Monday, March 14, 2011

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

14 comments:

  1. Fantastic, Laurie. I love the face and of course the hair styling.

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  2. As usual..as very cool piece, Laurie! I'm WAY behind in blog/dashboard surfing!!! hope to catch up soon.

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  3. This quilt is amazing! You are a true artist! When I come across an art quilt such as this, it inspires me to dive back into quilting.

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  4. earthy and human, richly colored- great composition. i love it!

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  5. Love love love it... ingenious!

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  6. face vaguely reminds me of Joan Crawford,creativity is your thing good work

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  7. Those northern woods are one of my favorite places to be - and this quilt expresses the woods so beautifully! I can just transfer myself into this quilt.

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  8. very good work and imagination.

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  9. I've seen some of your quilts at MQN and I'm a fan!

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