A long walk home

My original idea for this theme was a maze, but I was not really happy with it. Then one night when I could not fall asleep, I knew that I wanted to something with a sign post. Remember MASH? In the centre of their camp they had a sign post with the towns which were important to them and being in Korea they were a long walk away from home. Here is my interpretation:

To bite or not to bite

Here is my version of the fishtank. The picture is not really very good, in reality the quilt is square :-).

I used a combination of hand dyed and commercial fabrics with some added beads, sequins and yarn. Title of this one is: To bite or not to bite.

Tree of Life

Almost on time :-). The beading took a bit longer than I had expected/hoped. Earlier this month I made a quilt inspired by Christo's Gates which showed winter trees against the orange gates. This is a variation on it. The 'dead' winter trees are again alive with blossoms and spring leaves.

All fabrics used are my own hand dyed ones. The picture is not the best, so you have to believe me, when I tell you that it is 12"x12" square :-).

Seaside

Last year we had the theme Life at the Beach and this month it is Seaside. Two themes which can be similar, but I think that the piece I did this month looks differently :-). I decided to have a more abstract view of the seaside:

All fabrics used are my own hand dyed ones, with the exception of the sailing boat, that one is a commercial one.

Opposites

Opposites sounds like an easy theme, but I have to admit that it took quite a long time before I had a design which I liked. The first designs I made were all too static and to be honest, rather boring :-). But finally I found one which I liked.
This one started out with a plain black background quilted with multicolored thread. On it are 3 fused white on white squares and to lighten it up a bunch of colorful circles. The squares and circles are quilted with plain thread.

In this quilt I could combine the opposites black/white, multicolored/plain, solid/patterned, big/small, circles/squares and black/white versus color.

Through

In March the theme for EB's masterclass was lines. I made a quilt for this one in a big size 40"x18", but before I started working in this size, I had made a small sample. This sample only needed an oval and it would fit the theme for this group:-). This is how it turned out:

There are always so many ideas floating through my mind, that it is nice if sometimes they can double up. This quiltlet will be by contribution for the SAQA auction later this year.

Upside down trees

When I read this month's theme I knew that I wanted to do something with baobab trees. They look like they are picked out of the earth and put back upside down, don't they? This is what I created:

But that was not the end of it. Sometimes there are quilts who just want a bit more. I painted a canvas and glued the quilt on top of it. This is the final result:

Painted face

A couple of years ago I painted this fabric, but as I had no use for it at that moment it ended up in my stash. This month's theme brought it out again :-). The face is stitched on it.

Townscape

I am later than usual, but here is my vision of townscape:

Contrary to what I normally do, I used commercial fabrics this time. Only the doors and windows are hand dyed. Now I only have to finish the facing and the sleeve, and than the quilt is actually finished :-).

Composition in blue

Not a very creative title for this quilt, but that is all I can come up with for now :-). Here is my quilt for the August theme. Background is a mixture of dark blue pieces of fabric. For the lighter figures on top I looked into the field of symbols like earth goddess, stars - ever lasting life, water = birth of new life.

Filling in the blancs

I took this theme literally as you can see :-). Fill in the blancs and you get a text. I trust you can find it.

Fabric used are - as usually my own hand dyed ones. Whenever a theme is announced within a couple of days I know what I want to do with it. But than other things require my attention and before I know it the end of the month is almost there and I still have to start. This month was no different than other ones. And if you are wondering why you can not see the edges of the quilt. Well, I still have to do the facing :-)).

Early Flight

And as I promised yesterday, here is my version of an early flight:

Not an early flight with a commercial airline, but the early flight of birds. Background is made from my hand dyed fabrics, for the birds I used a commercial black. Going through my stash I discovered that I do not have anymore any real dark fabrics. Maybe time for a dyeing session.

Surfing

Here is my contribution for the theme Summer Adventures:

For this quilt I used the same technique as I did for the quilt which I completed last week. In a way you can call that a test piece :-). The strips of cheese cloth are stitched to the pieced background with seed beads.

Contrast

When I read what the theme was for this month, my first idea was to use black/white in combination with red. I even made a small sketch :-). But thinking a bit more, it would have been the obvious choice for me. So I decided to do a bit more thinking and I came up with this idea:

The contrast is between the evergreen pines and the lonely deciduous tree. Also the contrast between the green - color of life - and the brown - color of decay/death. As usual all the fabric which I used are my own hand dyed ones.

Winterblues

As you can see I took the theme of winter'blues' rather literally :-). Background is made from torn strips of blue fabric placed overlapping each other. For the text I used my Cameo Silhouette to cut the shapes out of freezer paper. This machine has great potential, but it is a learning curve to get real good with it. The text was ironed to the background and paint was applied. Next step was to applique the trees and quilt around everything. All the fabric I used are my own hand dyed ones. The fabric for the trees is pounded

once more life at the beach

A couple of months ago we had the theme Life at the Beach for which I made a quilt. When it was finished I knew I wanted to do something more with it but time was not cooperating with me so it took a bit longer than planned. Finally I was able to finish it the way I wanted to and this is how it looks now:

I painted a canvas and hand stitched the quilt onto it. To finish it off I glued some small shells to it.

Cosmos

 

When I saw the theme of Cosmos I knew that I wanted to do something with nebula's. I started with a yellow/orange piece of fabric which I overdyed using both knotted and stitched shibori on it.  After the quilting was done, the time consuming part of beading started and this is how it looks now:

Believe me the quilt is square, although this is not what the picture shows :-)

Abstract trees

When I started creating this piece, it was just a matter of playing with shapes. I liked a certain position of it and fused them down. When I turned the piece around they resembled trees with falling leaves. Funny how a piece can find it's own title. Background are commercial fabrics, the trees and leaves are made from hand dyed fabrics.

Catching up

Sorry gals to be so late, but at last I can show you what I did with the September theme:

 

My original idea was to start with small hexagons and change the shape of them, turning it into an artquilt. But that involved hand piecing and as I was late already I decided not to do that. Instead I focussed on the changing of a white piece of fabric into a surface designed one. In total there are 4 different pieces of fabric in this quilt. The starting point, a plain white one. The second one with only one layer of paint, the third with 2 layers and no doubt you can guess, that the fourth one has 3 layers. I used different paints and paintstiks for this piece.

My quilt for the October theme is finished as well, but you will have to wait a few more days before I show a picture of that one :-)

At the Beach

Early in August I started working on this quilt and the background was completed shortly after that. But than I got distracted by some yarn and an addictive computer game FarmVille 2 so the final applique took me 2 weeks to complete :-). Here it is as it looks now. I am tempted to stitch this onto a canvas and add some shells to it, so I cannot say that it is completed right now.