Wine Time

27" x 35"

I have finally finished some new work. I started Grapes in early December and painted the grapes and tacked them together then added the leaves. Then I couldn't find any background that pleased me. Along came this month's Fast Friday Fabric Challenge: use a color scheme from a label or box to inspire a still life. Rhoda Forbes was the challenge host and listed excellent references to check out on the web about the use of color in advertising and the meaning(s) of various colors. As I searched around, I came to a Froot Loops box which used some colors similar to my grapes. I used the red and black from the box as inspiration for the background for the grapes. So thanks to FFFC and Rhoda I've actually made something other than a pet for the first time in ages!

New Work

PRICKLY PODS (26" x 36") I belong to an art quilt group through our local quilt guild. Last month we studied the work of ten fiber artists featured in The Masters. One of them is Caryl Bryer Fallert whose work I've admired for a long time. I enjoy the lovely curves she uses as well as the vibrant colors that appeal greatly to me. So this is my homage to her. I used some of my hand-dyed fabrics as well as some commercial batiks. When the top was done I had a wonderful time thread-painting on the "pods" and free-motion quilting the background. Note: Prickly Pods has been juried into In Full Bloom VI.

I hope this detail shot shows some of the quilting - it is very intense. I also added some golden spirals using 100 dernier silk thread.

DWELLINGS (16" x 20") This work was done for the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge a few months ago. The challenge was to use a monochromatic scheme. This was fun because I layered the front, batting and backing and quilted plain black fabric. Then I used Jacquard Discharge Paste to remove the color from selected areas and painted them various yellow tones. I've enjoyed Jean Auel's Earth Children's series and this piece makes me think of pre-historic peoples and the challenges they faced in finding shelter. Note: A second larger work, "Dwellings: Another Time, Another Place" was juried into the IQF special exhibit Tactile Architecture.

More Fast Friday Fabric Challenge Quilts

CROW TAKES A VACATION (14" x 21"). I posted earlier about the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge internet group. We have a monthly challenge to use a specific technique or color combination and create a quilt within a week. For this month, we were challenged to use complementary colors and begin working in a series.YOUR RHYTHM, MY BLUES (17" x 21"). This challenge was to use analogous colors and to show movement. This piece, along with BROKEN CONNECTIONS was made in an effort to express my feelings in helping a family member deal with the onset of Alzheimer's.

WIND (11.5" x 14"). This challenge was to show motion. I used a piece of "failed" hand-dyed fabric - meaning it didn't retain the vivid colors I prefer. But it created a nice background for this windy day piece.

ROANOKE COTTAGE (9" x 12"). Our challenge was to depict architecture in some fashion as well as to show depth. This was based on a picture of a home I used to own in Springfield, MO. It has a lot of thread-painting for the yard and flower beds.

BROKEN CONNECTIONS (14" x 18"). Our challenge was to use a zinger color and to express emotion.

FLOWERBURST (14" x 18"). We were challenged to make a monochromatic quilt . Mine turned into analogous colors. It had a bright yellow background and I had a suggestion to think about using purple if I made another similar quilt. I pulled out my fabric paints and painted the background with purple paint and it greatly improved the work.

BEACH FIRE (12" square). This month's goal was to use a surface design technique. My piece is painted with water colors, quilted and then I added some beading.

It is not Fast Friday - It is Christmas at the TITs. I am a member of a small art quilt group, the Textile Improvisation Team, aka TITs. We met at Christmas and played dirty Santa and Vivian ended up with my little ferns. This piece was quilted, then discharged with Jacquard Discharge Paste and painted.

Fast Friday Fabric Challenge

I belong to an art quilt group inspired by Project Runway. Someone got the notion two years ago on the Quiltart list to have a group with a monthly challenge. The resulting art quilt is, ideally, finished within one week and published on our Yahoo group and/or on our blog for critique. This group has been a wonderful learning tool for many of us. Since the group is getting ready to start its third year and has 25 new members I want to show some of my work during the past two years.

The very first challenge in September 2006 was to use fall colors and to attempt to show depth. My husband and I had just traveled to Alton, IL and one of our stops was a beautiful old cemetery. My first quilt was inspired by a picture I took and is called Final Fall. Those odd little beads are supposed to be headstones. This quilt is 9" x 12" since we originally had a goal of making journal size works.

The second challenge was to use the poem "Jabberwocky" for inspiration and to add texture. My little work is called "Jabberwocky and the Lost Green Pigs". Those odd little beads showed up again in this piece and are representing the lost green pigs. Anyway, that was the plan....

The next challenge was to make a quilt with a non-traditional or odd shape. I had just figured out a technique I call fractured quilts so I made one and added a thread-painted lizard that hadn't found a home. I'm happy to say I didn't add any of the green beads.

This November challenge was to be inspired by the first line of a book and to use value and contrast. I am a Dickens fan and pulled out Little Dorrit and used its first line: "Thirty years ago, Marseilles lay burning in the sun one day." I was in the middle of taking a Quilt University course on painting on fabric so decided to attempt to do this challenge in fabric paints. My piece was inspired by a painting of the Bay of Marseilles by Cezanne. For some reason, his work looks better than mine.

The next challenge was to create a still life, crop it and add form using the illusion of dimension. My Breakfast Table Still Life was inspired by this picture of what was sitting on my dining table.

After cropping the photo I made this:

I thought it would be fun to take the same elements and put them together in an abstract way so this is what the back of the quilt looks like: