Breakthrough

And here is my Breakthrough quilt, just in time :-). The idea behind this is twofold, one is colors as breaking through the dreary dull black life. The other is like an earthquake, the lava breaking through the earth. Although for the second idea, I should have used orange instead of pink. Anyway, this is what I came up with for this theme.

May theme

Although I have not yet completed my April theme I am posting the new theme for those who want to start thinking about it. The theme for May is: About Turn.

No idea of a title

I can not think of title

I wanted to try inserting  very thin strips after reading about the technique. I was not very successful as they vary in width. However since finishing this piece I went back and reread the explanation and had another much more successful go at it on a 6 inch square.

I chose the swan fabric which was a batik I overdyed to represent a peaceful environment. The inserted strips were to represent us breaking up/polluting the environment. These strips were a striped fabric that I also overdyed. I have produced an unexciting piece but I learnt a lot doing it.

For the moment I will not be posting quilts.  I need some headspace for a couple of bigger pieces of work and at present am trying to resolve having no kitchen roof!

Two Roads Diverged - Kelly

Well, it is finally done. 

I did two sessions of painted shibori to make the woods. The cut out the two roads diverging.  The "leaves" and "branches" were made with a brayer wrapped with a rubber band.  I did some additional painting to creat the undergrowth by the road.  The black marks on the aspen trees were done with a Pigma pen.

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is my favorite poem and my life story all rolled into one.  It is short so I want to share it after the photo.

Two Roads Diverged - Kelly Hendrickson

The Road Not Taken

Robert Frost

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

YEAH!!!! I'm back!!

Blogger wouldn't let me post unless I entered through Internet Explorer for about a week!  (I HATE Internet Explorer....more importantly IE hates my computer and continually messes it up!)  But I just HAD to touch base with you guys so I'm submitting....for today at least.

OK, now to catch up.....

I'm WAAAY behind on this March challenge...Poem.  First, I was sick for two weeks which threw a major wrench in my schedule for just about everything!  Then, I had challenges getting the piece to look like I wanted it to.  Lots of experimenting has been going on.  I think I have it now so I'll be working on it to be completed soon.  Might have to skip April....we'll just have to wait and see how quickly I can catch up on other things as well.

Anyway, here is the beginning of the March Poem piece.  I chose the poem by Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken" which begins...."Two roads diverged in a yellow wood..."  It is not just my favorite poem, it is something of a life poem for me on many levels.  To me, living in Minnesota, a yellow wood is aspen or birch. I had been considering just how I wanted to make the woods when I saw a tutorial on doing just that with painted shibori!!! Talk about timely! After paintin the shibori first with a dark gray and then with white, I
went in with a Pigma pen and made the black marks on the birch trees!!  Then I used a brayer with ruber bands wrapped around it to give the impression of leaves. The problem came when I tried to introduce the divergent paths....but I think I've worked that out now.  I just need to execute it.  And if that doesn't work, I might just truly execute the whole thing!!  LOL!!

Here is what the backgound "woods" looked like.

Poem taking a while to complete

It's nearly there but will need to delay posting for a while as very busy.

Kelly's poem

Kelly is having Blogger issues. She has not fallen of the earth, but will be late in posting.

Twinkle Twinkle Litte Bat

Twinkle twinkle litte bat
How I wonder what you're at
Up above the world so high
Like a tea tray in the sky.
by Lewis Carroll

The TAP - Transfer Artist Paper arrived on Saturday. As time was running out for this theme the bat was the first thing I tried. The colours were somewhat more muted than I expected so it will be a matter of learning how to use this product. It was stiffer than I expected but I read that it can be softened with washing. It transferred to the fabric faster than the blurb suggested. I was able to iron the transferred image immediately without the use of a protective sheet of silicone or parchment paper.