The 12 by 12 Project

2012-01-25T07:59:00.001-07:00

I was so inspired by this groups work when I saw it at the HMQS show last spring. And imagine my delight when I talked to Sylvia at Annual Meeting and she let me join. When she asked me for my word it was November and bounty seemed fitting. I had fun sketching out ideas and settled on this one. I had the FARM FRESH part made for a couple of months before I buckled down and finished the rest of it up this last weekend.

It was tons of fun to make. I now have the list of words down by my sewing machine and plan on getting more of these fun little quilts done soon. Thanks for letting me join in your fun.

Quilting Flotsam

2012-01-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've seen many beautiful art pieces with circles lately and love the look and wanted to duplicate it in some way. I collected discarded bits of fabric and threads (flotsam) from the floor of my quilting studio and made them into circles and glued them onto a quilted 12x12. Sewing the circles down made them flat and I really wanted them to stand out so I resorted to fabric Mod Podge. I used a blue hand dye to give an oceany feel and hoped the circles looked like they were floating flotsam.

Once upon a time. . .

2011-08-31T22:57:00.004-06:00

Once upon a time Kasha, a very beautiful fairy princess, was flying through the forest when she saw a very small little creature inching it's way along the forest floor. She sat on a tree branch and watched the chubby little creature crawl a very short distance. "Why don't you open your wings and fly little one?" The little creature didn't seem to hear her and continued to crawl. Kasha flew down to the forest floor and knelt down. She gently raised the little creature up to her face. "Why don't you open your wings and fly?"

"I can't fly your highness, I don't have wings. I must crawl and spend all the days of my life under this tree."

Princess Kasha smiled and her eyes twinkled as she giggled, "Of course you have wings. Don't you know that all the King's creatures can fly? Open your wings and fly!"

"I . . . I . . . have wings? I can fly?"

"Yes you can! Just open your wings!"

The little creature looked around at his tiny little body looking for his wings. If the Fairy King's daughter said he had wings then certainly they must be here somewhere, he reasoned. He began to feel tingly all over and a bit itchy on his back. Before he knew what happened his little body morphed into a glorious creature with wings. He stretched and waved his wings at the Fairy Princess while doing a little dance on her fingers. He could barely believe it was possible that he might be able to fly across the forest and see his King. Princess Kasha raised her arm and exclaimed, "Fly!" And he flew!

Fairy Princess Kasha the butterfly morphing fairy (or would it be caterpillar morphing fairy?) created in photoshop and printed onto fabric using TAP (Transfer Artist Paper) and then embellished with acrylic inks and organza. See my blog for the before photo.

The Future is Inside You

2011-08-26T23:32:00.000-06:00

"You are the only one who can change your future"

Dr. Seuss

The young lady is filled with drawings and words of her dreams and hopes for the future. She is stepping forward into the cold world of her future but is prepared and willing to bring about her future.

The background was a batik to which I lightly added some quotes about the future using Citrasolv. I also transferred the word "Future" with Citrasolv and then painted over it with black Setacolor to enhance it.

The Road to a New Home

2011-08-18T13:44:00.000-06:00

My home for the first 21 years of life revolved around the city of Chicago and all that entailed: family, friends, the Chicago Cubs, Chicagofest, Hot dogs wrapped up with fries, Italian Beef Sandwiches, Lake Perch, heat & humidity.

After becoming engaged the road was leading to California.

We had plans of stopping in Salt Lake City to marry in the temple and continue on to Southern California, however the world had other plans for us when the car broke down in Iowa.

We spent 5 days in a hotel waiting for the car to be repaired. We pondered how we were like the pioneers of old breaking down and having troubles across the plains. Once the car was repaired we continued on our journey, slipping and sliding across I-80 in the biggest storm of the decade. When we finally arrived in Salt Lake we had $5 in our pockets and were thankful for friends who took us in and helped us find work and eventually our own apartment. We have tried to find work and move to California many times but things have never worked out for us. It seems the road home will always lead to Salt Lake City.

Be the Change

2011-08-18T10:49:00.000-06:00

I'm starting to catch up!

Trying to change my procrastination. ;)

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world"

Ghandi

Tsukineko inks on cotton printed fabric.

Hey Hey Cubbies!

2011-08-17T23:24:00.002-06:00

One of my favorite memories of growing up in Chicago is going to see Cub's games with my mom and sister so I naturally had to make a quilt about the Cub's when Baseball was chosen as our word.

I chose to find baseball cards of players I fondly remember from my youth such as Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Fergie Jenkins, and Ryne Sandberg. I then printed the cards onto muslin treated with BubbleJet 2000 and laid them out as if they were on my desk being admired. And the fabric on the back is yet another beautiful Cubs fabric.

FUTURE

2011-07-12T14:23:00.002-06:00

I heard this quote from Glenn Beck and thought it was very appropriate for today's youth. It is true that those we associate with determines what our future will be and who we will become.

It is pieced, rubber stamped and embellished. I used a magazine picture of high school graduates to convey my message.

Change Occurs

2011-06-05T16:43:00.002-06:00

CHANGE-

We often find change occurs in our lives.
This was a piece of muslin that sat in my compost pile last summer for about 6 weeks. It was smelly and gooey, (and so was I), but had a lot of potential. When this word was chosen I pulled out my now dried fabric, pressed it, used black misty fuse, rubber stamped the words on it, added feathers, bark, and big stitches. The holes that were in the fabric, caused by critters in the compost pile, were accentuated with the misty fuse, and stitched around with those big stitches. There is depth in the piece, and residual compost tag "alongs".

Isn't it great?

HMQS 2011

2011-05-05T14:46:00.000-06:00

As usual, we start with the sorting of quilts on a clean surface.

And then the mounting of the 12 x 12's begins. . .

and continues. . .

and continues.

A rear view of the 12 x 12's.

And a front view of the completed display.

Here are the individual groups (in no particular order):

We also decided to hang the quilts

from the last 2 Telephone Challenges.

2009 Challenge

2010 Challenge

I hope you are able to go see the quilts in person because these photos do them no justice whatsoever!

Green With Envy

2011-05-04T08:31:00.003-06:00

For the word green I wanted to do a felting project. I like to use words in my quilts when I can and Envy just came to my mind.
I machine felting the background with felt, silk, yarns, organza, cotton, dyed batting, and dyed cheese cloth. I then took Lutradur and painted it and cut the letters out. They are tacked on so they are not completely flush with the background. I took another piece of Lutratur also painted and cut out a square, burned the edges and put it behind the E. I then quilted it along the lines of yarns and fabrics. I added sparkly beads and stones. I think it turned out nice. I like the touch the burned square adds.

One Tenacious Kitty

2011-05-04T08:12:00.006-06:00

When the word tenacious was picked I immediately thought of my Kitty Love. She is my constant companion and cannot ever really be deterred from getting into everything. She especially loves to accompany me in my sewing room. She is a very sly thief!

I wanted to try thread painting after seeing it done in a Quilting Arts video. I printed a picture of Kitty on cotton poplin and cut it out applique style. I decided a "paint by number" type situation would be the way to go my first time. I then began to paint over the picture with tons of thread. The picture when it printed on the fabric didnt show all of the shadowing etc very well, so I still had to refer to the original photo constantly to get the shading and everything just right. I painted her eyes with acrylic paint, I added a collar made from a ribbon scrap an a free hanging name tag, and quilted the background simply by following the patten on the fabric. Even though I double stabilized it with iron on tear away, it still buckled a small bit. I think it turned out super good, I was really quite proud of my first thread painting. Next time Iwill do it exactly as the Quilting Arts video shows without a print underneath.

Prairie Fire

2011-04-24T13:25:00.002-06:00

One unofficial nickname for Illinois is the Prairie State. My older daughter Colleen attended Knox College in Galesburg, and the school’s team is called the Prairie Fire. Collen’s comeback would always be "how cool is that?". Cool indeed. One of the Knox professors, Penny Gold is a quilter, and she has organized the making of a couple fundraising quilt projects, and I have contributed. The last one was this design that uses the Knox Prairie Fire logo as inspiration. My daughter loved the prescribed prairie burns she participated in during her environmental studies; my husband designed the van Gogh-esq swirl. I made 3 blocks in this design in three different color ways for the Knox quilt. And Penny kept all 3 … so I had to make a 4th for this project. Decided to add prairie points because I’ve always wanted to try that out and thought they might complement the fire. It works for me.

Tenacity

2011-04-24T13:22:00.001-06:00

I had too many ideas about what to create for this one.

Wanted to keep it simple because I’d been in a bit of a funk and not sewing at all.

Was really just going to do a weed growing out of the driveway.

Maybe just use duct tape for the driveway?

A tenacious cockroach, maybe?

A cockroach surviving a nuclear blast?

Or my daughter surviving – hanging on with life support in intensive care.

Or not hanging on when she fell 100 feet in the first place.

Enough already.

Then we saw the NOVA program where David Pogue at The NY Times says spider silk is the strongest substance around.

There we go.

Spider silk; not rope.

Spider; not cockroach.

I pieced a quasi-spider web from scraps.

Attached a Halloween spider ring on with tenacious old Velcro. Made a duct-tape rock for a tenacious weed to grow out of.

Backed it all with everyone’s favorite tenacious fabric: denim.

Attached sticks so I could attach that fun Halloween spider-webby stuff to. Voila!

Road to Monument Valley

2011-04-24T13:09:00.002-06:00

I took this picture of my husband last summer when we were driving into Monument Valley in the early morning. For as many times as we’ve been to canyon country in Utah, I’ve never been to Monument Valley. Of course, I’ve never been to the Grand Canyon, either. No matter. I loved Monument Valley more than I imagined. We took 4,000 pictures on that trip. But this is a favorite of mine. When "Road" because our next word, I had no problem deciding what to create. But I’m not big on interpreting photographs with fabric. Especially people. That’s new for me. A real experiment. And the result is just as flat as I expected. I really did a terrible, sloppy job making this quilt. No matter; I’m glad I did it. I did that snippet–net overlay technique for the sage brush, then realized I also needed the netting over the actual road so the morning shadow fabric would be visible. Marsh likes the fact that I used old pumpkin fabric to make the red rock formations. A quilter has to do what she has to do.

Catching Up.....?

2011-04-22T13:39:00.000-06:00

I've been trying to play "catch up" after being so far behind in making these little quilts! Still only halfway there, but here are two that are finished and one almost finished. First is "green", titled Simply Green, because of the words on one of the fabrics is Simplify. The back is a fabric with the recycle symbols and a green world.

Next is Tenacity. This was a difficult word for me because there were just too many ideas and interpretations. So, I chose that "tenacious leaf" just won't let go, no matter what Mother Nature dishes out. The background is one of my hand dyes, the branches are twisted fabric strips, and the leaf was free motion stitched with thread.....lots of thread. What you can't see is what I used as a base to stitch on (besides several layers of Solvy stabilizers). Kaye had some dried corn silk from last summer that retained its color. So, I stitched all over the corn silk because I wanted a bit of yellow as well as a more opaque leaf. I left the strips from the tree branches hanging to represent the roots of the tree.

The next one is my interpretation of the word "road". After several months of looking at pictures of roads, I saw a photo of a "road runner". For this one I used water color pencils to blend the sky and add detail to the bird. I'm still adding stitches to the background, so it is not quite finished, but the end is in sight!

Baseball

2011-03-18T17:59:00.000-06:00

Batter Up!

2011-03-18T17:56:00.002-06:00

BASEBALL has been the toughest of all the words that I have had to so so far in this 12 x 12 challenge. When I heard the word, nothing came to mind, so I searched the internet. Thank goodness for Google, saved yet again. I copied the picture, enlarged it, and then picked fabrics for the circles, which are sheer, and the background, which is my hand painted. I enlarged each of the baseball players, making them appear as shadows of the first player. Quilting and zig zaging the edges finished this little quilt.

Tenacity

2011-01-12T17:16:00.004-07:00

What a GREAT word tenacity is. When I was still in high school my father used the word tenacity all the time when he was talking to me. He told me to persevere and to stick to my commitments, get the job done, and stop procrastinating all the time. Complete the task you start, and follow through because the job won't get any easier if you wait. I have generally followed this advice throughout my adult life. I decided to take the word and break it apart and illustrate each part of the word. Therefore, you have the number 10, in a cart, being pulled by a donkey, or ass, standing in front of the city. I cut the pieces out of wool and used my needle felting machine to adhere each piece to the background. I then machine, as well as hand quilting to complete the piece. Tenacity, "stick-to'a-ness" is what I did.

Slick Rock Thunderstorm

2011-01-12T16:56:00.004-07:00

The word ROAD is represented in this little quilt that makes me think of heavy rains over the red rocks of Southern Utah. The lighting flashes and the thunder rolls and the clouds part letting the rain spill across the landscape of slick rock country, leaving a glistening glow on everything the rain touches. Last summer when it was warm and dry, I dyed multiple colors of fusible web. If you have never tried it, do so; it's a blast. I then decided to build a picture out of the painted fusible. It comes off the paper backing easily, and you can tear it into any shape that you desire. I placed it on my hand dyed background and started building layer upon layer until the picture emerged. The more I layered the more fun it was. The only thing you need to remember is to use a teflon pressing sheet to protect your ironing surfaces. When the word ROAD was chosen for November, I decided to make the road going into the desert landscape in my picture. Again, I used fusible and added organza for the road. Machine quilting completes the Slickrock Thunder Storm vista.

Prairie

2010-12-22T14:30:00.004-07:00

I had been wanting to try machine embroidery and the prairie dogs seemed as good a chance as any. I got a copyright free picture, traced it onto stabilizer and hit the pedal, literally. Again, as with any new technique, it had its problems but since I could just go over with more thread, my mistakes were covered. It was a lot of fun and helped me get out of my perfection mode.

Kathy

Where the Buffalo Roam

2010-11-03T11:36:00.000-06:00

Buffaloes were one of the first things that came to mind when I heard the word "prairie." I think of the hundreds of thousands of American Bison that used to roam across America's prairie's and how we over hunted them and are just now working to raise the numbers of buffalo across the country.

My quilt is a reversed appliqued buffalo silhouette on a free form pieced prairie.

Gulf Oil Spill

2010-11-02T15:03:00.004-06:00

Do you remember those Matinees that we all attended as children on a nice Saturday afternoon? The headlines were boldly placed on the movie screen as they declared the state of our world in a bigger than life manner. This is what I thought of when I heard the word Matinee. The Gulf Oil Spill is bigger than life news, and the pictures of the Pelicans sitting in the vast oil spill is enough to tug at your heart strings. To watch the story unfold every night on the 6 P.M. news made my soul cry. I just could picture those words flashing across the movie screen declaring the state of our world on that fateful day, April 20, 2010. When, are we as a people going to learn that the world is vulnerable and we are stewards of it? It is up to us to care for that which the Lord gave us.

I did a photo transfer and then machine quilted it in grey threads. Using Setacolor paints I highlighted the eye of the Pelican and some on the wings. I hope the solomeness of the picture will speak to our hearts.

In the Likeness of Green

2010-11-02T14:56:00.003-06:00

I took a class from Libby Liehman this spring, and discovered the circle atttachment for the Bernina machine. I decided that I would use it to make my "Green" quilt. After piecing the background in different green fabrics, I used multiple green threads to make different size circles.

Prairie Grass

2010-11-02T14:41:00.006-06:00

The images of the prairie with the grasses swaying in the wind is what I wanted to capture in this little quilt. I selected a piece of my hand dyed fabric, and placed grasses from my yard in a pleasing manner, and used dried corn silk at the base. I put some bird feathers to replicate a pea hen in hiding. Over the top of this I used tulle, and machine quilted the entire quilt. I thought the grasses would fall apart when quilted, but so far it hasn't. I used sissel twine for the edge treatment. I achieved what I was trying to do, and am happy with the results. This entire quilt reminds me of my trip last summer to the Badlands and South Dakota.

2010-10-08T15:18:00.003-06:00

It took me awhile, but my "matinee" quilt is finished. I had the idea nearly right from the start. My junior HS friend & I would go to the matinees at the local theater quite often. One week we saw "Le Mans" starring Steve McQueen & was hooked on auto racing. Specifically, IndyCar racing with a little bit of F1 thrown in. I've had 7 yards of this IndyCar fabric for a long time, not knowing what I would use it for (it's hard to find anything but stock cars). Ah Steve, gone too soon.

Colorado Prairie

2010-09-08T16:59:00.002-06:00

Colorado Prairie. I dyed the piece of fabric at the dye party in July. My free motion quilting still needs a lot more practice, but I am trying.

A Bad Movie

2010-08-20T23:02:00.000-06:00

This is my matinee quilt gone bad. I had planned to hand stitch "film" on it, but my hands have been hurting a lot lately. Soooo...like a dope, I used the sewing machine - my nemesis! - and I will just deal with it later. So, for now, this is it! The End!

Matinee

2010-08-20T22:49:00.000-06:00

My first thought of the word Matinee was the marquee outside the theaters of my childhood.

There were several theaters with the name of the theater in large letters that would light up at night.

I pondered how fancy to get with the building as well as the scaffolding that held up the sign and which angle. I concluded that simpler is usually better and

I decided I wanted the sign to look like I was standing on the street looking up just before participating in one of my favorite activities with my Mom and Sister.

2010-07-27T19:34:00.006-06:00

well it has taken me way too long to get these three done - Winter has been done for a bit.. my word BTW- Green is a leaf all done in Photoshop.. took a picture of ferns used a cookie cutter shape of a fern and there you go.. and the Chaos finished it today - it has a name.. There is no Black and White in Chaos..

Matinee

2010-07-26T16:39:00.005-06:00

Matinee had me scratching my head. Do I go literal? So I took my inspiration from "One Blue Tulip" after I realized that my private matinee had been the nest building, egg laying and hatching of robins in my backyard evergreen tree. Every morning, every afternoon, I checked on them. I was anxious when it snowed in SLC so late in May but they all hatched and went their merry way. The quilt was from a class I took at Quilt Fest a couple years ago by Jeanna Kimball. I love the English method of applique and hope to use it more. What is this bird, who knows. But I got to practice free motion quilting, some embroidery with the machine and was very glad to have something for this word.

Joni Blue

2010-07-21T19:59:00.005-06:00

My first thought upon hearing the word "blue" was Joni Mitchell's album cover for "Blue." I wasn't sure I could do it but came pretty close to what I envisioned.

Ken's Green

2010-07-21T19:49:00.005-06:00

My husband loves to golf, so this is my "green." Added a sand trap for him, too!

Trash Heap

2010-07-21T19:42:00.003-06:00

I saved the threads and fabric scraps out of my sewing room wastebasket for this one. It was fun to do and, once again, I learned how to use something new - Solvy!

Green is Done!

2010-07-09T13:57:00.004-06:00

I've included a pic of the label, so you can see where I'm coming from with this idea. The song kept running through my head when I was thinking of this word. Yay for tree & rose fabric!!

Matinee

2010-07-05T20:12:00.007-06:00

My husband has always wanted me to make a pineapple quilt.

I can’t decide what color family he would like – we don’t agree on color. But I like black and white anything. I hate it when people feel the need to ‘put a touch of red’ in a black and white quilt – to liven it up. Ick. Anyway, I remembered seeing an old Fons & Porter show about a simple, no-paper-piecing method of making pineapple blocks. I thought this would be a good opportunity to experiment with this method because I think a single pineapple block looks like a big old movie reel or those old test patterns from the ‘50s and ‘60s on TV screens in the middle of the night. Again, I have tons of black and white fabric; the Fons & Porters method was fun, but I messed up measurements at some point, because it didn’t end up being symmetrical. No matter; it’s just a test. It’s fine for this purpose. I found the little Guatemalan dolls from an old broken pin, and figured they would make an appropriate embellishment. But they needed a red curtain for their stage.

Ta dah!

A Matinee with a Manatee

2010-07-02T16:58:00.007-06:00

I have to admit, this one was a little tricky. I looked up the definition hoping to find a new angle, but there was none.

This is hand dyed fabric appliqued, then machine quilted. I forgot how much I suck at applique, but like I promised--it was real sewing this time :) I used gel medium to transfer a picture of a manatee.

Is Praire supposed to be any easier??? Maybe I'd better go back and do some of the words I thought were hard to do...they've now become not so hard!

2010-05-29T15:54:00.003-06:00

My sister, Su, joined the same time but I happen to have her quilt. She can blog about what she was up to on her own.

2010-05-29T15:48:00.004-06:00

So, I recently joined this group and was told "green" was the next word. I immediately thought of "green peace" and decided to make a quilt around that idea. I don't do much with fusible for applique and struggled with getting it right. My participation is about trying new techniques and working them out. So...

2010-05-11T16:44:00.000-06:00

I know it's a little more than 12x12 but I had to add the roots!

I used fabric wrapped cord for the stems and felt for the leaves.

It's Not Easy Being Green

2010-05-11T16:39:00.000-06:00

Printed cow images on inkjet printer; freehanded large cow shapes for fusible applique; embellished a bit with beads....

Subliminal Green Messaging

2010-05-11T10:44:00.000-06:00

I had many "brilliant ideas" for Green but just couldn't seem to make any of them come together. I finally decided to use this piece of snow resist dyed fabric and attempt to use thread to make it "come alive."

I'm not excited about the results and I couldn't get a photo I liked either. Neither seems bright enough for me. I think the quilt is a little brighter in person. I do like the words I quilted into the tree and grass, although they can't necessarily be seen at first sight I hope that perhaps they provide a little subliminal message to keep the world a beautiful place.

Actually I'm not sure you can read them in these photos either! Oh well.

One Blue Tulip

2010-05-05T14:47:00.003-06:00

The tulip applique was given to me by my friend Robyn several years ago. After just returning from Asilomar and taking a wonderful class with Libby Lehman, I decided to take this one applique block and give it a home, using the circles that I learned in the class. Thanks Robyn and Libby for making this quilt a reality.

Mother Earth Is Tired

2010-05-03T11:22:00.005-06:00

This may not be considered a "quilt", so I apologize. I promise! Next month I'll do a three layer, stitched quilt.
This is my green quilt. I made the paper/fiber, dyed it in greens and made a face with it. You can't really see, but the bottom layer has seeds imbedded in it. You'll see bits of newsprint and other "trash", as well as bird feathers for the eyebrows.

California Blues

2010-04-27T16:25:00.002-06:00

This is so Californian. I took a class from Sandi Cummings (Californian) at Asilomar, in California, while I was living in California. With my friend Diane (Californian). The freeform cutting and sticks were techniques from that class. I bought the fabrics while in California this year at three different California quilt shops. I really enjoy freeform cutting.

Green- Beverly H.

2010-04-25T07:49:00.000-06:00

I actually finished two for this one. I wasn't completely happy with the first, had more fabric I could use, so I had fun making a second- which is what you see here.

I wanted to use a fabric I'd dyed, discharged, and screen printed with an image of the wind farm that is very close to my home. I added other fabrics that I also dyed and printed. The edge is done with Terry Grant's method which she detailed in Quilting Arts a couple of years ago.

I haven't quilted with my Bernina in a long time, but this programmed stitch seemed perfect. I stretched it some from the default settings.

If you want to see the first iteration of Green, you can see it on my blog.

Chaos

2010-04-20T09:40:00.004-06:00

Finally! It's finished! This really represents my creative life....decisions, decisions, decisions! I used a small panel for the crazy lady, enlarged it, cut her arms off and switched them from being on her hips to holding fabric up. She started out as a nurse, so I cut off her cap, used "Texture Magic" on a piece of gray fabric which became her brain, and thread tangles (from the dryer) for her hair. The words were printed on fabric as well, and the little bits and pieces are simply fused on. Once I decided on trying the Texture Magic, everything else just kind of fell into place. Oh, she also has beads for earrings and her jumper is colored with marker and colored pencil. This was a fun piece to make. Hope you all enjoy it.

Pass the tissues

2010-04-09T15:03:00.005-06:00

Achoo! 12 x 12

As you can probably tell, this is my entry for the COLD challenge although it would also work well for BLUE. When I thought of cold, cold weather and having a cold both came to mind so I pulled out penguins, snowflakes and other chilly fabrics and started sewing. I used pieces from a silk handkerchief owned by my great grandmother Isabelle Rogers to make the tissues.

I'm so glad to finally have a piece to post. I am hand quilting it with snowflakes and cold words like BRRRR. Enjoy.

BYU Blue

2010-03-09T12:06:00.004-07:00

If you look carefully, you'll see the name of the quilt in there.
I saw this done and just had to experiment on my own. Everything used is polyester: felt, crushed velvet, and wonder under, except for the cotton thread. That way I am able to burn away everything but the thread holding it together.
I've recently started working on my basic degree through the BYU BGS program in Creative Writing.

Blue- Beverly Hart

2010-03-06T20:24:00.000-07:00

I looked for phrases or expressions that had the word 'blue' in them. I came across blue laws, and it just kind of took on a life of it's own from there. Call it the time of year, frame of mind, whatever- but this is where I ended up!

Deep Blue Sea

2010-03-04T21:48:00.000-07:00

When I think of blue I think of the ocean and I take a deep wistful sigh. While I was in Hawaii a few years ago I went snorkeling. I loved looking all the amazing fish and coral. However my heart still skips a beat when I think about almost swimming head first into a turtle. She was so beautiful and after we got over the shock of almost running into each other she seemed as curious about me as I was about her. It was a miraculous moment for me.

I created the turtle using a photograph that I printed onto tissue paper. After the tissue paper was sprayed with three layers of finishing spray, I crumpled it several times and then fused it to fabric. This along with the coral was then machine appliqued to the background. The crumpled tissue paper adds a very nice texture to the turtle.

Peace Coming

2010-01-25T14:13:00.004-07:00

Still catching up...

This is Peace. I have always wanted to do one of those off white, lacy, Victorian sort of, weddingish type of pieces. They are always so pretty to look at. I tried to add a hot gun effect, melting away some areas...and that didn't really go well. I'll have to try that out on some other piece. I really enjoyed doing this one.

No Name Yet

2010-01-19T13:50:00.004-07:00

I wanted to do something with graffiti. I bought paint pens, had an idea in my head about how to make bricks. I am working on some trading cards. Trying to clean up the bits and pieces in my pre-fused baggie and Bam! I completely changed directions. This is an example of my studio. Total chaos. Bits here, bits there, sock yarn, fuzzy bits, threads hanging everywhere. Each layer of the piece has two straight sides. None of them are lined up. I put some netting on there, couldn't even cut that to fit over the top. Oh well, story of my life. Now to get back to the trading cards.......

Sylvia

2010-01-15T16:40:00.004-07:00

Well, I finally got COLD done! I thought I would try out Superior's Texture Magic & it was fun! I just used white fabric, white thread, and the backing, which I folded over to the front for the binding, is white flannel. I've included a close-up--I just scribbled with my stitching. Now, on to CHAOS!!

Comfort Spelled Out

2010-01-08T17:08:00.004-07:00

Sorry, but I'm still trying to catch up. This is my comfort challenge and after seeing what brought about this word, I wish I had taken a more profound view, but this is what I came up with.

I love working this small, because it forces me to work smaller, getting all of my ideas in the allowed space and sometimes my brain says I can't fit it all in, but I did! I also am a lousy artist, but I just finished reading a book (called Remembering Isaac) about keeping a sketch journal, and drawing and writing your thoughts and ideas, and it inspired me to just go for it: mixing up the drawings (no matter how bad or silly) with words and ideas.

Just as a side note: Comfort comes as a result of seeing the success of doing something you didn't think you could do.

Chaos- Is Our Nation Unraveling?

2010-01-04T13:29:00.007-07:00

When the word chaos appeared, I knew exactly what I wanted to create. Using my son's help, we generated a picture of the Capitol and words using Microsoft Publisher. After printing the picture and text onto fabric, I then used some of my painted fusible for laying over the top of the picture.
Big stitch hand quilting was randomly added in the blank spaces. I wanted to add thread work, to make it appear that the unraveling of our Nation is happening in front of our very eyes.

I love our Country and feel that in the preceding year chaos had overtaken our government. When this will all end I have no idea. I crave what is lost, and pray that those principals our Nation was founded upon will not perish.

Beverly H.- Frog!

2010-01-02T17:38:00.003-07:00

I managed to get a previous word done this weekend, although I've been thinking about it for a lot longer. I'm a confirmed foodie, I've raised three foodies- so what else could I do but

Frog Legs??? Honestly, all I could think about when I saw the word was Doc Hopper's Fried Frog Legs in the Muppet Movie.

Here's a closeup of the threadwork and quilting--

One down, four to go!

Black Friday Chaos

2009-12-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

The first thing that came to mind when I heard Chaos was the inevitable shopping I had ahead of me for the holidays.

I tried to use warm colors to give the feeling of movement and pandemonium but I'm now not sure if I put too much chaos into the piece. ;)

Nature's Chaos

2009-12-30T15:05:00.004-07:00

Yeah, I'm with you Beverly. I wanted to get away from the obvious. With the Christmas season coming on, and a timely walk in the woods, I began thinking about Nature's Chaos vs Man-made Chaos and found a lot of beauty in Nature's way.

I took several pictures and found myself rearranging the leaves to fit just so. This piece is the first photo I took (before I thought to rearrange), and guess what, it was the photo that looked the most natural and that I liked the best.

The center is a photo of leaves, printed onto fabric, just laying along the path in Nature's way of chaos. I've machine quilted over some of the leaves and added rock-like beads. The fabric border was painted using whatever leaf-like stamps I had. For the added leaves, I sewed onto stabilizer and organza.

Chaos: Beverly H.

2009-12-30T07:23:00.005-07:00

When I started thinking about how I would interpret this word, I knew I had to go beyond the dictionary meaning. I chose to interpret something that I find chaotic-probably a sign of increasing age! As I thought about just what it would be, freeway driving was the first thing to pop into my mind. I grew up learning to drive on the freeways of Southern California, and I've come to this- I hate it!

I used discharged and overdyed fabric. It's machine pieced, hand embroidered and beaded, and machine quilted. I'm pleased enough with how this came out that I've decided to expand on the idea, maybe in different colors. Once I got started, it just seemed to take on a life of its own.

2009-12-06T10:45:00.003-07:00

Finally the frog.. I knew I wanted the woven background. I was going to first do a threadplay frog but realized that would never happen. Looked for frog fabric.. that was not easy .. the one I found is good but the colours are not what I really wanted..but so be it..

now on the COLD my word as for chaos... I have been living that so might be easy..oh sure..

Angela

First Snowfall

2009-11-13T14:01:00.004-07:00

My first craft was crochet. I have wanted to crochet snowflakes for a long time.
By Sylvia

Cold Margarita

2009-11-11T12:46:00.001-07:00

"Cold Margarita"

I love cold weather better than the heat. (I know, I know...why do I live in AZ?!) When I saw the new word, "Cold," I thought not of being cold, but how to get cooled down in the heat. Hence, a frozen margarita! I had a lot of fun picking out fabric pieces. I happened on a sale on metallic threads and bought several. My Mother makes beaded bracelets, so she invited me over to look through her stash. White beads for the salt on the rim of the glass was my first thought. Once I saw all she had, I chose and sewed on more! The straw is made of clear, tubular beads. I had never used metallic threads, so that was an education in itself. As usual with this group project, I learned a lot by doing this one. Cheers!!

By Nancy

Chinese Frogs, a little late

2009-11-06T15:43:00.003-07:00

I got the idea for the Chinese jacket almost as soon as we got "the word." I had some beautiful silk brocade left over from making a Chinese-style jacket for my niece a couple of years ago and figured that would be perfect. Well, it would have been, IF I could have remembered where I had stashed the fabric. I finally gave up and made it in other colors. In retrospect, I wish I had made the jacket in the red border fabric, and used the floral for the border--the frogs don't show up well. The quilt said it wanted a beaded border, which annoyed me, but it didn't take as long as I thought it would. But then the jacket looked bare, so I added some beads to that as well--mostly little red sparkly ones. The jackets opens up to reveal a fun red cat-print lining. I couldn't find any frog prints in red.

Not my favorite of the the ones I've made for this project, but at least it's done. Now on to Peace and I'll be all caught up.

Frosty Bridge

2009-11-03T16:01:00.004-07:00

I didn't notice until AFTER I looked at all of yours (and had already started mine), that all of us used a blue background-HONEST! and interesting...

So, this is my COLD piece. I'm not an artist, so the bridge is questionable; thank goodness for titles. My vision is looking under the bridge, so you don't see the top of the bridge. (If you have to explain your joke/art, it isn't a joke/art.) sigh...

I wanted to play with mixing machine quilting with hand embroidery. If I really wanted to do it justice, I would have piled on more handwork over more machine work, but I wanted to keep things simple, and quick.

As much as I love quilting, and especially handwork, I have to repeat to myself always...enjoy the process..., but I'll tell you, working small is great!

Snowflake

2009-10-31T14:15:00.004-06:00

Here is my "Cold" quilt, actually finished on time. Now I have to go back and do "Frogs" and "Peace." Sigh. You can't see from the picture, but the white snowflake fabric is sparkly with silver metallic. It's quilted in sparkly thread as well.

My first idea was to do a sunprint of snowflakes, inspired by a quilt in "Quick Strip paper Piecing" by Peggy Martin. I took a week long seminar from her in late August/early September. However, things got crazy when I got home. Had to get ready for Quilt Fest, and then we left town in our RV for a month. When we got back (a week ago), the sun-printing season was definitely over!

The quilt I ended up making is one of the blocks in Peggy's sun-printed and paper-foundation pieced quilt. I wanted it to evoke snowshoeing in the Uintas on a sunny Sunday morning, right after a snowstorm. The sky is so blue it almost hurts, and the snow just sparkles.

Cold Night in Maine

2009-10-29T14:18:00.000-06:00

Yea! My first project finished. I started this yesterday morning and couldn't stop until it was finished! The snow is batting, wool felt pine trees, cardinal button and white metallic thread for the quilting. We spent many winters in rural Maine and there were many nights that looked like this. It's so quiet that you can almost hear the snowflakes hit the ground. The cardinal is there because I love them and the quilt needed a dab of color.

Cold Night in Maine

2009-10-29T13:59:00.004-06:00

By Bev D

Brrrrrrrr

2009-10-27T13:08:00.001-06:00

Baby it's Cold outside!

I suppose today is an appropriate day for my "Cold" quilt to make it's debut because we had our first snowfall. My yard is covered with about an inch of the beautiful stuff but it won't be there for long since it is warm enough that everything is melting already.

I had many ideas go through my head for Cold: cold turkey, cold shoulder, cold feet, snow, ice, icicles, and snowmen to name a few. I sketched out many of these ideas but when it came down to the wire this frosty face was the image I decided to go with. My son says it looks more like an image of warm than cold because of the big puffy coat. However my thinking was more along the lines of a cold so frigid that even a big puffy coat will not keep you warm. A chill so cold that you don't want to open your eyes for fear of freezing your eyeballs. Perhaps I need to add more frosty bits (glitter perhaps?) along the scarf and face to better convey a more frosty image?

Fire and Ice or Chill Flashes

2009-10-26T00:02:00.000-06:00

My first thought with the word ”cold” was of Superman’s icy lair from the movies. So lots of sharp angles of ice. And since I knew I was taking a foiling class at Quilt Fest I thought the silver foil would make it look icier. And then there’s the issue of hot flashes which seem to be coming regularly these days. And the cold feels good then. I have even been know to duck into the produce or dairy rooms at Costco for relief.

Coldflake

2009-10-25T16:20:00.000-06:00

When the word was pulled for this month and I heard "Cold", I immediately knew that I wanted to make a snowflake from that word. Knowing that I am still computer challenged, I had my wonderful son, Jer, bail me out again. He took the word, reversed it, rotated it, mirror imaged it, and whatever else he had to do to get it to look like this. We then copied it onto freezer paper, ironed the letters onto white wool felt, and cut them out, and machine appliqued them onto the blue background. The polar bear completes the image I had invisioned. I hand beaded the background with small seed beads, gave it a binding and labeled it. It meets my expectations, and thanks again Jeremy.

Frog

2009-10-19T16:54:00.002-06:00

Frog by Anne

I had this piece of fabric that I dyed and thought I saw a frog in it. Especially the yellow eyes. He emerged from the background but still remains hard to see. Which makes him smile.

Frans Frog

2009-10-17T17:50:00.001-06:00

I thought a little humor was needed when I created this frog quilt. The "self portrait" is inspriation from Yvonne Porcella. The quilt is fused, machine quilted and embelishments added.

Chip's Frog

2009-10-16T17:12:00.002-06:00

This depicts the frog of a horse's hoof. Chip was my once-in-a-lifetime horse. He was a Thoroughbred, off the track, and had been abused. Once Chip figured out he had his home for life, he stuck like glue to me - he preferred his mom to the herd! He was a show hunter and we won a lot together. When he retired from jumping, we dabbled in dressage and went on trail rides. My trainer used to call us her "Black Beauty" story because Chip never settled down at the show grounds until I arrived.

Chip's Frog Redux

I felt that my 1st attempt at Chip's Frog wasn't so good, so I redid the whole thing. I like this better.

(I am really starting to get in to making pictures with thread!)

Anyway, again, Chip was a horse; this is my depiction of his "frog."

Nite Frogs

2009-09-29T12:19:00.002-06:00

Nite Frogs

I couldnt pick which frog was my favorite, they are all beautiful and bright so I thought what the heck, why pick? I have never used angelina fibers before and intended for it to look like clouds in the night sky..Not so sure about them. Overall I had fun doing this. I like to applique.

By Brandy

Music Man

2009-09-27T18:04:00.005-06:00

Finally have Sandstone completed! My husband helped draw the figure, I had technical assistance from Anne with the freemotion quilting.

Sylvia

2009-08-29T15:16:00.003-06:00

Well, Here is my Frog quilt, titled: "FROG: What's red & green, & red & green, & red & green?" Yes, I know I'm sick, but I have been going with the first thought that enters my mind after I see the new word. I tried to think of something else, but it just kept coming back to this.

This was a single piece of fabric that I painted with Setacolor paints. I cut it up & sewed it back together multiple times & ways. Trimmed it to about 12 x 12, and quilted it.

Midge Meditation

2009-08-29T15:01:00.004-06:00

As soon as I saw Maria Elkins' on Quilting Arts TV demonstrating how to make portraits I knew I had found a way to make my frog. And with my children off to school once again I finally had the uninterrupted time to make her happen!She is made from fabric I dyed and is quilted with rayon thread. I am feeling very good about the quilting on this piece because of all the instruction and practice I received in Lisa B's class. Thank you Lisa!

Peace. Always in Fashion.

2009-08-28T17:45:00.004-06:00

This was 99% finished for a long time. I wanted a special peace quote for the label. Instead, it is better that I waited, the right words came to me this afternoon. Blue background and tie dye shirt were done in Anne's batiking class this summer. Mini clothespins were courtesy of Kaye. Now to frog.

Personal Peace

2009-08-25T23:58:00.002-06:00

By Nancy

I call it "My Personal Peace" because it depicts where I go in my head when I need a little peace: Flagstaff, AZ (San Francisco Peaks) where I went to college, and Alpine, AZ (The Escudilla Mountains) where we had acreage for many years. And, of course, horses! Nothing fancy - I used fabric with the scenes already printed on them, cut them up and stitched them down.

Unregulated Stitch Revolution

2009-07-16T09:49:00.001-06:00

So, I started thinking about the word “peace” and I saw a peace symbol (of course) and a dove. Ho-hum. . . Then I thought about “white” - the color of peace. Then I just stopped thinking about it - for now.At the same time, I recently received three quilts back from two shows with evaluations. The only criticisms were “uneven stitches”, “irregular stitches”, etc. They loved the fabric, the design, even the finished edges. Frustrating, because regular, even stitches have become the standard now that their are so many stitch regulators on so many machines, including regular home machines. But to me that takes the art out of what I’m doing. I’ve heard that the stitch regulators are even frustrating to those people who care about even stitches. So, it came to me - make a piece that has purposefully uneven stitches. The image came right away. . . To be fair Sylvia and others have not taken these judges seriously for a while. They do what they like and what they want and just laugh at the criticisms. And rightly so. It’s just taken me longer to realize in my heart that it’s just a bunch of baloney. I feel free. I’m at peace. Oh! That’s our word this month! Revolution can bring about true inner peace. So that is why my “peace” piece is called “Unregulated Stitch Revolution.”

By Anne Munoz

2009-07-11T00:30:00.004-06:00

Well, did decide not to continue with the "faces" I had thought of putting a 'ho-hum' dove on a hat but was not able to make the 3-D idea work.. then when I started thinking about peace I thought of water. This piece of fabric is very strange... got it from a fabric exchange..it is sort of transparent and very stiff... I thought it would soften after I washed it... well it didn't.... what I did was use two layers to give the feeling of distance and then did some thread play to create the land (horizon) and added bushes to the water...

Angela

Sandstone - finally

2009-07-07T09:57:00.006-06:00

Here is my sandstone piece finally. I was originally going to try to dye fabric with sandstone, kinda like those red dirt shirts, and do a 'shades of sandstone' quilt, but as you can see that didn't workout too well. How do they do that? I wound up with a couple pastel pieces of fabric. I used one of those pieces on the back. Then I thought I would do a sandstone border for a photo I took of some flowers growing in sandstone. The finished piece I have here was to be the border only, but I liked the way it came out, so here it is, no flowers. It is a piece of ultra-suede that I used variegated thread on. It originally had square corners that looked terrible after I tried to miter them with a zig-zag border stitch - works well when you are doing it in the middle of a quilt, not so well on an edge, at least for me. So I cut them off and rounded them, now I can sleep at night. Below are some detail photos. Now if I can only get to 'peace' and 'frog'.

Symbolic Peace

2009-07-02T13:58:00.005-06:00

This project started as a turquoise piece of fabric that turned into a symbol of religion that was totally unexpected. It took on a life of its own as I started assembling it. Each part has a specific meaning to me. The color represents peace, the universal symbol of Christianity is the fish represented in thread. The double crossed lines in raw silk threads symbolizing the cross. I made the background (top and bottom) to be the Sea of Galilee while the dotted strip is the calming of the sea by Jesus. I chose to use the three long beads as the 3 members of the Godhead. The silver beads is Jesus as the light of the world. I then decided to place the beads around the border as the 40 days and 40 nights that Jesus was in the wilderness. I decided to place the heavily beaded bottom as the Seed of Abraham as Numerous as sands on the the shore. The cream back ground silk is the Shroud of Jesus placed around him after his crucifixion. Netting found on the quilt is to symbolize Jesus telling the apostles to be "fishers of men," with the 12 beads hanging in a row as the 12 disciples of Christ. Finally, I made this quilt in 6 days and on the 7th day I rested (with mild celebration). The quilt is machine quilted and all embellishments have been completed by hand. As I said, I did not intend for this to take on the life it did, but it means a lot to me as a symbol of my faith.

2009-07-01T16:39:00.003-06:00

For my "Peace" quilt, I chose "COEXIST", as is seen on bumperstickers and on Bono's headband in the excellent "U2/3D" movie. I decided to do it in in a rainbow of colors on plain(ish) grey background. Symbols are fused on.

The Price of Peace

2009-06-30T18:46:00.005-06:00

Thought Process: When I think of Peace the word seems to morph into "peaceful" and when I think peaceful I think trees, forests, nature and cemeteries. It may sound morbid but let me explain. Cemeteries are quiet places where one can think without much interference. Also my mother and I have always enjoyed going into cemeteries and looking at the names, dates and inscriptions on the tomb stones. We wonder about the people each tombstone represents. Who were they? How did they live? How did they die?

Recently my family and I went to Washington DC. While there we visited Arlington National Cemetery. The Cemetery is 200 acres of grass, trees and white tombstones and although the surroundings are very peaceful, the immediate effect upon entering the cemetery can be anything but a feeling of peace. Despite my facination with cemeteries and wanting to know about each person who lies buried there, I couldn't help but remember that each person is buried there because of our nation's search for Peace. And no matter how you might feel about the subject of war I think you can't help but feel the irony in this. As a result I felt this image would best represent this month's word.

How I made the quilt: I cropped a photo I took at Arlington and then used photoshop to superimpose the word "Peace" into the grass. I printed the photo in reverse and then took the print to a copy shop to be enlarged and color copied by a copier that uses toner. I then used Citrasolv to transfer the image onto a cotton fabric. I enhanced the image using colored pencils and Paintstiks. As I quilted the image with my friend Juliette's really cool Bernina, I did a bit of threadpainting on the trees & grass and then quilted around a number of the tombstones and the word "peace." Next I used a homemade foam stamp, which I learned to make when I read the book Inspired to Quilt, to put leaf images across a piece of silk organza. I placed the organza on top of the piece and quilted more. Lastly I cut the organza off of the main tree, the word "Peace" and the foremost tombstone. The edges are left unfinished.

2009-06-09T00:44:00.002-06:00

OK Finally, I was having computer issues. I don't think I'm going to continue with the faces... can't think of anything to do for the next WORD... it seemed to me that doing faces with hats would be a good idea...but maybe not..

angela

Sandstone

2009-06-01T11:45:00.001-06:00

Updated photo of Anne's Sandstone piece.

Sandstone-Delicate Arch

2009-05-19T17:02:00.010-06:00

Sandstone....what images this word evolks. Southern Utah with all its beauty. Delicate Arch, Landscape Arch, Zions, Bryce, and all the red rock elegance. This quilt is a pattern by Carol Johnson from Nibley, Utah. The top was given to me by Martha Dickey. I decided to finish it by adding the borders, and quilting it. What memories I have from the many trips I took to Arches National Park with my husband and two children. Now in cloth I can perserve one of them.

Kaye Evans

2009-05-11T17:37:00.004-06:00

My version of Sandstone comes from a photo I took of Uluru, or Ayer's Rock, on our last trip to Australia. I used curved piecing with freezer paper, ala Caryl Bryer Fallert, and stitched like crazy (ala...me!). Except for the little insert of stripey fabric on the right side of the rock, all other color variation on the rock was done with thread. The only things missing from the photo/quilt are the flies that continually buzzed around our heads, which were protected with nets.

Sandstone

2009-05-10T09:27:00.002-06:00

I must say that this 12x12 project has been a real challenge for me. Working "fast" (yes, 2 months is fast for me) and "small" puts me out of my comfort zone. Which is good! I will definitely learn from this experience. I've already learned that I shouldn't care too much about deadlines where art is concerned. Right? Is that a good excuse? And to simplify!!!! I love what Lisa Chin did with the chennile technique. And Leslie's wool roving was beautifully done.

Anne

Leave No (Sand)stone Unturned

2009-04-29T14:01:00.003-06:00

Was the back, now is the front.
Was front, now the back.

Like others, I Googled "sandstone" and also looked up some of the formations in a book, found a couple pictures I liked, chose the fabrics and threads, then just messed around with it. I was disappointed with it until I turned it over and looked at the back more carefully. The back actually looked better, I thought, so it became the front. And that also inspired me to call it "Leave No (Sand)stone Unturned."
Nancy

Sandstone in Wool

2009-04-29T08:51:00.003-06:00

Looking at pictures on the internet, I came across a very colorful sandstone picture that I tried to emulate with my quilt block. I used wool roving in several colors and hand felted it on a wool background.

Leslie

A glorious Week-end

2009-04-28T14:28:00.005-06:00

Having just returned from Arches National Park in Moab two weeks prior to our chosen word it was easy for me to paint a picture of one of the arches there. Acrylic paints were applied to muslin fabric and it was machine quilted with coordinating thread. I straight-stitched several times around the edge for the binding.

Marsha

Kolob Canyon

2009-04-26T21:35:00.004-06:00

When we got "the word," I immediately got an image of what I wanted to do and how to do it. I wanted to make stack n slash blocks, or what Sylvia calls EZ Crazy, but decided to sew two fabrics together with curved piecing before I started slashing and rearranging. When I went to my fabric stash to pull fabrics from my orange bin, I found leftover strata from my Beach Party Strips and Curves class that I took from Louisa Smith at Empty Spools last spring. The colors were perfect, so I paired them up with batiks. I had some pictures of what they looked like before I started slashing, but they got lost in the camera or something. I added some deserty green browns for the canyon floor, and a few bits of blue because I love the sosuthern Utah combination of water and desert. The blocks ended up being quite small, so the curved piecing doesn't show up as much as I had envisioned. So I curved the outside edges of the quilt instead. And then added some blooming desert plants.

Many Sandstones

2009-04-23T12:20:00.004-06:00

When I first heard the word for this challenge, I thought of Delicate Arch in Moab, and I thought most of us would think the same thing. Also, knowing what beautiful Batiks Anne has done on the subject of sandstone I felt a bit intimidated. I tried to "mix it up" by thinking of crazy things I could do to make Sandstone really different: make layers of sandstone in blue, or make the layers using zippers, or something not natural like a building made out of sandstone but in the end one of the things that kept calling me was petroglyphs. I found this cool petroglyph of Ghanaskidi, the Hump-backed God and really fell in love with the image. The second link is of the actual petroglyph and the first link is of a replica someone made which I translated into this reverse applique.

I really like how this turned out with the curls of the Batik behind the hand dyed fabric but I haven't quilted it yet because after talking with my son another idea kept bugging me. My son told me that sandstone wasn't an image for him, but rather a texture and so I played in my mind with different ideas of how I could create sandstone texture without actually glueing sand to the fabric. I came up with this:

Basically it is the same idea as that used in making faux chenille. I layed a large number of small scraps onto a piece of batting creating about three layers. The scraps were arranged in random directions. I then put a solid piece of fabric on the top and back and stitched lines all over the fabric in a pattern I had seen in many sandstone pictures on the internet. After I stitched, I cut between the stitches and viola! multicolored layers of texture. They are soft layers, so maybe not the rough texture I was looking for tactilly but more visually rough.

Here is a close up of some of the cut through layers.

I really, really liked this idea and decided to try to take it one step further by making another layered sandstone quilt and then "carving" an arch from it and placing it on a sky:

I don't like this quilt as much as I like the plain sandstone because I used a printed batik for the outerlayer instead of a solid. The underlayers don't seem to show through as well, and the dark outerlayer and dark blue background isn't enough of a contrast in value so the whole thing is reading dark to me. If I decide to do it again I'll change up the values. This might be something fun to try in a bigger size!

I can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with!

Comfort-Jer's Bucket

2009-04-04T12:04:00.004-06:00

COMFORT-JER AND HIS BUCKET
Kaye Evans-2009
This quilt represents what was going on in my life Jan and Feb of 2009. My son, Jeremy, was remodeling my kitchen, and watching 5 children, while his wife worked because he was caught in that economic lay-off that so many are experiencing at this time. He would come up and work at my house, bring along with him his bucket of tools, which contained screwdrivers, hammers, pliers etc. It was the typical remodeling story, sheetrock dust, sawdust, and stuff everywhere. I attended during that same time a class at Asilomar from Sue Benner, which was fantastic. She teaches collage. When, after a week I returned home, to the unfinished kitchen, my wonderful son and his bucket of tools, I decided to do this collage representative of that period in my life. Jeremy and I have always had a joke about his bucket of tools, every time he does some remodeling for me. Last summer it was the downstairs bathroom. When he leaves it at my house I know he will be back shortly, thus comfort, if he takes it with him it will be several days before he comes back. The top part of the collage represents the disarray in my kitchen, the bottom part is order restored when Jer is there with his bucket of tools. By the way, my kitchen is finished, and Jer did a beautiful job. I will miss Jeremy and his bucket of tools. Let’s see…what is my next project?

Ahhhhh....all too sadly often.....Comfort

2009-04-02T14:30:00.000-06:00

I find ice cream to be a two edge sword for me. I find eating ice cream can be a comfort...but the results of eating too much ice cream can be depressing for the pounds that it can put on. When the word was posted I'm sorry to say that ice cream was the first thing that popped into my head. My piece is painted with acrylic paints and the "sprinkles" are glass beads that have been hand sewn. It is machine quilted with invisible thread .

Marsha

Comfort

2009-04-02T13:57:00.000-06:00

Comfort - I have always found socks to be a source of comfort. I wanted to make some felted socks which I fashioned to match a pair I actually wear. I want my blocks to reflect a variety of techniques, some new, some I've used before. In Comfort, I used felting, beads, hand embroidery, stamping and photocopying to fabric. I will try to do all blocks with similar colors so that I will eventually be able to join them into a larger quilt.

Leslie

Comfort

2009-04-01T14:20:00.000-06:00

In January the idea of comfort immediately went to summer - drinking a pina colada in the hammock. I wish I could have had a little more time to work on this but when you take off galavanting around the country and out of the country you make do.

Anne