Earth Mother

This Quilt called "Earth Mother" is the quilt I made for my local quilt guild, Northwoods Quilters, quilt challenge. There were three challenge fabrics-the gold crackle I have in the background, the small print with the cream background, which I also have in the background, and the dark green batik which I used for my applique. I stared at these fabrics through the summer of last year and made a Mr. Yucky face since all I could see was the green/gold of the Green Bay Packers. I love the Packers but already have a football themed quilt. Then in the fall of 2010 I found a new line of fabric at Quilters Haven in Menominee, MI where I live. It seemed to go with the challenge fabric because it had fun florals in various scales and an interesting stripe. I  had a renewed interest in this project!! I decided to go with a mother nature style figure as my raw edged fused applique. I have normally used black or dark brown for the applique but I figured why couldn't I use the nice rich green batik. The pattern I used for the woman's face was one I adapted from another pattern I had made-I changed the pattern by giving this woman long hair, a dress, a necklace and leaves in her hair. I began with a Ricky Timms Comvergence style pieced background using two of the challenge fabrics. I prefer to off center the figure because it is more aestetically appealing. I embellishished with silk flowers and leaves, leaf shaped buttons, rhinestones, a wooden button and  felt flowers with glitter. I had a blast with this project and feel it is "earthy" with the greens and browns and it has a calming affect on me. I won 2nd place in the local guild judging of the challenge quilts and all of these quilts will be included in our upcoming quilt show April 30-May 1, 2011 at St, Thomas Aquinas High School, Marinette, WI