ARTRAGEOUSFIBREART

Saturday, March 3, 2012

A Walk through My Garden: 2011 challenge

A Walk Through My Garden: Collage
Our 2011 challenge was a 12 x 30 garden quilt.
A green batik is used in every quilt.

Graphic Garden Ellie Holbein

Garden Fence: Linda K

The Tree in my Garden: Joanie DeGroot

Turtle in the Garden: Lori Richardson

Finding I Could Not Sleep: Mary Miller

View From Above: Pat Carlson

Memories of Summer: Eileen Williams

Garden Path Revisited: Mary Henris

Garden Gifts: Wendy Bissinger

Tree Of Life : Susan Hinzman

Garden Vista
A Garden I Don't Have to Water: Debby McCullough

My Garden Walk: Karen Kovaly

My Back Yard: Sally Hamilton

Fantasy Garden: Pat Piacente

Out My Kitchen Window : Gretchen

My Back Yard: Sally Hamilton

Spring: Katherine McNeese

Thursday, August 25, 2011

A Quilting Life: Sponsored Giveaway--Gift Certificates!

A Quilting Life: Sponsored Giveaway--Gift Certificates!

Lots of goodies at Shabby Fabrics. Would love to round out some bits and pieces I have already.

Thanks.

Monday, March 7, 2011

This year's challenge was based on the childhood game, "The Telephone Game". For those of you unfamiliar, the first person whispers something in the ear of the 2nd person, who repeats it to a 3rd person, etc.; and by the time the last person states out loud what the secret was, it is usually very different from the first person.
So the challenge was that we would split into 3 groups and only the first person in the group would see a photograph. The first person was to use the photo as inspiration to make an 11" x 14" portrait orientation art quilt within 2 months.

We are fortunate enough that one of our members is married to an award winning photographer. George B. was asked to pick one of his photos for us to use in our challenge. Only the first person in a group would see the original photo.

When the first person was done with her art quilt, she would then take a photo of her work and pass that photo along to the 2nd person in the group who would then use that photo as the inspiration for her art quilt. When she was done with her art quilt, she would take a photo of it and send it to the 3rd person, etc.

The photo below shows the original photo in the upper left and 3 rows of quilts. Each row represents one group with the quilt at the left being the first person's rendition of the original photo.

Row 1: Ellie, Mary H., Charlotte, Laurie M., and Wendy B.
Row 2: Pat Z., Lori R., Eileen, Pat
Row 3: Robin, Pat C., Debby, Katherine

GROUP 1: Ellie let the color orange in the photo guide her design and still placed a tree and moon in.

Mary H. named her piece "Replicated" staying very true to Ellie's piece and then added a lot of beading.

Charlotte couldn't quite decide if Mary's piece was water or fields, if the black line was a road? Her piece reflects the tree and the moon and now the water has become Fields of Gold with a road running through.

Laurie M. didn't want to do fields and went in another direction with Mountains. The trees are represented in fabrics and the moon has become full.

Wendy, without knowing the first picture, added the water back into her piece and added the tree in as well.

GROUP 2: Pat Z. was experimenting with painting fabric at the time and used that to portray the sunset and sky. The inset repeats the feel and adds another bit of interest to the overall feel. Big stitch quilting adds texture.

Lori R. explained to us that she focused on the little brown shapes from Pat's piece, not being able to figure what they were, she enlarged and used them in her piece with beads added. She liked the inset as well and added couched yarns around that and floating above.

Eileen wasn't sure what Lori's piece was but she really liked the blue fabrics and they reminded her water. So her piece is a fly fisherman at a river's edge.

Pat used the leaf fabric in the top of Eileen's piece as inspiration for an Autumn forest where you can still see some water flowing through.

GROUP 3: Robin wanted to try a new background technique to portray the brilliant colors of the sky. She also changed the tree from 2 very small trees to one large focal tree.

Pat C. wasn't sure what tree was in Robin's piece and she had recieved the photo minus quilting or the moon. Pat still placed a moon in a very subtle way. There were comments about how her use of fabric looked like a city lit up.

Debby saw the tree and knowing what kind of photos her brother-in-law takes thought it might be a cyprus tree. She pulled photos she had and played with cropping and photoshop to portray this tree.

Katherine told us that as she looked at the photo everyday, she started to see eyes in the branches of Debby's tree. So she used that as the inspiration to add a spirit to her tree.

Here is the whole crew (L to R Standing): Pat C., Debby, Ellie, Lori R., Pat

(2 sitting in chairs): Pat Z. and Wendy B.

(L to R sitting on floor): Mary H., Katherine, Eileen, Robin, Laurie M. Charlotte

Robin commented that it was interesting to her how all the groups started bolder in color and then became more muted as it went on. We were all very impressed and excited about the interpretations and the thought processes. We would highly recommend this challenge to any group and would probably like to do another in the future with a different photo. Every photo would present completely different results and that is the fun of it all.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Dreams Take Flight...

Last fall I came across the newest project of the International Fiber Coalition which was to cover a Saturn V rocket in Huntsville, AL. with fiber panels. I immediately wanted to be a part of this to honor my grandfather who worked for Grumman in the 60's and was able to work on the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module). The entry fee was $100 and a bit steep for me....

Chris Gilman to the rescue! She suggested that a two foot square panel could be 4 individual 12" blocks and only price out at $25 per person. If I was game, we would only need 2 more people and within an hour we had 2 more adventurous souls in Cathy Winter and Katherine McNeese. These women graciously let me have the name LEM4 for our group in honor of grandpa and use the space theme I had wanted to do.

Using the space theme, ideas were thrown out in reference to 'Dreams' (which is the theme of the project) and everyone chose what part of flight they wanted to do....all without arguing :) Chris did a vibrant Hot Air Balloon and Katherine did the Wright Brothers proud with her First Flight.

I did a rendition of the LEM for grandpa, complete with a shamrock on the door panel-GO IRISH!! Charles "Bud" McAuliffe was very proud of all the work he accomplished while at Grumman. In our family we always chuckle a bit at some of his fashion choices since he didn't mind mixing stripes with plaids, etc. Imagine that and then add that he would brag about his name being on the moon....Yeah, sure you kooky old man. His name is on the moon though. All the workers signed a poster and a photo of that was shrunk down onto a microchip and included on the LEM. You go Grandpa!!

Rounding out our space dreams, is Cathy Winter's terrific textural rendition of the Space Shuttle. Thank you to these 3 very talented women for making my small dream come true. This panel is a wonderful work of art and representative of the creative powers of us and all that have come before us. Their dreams keep the rest of us striving for our dreams.