The quarterly challenge that was due at the end of June for my 12x12 group was 'Leaves'.  I was initially excited about it because I wanted to try a technique one of you members, Karrie, showed me.  You take an Oliver Twist "One Off" and make a tree out of it .  Here is a picture of a "One Off".  You lay it out in tree form and stitch.  (Side note- I also love, love, love the Oliver Twist thread shown in the photo.  It quilts wonderfully.)  Another note- I did not have a "One Off" in the color I needed, so I created my own from fibers in my stash. Last note, when I look back at Karrie's tree, I begin to see where I began to go off track; hers is free-flowing and artsy.

I got to this point and my work just did not speak to me (in fact it was yelling some bad stuff at me). At this point, I was already late on the challenge, so I decided to experiment.

Next I used Tombow markers and drew around the trunk and branches and spray it with water.

I made leaves out of used teabags and used a combo of Tombow markers and Dye-Na-Flow to color them.  Still not loving it yet....

Finally, I painted polka-dots on the leaves.  

This is now a piece I can live with- still not one of my favorites!

What do you do when your art is not going in the direction you would like?

Remnants: Quilt Stand
Mt husband and I were recently visiting the Northern Michigan and its fabulous wineries.  We stopped at a quilt shop (of course!) and hubby found this quilt stand for me to rotate my 12x12 quilts. Here is the website for it http://www.ackfeldwire.com/, it is called a table stand.

Enjoy! Kathy

Erosion- Many Different Facets

e·ro·sion

əˈrōZHən/

noun

the gradual destruction or diminution of something.

I had to think long and hard about fear; I finally decided to focus on erosion.  Erosion can be applied to many areas of our lives...erosion of the beach at Lake Michigan..erosion of your health as you age...erosion of world-wide safety...so many things can gradually destruct creating fear.

My piece is inspired by an Edward Burtynsky photo shown below:

My piece is below. After creating the landscape, I used rust to create a tributary-like flow across the piece.  Some seed stitches finished it.

Enjoy!  Kathy

Kathy's Celestial

For my celestial piece, started with white fabric and dyed it a soft blue. I selected  four different colors of Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow for each color, I ironed creases into fabric to form a star-like impression.

I loaded up a paint brush with Dye-Na-Flow and lightly moved it along the top of the creases until the paint had been used. I repeated the process for each of the four stars.

After the dyeing process, I machine echoed stitched around the stars.

Lastly, I hand embroidered each of the stars with a contrasting colored embroidery thread.

Enjoy! Kathy

A CHILD'S WHIMSY by Kathy K.

I was so excited about the Whimsical Challenge and immediately began three months ago what I thought would be a brilliant idea.  I worked on the piece for bit-by-bit, but it seemed to never come together, soooooooooo finally last week, I ditched it and came up with the piece below.

I like that it is a happy and colorful piece. Besides the binding, the quilt began with all white fabric. You also may notice that I varnished the quilt- I just felt it needed the shine; I am glad I did.  I am not quite done with it yet; besides removing the painter's tape on the back holding the binding down on the back :-|, I would like to add a few beads on it.

Frost?

Happy New Year! 

The Frost challenge began smoothly.  I took hand-dyed fabric (ice blue) and layered hand-dyed organza (sage colored) on top.  I painted white snowflakes over the surface.  I then cut the piece into 3" x 3" squares (3.5" x 3.5" with seam allowances).  I sewed them together haphazardly and couched a thin silver braid around the snowflake edges.  I then sewed a inner and outer borders around the snowflakes using a silver rayon thread.  This is what the final background looks like...

I love the look of the background, but it needed something more and here is where my snag came.  I have hit many dead-end trials and ideas.  One of my trials was to add a cardinal bird sitting on a branch; here is my cardinal....

I really like the cardinal, but felt its style did not match the style of the snowflake background.  So, the cardinal "flew the coup".

I finished the piece by adding a butterfly, and here it is.....

Enjoy!  Kathy

Incandescence by Kathy K.

It is during our darkest moments 

that we must focus on the light.....

It is the end of the second quarter for our Up for a Challenge 12 x 12 Art Quilt creations. The challenge topic is Incandescence.  This topic, at first, stumped me; after some thought, I turned to quotes which turned things around for me.  My final piece is below:

I started with white fabric and dyed it in stages from yellow to orange to red to violet.  I then used Fabric Etch to create long rays emitting from the center.  I placed black felted wool behind the fabric and begin hand-embroidering and continued hand-embroidering.  I have been to the doctor's office and hand-embroidered, then to the dentist's office and hand-embroidered, onto Panera's and hand-embroidered.  Literally, for the past few weeks, this project has gone everywhere with me and, you guessed it, I hand-embroidered it.  I hand-painted the quote and ended the top by placing a beveled piece of glass at the center of the yellow section (and, yes, it is securely attached). Finally, it is edged with a velvet border.

I enjoyed creating this piece and am looking forward to the next topic being announced tomorrow! Enjoy!