Hint of Something New, Maybe!?

I've been drawing a lot lately. Doing very very little in fabric. But my  hint is about bringing my drawing art into my fabric piece. Something here might just show up in our next Challenge quilt the end of March. Maybe. We'll see.

First challenge 2012

Time for a new challenge:

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue.

Try to put all of this in a quiltlet, size is free and Í'd like to see them all at March 31st.
Good luck, Simone.

Other place, Other time

This quiltlet is a memory quilt of some of the trips (other places) I have been fortunate enough to go on this year. The central picture is an art photo by Gerhard Hillman of "naturesfaceart" http://www.naturesface.com.au/, that he printed onto silk. I bought a huge pile of these small works of art at his market stall in Cairns in November. I discussed with him turning these into quilts, and also bought a length of fabric printed in his unique imagery.

The surrounding pale fabrics I eco - dyed during a work / family trip to the Northern Territory in September. During the day I would collect leaf fall (with permission), and, at night, prepare the dye bundles in vinegar as per India Flint's instructions in her luscious book "Eco-dying". Each piece of silk fabric is thus a reminder and reflection of a particular days journey through Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield Park or Alice Springs. Best souvenirs I have ever brought back from a trip! These pieces are actually the less successful - I am going to make a different quilt with the more vibrant pieces.

The basic quilt construction and free-motion quilting technique was inspired by an article by Jenny Bowker in Machine Quilting Unlimited - an artist deservedly recognised for her fabulous quilts depicting life in "Other places". She suggested using the pattern of a printed piece of fabric, such as a floral, as the basis of a free-motion quilting design and then extending this into a plain surround.

The botanical diagram is torn from my old favourite "Web of Life" textbook (paper). The leaves are from cheap artificial flowers. I am claiming them as plastic, although I am not sure exactly what they are made of - certainly not silk, but something synthetic. The spine and stem were definitely plastic, anyway.

The trip to Kakadu in particular inspired the title of the quiltlet - one of the most amazing places I have ever experienced.

Dragon Reflections in Another Place

I am an avid reader of fantasy fiction.  As a child I was immersed in the Land of OZ series by LF Baum. Not only did I love the stories but I marveled at the fantastic illustrations of John R. Neill.  Later I traveled with Ursula Le Guin to Earthsea and Anne McCaffrey to meet the Dragon Riders of Pern.

The idea of a dragon theme quilt came to me immediately.  Trying to figure out how to incorporate plastic and paper into this project kept me from starting my quilt top for quite a while. I tried thinking in an abstract mixed media sense but kept coming back to my original theme.  Once I had the idea of a reflecting pool it all came together. 

The dragon reflection in the pool is drawn on card stock using colored pencils.  I quilted the batik fabric then covered the dragon image with the plastic from a Ziploc Freezer Bag.  I tried a cellophane type of bag first but the stitching perforated the plastic.  The plastic in the freezer bag is very pliable and stands up well to the machine quilting.

I worked on the quilted dragon head separately.  I drew the quilting details on the top fabric first using a pencil.  Next I layered the top with batting and a muslin backing.  I machine quilted the scales on the dragon head and neck.  Once that was complete I applied Daler Rowney acrylic inks over the top of the quilting, a technique I have wanted to try for a long time.  The inks covered the pencil lines, toned down the turquoise blue quilting thread and added a vibrant shimmer to the dragon.  I added 2 more layers of batting under the dragon's head to give it more dimension.  The head is appliqued it in place using a straight stitch.  

Lynn Cohen's "Other Place"

My last quilt was "Barcelona" and I showed my passing through Barcelona on my way to Israel. So the obvious "Other Place" for me was to follow up with a quilt depicting my five years living in Israel from 1961 - 1966. I was a young woman of 20 when I arrived there; I went for five weeks, which turned into five years. I met my husband to be at the second Kibbutz I stayed at. We married four months later. It seemed much longer. I learned to live the very quiet small farm collective life and was happy there for two years. We got pregnant on a visit home to California, returned and gave birth in Israel. Things got difficult when I had to leave my baby in the "Baby House" and have him raised mostly by women whose job it was to work there, while I worked elsewhere on the Kibbutz. The babies and children slept in their house, not their parents house at night. This did not work for me at all. When my son turned 18 months I took a vacation with him to California. I decided not to go back; and my husband followed a few months later.
That's the story behind the quilt. I will give it to my son this month for Chanukah, as a memento of his first year in Israel. His homeland.

The quilt is built of papers I either copied from materials I had at home; or letters and other written materials I asked for and got from an Israeli woman artist I met on line. It's all in Hebrew of course, printed and hand written. Israeli stamps were a gift from her as well, along with the bus tickets and zip code stamps, letters and envelopes. I cut out an outline of an map of Israel and drew it on the back of a brown paper grocery bag.
I collaged my papers (including photos on paper) onto the bag with glue. I sandwiched it with batting and backing fabric (blue and white: the colors of the Israeli flag); with the machine I sewed it in crazy quilt style. Then I hand sewed wool yarn in a blanket stitch around the outside of the map. I added turquoise beads I got for $1 at Michael's. It's my first paper quilt; and first map shaped quilt too.

The whole map of the state of Israel.

The top of the map shows my arrival date in Israel. And what I looked like when I first arrived.

The middle of the map shows where we lived and where I married and gave birth.

It also shows me pregnant.

The last photo shows my then husband holding our baby son

not long before I brought him/them to California in '66.

I hope you enjoyed traveling back to me to this "Other Place"!

Another time another place

A couple of weeks ago I went to an exhibition in a museum in The Hague. It was about Paris, city of modern art in1900-1960. Back then, when you were an artist, Paris was the place to be.
So my another place is Paris, where art changed and became more abstract.
The picture of the eiffeltower (1926) made by Robert Delaunay was resized on the computer before a copy was made. Then the copy was crumbled to make the paper more soft. Then it was ironed onto vlieseline.
So putting in paper was easy... My new technique was using plastic, and honestly: I dont think it was a great idea. Then machinequilting, and I added some paint. I am not totally done with it, but running out of time.
Best wishes for the new year to all of you!

.

Nazca Lines- Peru

The Nazca Lines can be found 400km south of Lima, along the Peruvian coastline. I flew over them in 2005. "Stretching across 500 square kilometers, the lines were etched by the Nazca people using the simple technique of digging shallow ditches and piling the earth along the edges to a height of 30cm. Many of these lines stretched for hundreds of metres, creating a spectacular collection of figures featuring more than 13,000 lines representing 18 birds as well as figures like the dog, the iguana lizard, the spider, the killer whale, the shark, the monkey and others, some of them hundreds of metres long"
Modern researchers think this was done over a period of 800 years from 370BC.
No-one knows for sure what the drawings and lines mean but some theories are that they are messages to other worlds, sacred roads or precise astronomical maps. You can read more about the fascinating Nazca lines here...http://www.world-mysteries.com/mpl_1.htm or here.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_Lines

Due to the fact my piece is brown with brown stitching, it doesn't photograph well.
The new (to me) technique I used is couching. I couched thread and a strip of plastic cut from a bag, the heavier line on the quilt which represents the Pan American Highway which passes through the Nazca Lines. Straight lines were done using various stitches. One of the figures, called The Hands, I free motion quilted. In real life The Hands is 45m long, one hand having 5 fingers, the other 4. The spiral too is free motion quilted. It is thought that the many spirals mark out where the ancient Nazca people built underground canals to irrigate the desert.
The paper I chose is an old dressmaking pattern, the lines on it precise and straight like the Nasca Lines and just the right colour. The paper was torn in pieces and adhered with gel medium (a plastic like glue). I did intend to do more stitching on top but my machine didn't like it, guess I need a teflon foot. I do like the crinkly textured effect that the tissue paper and gel medium gives and plan to do another Nazca Lines piece, next time doing more stitching before adding the paper and using a darker thread.
If you get a chance to go to South America, don't miss seeing the Nazca Lines.

another stampquilt

My contribution to Another place.

I recycled all the stamps I received this last year.

They are treated gel medium so they are sewable ( new english word?) and netted with tule and then they are stitched in place.

Most stamps are from places I've never been, but a lot are from places I once visited and bring back lovely memories.

Have a great, inspiring new year with lots of time for your creativity, Simone.

Another place

I haven't struggled with any of the previous challenges as much as with this one!
Another place... use paper... use plastic... use a new technique... pfff!
I thought and thought and was about to give up when, 2 days before we left on a 2 week holiday on Dec 24, I had an idea. I had about 1 hour to create my quilt, so it became a very small, postcard-sized piece.

Another place... is Tasmania - I have never been there yet, but would love to go. It's part of Australia, but it's literally a-part from Australia, and my idea is that it is quite different... I hope to be able to see it for myself soon!

The paper - is from an old atlas;
The new technique - is using paper in a quilt ;-) (yes, I'm cheating, I know)
The plastic - is absent, as I could not think of what to use...

I do like my little Tassie piece!

Another Place

Top left hand corner showing some quilted script- new for me.

Another Place, all made with homespuns. I pieced the centre then appliqued three sides of the green bucket on. The bucket is throwing out an assortment of junk including a mesh, beer bottle tops, plastic rings etc. It is simply quilted with the message written in the yellow border. I have never made a quilt with homespuns or tried to write anything on a quilt before.

I am fairly happy with it.

... another place ... coral reef

I paper pieced this block together - hadn't used this method before (or again).



And then laid decorative wool over the top, it didn't seem enough, so I sandwiched the wool between two layers of tulle, and quilted a swirling ocean; and then attached this over the top of the block.

If you look really hard, there is a pod of plastic whales in the background.

I am quite happy with my interpretation of ... another place ... coral reef.

Another Place - The Orient

The last three months of this year have been very busy for us, three family weddings, one of them our eldest daughter. It has not left a lot of time for stitching or pursuing our own interests.


I have cheated a little with this challenge, I also used it in another group challenge titled 'The Orient.' Combining both challenges was the only way I could complete them both on time.


Using both paper and plastic had me thinking and I wasn't sure how to incorporate both into this project. The silver moon is made from recycled plastic coated card.

Do you take sugar in your tea?

This is my quilt for another place. Drinking tea is very relaxing, it really takes you to 'another place'. Instead of using some paper, it is made entirely with paper, namely used tea bag envelopes. It also has some cording and a little plastic. It is not particularly clear on the picture, but it has a cup of tea and a teapot on it.

Another place- Jane

another place

strips cut and ready to weave

woven and ready to cut into more strips

I saw an article on a technique in Cloth Paper Scissors about layering with "Contact" sticky clear film. I tried this with some printed maps, a layout of our favourite camp ground, fabric and a sheet of scrabble scores, but the end result was a bit bland, so I cut it up, then found the sheet of printed stone soup I did for our group project, cut that so I could weave the laminated strips through, layered with mnore contact to hold it all together, it did need to be heldtogether somehow! then cut that into strips. As it is Christmas I used some lovely red spotty fabric we had made a dress out of last year, and did a very traditional log cabin design, stitched onto some stabiliser.
The finished piece has names of some places I have been, some favourite spots and some I would like to go to soon - all machine quilted onto the surface.
This is all about keeping touch with your roots but also branching out, the log cabin is a favourite and a starting point for most quilters, and the different technique is a form of travelling to another place.
I left a hole in the middle and put my passport in there for the promise of things to come.

a hint

A hint of things to come, I have actually finished early for a change, and am quite pleased with the result. What fun to try out a new technique, merry christmas to all, hope you are not all stuck in the kitchen on Sunday, but have lots of family and friends to have a great daywith, Jane

I have finally started ...

I am definitely working to a deadline this time around.

Preview

Here it is, a little teaser.

Marian.

"Another Place"... Hint ...by Lynn Cohen

My hint is a little obvious as to which other "place", perhaps, but the something new in technique won't be evident until the unveiling end of December! I did start and finish it today. However the idea has been gelling for some time and parts gathering has taken over a month as well. Now back to knitting!

Next Challenge is.......

....another place.....

Can be whatever size you are comfortable with and I would like you to use some paper and some plastic in your quilt top as well as a technique you haven't tried yet.

The gate to Park Güell

Last months theme for Art quilts around the world was Barcelona. To me, Barcelona means Gaudi, the Sagrada Familia and lustrous mozaiks. Some browsing on the net yielded a nice picture of the mozaik on the gate to Park Güell, inspired by which I made this little quilt.

The colored blocks are my own batik fabrics, the white is an commercial white on white and it has been patched and quilted by machine. I broke four (!) needles on the outer yellow edge....

Barcelona in 1 hour

So late, but done. It might get some tweaking over the next few days, but I have done it today in about 1 hour!

Inspired by Gaudi of course, and the building Casa Mila - with its curved features and what looks to be funky iron work. This is a very quickly made piece, but has the essence of an old dusty building with graceful soft lines- I hope!
The quilt has trapunto under some crinkled calico to give it an aged look, some machine quiting and then a bit of shiva oil sticks to give a patina type look.
The binding is bright blue, as many of the pictures I looked at had a brilliant blue sky.

Barcelona, Barcelona

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Barcelona is its fantastic architecture (in the original sense of the word), especially the work of Gaudi. I played around with a number of concepts, such as reproducing a detail of one of the fabulous mosaics, but became a bit overwhelmed. I then contemplated the other end of the spectrum with the simplicity of Picasso's famous Dove sketch. However I returned to archicture and a modified skyline of the city landmarks superimposed on a crumpled and distorted map of the city centre, using overlapping organza and playing with colour.

This is a scanned copy as I don't have access to a camera at present, which has added to the distortion, as well creating the "swirls" in the organza reflection.

Peladillas

My piece is called Peladillas, after the candy coated almonds that are a popular treat in Spain.

 I have to admit that Barcelona isn’t a place that I’ve longed to visit. For this challenge I tried our old friend Google and looked at hundreds of images and also checked through all the pictures my daughter took while there last year . She was impressed (obsessed?) with the fresh food markets in the places she and her friends visited  all over Europe, maybe as a cheap way of eating?

This is my interpretation of one of her photos.

Barcelona Mosaic

Whilst searching through all the amazing pictures of art and architecture; it was the incredible mosaic work that fascinated me.

And I have wanted to make a whole cloth quiltlet for a while; as well as doing a project using the Derwent inktense pencils. This seemed like the perfect challenge to put all of this together.

So, I quilted the flower pattern, and then coloured it in.

I think ... I am happy with it. Nice and bright.

Barcelona

I have never been to Spain, but Barcelona seems picturesque. In my research, growing citrus and fishing came up, as well as Gaudi and Miro. I decided to go with Miro.

Printed out a sheet of info on Miro's life on silk, laid this over an image of the city; used some citrus and fish print and some orange buttons for the right hand third, and interpreted some of Miro's work into ATC sized pieces, which I have added.

I am happy with the results.

In 1961 at the age of 20

I passed through Barcelona after traveling by car from California to NY; by ship from NY to Malaga, Spain; by train from Malaga through Barcelona Spain...

from Barcelona to Marseille, France by train; where I boarded a small Greek Ship to Israel.

This is a letter I wrote to my parents about changing my plans regarding my travels to Europe, and going to Israel instead, first...

A five week trip to Israel turned into five years there, but that is an all together different story...but still the story of how it was I came to "pass through Barcelona"...

This art quilt is a simple process of iron on direct transferring of photos and journal excerpts to plain muslin cloth; using letter stamps, marking pens, machine sewing marking out my route, hand stitches of French knots and straight stitches; and buttons for added embellishments! Oh, the sweater I am wearing in that photo of me in Malaga, Spain I got in Mexico during another sojourn before this bigger trip began!

Thank you for this challenge that a led me down memory lane of my long ago youthful adventures! What fun, then and now!

The streets of Barcelona

This is the map of Barcelona, although a simplefied version of it.

Marloes made this challenge a little bit harder for me, because she didn't allow me to use photographs, which I useally do for this group.

I hope to visit this magnificent city one day and know a little bit of the streetplan.

This song is in my head since I made this quiltlet:

the Dutch group The Nits are playing Sketches of Spain.

You have have to google yourself because I can't figure out how to get the video here.

Handdyed cotton, machine pieced and quilted.

Casa Mila Entryway - Chris

I am fascinated by the works of Antoni Gaudi.  His use of heavy structural elements against such delicate details intrigues me.  When I started this challenge I had planned to create a project that focused on the colorful and delicate attributes of his buildings and the Park Guell.  But my eyes kept drifting back to the structure, the incredible metalwork and columns supporting the viaducts of the Park Guell.  I found my inspiration from a picture of the entrance doorway to Casa Mila (La Pedrera) taken at night.  There was a warm glow of light coming from the building.

I created this piece on white cotton fabric using black Pigma markers, colored pencils and Jacquard Lumiere metallic gold paint. The quilting was done with Superior Threads black "Glitter", a holographic thread, and YLI invisible clear thread.

Joan Miro

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Mir%C3%B3

"Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride. In numerous interviews dating from the 1930s onwards, Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting methods as a way of supporting bourgeois society, and famously declared an "assassination of painting" in favour of upsetting the visual elements of established painting"

I really couldn't get into this theme. I thought about Gaudi, Bullfighting, the olympics and out of desperation settled on Miro. I painted some dampened fabric, then used freezer paper stencils for the primary coloured shapes, drew some lines with a black sharpie and stamped some swirls. Did some background quilting which immediately dulled the black sharpie lines so stitched over them in black, then added some green on some of the quilting lines with a sharpie. The piece is finished with a facing. I will try more fabric painting in the future and love the crisp edge achieved with the freezer paper stencil. The quilting is a bit dodgy as it was done on my ancient machine which I haven't used for ages (my daughter has borrowed my good machine - and wants to keep it :-)

Blue Rose

My Barcelona quilt Blue Rose is inspired by Gaudí's Rose Window in the Sagrada Familía church:


(source: www.barcelona.de)

The quilt is made using the reverse applique technique, with turquoise handdyed cotton sateen from Dyed and Gone to Heaven behind black cotton. It is machine quilted and has a facing finish.





(cross-posted to Linda Robertus, textile art)