Here is the last 12 x 12 challenge. It was titled “Spring Fling.” My inspiration was a photo taken at Jamie and Natascha’s wedding rehearsal three years ago by their friend, Yevette.
In Spring A Young Man’s Fancy Turns To Love
It was a lovely wedding.
The Uncommon Threads art quilt group’s latest challenge is “My Favorite Tree.” At first I found that trying to limit myself to just one tree was very hard, but as I reviewed some of my old photographs I realized that I really do have a favorite. Or did. A Wahoo tree (Euonymus atropurpureus), native to this area. The tree starts in the Spring with green leaves first, then flowers with rather insignificant small brown flowers and in the fall it’s foliage is red and gold with little red pods opening to red berries. In the winter we used to see a flock of Cedar Wax Wing birds feast and strip it of the berries in just a few hours.
In 2009 we were hit with a terrible ice storm in which you could literally hear tree limbs cracking and breaking and falling. It was a terrible two days. When it was all over the beautiful little Wahoo tree in my back yard had “exploded” and all the branches were broken. All that was left was a trunk.
My first attempt was to print a photo image of the Wahoo foliage onto canvas and then fuse another photo image of the broken trunk onto that. I was not particularly thrilled with this so used it for the back.
Next I used a purchased hand dyed fabric on Etsy for the back ground and fused to it a free hand cut out of the trunk in brown fabric. The trunk, branch and berries are embellished with machine embroidery. then quilted with a free hand leaf motif.
“Boo Hoo Wahoo”
Lesson learned – don’t quilt through the canvas. The needle leaves holes. You can see the other members work on our UT blog here. Enjoy.
The latest challenge in the Uncommon Treads Art Quilt group was chosen by Carol Bormann and entitled “Transportation.” I really felt challenged to come up with an idea and in trying to think of some unusual mode I decided on a woman carrying a baby on her back. Obviously, the woman doesn’t get any kind of transportation but the baby sure does.
The work of the other members can be seen here.
The latest Uncommon Treads challenge was Hot and Dry. Dianna Callahan chose that title since we have experienced a severe drought this summer. You can see the other participants works here.
Mine was inspired by my dead and dying landscape, thirsty animals, and the dying trees in the forests. If I were to make it again, I’d put a window with bars on the house because I felt like a prisoner in my own home. It was so hot one only went outside when it was absolutely necessary. The worst day was a Saturday that actually was “106 in the Shade ” when the sun felt unbearable and the wind felt like I was standing in front of a blast furnace. Thank goodness, we’ve finally had some rain and some of the landscape has revised.
R,W,&B and Patriotic is the theme of the Uncommon Threads 12 x 12’s current challenge. The “reveal” was today at the monthly meeting but I’m currently in New Mexico and won’t see everyone’s work until it’s posted on the UT blog. Here is mine. This is my patriotic statement WITH which I know some will disagree but I feel that I’m just as patriotic as the next person. I just happen to be anti war. It’s entitled, “Make Peace, Not War.”
The latest Uncommon Threads challenge was chosen by Cathy Jeffery which had to be about the Beatles and it had to have some white in it. Being an old fart and not in love with the Beatles, this was a tough one for me as it seemed to be for the other members of my generation. Three of us considered the Yellow Submarine but trashed that idea and did something else. I can’t remember what inspired me but I did the following of John Lennon. I’ve always wanted to try this technique in paper but never got around to it so with the aid of tracing paper and tweezers I’ve done it in fabric. The quilting doesn’t really show, but it’s there; white on white.
John
And here’s a composite of the groups’ 12 x 12s. They’ll be posted on the UT blog site next week. Our next challenge will have to do with the 4th of July and be red, white and blue. I’m stumped.
The latest Uncommon Threads challenge was Music. While at our retreat last fall,I played with some “birdie” fabric and lacy stuff that Merrilee brought, then put it away. How serendipitous! I pulled it out and created my challenge from what she gave me.
The dots are beads and the blue wings are hand embroidered with metallic thread. A real nightingale is just another brown bird, but with such a beautiful name I think it should be more colorful! My free hand machine quilting is getting better but still not what I want it to be.
The title, “A Nightingale Sings” is from the title of the song, “A Nightingale Sings in Barkley Square.” You should hear Nat King Cole sing it. Oh my! You can view the rest of the groups’ work here.
The latest Uncommon Threads Challenge was “Peaceful Waters” which happens to be the title of a song written by Roberta Ranney’s husband, Bob.
I used this pictures of a Heron that I took at sunrise last year down at our neighborhood boat ramp.
I could have tried dyeing fabric for the background, but that seemed tedious so I found some hand dyed that I bought a number of years ago and have been saving for a special occasion. This is the occasion. I printed the heron onto fabric and then machine embroidered all over it and fused “him” and the dock to the background.
You can see all the Peaceful Water challenges on the Uncommon Threads blog. Click here.
My art quilt group’s latest 12 x 12 challenge was “Your Totem.” I googled “Native American Totems” and found this site. As I read the list I would think “maybe” then on down the list another “maybe” but when I got to the Flamingo I knew immediately that that was the one and that I needn’t go further!
In a manner of speaking it’s after Nora Butler’s flamingo that I’ve worn on a T-short for many years.
But then, thinking more about totems, I realized that I can have more than one so I made another 12 x 12 and inserted the flamingo into a poppy that I’ve photographed.
Of course, both flamingos are wearing jewelry. For your information, the flamingo stands for – heart healing, psychic, people person, and flirtatious. HA! You can see everyone’s totems on the UT blog.
The Uncommon Threads group revealed their 12″x12″ Bittersweet challenge last week. If you remember this was the picture:
It’s a picture of bittersweet in my friend, Jeanie’s garden that I took last fall. Don’t ask me now why the stems are blue. That’s either just the way they were or I manipulated it in Photoshop Elements. This is what I came up with for my 12 x 12:
Small “tiles” of fabric were torn or cut, mosaicked together for the background, and quilted to the batting to hold them all in place. Then, the blue lines and circles were fused on top. The back was applied, pillow case fashion, and the whole piece was held together with some decorative stitching and beads applied to the circles. Phew!
All the rest of the UT Bittersweets can be seen on their blog. Click here. Our next challenge is “Totems” chosen by Sheryl Schleicher. I’ve already got mine in progress. What fun!!
I am a fiber artist whose always been in love with anything "fuzzy." My evolution has been from a weaver to knitter to silk painter to quilter. I knit for relaxation and currently do pieced, fused, and/or appliqued, art quilts inspired by my photographs.
Knitting
Sewing Strips
SEWING MACHINE SETUP
EmPrint 