LINE

Well, abstraction certainly got the juices flowing! Loved this challenge, Gladys. For the last couple of years, I've been trying to figure out just what is abstraction. Still learning as my natural inclination is to do fairly representational/realistic artwork. Thanks for giving me a chance to explore my creativity on another level.

I called this piece "Line", even though it is kind of colour blocking. Line is what gives us shape and therefore image. That is accented by quilting stitches as well. This piece is all made out of my hand dyed/rusted fabrics. I sewed the 4 background blocks together, sandwiched and quilted the background before adding the central smaller square. It was not quilted, just machine appliqued on to the middle. Boring. Lacking. Unhappy. Out came the fabric paint. White. Fat lines with the paint brush. Vertical and horizontal. Misses where the background is quilted giving dimension. Happier! Next comes the dimensional paint - black and white. Kind of blobby, a bit of cross hatching. Now I don't see boredom. Now I see more interest. Now I am happy :)

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I really wasn't sure what to make for "Abstraction" I usually make a thumbnail sketch or work from a photograph when I work. For this challenge I decided to take a very different approach. I had a package of goodies from Stitches Fibre Art that I bought at a quilt show last year. It had various items all hand-dyed for a fibre art project. I dumped the contents of the bag onto my cutting table along with some aluminum shaving from my husbands workshop. I decided to try and let the materials "speak" to me rather than go with a "plan".

I pulled and stretched the cheesecloth to make holes in it and elongate the holes. I chopped the waffle fabric up and sewed it down in the order I cut it up. I then dug thru some lovely foil that I had and added to to my circle section and used a hole punch to punch out more circles. I quilted the piece then hand sewed the aluminum pieces on.
It was fun and challenging to work intuitively and I really that is the beauty of participating in the group :-)

Had to add a close-up