Steampunk
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| "Steampunk Halloween" By Lynn Tubbe 33" x 43" When Lynn found this commercial fabric called "The Ghastlies," she realized that she could finally make a Halloween quilt that she would enjoy seeing in her home. No orange and black for her! She really had fun with this steampunk theme. She used commercial, dyed, painted, and stenciled fabrics (thanks, Ginny and Marylee!), metal gears, keys, watch faces, various yarns and ribbons, and raffia. |
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| "Steampunk Calliope" by Marylee Drake 35 1/2"x 41" Marylee was inspired by a stained glass window that reminded her of a jukebox. This calliope produces music by sending steam or compressed air through a large whistle, and Marylee sees it as music for a steampunk festival. The quilting matches the background fabric and the shape of the gears. Marylee says that if she makes something like this again, she will make some design changes to create more visual dimension as this one seems really flat to her. She would also add tubes for whistles. Marylee used cotton printed and hand-dyed fabrics, drawn and fused gears, satin cording, metal chain, and rainbow variegated poly-thread for the machine quilting. |
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| "Phineas" By Trish Morris-Plise 36" x 40" Photos from books and the internet were the source of Trish's inspiration. She most enjoyed being able to bring facts from nature and blend them with the industrial whimsy of steampunk. This piece shows rivets, pullies with gears, and the imaginative world of a seahorse clad in armor. Trish used hand-dyed and commercial fabrics, leather rope, metallic vinyl, tulle, beads, suede rope, typewriter keys, and cutouts from her Cricut cutter. |
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| "Steampunk Peacock" By Pat Gillings 32" x 45" Pat interprets steampunk to be a fantasy of Victorian times and mechanism. In this quilt, she combined animals with machines to represent the steampunk genre. Pat had seen gowns with peacock feathers on dress forms and decided to combine the two in her design. Pat used various shiny materials, gears, trims, and beads. |
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| "Steampunk" by Robin Hart 14" x 30 1/2" When the challenges were posted for 2019, Robin's mini group, Artitude, decided on Steampunk as the group challenge. Steampunk is a subject that uses 19th century technology such as steam engines, gears and air balloons and combines them into a science fantasy genre. In the beginning, Robin had trouble coming up with a suitable subject for this challenge. When she let herself go and decided to do something for the fun of it, she found her inspiration by looking up steampunk ideas on a pubic domain photo site. She created her design in Adobe Illustrator and had it output as a whole cloth design on cotton. She then thread painted and free motion quilted the main quilt. Robin thought it would be cool to have the quilt suspended from a zeppelin, which she created the same way as the main quilt then stuffed so it would have volume. Robin then added strips of faux leather to tether the zeppelin and the quilt together. |
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| "Music for a Lifetime" by Karin Polli 29 1/2" x 18 3/4" Karin watched a video about a man who could no longer talk because he had Alzheimers. He lived in a care activity, but was invited to go to a barbershop music concert put on by his old barbershop quartet and his family. He was called up to the stage and asked to sing with the group. While he could no longer talk, he could still sing all the old songs. Karin says that music of all of us is a lifetime experience. It is used as a therapy for dementia patients because they can still relate to music from their past. Care facilities often have pianos and people will come in and play. It seems it might be better to have something available daily, something like a jukebox. In this quilt, Karin has created a player organ based on the science of the Victorian times when machines were run by gears, chains, pulleys and steam. She used cotton fabric, chiffon, copper foil, beads, metal gears and numbers, chain and cotton batting. She says that getting the scale right was the most challenging part. |
Trees
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| "Homage to Trees" by Sandi Lauher 21" x 32" In this quilt, Sandi depicts a tree that represents all trees, living through its seasonal changes. This quilt was inspired by a large fig tree that was growing in Sandi's yard when she was a child. That fig tree was a place of refuge for her and a place of fun as there was a wooden swing that hung from the tree. Sandi collected the figs in the summer and leaves in the fall. She found it challenging to line up the four rectangles, aligning the tree parts. Sandi using cotton fabrics and batting, polyester thread, thread remnants, Dye-No-Flow dye and beads. |
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| "Intreegued" by Sue Serrano 26" x 20 1/2" Sue has been intrigued by this tree on her property since she first saw it. She dubbed it the Halloween tree. As the tree was dead, her husband wanted to cut it down, but Sue said "No!" There was something about this tree that called to her. In the pasture where it stands, it is a commanding, albeit spooky, presence. It is much ganglier than this portrayal, and darker, having no life. To Sue, it represents both beauty and death. She had originally intended to create a much larger quilt with an appliquéd tree, but this one manifested itself to her. With this change in plans, the challenge shifted to finding the perfect background fabric. After auditioning 'millions' of fabrics, a friend gifted her a piece of her hand-dyed fabric that had every element that Sue, and the tree, wanted. She used hand-dyed fabric, cotton and rayon threads, 80-20 batting; the 'lacey' tree was created by stitching yarns and roving on water-soluble Solvy. |
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| "Southern Oaks" by Julie Berry 28"x20 1/2" The inspiration for this quilt is a photograph taken by Julie's husband at Oat Alley Plantation. Julie loves the structure of oak trees and the graceful swoop of their branches. She wanted the trees to appear in a woodland setting. The area around the trees is very manicured so Julie added the wildland scenery in the foreground. Julie had the photograph printed on pima cotton. The batting is Dream Orient (a blend of bamboo, silk, tencel and cotton). She used cotton and rayon thread, painted cheesecloth on the trunk for added texture, and included fluffy threads/yarn to give more definition to the moss. |
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| "A Hole in One" Patty Blesso 21" x 30" Patty and her brother came upon this tree stump white hiking on Mt. Shasta. Patty thought the hole in the tree was very unique and would be a great art quilt, so she took a picture of it. She used many different techniques and materials to make the trees. The sand path was her biggest challenge. Patty used sand, puff paint, Terial Magic, yarns, tulle, stabilizer, Fabric Magic, paints, cotton thread and fabrics. |
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| "In the Shadow of Giants: a Tribute to the California Redwoods" by Robin Hart 29" x 42 1/2" Ten years ago, Robin visited the great redwoods in the northwestern part of California. She was awestruck by the grandeur and majesty of these beautiful, towering giants. It was a magical and holy experience, as if she were standing in a green cathedral of living trees. She took many photographs of the area, planning to do a painting of them in the future. All these years later, when Robin saw the challenge of 'trees,' she decided that now was the time to act. With this quilt, Robin combines her talent as a fine artist with the art of quilting. She uses her painting skills in PhotoShop to create her subject matter then outputs the painting on fabric. Using one of her photos as inspiration, Robin set about painting the forest digitally, a process that took a month and a half to do. It took another month to thread paint and free motion quilt the forest with colors complementing the subject for texture and design. |
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| "Moon Tree and the Four Elements" by Linda Siska 30" x 57 1/2" This quilt is comprised of six parts -- a tree outlined against a satin moon in the top part, and five hanging banners representing the four elements. The most difficult part for Linda was figuring out how to connect the top and bottom portions of the quilt. After considering 'a hundred different options,' Linda decided to connect the sections with ribbons, sliding a branch in the space between them. She used satin fabric for the moon, thread painting on tulle for the tree, hand-felted wool for the leaves, and a variety of fabrics, beads, foil, Swarovski crystals, and ribbon. For the batting, Linda used craft felt. Metal bars were inserted in both top and bottom parts of the quilt to prevent sagging. |
A Special Quilt for a Special Lady
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Ardy Tobin, one of the founding members of Mountain Art Quilters recently moved 'out of the hood,' not so far that she cannot attend meetings on occasion, but far enough that every month is a bit too much. The members of Mountain Art Quilters felt that she needed a commemorative quilt to celebrate her new home. The members each created a house block for this special quilt. Joan Dyer volunteered to piece the diverse blocks into a cohesive whole, and resident longarm quilter, Karla Rogers, volunteered to do the rest. The result is this wonderful, colorful, unique quilt. |
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Mountain Art Quilters president, Trish Morris Plise, presented Ardy with her surprise quilt. Ardy was obviously overcome. |
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Karla explained the quilting process and read aloud the lovely label on the back of the quilt. Ardy, it is our hope that this quilt finds a special place in your heart as you have found one in ours. |
With special thanks to Blue Line Arts for hosting our October meeting!
