A La My Favorite Artist
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| Feeling Good by Julie Broughan 47 1/2" x 28 1/2" |
The inspiration was the song "Feeling Good" by Julie's favorite musical artist, Nina Simone. Cotton fabric was used. There is some fusing. The sky letters were painted on. The sky quilting was done with Superior Threads Monopoly thread. The biggest challenge was to find someone who could spiralize the words. Her mother went to high school and college with a singer named Odetta. They sang in choir together. Julie grew up listing to her style of folk/blues/spiritual songs. Nina Simone is her favorite singer of this genre.
Fur, Feather and Fins
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| Lilac Breasted Roller by Julie Berry 17" x 12" |
Julie is a long time bird watcher and has always been intrigued by this little bird. When her husband had the opportunity to go to Africa, she asked him to get a photo that she could make into a quilt. The fabric is all cotton, both commercial and hand dyed. There are cotton, silk, rayon and poly threads in it and silk batting. She originally tried to make the quilt using Sandra Bruce's Material Matrix method. It didn't work on this quilt, but she'll try again.
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| Nowhere to Run by Kathryn Madison 27 1/2" x 44 1/2" |
Living in a place where wildfires have become a constant threat, Kat wanted to express that fear through the eyes of a young bear. Mama's gone and he has nowhere to run. She used PFD cotton, cotton/poly batting, recycled bed sheets, organza, tulle, fusible interfacing, misty fuse, yarn, cotton hand embroidery floss, cotton and poly thread, monofilament, fabric medium, Inktense watercolor blocks and pencils, Tsukineko Inks. The techniques were hand embroidery, hand applique, hand painting, machine couching, machine thread painting, machine applique, machine quilting. Bears visit Kat's property so this quilt was a labor of love from the painted background, the large thread painted cedar tree, rock, lichen and moss, to the cub, hand embroidered and pieced together. The organza flames presented the biggest challenge. She used misty fuse to layer different colors of yellow and orange to get shades of fire. The large "flames" in the foreground present the greatest challenge, that they be solid enough to stand alone, and also handle being stitched with monofilament to the rock. She had originally planned to face this quilt, but realized that the couched grass in the foreground was too thick to turn inside a facing. So she added thin binding and painted it to match the quilt. She designed this quilt to be compressed vertically, to give the feeling of being trapped.
Botanicals
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| Hydrangea Remix by Pat Gillings 34 1/2" x 34 1/2" |
The original design began with a personal photo of hydrangea blossoms. Pat modified the hydrangea photo using online Apps: Photoshop Elements, Pixlr, Artisco, MegaPhoto. MegaPhoto was used to create the unique designs. Artisco was used for coloring. Pixlr was used for the collage. Pat had the photo printed by Spoonflower on one yard piece on cotton. She quilted and used sequins and beads. Pat continues to experiment using Apps that she learned in Susie Monday's Ipad class. This design was not done in class, but later.
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| Lilacs by Lynda Lasich 29" x 34" |
After taking Donna Greenwald's workshop entitled Confetti, a quilt using that technique was high on Lynda's 'to do' list. She used cotton fabrics, hand painted fabrics, wool batting and foam rubber. While using the rotary cutter to make the lilac confetti, she sliced off the side of her left index finger, so her DNA is in the quilt somewhere.
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| Gone Too Soon - Spirit Lives On by Karle de Prosse 37" x 20" |
When Karle pruned
back her roses this last January, she placed a few buds in a vase. They all bloomed
beautifully, except one that just drooped over and died. Looking at it made her think of those that died young, before we were ready to let them go, and all
those dying of Covid-19. She decided to
make this piece in memorial. Then in the spring when Karle received her Covid
vaccine (and her mood picked up) she remembered that her belief is that one’s
spirit lives on after death. She decided to make the piece a diptych and add a
bright “spirit” piece to it. She connected
them with the ribbon representing the thin veil that connects us to the other
side. She used Batik fabric & her hand dyed fabrics. Silk organza ribbons, misty fuse, and Terial
Magic. Connecting the two pieces with the ribbon was a
bit more of a mind game than she expected with what goes where when sewing the
ribbon between the facing.
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| Suture by Tracy Visher 13 3/8" x 17 3/4" |
The inspiration for this quilt was a random desire to see if Tracy could make a "road" that disappeared into the distance. She used cotton fabric, tulle, perle cotton embroidery thread, Angelina fibers and acrylic paint. She attempted to make the "road" go over a hump before heading into the distance. Sewing the bulge was a challenge. She hadn't fussy cut before. She enjoyed using lots of tulle layers to add to the atmospheric perspective of the distant hills and plants.
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| Cezanne's recently discovered "Still Life with Artichokes" by Lynn Tubbe 12" x 12" |
The mini group Artitude chose an artichoke theme for the 2021 challenge. The artichoke was printed using "cheater cloth". Fabric pencils and inktense pencils were used for shading. Lynn did the grid work before attaching the fused scene. This technique works very well and avoids all the stopping and starting of grid work.
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| Artichokes from Space by Robin Hart 12" x 12" |
This is one of the Artitude artichoke quilts. This quilt was designed in Adobe Illustrator. It is a whole cloth design, output on a large format printer on cotton cloth and then free motion machine quilted with colors complementing the subject for texture and design. It is quilted, sandwiched with batting in between. Some of the members chose to incorporate the other theme of "Inspired by an Artist" and used humor in their subject matter. Robin preferred to do this straight, but with a spacy twist.
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| Artichoke Spray by Pat Gillings 12" x 12" |
This is one of the Artitude Artichoke quilts. Pat took a personal photo of an artichoke and modified it using online Apps Megaphoto & Procreate. She had Spoonflower print it on organic cotton sateen. It is faced with raw silk. Embroidery thread was used across the quilt to emphasize the design. The material was somewhat hard to work with. Spoonflower no longer uses so won't order again. Pat hoped to do more beading but she couldn't find suitable colors.
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| American Gothic Artichoke by Lynda Lasich 12" x 12" |
This is one of the Artitude Artichoke quilts. The challenge was making this fun and interesting. Cotton fabric, cotton batting and King Tut thread were used. After deciding to use American Gothic painting by Grant Wood from 1930, Lynda's daughter helped her incorporate a photo of an artichoke and place the botanical on the pitchfork.
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| "Picasachoke" by Michelle Peerson 12" x 12" |
This is one of the Artitude artichoke quilts and also qualifies for "A La My Favorite Artist". Michelle wanted to combine a botanical and an artist she loves - Pablo Picasso's art. She often visits Chateau Grimaldi in Antibes, France where he lived to see his art. His medium varied from paint, fibers, metal and more. The image was printed on cloth. Water color pencils were used for shading and blending. The challenge of the group was to finish at 12" x 12". This piece is 12 1/2" x 11 3/4".
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| Wait, what? Artichoke Tea?!? by Shelli Fried 12" x 12" |
This is one of the Artitude artichoke quilts. When Shelli started researching artichokes on-line, she discovered that several countries make a form of artichoke tea, including Vietnam, Mexico (they use the flower) and Croatia. Artichoke is also blended with other herbs and types of tea because of it's many potential health benefits. Since Shelli and her husband have a trip planned to Vietnam, she decided to share their recipe. She hopes to drink it while she's there. She used printing on fabric, commercial fabric, embroidery with crewl wool, quilting with clear Superior MonoPoly thread and Aurifil and Superior cotton threads. This was a fun project for her as she had never made a piece this small before. Shelli has not printed on fabric before and included it on a quilt. She did a mock-up in paper to make sure the proportions would work. Then she wrestled with her printer and finally got help from fellow member MaryLee to get the pictures onto fabric (thank you!!!). She looked for Vietnamese artichoke teabags online and in some Asian markets as she was going to include one in the piece and maybe dye some of the fabric. Unfortunately, she only found one option of 100 tea bags for $35+ so she skipped that idea.
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| Happy Little Artichoke Field by Julie Broughan 12" x 12" |
This is one of the Artitude artichoke quilts and also fits the "A La My Favorite Artist" as Bob Ross is Julie's favorite artist. Her inspiration was a birthday card. She used all cotton fabric and cotton embroidery floss. She did some quilting using Superior Threads Monopoly. Julie knew she had to showcase Bob Ross? She and her husband went to Castroville and took pictures of artichoke fileds. She manipulated a photo using and app called Go Art. She made a paper collage and had it printed onto fabric at Real Graphic in Grass Valley. She did get permission from the artist who make the greeting card to use and alter her design.
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| by Linda Siska 12" x 12" |
This is one of the Artitude artichoke quilts. Linda found a photo of an artichoke on the web and was captivated by the form and variation in colors. She used cotton fabric and batting and Poly thread. Linda manipulated the photo in her photo editing software, enhancing the color and creating a more painterly effect. She had the image printed on fabric at Real Graphic and quilted it to enhance the form.
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| Lil Nell's Artychokes by Giny Lee 12" x 12" |
This is one of the Artitude artichoke quilts. Ginny looked at artichoke prints and vintage produce labels for inspiration. She used cotton fabric, procion mx dyes, metallic threads, lumiere irridescent paints. After deciding to make artichoke prints, her first challenge was deciding on a different color palette from literal artichoke colors. Completing this quilt was the most challenging part of this quild and Ginny credits fellow member Trish Morris-Plise with encouraging her step by step. Thank you Trish!
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| Arti-choke with Arti-tude by Trish Morris-Plise 12" x 12" |
Trish used cotton fabric, wool batting, commercial cotton backing and cotton thread. It was fun to participate in a group project.
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| Field Flowers by Jan Petre 15" x 20" |
Jan wanted to do a botanical design giving the impression of flowers growing in a field. The background fabric is handmade using Setacolor transparent paints, leaves and sun painting with salt sprinkled on to give the appearance of dew or water droplets in a freshly watered garden. The fabric for the pink flowers was ice dyed. The flowers are raw edge appliqued to the background. She chose to use a vertical pseudo stem and leaf quilting design to give the illusion of flowers in a thick field of greenery.
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| Botanical by Lynn Tubbe 26" x 51" |
Lynn wanted to use the sun prints she made with the help of fellow MAQ members. She also wanted to try several painting techniques and used some leftover shibori prints. She used both machine and hand quilting/stitching. Painting on fabric was new to her and quilt a challenge. "Grow" is one of the words on this piece and very apt.
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| Perseverance by Sophia Day 19" x 23" |
The inspiration was an online image. Sophia used both commercial and hand dyed cotton fabric. She used Aurifil and Bottom Line thread. She had been wanting to learn to do a pieced, improv background. She also wanted something that would qualify as a modern quilt with a neutral background. Sophia moved the blocks around many times to get the shading right. The leaves are confetti pieces sandwiched between 2 pieces of water soluble stabilizer and then quilted. Once the stabilizer was washed away, the pieces were cut. The tree is all raw edge applique, with the leaves having a slight 3D effect.
Our member Joan Dyer had to downsize her stash. She had a sale and donated 1/2 of the proceeds to our group to use for Programs. Thank you Joan! In appreciation, all the members made Improv Star blocks, many using Joan's hand dyed fabrics. Member Ardy Tobin pieced the quilt and member Sue Marshall quilted it. Michelle Peerson presented it to Joan and they both wrapped up in it for a photo.
