Yesterday MAQ had its first challenge reveal for 2013. The challege catagories are Going in Circles, Floral Fantasy and Inspired by a Famous Piece of Art. During the reveal, members were able to cast their vote for Best Interpretation of Challenge, Best Original Design, Best use of Color and Viewers Choice.



Going in Circles

Robin Hart
"The Great Spiral Whirlpool Galaxy"
38.25" x 47.25"
Inspired by Hubble telescope images of spiral galaxies.  Materials used are batik fabrics, cotton and polyester threads, a lot of stitching, appliqué, cotton batting and some fabric paint. 

Won Best Interpretation of Challenge.

Lorri Wolfe
"Orion's Nebula"
18" x 25"
I am taking an astronomy class and one of the first things I saw thru the telescope was Orion and its nebula star nursery.

Joan Dyer
"Ocean Planet"
20.5" x 36"
The background fabric was freely cut and thin black strips were inserted irregularly.  The panel was machine quilted with a walking foot with several different threads. Then the circle was appliquéd by hand onto the background.

Patricia Porter
"Circling Around"
23" x 23"
Inspired by Sonia Delaunay, a 20th. century Parisian graphic artist.  I've created a composition of circles and half circles to show movement with intermittent lines to rest the eye.  The palette is a warm monotone of red/orange with an accent of cool blue/violet compliment. The variety of values works to enhance the overall layout of "Circling Around"

Ann Sanderson
"Catch of the Day"
29" x 28"
Inspired by what to do with fun fabrics.  I set out to play with a stack of "fun fabrics".  My idea was to create interesting shapes on a black background and then add circles for the theme.  I used hand printed fabrics & some commercial fabrics.  Hand dyed thread used for surface embellishment.

Dee Jones
"Smoke Signals"
16" x 23"
Working with velvet proved challenging, especially on small circles.  Several backing fabrics tried. Decorative machine stitching didn't work well either.  The heavy silk background called for patience also. Materials use: heavy silk tie fabric, silk ties, velvet, crochet chain, beads, blood, sweat and naughty words.

Darlynn Evans

"Astral Fantasy"

34" x 34"

Inspired by Libby Lehman circle quilts.  This is my first attempt at reverse appliqué.  I used lighter colors underneath and darker on top.  I actually made two tops.  One dark and one light and layered them on top of each other before I did the cut aways. It was a surprise to see what I would get. I like the look of transparency.  It's a wedding gift for my niece.

Claudia Sinsel

"Crop Circles"

34" x 42.50"

Inspired by shapes of crops viewed from a plane. I did some sketches and when the challenge of "Going in Circles" came up, I knew I had the perfect subject.  All the crop shapes were rough edge appliquéd and stitched down with Wonder Invisible thread and quilted with cotton thread.

Nan Curry

"Triangles Circles and Squares, ‘Oh My’"

12" x 19"

Inspired by my burlap bag!  I wanted to make a very primitive quilt.  All raw edge machine appliqué, hand & machine quilting, hand embroidery.

Heidi Emmett
"Calculating Circles"
16.5" x 33"
When the challenge came out, I gathered materials and just started creating circles, hand work in the evenings. I enjoyed creating all the textures using wools, embroidery floss, glass beads and buttons.

Margaret Vodicka
"Apollo"
18" circle
Inspired by Susan Carlson fabric sun collage pattern in her book. As I chose materials among my scraps of material, I used mostly warm colors to represent the warmth of our sun and applied what I recently learned about color value. I use a wire wreath frame to create a circular shape that makes this project an appropriate challenge for Going in Circles.

Linda Waddle
"Bubble Up"
16.5" x 25"
A little piece of hand dye printed in a Jane Dunnewold class led to this small quilt.  Dynaflo paints stamped, a glimmer of gold leaf and stitching to add depth and layers. Tried raw edge layered fabric as construction technique.

Floral Fantasy

Ginny Lee
"Happy Mother's Day"
24" x 30"
Inspired by Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art by C. June Barnes. I wanted to make a dimensional item using the silk suit my mother wore at my wedding in 1967.  I was able to construct my container in the style of the ceramist, Peter Voulkos. I used Pellon Peltex 70 Ultra Firm Stabilizer for the container. The flowers are made out of silks and were treated with Terial Arts, to help prevent fraying.

Joan Toth
"Fleur de Jour"
32" x 30.5"
Inspired by my love of still life and flowers. Materials used were cotton batting, painted muslin and polyester threads. 

Gail Sims
"Secret Garden"
6.5" x 6.5" frame
Inspired by hand screened silk that looked like a tiled garden path. I've never worked on such a small scale.  I enjoyed the way the tiny beads created an illusion of a flowering bush and the silk embroidery thread was wonderful to work with. The challenge was to get something I liked to fit in a small shadowbox frame.

Pam Berry
"Flower in the Round"
30" round
Inspired by bowls in Exploring Dimensional Quilt Art by C. June Barnes.This was an engineering nightmare, but it was really fun. It started with an article in Quilt Art that used heavy embroidery stabilizer to make vases.  I sandwiched my batik strips along with trim and Angelina Fiber. You don't wash out all the stabilizer! I used poly silk, assortment of batiks, heavy machine embroidery stabilizer.

Darlynn Evans
"Cactus Flower"
22" x 30"
Won Viewers Choice

Inspired by photo taken in Chandler, Arizona. I had some pictures of cactus flowers taken at my brother's house in Arizona.  I decided to kill 3 birds with one stone.  Make a sample, fulfill a challenge requirement and make a quilt for my brother's new house.



Edith Gregersen
"My Flower Garden"
52" x 46"
This quilt is a result of a desire to put three dimensional flowers on my quilt.  The flowers are created by folded, ruffled fabric sewn in a spiral to a white base with green fabric stems and leaves.  The rick-rack was added for color and to cover the base threads.  The yo-yo rounds in the center of the flowers adds more contrasting colors. Fun to make!

Lynn Tubbe

"Cherries Jubilee"

36" x 56"

Won Best Original Design

Inspired by Monet and Impressionism. My own drawing and original design.  I used hand dyed and commercial cottons.  Prismacolor colored pencils and fused appliqué technique.  I attempted pebbling quilting an entire background for the first time . . . whew!  My first experience using colored pencils for added shades of pink.

Cathy Stone

"Enchanted Evening Eye-Ris"

19" x 30.5"

Inspired by my own brain & Ingrid's fat quarter of eyeball fabric. I designed the flower and wanted to use all silks. First challenge: appliquéing silk with fuse-a-knit on the back to reduce fraying is difficult. While I was assembling the flower, I remembered a FQ of eyeball fabric I had.  I decided if this was to be a fantasy piece, I would go all out. So little eyeballs appear here and there.  Second challenge: the wool batting is the puffiest wool I have ever worked with.  I quilted things I had not planned on quilting just to keep the flower from looking like a total puffball.

Inspired by a Famous Piece of Art

Ardy Tobin
"Terre et Mer"
20" x 29"
Won Best use of Color"

Inspired by Corona II: by Caryl Bryer Fallert 1989. I enlarged my own drawing, then traced the design on the sticky side of regular Heat and Bond. The pieces cut from the Heat and Bond were fused to the wrong side of the Ombre fabric, then cut out with a 1/4" seam allowance.  I stitched the various components in units, then either pieced or "appliquilted" them together.  This was my first attempt at feathers.  Thank you Cathy Stone!

Loretta White

"Late Winter Placer Pasture"

20" x 17"

"Tahiti Landscape" by Henri Matisse was my inspiration.  My challenge was to create a landscape using an impressionism/minimalism style, that would present an inviting depth of field and winter mood. I did quick piece appliqué, a technique I learned from Rose Hughes. I sketched the pasture plein air and drew Chance (horse) from a photo I took.  I've done few landscapes and really like this one because it's personal.  

Michelle Peerson
"Georgia"
22" x 35"
Inspired by Georgia O'Keefe study in color-Houston.  I have a copy of this art work in my home.  The original hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston.  I was most inspired by the colors.  Materials used are batiks, hand dyed fabrics.  Using irregular sized strips of duplicate paint strokes.  Carol Bryer Fallert rayon Brights threads.