Art Quilts Around The World: Macro Challenge

 I am involved in an online art quilt group called Art Quilts Around the World. www.aroundtheworldin20quilts.blogspot.com is the official site. We have a challenge every other month that one designated member selects. This challenge was called "macro" which means close up and the size of the finished quilt is 11.5' x 16.5." I chose to deviate from my normal portrait quilt style and I went out into my garden in late October. I live in gardening Zone 4 and I LOVE my castor bean plant which is an annual I purchase each year for my garden. I love this plant because it is huge at 10 feet by October and it gives a tropical vibe to my garden. I also love the reddish pink stems and leaf veins.

To make the quilt I photographed a leaf close up. I chose a green batik for the background and a magenta batik for the veins. I then thread painted the textured detail of the leaves with three colors of Sulky Blendables 30 weight thread. I used a pink color for the veins, a yellow green for the horizontal lines/borders and a medium green for the inner detail. The quilt kind looks like the inside of an umbrella or a spider web.

I selected a bright psychedelic print for the binding since the quilt was sort of boring to me. I thought about embellishing the quilt since it was plain but the actual leaf was not glittery or shiny so I left. Is this a favorite quilt of mine-no but it may fit into an abstract category in a quilt show. Maybe...

This photo is of the actual plant in my garden. I enjoy it's hugeness and am sad each fall when the frost takes it out.

The next challenge is "Art Nouveau" and I am again challenge not by the subject but by the limitations of the small size to show all the details of this style of art. This one is due Jan. 31, 2014.

Lady Liberty

This quilt called "Lady Liberty" is in the same style as my mermaid quilt in which I am able to have lots of background fabrics with a figure over the top. I like the image of the Statue of Liberty and I love red, white and blue fabrics and I didn't really have a 4th Of July quilt for my wall so it HAD to be made!! Most fabrics were from my stash with a few newbies. I was inspired by my local church's weekly bulletin from last 4th of July. But I changed the hat, the face, the clothes and added the stars and tablet. I used 30 different fabrics and places them with the light colors in the middle so when I placed the applique over the pieced background the image would be visible. I used patriotic  colors of Sulky thread to quilt the piece and sewed red, white and blue buttons in 3 sizes around the quilt. I added a bit of blue glitter to the edges of the gown and to the "I" because I didn't think it stood out enough. I may add a few rhinestones for the fun factor!! This quilt is for my wall and I don't think it's "juried" show material just a fun little project!!

Christmas Postcards

I had a moment when I organized my studio and found this great Christmas themed batik. I decided to make 10 postcards since the Fast2Fuse was already cut out to size. I machine quilted and edged the cards with Sulky Blendables thread in the Christmas colors thread. I then had fun with gliiter nail polish and glitter/glue and flashed them up a bit. The back is a solid white with a hint of glimmer. I find that it's just easier at the Post Office to mail them in a envelope than to have the drama of hand cancelling and freaking the front desk people at the P.O.  Each card is slightly different depending on the fabric cuts-some are more green and some are more red.

New Fabric Postcards

I decided to make a few (12) more fabric postcards to sell or use as greeting cards. I used the same technique of strip piecing gradations of one/two colors but laid the strips on the diagonal. I used the same pattern pieces from the quilts in my last post to create the eyes and nose. I embellished the eyes with glitter nail polish (hooray for OPI and Creative Nail polish!!!) and finished the edges with a decorative stitch and Sulky Blendables thread. I do six at a time so it's not a Oshkosh B'Gosh factory job flashback!! They are filled with Fast2Fuse and I used a beige batik on the back because the batik doesn't have a transparency like some solid woven fabrics do. I keep the background fabric very simple so if the card is actually used as a postcard with writing the lettering is visable. These postcards are easy to complete and you feel like you accomplished something in a short amount of time.