BYU Blue

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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!

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

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

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.

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.