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

Crispy, Crunchy Arbutus Leaves

The arbutus tree in our yard is forever dropping something (not the dogs!) - whether it is fruit, flowers, bark, or leaves. Fortunately for us, who love to garden, the tree is in an area where my husband can mulch the droppings into the "lawn", which we do not have.  In the winter, we have a "green" and in the summer, we have a "yellow" because we do not water the "lawn". 

Token photo of "the" arbutus tree and Jake and Molly ...

We have had a very early start to what looks like a very long, hot summer this year and the dead leaves are crispy and crunchy underfoot. They are also very colourful - orange, gold, gray, brown, cream. Such a variety of colour from one tree.

Confession time! This piece is not finished - as in "the leaves are not sewn to the background yet". I thought it might be fun to post a trial run on Facebook, where, to my great surprise, Kim Thittichai (my idol) asked if she could post my photo on her page - where it has now been shared by others. I have been completely overwhelmed by the response to Crispy, Crunchy Arbutus Leaves. Since it has been shared without a watermark, I thought I should get this into cyberspace myself.

Tyvek coloured with alcohol ink, cut with a heat tool, Lutradur, organza fused to Lutradur which was coloured with alcohol ink. The background is PFD fabric coloured with alcohol ink.

Thanks for this one, Chris! It was lots of fun. I see great minds think alike. We west-coasters love our arbutus trees!