Carolyn's Blues: 3 Bluebirds Singing the Blues AWAY!

When this challenge word was announced, I initially had two thoughts – bluebirds and the song made famous by Marty Robbins in 1955, “Singing the Blues.”  So I thought, why not combine them?  I found drawings of bluebirds in coloring books, but they were all happy looking birds.  I liked them, so I decided my 3 happy bluebirds would be singing the blues AWAY!

I drew, as best I could, 3 birds, attached Wonder Under to a medium blue batik fabric.  Then I penned each drawing to the fabric with pens and cut them out.  Once cut out, I drew faces on each with a Micron Pigma pen.  Then I used fabric pencils and pens to highlight their features. Once I was satisfied, I ironed each bird in place, perching two up in the sky and one on a fused tree branch, an idea I saw in the coloring book.  Then I added a music staff with musical notes flying away.  It reminded me of the happiness I felt years ago each time I heard my now adult daughter, Cammy, happily practicing the flute. 

All of my fabric choices are batiks.  The birds, tree limb and musical staff and notes were fused using Wonder Under.  Instead of 3, there are 4 layers to my quilt.  I fused the front fabric with the design in place onto a layer of batting.  Then I fused the back fabric to a piece of Timtex cut to size.  Finally, all 4 layers were fused together.  

For the machine stitching, I used a selection of Ricky Tims Superior Art Threads to give the quilt some nice sheen. The Timtex acts as a stabilizer which adds to the quality of the machine stitching. With this challenge, I decided to use a technique that I learned in a class with Cindy Needham that she calls " micro quilting." For a contrast with background fabric - a blue polka-dot - I used a Ricky Tims light turquoise thread.  

 In this technique you free-motion quilt varying sizes of circles onto your background fabric.  Once they are done, you go back over the un-quitled areas with teeny tiny stitches in the shape of circles until all the fabric between the circles is completely covered with thread.  Cindy uses this technique in small areas, but silly me, I decided to cover the entire 12x12 in micro quilting.  Although it may not look like it, I spent hours and hours on this technique.  I DO like the effect, but next time I try it, I will definitely stick to smaller areas where I just need a few circles to pop!

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

Dee's Rock

ROCK, A – Bye – Babies

This is the original photo from Alison Aberdeen Photography,
used with her permission. This photo was not staged; Collin
reached out and held Myra's hand when placed beside her.

Someday I will do my other interpretation of ROCK !!!  However, now is the perfect time for the ROCK I have chosen.   On December 9^th, I became the grandmother of twins.  I get to ROCK as much as I want, and some days you might even say it is ‘hard rock’. 

You have seen this technique from me before.  Pen on fabric and transferring an inkjet photo to the inked fabric using Golden thick medium.  I wanted a companion piece to match the one that I had made for their 2 ½ year old sister.

My version of the song:

“Rock a bye babies, in the tree top

When the wind blows the cradle will ROCK.

Gently, gently rocking away. 

Swinging you safely

Throughout the day.

Babies are drowsing, cozy and fair

Mother sits near in her rocking chair

Forward and back, the cradle she swings

But the sleeping babies still hear her sing.

Rock a bye babies, Daddy is near

So is Norah and your Mother

Dear wee little fingers, eyes are shut tight

Now sound asleep – until morning light.”

Big sister helping me make the quilt.

Andrea's Rock quilt

Pebble Beach

ROCKport, Ma.

12" x 12"

silk-screened and hand painted 100% cotton, commercial cotton

Pebble Beach has been a favorite of mine for years.  Not for the sand, but for the ( literally! ) millions of ocean-tumbled rounded rocks.  I have quite a collection of the rocks in various sizes and colors, which range from shades of white, grey, brown, orange and pink. The beach actually has a rather interesting history ( VintageRockport.com ), which I have silkscreened on some of my rocks for texture.  I had a number of ideas for this theme, but kept coming back to this beach that has fascinated me for so long.

The quilt was inspired by this photo that I took when doing my "research"!

Millions of rocks!

Carolyn's Rock: Goddess of the Garden

Added Detail

My inspiration for this quilt is a cast stone garden sculpture that was given to me by my husband for a very special anniversary.  It is a reproduction of a sculpture by Frank Lloyd Wright named “Nacoma”.  This Native American name means “Great Spirit” or “The Wise and Loving Woman”.  Nacoma stands with a young girl by her side and a babe wrapped in a blanket on her back.  The mother and young girl hold American Indian pots. 

For me, the sculpture has been and continues to be the Goddess of my garden.  First, in my beautiful garden in my Dallas home, and now at the entrance to my new patio home.

My first step in creating this quilt was to make a photo of the sculpture.  Then I digitally photo transferred it onto fabric. I added shading and detail to the transfer with fabric pencils.  The transfer was fused onto a commercial hand-dyed cotton fabric for the background.  Free-cut leaves and flowers were added to the design using batik fabrics.  To give the quilt a spiritual and peaceful feeling, I covered the entire piece with two layers of a very soft pink tulle.  

Original Photo

I added additional detail to the sculpture by machine quilting it with gray threads in light and dark Aurifil. Then I used variegated rayon thread to quilt the background. The large leaves were quilted with pink Aurifil thread and the flowers in the grass were quilted with using Ricky Tims Art Studio Thread in a periwinkle blue.   Now, my Garden Goddess is visible both inside and outside of my home.

Kathy's Rock Quilt: "Rock Garden"

Rock Garden

So ......   How much FUN was this new challenge !  I had a blast 'creating' this one-of-a-kind "Rock Garden !" 

I was inspired by the "Rock Art !" book I bought so the Grand Babies and I could paint rocks while they were visiting us during the Thanksgiving holidays.   Well...  that project didn't happen, but the book is filled with inspirational art rocks including the picture of the "Rock Garden !"

The hand-dyed ("Rust-Dyed") background fabric was made using already-rusted objects I found in the field across the street from our house.   It seemed just right to simulate a desert-kind of background.  [As an aside, quilting through the dense areas of rust is challenging....  the rust marks really are "rusted metal," and the sewing machine needle(s) didn't particularly care for the "metal-to-metal" challenge !]

The Free-Motion quilting pattern is called "Pebbles."   A "Rock Garden" with Pebbles  seemed to be a perfect combination, and using a 40 wt. Madeira Rayon thread with lots of different colored 'speckles' gives the quilt a "desert" kind of look.

All the pieces for this Rock Garden were "Fussy Cut" from fabrics I have in my stash.  What a joy it was to create this little 12" x 12" garden !