric.   Although the words to this song are different, the impact they have on me for Patriotism is just about the same.  

Thank you for this amazing opportunity to express ourselves in such a variety of ways.

GOD  BLESS  AMERICA  MY  HOME  SWEET  HOME !

GOD  BLESS  AMERICA, MY HOME  SWEET  HOME  !

Nedra's Majestic - Aziza

Majestic has many meanings including 'of impressive beauty and dignity".  That definition is exemplified by the Masai of Kenya whom I observed on visits there.  I chose to portray a majestic Kenyan woman I named Aziza,  which means stately, grand and beautiful in Swahili.  

I studied many images of African women and found a tile mosaic in the Flickr account of Judit Bozsnar (a Hungarian artist) which she calls Black Princess - Homage a Jacques Leconte.  I assume he is a French artist, although I could not find any info regarding him or his work.  I did find his series of works of beautiful African women in colorful graphic attire on several sites.  I tried to contact Judit for her permisssion to replicate her image in fabric and post a picture of her mosaic, but have not received a reply.  I give credit to Judit  and Jacques for the inspiration for my version of Aziza.  When I  saw Judit's mosaic and Jacques' works I  knew I would portray her using bright graphic Kaffe Fassett and Brandon Mabley fabrics.  And here she is!!!

Brown and orange were chosen to represent the dry African landscape with the lime green and purple for accent and black for contrast.  The piece is fused and machine quilted and bound.  Black beads were used for embellishment.  I loved this theme!! I find the photo the most difficult part of this challenge.  I still have not learned how to take an "square" photo.  

Andrea's Majestic quilt

 

Paris, 1967

14" x 11"

cotton, acrylic paint, organza

My first "Majestic" thoughts were of mountains, which I was not that interested in depicting.  I read many definitions and I'm not if I actually read "something that takes your breathe away", or if that was just my interpretation, so I may be "pushing" the meaning a bit here, but once I got that thought in my head, I couldn't let it go.

My first trip to Europe was in the summer of 1967.  I have seen much that has taken my breathe away, but seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time is still at the top of my list.

We traveled by ship and after 5 days at sea, disembarked in Le Havre, France and took the boat train ( they probably don't exist anymore ) into Paris.  It was dark by the time we arrived.  We found a taxi and after a much puzzled look from the driver as to where we wanted to go, ( we finally wrote down the name of the hotel for him ) we were on our way.  I don't know if anyone else in my family knew that our hotel was just one block from the Eiffel Tower, but I didn't and all of a sudden, there it was!  All golden and glowing.  

I was mesmerized and breathless at the same time.  I really couldn't believe I was actually seeing what I had only seen in books ( and never expected to see in person ).

I do hope  I've done a decent job of representing the view from the backseat of a Parisian taxi, looking up.  At least, that was my intent!

I used gold paint applied with a brush and sponge, in the basic shape of the tower, on black cotton.  Using tracing paper, I drew enough of the structural lines of the tower to make it recognizable and  stitched on top of those lines.  I then spent a very long time picking out all of the tracing paper (unfortunately, I used a heavy weight paper, which did not want to be easily removed ).  After cutting out the tower, I fused and stitched it on to a black background fabric that I splattered with gold and silver paint.  The partially "rolled down window" is organza.

Alice: The Majesty of Birch Trees

 I struggled with this theme at first.  All I could come up with was "purple mountains majesty," but I feared that someone else might use that one.  Good friend Linda Hicks, one of our first but now former Mavens, suggested I look up quotations using the words majesty or majestic.  Then she sent me a batch!  I loved one by American writer Washington Irving that says in part: "There is a serene and settled majesty to woodland scenery. . . "

Knowing that New Englander Irving likely often saw birch trees in woodlands near him, I recalled a length of batik that I treasure that depicts birch trees.  (In fact, I've used this fabric twice before in my MM quilts,  for the themes Translate and Boundary.)  

I assembled a background of sky, hills, and foreground using batiks, cutting them freehand and fusing these onto a muslin base.  I sandwiched this background with batting and backing and lightly quilted it.  Then I applied Steam a Seam 2 to a section of my treasured birch tree batik and cut out seven trees.  These I then adhered to the base; SS2 can be repositioned, which is handy when composing, but ironing makes it permanent.  I touched up the trees with black and white Fabric Fun Pastel Dye Sticks.  

For the fall leaves I assembled small pieces of yellow, orange, and tan batiks and began cutting them into "confetti."  This confetti technique Rita Schormann demonstrated to us at our first MM retreat on Nantucket Island.  These had no fusible product applied, but I did apply some SS2 to a few larger cuts and then I snipped these into tiny pieces and stuck them down one by one to be falling leaves.  The confetti pieces I scattered onto the tree tops and the ground.

To keep the treetops and piled up leaves in place for quilting, I covered the entire quilt with white tulle and then free motion quilted through the tulle at the top and bottom of the quilt.  

Once the quilt was finished, I was in a quandary about what to use for binding.  I auditioned many fabrics; all seemed to be too distracting.  Then I remembered a technique I learned in a class taught by Marcia Stein.  I pieced the side edges using the same fabrics that I used for the background, and for the top and bottom edges I used some of the yellow batik.  At last I was content with my woodland scene quilt!

Carolyn - Majestic Lake Moraine

 Lake Moraine is located in a valley inside Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies. Melting glaciers create the breathtaking azure blue color of the water. The lake is surrounded on all sides by 10 jagged peaks towering over 6,100 feet tall. It is a sight to behold!

My husband and I visited Lake Moraine in 1988 just before the area was "discovered" by attendees of the 1989 Winter Olympics in Calgary. With only 3 or 4 visitors in sight, we rented a row boat. As the sun was beginning to set, we rowed to the far side of the lake where we looked straight up to view the giant peaks. The tops of the mountains were covered in snow, and the water was so pure that we could see the pebbles resting on the lake's bottom.

My quilt is a salute to our visit to Lake Moraine. I used numerous scraps of hand-dyed, batik and cotton fabrics. The technique is raw-edge applique using Wonder Under. To create the water, I used a strip piecing method by Cathy Geier described in her book, "Lovely Landscape Quilts." The peaks are varying shades of hand-dyed fabrics with white tulle added for snow. I used a wide variety of drawing pencils and inks to add shadows to the mountains and to highlight the large stones surrounding the water. The green areas on the quilt represent wooded areas with trees packed closely together. I used a lime green pencil to achieve that effect. The tiny canoe with two people and a paddle were cut from left-over fabric from my stash.

To stitch the water, I used a technique described in Geier's book. For water she advises quilting long horizontal, slightly wavy lines. The lines toward the horizon are quilted very close together which adds depth and distance. The lines gradually get bigger as the water gets closer to the foreground. I used 3 different thread colors for the water.

It is said that Prince Harry upon visiting Lake Moraine for the first time said, "Why travel to Switzerland when you can go to Lake Moraine!" It is my hope that this little quilt will entice you to visit this magnificent treasure.

Tricia's Majestic Snowy Owl on Smith Point

 

Snowy Owl on Smith Point

Several years ago, we spent the winter on Nantucket. I had always seen photos of snowy owls but had never seen on in person. One weekend we went on a hunt to try and find one.   On Saturday we drove out to one end of the island and along the water's edge to the Great Point lighthouse. We did not spot one. What was amazing was how many people we out on the far end of the island in the middle of the winter. I guess that's what one does if you live on an island. On Sunday we decided to go to the other end of the island Smith's Point at dusk. As we were driving back I spotted something on the edge of the dune. We stopped the truck, hopped out and walked as close as I could. I was able to photograph the owl right before it took off. It was so exciting. I thought the Snowy Owl was just Majestic.

I used cotton fabric, fusibles and thread stitching. I printed the owl's body from my photograph on printed treasures and thread painted on top.

Karen's Majestic

 

I had my "majestic" all planned and then the

 inauguration happened and I had to switch my idea. 

Digitally printed flowers create the fireworks. 

They were cut and stitched with smoke monofilament thread. 

May be pretty simple but when I look at it, it reminds me of the 

fabulous fireworks show and makes me happy!

(I am posting for Karen, Tricia)

The Round Table Composite

Our internet connection gets so slow late in the afternoon (kids doing homework and at home playing video games) that, as I worked on this round's composite I was forced to consult an old-fashioned reference source, the World Book Encyclopedia.  Yes, we have a set, purchased for our 7-year old grandson who is an avid reader (and reads at this level).   All I could remember about the Round Table was "One for all, all for one!"  I thought I remembered the words "legendary."  It's a tale at least 1,000 years old.  Therefore, when this round's theme was announced, I suspected we would step back all those years--mostly.  But again your creativity surprised me.

The top row--Jane, Tricia, Kathy--lends a summary touch to our crazy world today.  We are, truly, spiraling out of control and longing for something as simple as a family "sit-down" together, over a good meal, and perhaps at a round table!

The second row is confession time for Randy.  Since I'm not, technically, a quilter, then, technically, I should not be allowed to voice an opinion for #1.  In another life I did present workshops on the use of humor to develop the skill of creativity and that tired old cliche of "think outside the box."  When I saw Judy's quilt, my first reaction was WOW, that's outside the box.  I invented my own prize, an Excalibur Recognition. I really don't mean to slight the rest of you, but Judy's just made me think, "Box, what box?"  Then Nedra's quilt just had to slip next to it to keep us focused.

Alice, if you really stretch your imagination, you can see an angel in that white cloud floating over your Wee Folk King, Queen, and Knight.  Plus what a gift you gave to your grandson to demonstrate what you can do with needle and thread.  I would expect nothing less from an experienced teacher and a loving grandmother!

To close the composite, a graffiti quilt from Gail, a swirl of confusion as to how to cope as we try to sort fact from who knows the truth.  Andrea, I couldn't resist, I put a mask next to your quilt because you so succinctly said "Social Distance."  Unfortunately, that says it all for these days.

Again, hold steady my friends; we will get through this--together!

Jobs well done.

Randy
 

Judy S.: Let's Shake hands at the Round Table

To start with the Round Table I thought of many ways to modernize the Knights of the Round table, but they just didn't flow. One evening at my Camp Gladiator workout I talked to my friend Melinda who is a math teacher. "Is there anything interesting to do with math that would use a Round table?" She thought a minute and said, "There is one where there are 10 people around a table and you have to figure out how many total handshakes there would be if everyone shook each others hands." She continued to tell me that there is a visual where you draw different colored lines for each person and then you just have to count the total lines to get the answer. Oh WOW! I wish she had been my teacher! (Oh and as I was walking away she said, "There is an equation for it too.") Lol

I went online and discovered one where they used the 9 Supreme Court Justices as an example. That seemed appropriate with what was going on at the time. Guess what. Nine is not an even number to make an easy shape, but I got it! The close up shows the different ribbons, yarns and fabric I used to give each one their own color.

 

I basically couch/quilted the ribbons and yarns on. The back is fun to look at too with all the small zig-zag stitching.

Now to find the answer the red ribbon Supreme Court 

Chief Justice shakes 8 hands, Dark Green yarn Justice 7 handshakes, Gold ribbon Justice 6 handshakes, Lavender braided yarn Justice 5 handshakes, Pink ribbon Justice 4 handshakes, Blue ribbon Justice 3 handshakes, Orange fuzzy yarn Justice 2 handshakes, Light Green ribbon Justice 1 handshake and Dark purple Justice already shook everyones hand. So the total is 36 handshakes to go around the table.

 

 Kathy's   "ROUND  TABLE"

I have to admit, when it was time for the "Round Table" Challenge, my very first thought was "Round Table Pizza !" 

[  We lived in Anchorage, AK for 35 years, and believe me...  "Round Table Pizza" was a pretty big deal for us...  Delicious, readily available in just about any combination you'd want,  AND... Free Delivery...  A super great bonus because of our weather and road conditions !  ]

I kept pondering how to put "Round Table" into one of our Quilts, and had, "by chance" recently ordered a book on "Crop Circles" that have intrigued me for many years.    How do they get those truly gigantic circles to be so perfectly "Circular" ?  How do they accomplish the extremely complex designs ?  How do they photograph the Crop Circles ?  So many questions ! 

As you can tell, "Crop Circles" became my theme, and I had a blast making this quilt !

The book, "Crop Circles, the Bones of God" by Michael Glickman has been (and continues to be) an enormous source of inspiration and information about these phenomenal structures.

All the fabrics in this quilt were "Rust Dyed" using old, rusted pieces / parts we continue to find in our pasture; and I have to admit, any time I see an old rusty piece of metal I tend to pick it up and add it to the stash  :-D

This particular Crop Circle, is called the "Angel Formation," and its one of my favorites.   It was "created" in July 2001, and is about 700 feet in diameter !

Andrea's Round Table Quilt

 

 

When Will We Be Reunited?

11" x 14"

cotton, silk screen, stencils, paint

This is a nod to the situation we continue to live with and the social distancing protocol restaurants have to follow.  Chairs have been separated from their tables, with many lined up against nearby walls just waiting to be reunited.  

After many weeks of struggling with this theme, I finally had an "Ah Ha" moment towards the end of September after meeting two friends for lunch.  This was my first restaurant experience since probably February, at a favorite Asian eatery.  Although we intended to eat outside at tables set up in the parking lot, it was a very hot, humid day so we decided to eat inside.  We were brought to an octagonally shaped room with a large round table in the center and smaller rectangular tables around the perimeter.  I suspect they can either seat a larger party at the round table or use every other smaller table for guests to remain 6' apart.

The chairs and chrysanthemum were painted using hand cut freezer paper stencils.  

freezer paper stencil

Jane Hartfield’s Roundtable Quilt

 Spinoff

Lately I have been spinning a bit out of control. COVID has kept me at home which gave me plenty of time to create. That was perfect six months ago. However, as time goes by, I tend to get distracted more easily. At times I feel like I just can’t focus. That means I have quite a few works in progress. Spin-off is one that I finished! It was fun to do and moved smoothly from start to finish.I entered it in Quilt National along with Coming Together. Both were rejected. 

At any rate, when a Roundtable begins to rotate and spin, it can throw off bits and pieces which can form new tables. 

This piece started as a mono print using thickened dyes and a piece of silk. I realized it needed more details and definition.

So I started adding paint using thermofax screens and just sponge brushes.

Next I had to start quilting. I added even more paint after that. I used Lumiere metallic paints to emphasize the spirals spinning off. I finished the quilt with a facing.

Happy Spinning!

Jane Hartfield

Gail’s Round Table Graffiti

 I recently completed a Graffiti Quilting online class with Karlee Porter.  I learned a lot!  Our final was a small graffiti quilt.  This one starts in the center and moves round in a clockwise or counterclockwise manner. Quilting in the round until the space is filled was so much fun that I can’t wait to use it on larger quilts.