Saturday, June 30, 2012

"Light" - the third challenge

Before I started writing this post, I looked through the already posted "light"-themed quilts. And I had to grin when I saw Madalene's quilt ;-)) One glimpse at my quilt, and I guess you know why I grinned ?
Some of you may know that I mostly work with bright, vivid colours. But after I thought about my theme for a while, I started to ask "what if?" What if I started with white and only used some light, muted colors? I guess I just wanted to know whether I could work with such a restricted palette!
My starting point were white linen and white batting - and my embellisher. Next came white cotton jersey, a crinkly quality. And a light blue very thin curtain fabric made from polyester. The cotton was felted on the piece; the blue polyester was put on the back and felted through. Then I painted the bottom part with a light green acrylic. I added quilting to give an idea of hills in the foreground. The last step by machine were the rays of light, done with a metallic thread and straight stitching.
For a bit more interest, I glued the white flowers on. I'm sorry about the not-so-good-picture, but I had to hurry ;-)) a thunderstorm was coming up!


From Madalene

I had more difficulty with this challenge than I thought I would have. I had what I thought was a great idea that just didn't work out when I started putting it together in fabric. So I began again.  I finally decided to keep it abstract, focusing on color, the contrast of a very dark and a very light, and keying off the idea that the light is all the brighter for the very dark shadows that may surround it.

I had a lot of fun playing with shapes in several dark colors of my hand-dyes and also a commercial black, and was concerned they wouldn't show up well in the photo, but my main problem in photographing it was to make it as dark as the piece really is.  So what may look dark blue is actually a darker red purple.  I also ended up doing some hand stitching in some of the black that you may be able to see if you click on the photo to enlarge it and then look closely.

deborah's light

Hi All,

I'm writing this Thursday evening as I'm preparing for a.m. departure tomorrow for my husband's family reunion. My quilt isn't quite done. I've begun some machine quilting... Will finish it and post another photo on Monday.

Anyway, I was inspired by the patterns of light on tree trunks and the forest floor. This quilt has diverged from the image I originally had in mind. Started with Jean Wells-inspired piecing with colors that spoke to me. Had planned more complicated representation of trees and shadows, but I was so pleased with the background, I hated to cut it up/cover it. Also, I didn't have time for more detailed piecing. So, I made some tree trunks and left it at that. The quilting will be fun!

Can't wait to see the others!

Deborah

Friday, June 29, 2012


Piece finished but NOT quilted............I hope this shows the "light".............
Have a wonderful week-end.   I look forward to seeing your posts when I return.............
Carol
Happy 4th........and look forward to new challenge......

I have to find the picture!!!!!






I may be posting a day or two early but I'm going to be gone over the week-end.   My piece is NOT quilted yet, but it has been done awhile.   It is based on some birthday flowers a friend gave me that I photographed.   I am posting the photographs of the flowers and then later today I will post the quilt.   It was fun to make and done "freeform" style which I seem to love doing......ala Rayna Gilman's book and inspirations.   Light has so many possibilities.   I am excited to see how everyone interprets this......much light and love to you all.   My quilt, however, is not based on flowers but the colors of the flowers more or less............

To be continued later..........