The space within becomes the reality of the building.

~Frank Lloyd Wright

My 12 x 12 groups's challenge for this quarter was "Structure".  "Structure" can mean many things; for me, from my nerdy engineering side, I thought first of building structures. 

 I went to Google, looking for structures and the photo below spoke to me.

Below is a photo of my piece in process; it is tough to see all of the layers.  I pieced fabric, sewed additional lines, rubbed  metallic wax on it, covered it with tulle, and then added the two circular appliques.  I knew I needed to add one more layer of stronger supports, but was not sure how I would layer them on.  

 I took a photo of the work-in-process and printed out six copies; I took a white colored pencil and began experimenting with how the final layer would look. Finally, I could add the velvet thread to finish it! 

I wanted this work to be dark and steely, but thought that one pop of color was needed, so a citrine colored velvet puff was added.  Below is my finished piece, entitled, "Industrial Pop".  Enjoy!

Quilting Bee

I have been somewhat obsessed with hexagons lately so for Structure I thought I would feature one of natures amazing builders. (Bees do build hives which is a "Structure" right) These industrious creatures not only produce yummy honey but are integral to our food production. So I decided to give my salute to bees some added colour. First I selected a piece of fabric I ice dyed this summer with my friend Gladys.

I cut the hexagons from this lovely fabric. The bee is a copy right free image I enlarged and printed onto TAP transfer artists paper then transferred  the  image onto white fabric. Once the image was transferred I thread painted it and added dimensional wings to it.

Here is a close up of the bee, hopefully you can see the dimension of the wings.

STACKED

So I was all ready with my "structure". The sketch was done; even the values were filled in. Then as with all of you, life happened! Last minute came around with no further progress made when lightning struck. Long story short, we live on a small rural acreage and had arranged for around 18 trees to be felled. Many were dead or dying and therefore a hazard and to make it easier for the fallers, we agreed that others would come down also. (I'm getting starved for light.) So here are some pics showing, not exactly before, but rather during the process through to the end result - firewood, all clean, cut and stacked. Photo 1 is the faller up about 130 feet. He has cut all the branches off and this is the moment before he cuts the top off. Looks like he is on a toothpick. Scary!

Photo 2 is wood on the ground - the faller cuts it into smaller lengths as he comes down the tree.

Photo 3 is the wood all cut and stacked. My husband and I were enjoying a beer looking at all our hard work (which is continuing) when the light bulb came on. "A stack of cut firewood is a structure isn't it?", said I gleefully! "Yes indeed", said my husband.

Photo 4 is my firewood structure, STACKED.

Looking at it now, I realize the outward edges should be lower than the middle, but it's done now. Not quite confetti, but the "wood" is still held down with tulle then quilted over very randomly. A feel good moment! Eventually I do hope to make my original idea/sketch into an art piece too.

Semi-Detached Structure

SEMI-DETACHED

... or OMG! 

I completed a challenge! 

Meet Semi-Detached. 

I made the leaves about six weeks ago and left them alone until they provided the "I should do something with these" impetus needed to create Semi-D. Semi-D is created mainly from silk dupioni, which doesn't photograph very well, MistyFuse, and Timtex. I like the rigidity of Timtex, which gives the piece "structure". 

The tree-branch is made from Timtex and heat-activated, moldable batting, giving the tree-branch a slight three-dimensional curve. According to the packaging, the moldable batting gives rigidity and stiffness for handbags and totes. A fun product, and I shall try it again for something. 

The Timtex and moldable batting were covered in brown silk dupioni and cords made from silk embroidery floss,  Kreinik braid, and metallic knitting yarn (the stuff that looks like a ladder) were attached with a zig-zag stitch. The edges were left raw for a little bit of texture.

I should have used a much firmer quilt batting than bamboo, and next time I will quilt the backing and top before attaching such heavy add-ons. In order to keep some of the leaves from flopping around, and to secure the base of the tree-branch, I used some "450 Quick Dry Adhesive" - it's clear and dries very quickly. Some of the leaves are raised from the surface with large beads, which are glued to the background and to the leaf itself.

While I was writing this, my husband was vacuuming my sewing room (Yes, he really was!) and found something I thought I had lost. So I added it to Semi-D.

As a bonus (and because I haven't kept up!), this is a photo of Stream - the piece I used for inspiration when I made the leaves. Stream is over two feet long, and is over seven years old!

Ready for the next challenge!

Kathy's Abstraction

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” -Oscar Wilde

My 12x12 group had the challenge theme- 'Abstraction'.  I really struggle with creating abstract art and this piece was a struggle throughout. I never quite got into it or as the quote says above- it never became 'dangerous'.  I completed the exercise, but still am not happy with the finished piece, even considered disposing of it.

 An interesting struggle was when I  begun hand embroidering circles haphazardly on the top but it looked AWFUL!  I had marked the circles on the fabric with a Pilot Frixion pen (draw with the pen, iron it and it disappears); I love these pens but when you iron it, it takes a little color with it.  To make lemonade out of my lemons, I made circles ALL OVER the piece, ironed it and made it a design element!

I am hoping my next one is more inspiring!

STRUCTURE

The next topic for the challenge......with not much notice.......

STRUCTURE

So what does this mean to you?? Routine, architecture, texture. Get your thinking caps on. 

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 :)