Sara's Quilt - Pieces of Me    

This challenge put me in mind of a quote from the Hasidic Rebbe, Menachem Mendel of Klotz. He said "There is nothing so whole as a broken heart". Life's traumas have certainly broken me apart and I've put myself together in a new way - not the same as before but hopefully more compassionate, empathetic, patient and  kinder than I was before.

I printed my picture on prepared fabric (EQ printables on an  Epson 3880). I then thread painted the eyes, mouth and hair before applying it to a fabric base and quilting it with monofilament thread

Alice's Quilt: Quilt Block Pieces

 

Two ideas jumped into my head as soon as I heard that Pieces would be our next theme.  I thought of jig saw puzzle pieces and the pieces that make up a quilt block.  Jig saw puzzles had been a great diversion for me during the pandemic lock-down days!  I tried to think of a clever way to compose a quilt using fabric cut into jig saw shapes, but that seemed daunting to me somehow.  So quilt pieces it would be!

First I looked for a quilt block that has squares, rectangles, and triangles.  I used Marsha McCloskey's BLOCK PARTY book, which has been a mainstay in my quilting life.  I quickly honed in on the block called Friendship since it had the requisite shapes I wanted to use.  I decided that I would I would actually construct this quilt block, using scraps from a recent Kaffe Fassett diamond quilt.  The diamonds were bordered with Kaffe's fabrics called Spot and I thought it would be fun to use chiefly those.  I wanted this quilt block to be the backing for my Pieces quilt.  So here's the block:

Setting triangles of two sizes, squares, and rectangles are all here!  

After making the block, I then fused some Wonder Under onto the fabrics I had chosen, and then I cut out the shapes I needed for my design.  After that I played with arranging them into a design that pleased me, and ironed them down.  I backed the quilt front with some batting, and then I appliqued them onto the background with a tiny zig zag stitch.  That became the quilting.  My quilt back was already made, and so the three layers were sandwiched, and then I bound the quilt with more of the green Spot fabric.

Tricia's Jigsaw Pieces Quilt

 I have always loved working on jigsaw puzzles. They are just filled with pieces. I thought it would be fun to try and create a simple jigsaw puzzle quilt. I took the photo this September at a friends summer house in Northern Maine. I just love the sunset colors on the flowers. Here is the photo that I used to start.

I had a friend print the photo onto broadcloth that was prepared for printing. I then downloaded a puzzle pattern. I enlarged the pattern for the photo with just 6 pieces. I stitched the jigsaw pattern on the photo but separated one piece of the puzzle.

CAROLYN'S FABRIC SCRAP PIECES # 1 AND #2

PIECES IN MY MIND

I was playing around with scraps to make these

quirky little quilts.  No pattern for this, I just

set them in place on my design wall, so they have no rhyme or reason.  All Kaffe fabrics except for the tiny hot pink squares and the blue polka dots.

SCRAPPY QUILT #2

Still playing with pieces of scraps, I made                

a second quilt, simply by sewing various pieces 

together until I had a 12 x 12 piece of fabric that

satisfied me. I quilted in the ditch and added 

various designs into some of the pieces.  I was

beginning to free motion circles when all of 

a sudden a part fell off my machine.  So here

are my two yet to be finished little quilts!

 

 

Karen's Pieces Quilt

 Walking the beach, finding pieces of glass...sea glass. 

Simple construction. Fusing small pieces of hand dyed fabric, stitching with monofilament thread. 

Have wanted to experiment with mosaics. This is the beginning!

(Posted by Tricia for Karen)

Nedra's Pieces - Olga's Treasure!!

 

As you can see, I focused on the Spanish coins known as pieces of eight as they were literally cut in pieces and came to be used to make change.  That is how our currency became to be called two bits, four bits, six bits - terms my Dad used for quarters and half dollars.   I chose to focus on repetition of "eights",  and my octopus holding the spoils of treasure came to be.  

Using a coloring book drawing for inspiration, I drew my own octopus and treasure chest on freezer paper and the large shapes were cut out.  A combination of fusing, tuille, and inktense pencils were used to embellish the octopus and chest and to affix them to the background.  Stencils that I drew and cut were used to create the purple "coral" in the background.  The coins are metal buttons stitched to the arms and glued on the inside of the chest.  Plastic "crystals" were used to add to the look of a mass of precious gems in the chest and cystallized glitter also sprinkled on top for the sparkly feel.  Of course Olga had to wear a pearl bracelet as she just loves  bling!!! The blue sea fans were stitched on tuille with wash away stabilizer  and affixed to the piece.  There is a king's crown included in the bounty.  What fun this was to create!!

 

Andrea's Pieces Quilt

 

Bits and Pieces
12" x 12"
Gelatin printed monoprint, silkscreen, stencil, acrylic paint

This quilt is composed of experimental "bits and pieces" of ideas for previous Material Maven quilts.

Some of these ideas were used, others rejected.  The end result is very different from my original idea for this theme.  When going though some of my fabric stash to donate to my guild, I came across a lot of small "orphan" pieces of "what if" experiments.  As the pile grew, I started to put them together in a loose composition and was liking how well they were "playing" together, so thought, why not?  I've added a skinny strip of Kaffe Fassett's "Cloisonne" fabric, which I've also featured in my last two MM quilts.  Not only was it fun trying to incorporate a bit of this particular ( my favorite Kaffe ) fabric, but I think it adds another element  to the composition that was missing.

I am once again so grateful to our MM group for the opportunity to create something that I most likely would not have thought of making.  Although far from one of my favorite MM quilts, is was quite satisfying to put together. 

The Beauty Composite

I haven't read Shakespeare since a required senior high school English class.  I doubt I will soon again.  But it seems appropriate to borrow a well-known line from his writing, "Parting is such sweet sorrow that I shall say good night till it be morrow."

Yes, 'tis my last composite of Round Three, and, sad to say, my last composite for such a talented group of quilters.  I've told Alice that if the group moves on, I'm not going to move on with you.  I have written a church history book that is in the last stages of production, and it's going to demand a great deal of attention, so time marches on.  Parting is such sweet sadness but on to new adventures.

There is no special arrangement this time; they just sort of fell into place, squares, verticals, horizontals, and one dark background--done.

The heart in the sewing machine says it all.  You are doing what you love, what your soul needs.  Keep it up; it is a gift.

The flowers in the background are called fire-wheel or Indian blanket or Sundance or Gaillardia pulchella.  Native to North America.  We have a yard full of them in the late spring.

One last note of farewell.  The tag in the lower right corner is my way of saying other doors are open to new adventures.  Walk through them.  That huge iron art door is on the campus of McLennan Community College at the former Art Center.

Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the Material Mavens.  I've considered it a rich blessing.  

Randy

Judy S. "Sewing Machine Beauty"

 Beauty. I thought a lot about this word. There are so many things that I feel are beautiful, but during my lifetime a sewing machine is one tool that I can say can and has created beauty. Our sewing machines create beauty by making quilts that are used to cuddle up with, to comfort, to delight by having memories sewn into them. They make art that we hang on our walls. They tell a story.

Sometimes our sewing machines make quilts for those less fortunate. A neighbor had a fire at their home and when I gave her a quilt she knew someone cared. That’s what the Linus project does for children when they are given one. The Quilts of Valor project give quilts to veterans who have served our country. So many of them haven’t been thanked and when they drape those quilts over their shoulders it warms their hearts.

The sewing machine also helps us make clothes that we can feel good in or make clothes for our family members. They repair favorite clothes, and alter new clothes so they fit better. We use our machines to make gifts for friends and families.

The sewing machine is a beautiful piece of machinery that creates beauty that you see and feel.

I don’t know what fabric company or designer the sewing machine fabric is made from other than it is a quilters cotton. I only have a fat quarter of it and there is nothing printed on the selvage. If you look closely there is a cute little mouse on the sewing machine.

The background is blue silk and I used a bright pink thread for the quilting. I used one layer of 80% 20% cotton/polyester batting and one layer of wool batting to give more texture to the quilt. To answer the question of how long did it take me to make it, I only put a timer on when I am doing the actual quilting and on this 11” x 14” piece it took me 1 hour and 23 minutes. I do make it a tad bigger especially when I am doing intense quilting because it draws up quite a bit which means I have a few scraps with the quilting on them.

                                        

 

Andrea's Beauty Quilt

The Beauty of Simple Shapes

11"x14"

Fabric paint, freezer paper stencils, hand dyed cotton, 

commercial cotton, screen printed.

inspiration photo

 I took a series of photos of a single peony in one of my favorite Natalie Blake (natalieblakestudios.com) ceramic vases, with the hope that at least one would inspire my Beauty quilt design.  I am a bit obsessed with shadows and I love how they simplify and distort. I have been wanting to make a shadow quilt for 

awhile.  My first photos were of just the vase and peony, but as I moved "my model" around the room at different times of the day, they were casting the most fascinating shadows.  So my focus then shifted from the simple beauty of a classically shaped vase and single blossom to include the shadow.  I am most pleased with the outcome and this might be the beginning of a series of shadow themed quilts.  It was also great fun and very satisfying to build this quilt on my favorite Kaffe Fassett fabric background..

 

"FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH"

                            

                           FOR  THE  BEAUTY  OF  THE  EARTH

                           FOR  THE  GLORY  OF  THE  SKIES.

                           FOR THE  LOVE  WHICH  FROM  OUR  BIRTH

                            OVER  AND  AROUND  US  LIES:

                            LORD  OF  ALL,  TO  YOU  WE  RAISE 

                            THIS  OUR  HYMN  OF  GRATEFUL  PRAISE."

When "BEAUTY"  was given to all of us as this theme,  one of the first things I thought about was the much loved and appropriate hymn,  "For The Beauty of the Earth."  This seems so appropriate considering the many, many months of living in isolation, distanced from each other, and longing for everything to get back to "Normal."

This quilt was constructed using a Google image of our beautiful Mother Earth in the shape of a Heart.   The image has been machine appliqued to the background fabric that might resemble the sky, clouds, sunlight, and shadows.  The background was quilted in what I hope looks to all of you like gentle clouds !

My best thoughts, prayers, and gratitude to our Gracious God for providing all of us with this beautiful planet, our "Mother Earth."

 

Nedra’s Beauty —Angel Trumpet

 I loved this theme but had a very hard time choosing how to represent beauty.  Far too many possibilities!!!!  I finally decided to focus on the beauty of flowers, which some think of as nature’s angels.

My parents were avid gardeners and my mother worked part time as a floral designer.  She often used flowers from her garden to create beautiful bouquets and arrangements for friends and family.  I have inherited her love of flowers and their natural beauty, and a little of her skills.  Some of my favorites are peonies, nasturtiums, hydrangeas, foxgloves, zinnias . . .  ——  the list is long!!!  Another favorite, because of it’s shape and simplicity, is the angel trumpet.  I chose to represent the beauty of nature with a close up of a brightly colored angel on earth!

Limited supplies in my Maine home forced me to use only 2 batiks, one a stripe, and some acrylic paints to create the wonderful shading and texture of the flower.  The flower is fused and machine quilted.  Three trumpet flowers are machine quilted in the background.  I wanted to embellish the flower more but my sewing machine here is a basic Bernina.  I plan to add more definition with stitching when I can use my other machine.

Alice's Beauty: Say it with Flowers

As soon as I learned what this theme was, I thought of all the beautiful blooms featured in the Kaffe Fassett Collective fabrics.  Alas, most of those flowers are hugely out of scale for one of our little quilts.  But I persisted and searched through my scraps and my stash of KF fabrics and eventually found some that would work.  

I adhered Wonder Under to these scraps and fussy-cut many flowers out.  For the background I constructed a crazy quilt type square, using different sections of one of the wonderful ombre fabrics I'd had such fun with for my last quilt.  I then free-hand cut out a vase and began the fun of arranging my bouquet of flowers.  I ironed these down onto the crazy quilt background.  I bound the quilt conventionally with the darker purple.

I laid my quilt aside for many weeks and then brought it with me to Michigan.  Yesterday I had fun embroidering the six sections of the background with a few different embroidery stitches, using Perle cotton I had brought from home.  I failed to bring my handy little embroidery stitch book so I couldn't try as many different stitches as I had planned to use.  And looking now at the photo, I wish I'd used a contrasting thread for the dark purple areas!  Alas, the deadline approached so I had to be content with what I had done!

Jane's American Beauty

 American Beauty

 As I approached the subject Beauty, I thought about Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Art is also in the eye of the beholder. Trying to be a part of the world of beauty by creating art has brought me much pleasure for the past 20 years. Being a part of the Material Mavens group has changed my life in a positive way. Being an American has given me the freedom to pursue happiness. 

I found this piece of fabric in my stash. It started as a commercial fabric, but I transformed it with paint. Even with the paint, it was just lying around. It was one of many experiments I have done on fabrics. With its red white and blue palette, I named it American Beauty. Quilting it gave new emphasis to the stenciled design. I finished it with a traditional binding. I used red thread to bring out the red in the print. 

A

Tricia's Beauty

 

Tricia's Beauty

The word "beauty" can be looked at in many ways. A few weeks ago my youngest daughter was married on the top of a mountain overlooking Lake Willoughby in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. There are so many beauties in the picture. The beauty of marriage, the beauty of the bride and groom, the beauty of the vista, the beauty of the flowers and the beauty of my four children gathered together for this moment. The beauty of all the family and friends that have gathered to celebrate their marriage. I can go on and on!

I created this quilt with a photograph printed onto fabric. The flowers from the wedding were so spectacular I wanted to create flowers for the corners of the quilt. I used Terial Magic on the silk to keep it from fraying. ( This was one of those products that one purchases at a show and never uses it ;) I finally used it). I cut out the petals, sewed them together and added beads for an embellishment. The colors for the wedding were blue and purple. I sewed blue and purple silk ribbons onto the edges for the border.

Karen's Beauty Bella Rosa

 Bella Rosa

The Language of Flowers is a favorite book of mine. Pink roses have lots of wonderful meanings. 

Fuchsia represents appreciation and gratitude. 

Dark pink, expression of thanks, admiration and gratefulness. 

Light pink, happiness and joy. 

My roses are a combo of all. 

Admiration for friends going through difficult times. 

Thankfulness for my family and friends. 

Happiness and joy from the "youngsters" in my family!

Appreciation and gratitude for the life I have. 

BEAUTY

The rose petals were free hand cut from various batiks. Layers and layers of petals that are stitched down approximately 1/2" away from the raw edge. The blossoms were sprayed with diluted Elmer's glue. I rigged them so they would hang upside down to dry. The petals dried stiff and standing up. 

They were originally stitched onto a rectangle for a class sample a number of years ago. 

I cut the blossoms out of the wall hanging, padded the centers with wool batt to create a rounded shape, and stitched just around the outer most petal, close to the inside to leave the edges free. Leaves made from the original background.  I spritzed with water to fluff up after 10 plus years on a shelf. 

Much better than the original. 

Carolyn's Black Beauty

I was born and grew up in El Paso, Texas. When I was a young girl, our Dad bought my brothers and me a Shetland pony. He was a reddish-brown color with spots scattered on his rump, so we named him Strawberry. Although I never had the opportunity to become a real horsewoman, I have always loved and admired horses. Years ago as the sun was setting, my husband and I were traveling in beautiful Wyoming. As we drove along, we were thrilled to see a herd of wild horses running through the meadow. Far ahead was their leader - a beautiful black stallion. He ran parallel with us with complete freedom until we finally passed him. It was one of those once-in- a-lifetime experiences.

 

One of my favorite childhood books was Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. So when this theme for our final Material Maven Challenge was announced, I knew I would have to create a black beauty quilt based on the book and this memorable experience. 

 

I used scraps of hand-dyed cotton by Mickey Lawler for the sky, hand-dyed cotton by an unknown artist in a bold brass for the mountain range, and a hand-dyed lime cotton by Freida Anderson for the meadow. I added batiks for the grasses in front of the mountain range. 

 

I created the scene from memory. I applied Wonder Under to the back of fabrics for the mountains, cut them out free-hand, and applied them one at a time on top of each other to build the distant mountain range, ironing them lightly to a piece of light-weight resist paper as I went along so that they could be removed in one piece and permanently fused. I prepared the batiks the same way. The next step was to fuse the sky, mountain range and grasses directly onto cotton batting. Then I searched the Internet for photos and drawings of horses. I chose one to enhance to use as my pattern. Then the large grassy meadow was fused, cut out and applied to the foreground. 

 

The final step, and the most critical, was creating the horse. I chose a combination of two different black batiks for the horse - a solid for the horse and a patterned black for the mane and tail. These were then carefully fused, cut out and ironed to the meadow. 

The quilting was done with variegated Polyneon thread with Bottom Line bobbin thread. I combined two different embroidery patterns on my Bernina and simple machine quilting to complete the quilt. The back of the quilt and the binding is a batik in traditional southwestern colors.

The Migration Composite

 

I'll admit it up front.  The placement of the quilts on this one, in my vision, has no rhyme nor reason.  Quilters it seems are fond of flying geese!  I decided, again to eliminate the white background on the composite and add a cliche migration--realistic flying geese.  You'll just have to forgive me if it's overdone with the name tags of the same ilk; the colors just make a nice contrast.

Then, as to the placement of your quilts.  I began with Judy because I got tickled at her interpretation of the theme.  It reminded me of Rita's thrill of migrating on shop-hops!  Then I placed quilts in blank spaces where I could still see flying geese in the background.  In other words, a random pattern.

Nedra's Loons, Carolyn's Hummers, and Alice's Geese lead (migrate, if you will) your eye through the design.

Stopping traffic for a salamander?  That's a new one for me.  As a biology major in college, I do appreciate the effort--wonderful!  But flying cats?  I'm still grinning!

Kathy, God Bless America.

Again, another creative Job Well Done!

Randy

Judy S.- Fabric Migration

 

Migration brought to mind the normal thoughts of birds, butterflies and people, but nothing was popping for me and I did one with flying geese in the first year for "South". This one needed to be new and colorful. I realized that the one thing I have experience with is fabric. I made up this game in the 11"x14" format. 

The migration of fabric starts at cute quilt shops, quilt shows and gifts that I receive and give. From there it comes into my house and I wash and dry. Yes, I am a fabric washer because when I was growing up all fabric went into tubs to soak before we cut them out for garments. Preshrinking was a must and for quilts it is to get the extra dyes out. 

The next step is to iron it and get to know the fabric better. You really get to see the fun parts of it and it becomes your friend so that when you put it on your bookshelf, that only holds fabric, you will remember it and know when it is perfect for your quilt.

Now you have a stash of fabric that goes on to the next part of its journey. Cutting it up to make a beautiful quilt. Moving on down the game we chain stitch as many pieces together to make the quilt come together quickly. Once we have our block made we share those little accomplishments with our friends in many ways. Quilt retreats, quilting bees, or online. Then we finally have the fabric in its grandest form, a QUILT! That is a win!

To make this little quilt I went on the hunt for fabric that would show the moves on the game board. The cute characters with the quilt steps all come from a piece of fabric that I had a tiny bit leftover from years ago. It is similar to Lorelie Design fabrics, but I don't believe it was hers. I have such a small amount of it and no selvage to see who the real artist is. If anyone knows I would love to credit her. 

The only pieces that I didn't find printed on fabric were the quilt shop that looks like a cute mushroom to me and the quilt show banner. The bookshelf was a stripe fabric and I found smaller striped fabrics that I cut into little squares to look like fabric. The stripe fabric is all together in the photo. 

The chain stitched blocks and block next to the sewing machine were cut from a piece of Mary Engelbreit fabric that had little quilts on them. Those pieces were just part of a border around the center design. The washer and dryer I made real simple by cutting a circle for the dryer out of the orange circle fabric I had leftover from the word "Translate". It was a fun time of discovery in my quilt stash. I hope you enjoy finding where all the pieces came from in the photo.

Nedra’s Migration -- Loons of True Cove

 John and I became snowbirds 8 years ago when we he retired.  We began "migrating" to Georgia for the winter.  Our summers are spent on a lovely lake in Maine where loons frolic and serenade us nightly with their haunting calls.  Almost 20 of the loons on Lake Cobbessee call our True Cove home.  Losing their gorgeous black and white coloring in October for gray, they begin the journey to the coast for the winter.  Spring comes and with it are the beautiful loon.  An annual loon count is made every summer and includes the number of chicks that hatch.  Gray chicks can be spotted on the backs of the females until they are capable of swimming and fishing on their own. Migration suggested our annual journey as well as the loons.

                         

 My piece is an original block influenced by traditional  bird, geese and swallow blocks.  I choose blues and gray to represent the colors of the water and sky and the baby and migrating loons..   Cotton fabric is machine pieced and machine quilted.  An outline of a migrating loon is stitched in gray in the middle in addition to the straight line quilting.  .