April

For our April challenge, Pat gave us each a bundle of interesting - non cotton fabrics. Some of us used only 1 of the fabrics; others used a piece from almost all of them.

Hope - Fusion
I pieced several of the challenge fabrics in with batiks. I tried to pay attention to value and contrast to draw the viewer's eye around the piece. For some of the fabrics, I used both sides.

Cathey - Curvilinear Australian

I had some Australian fabric in my stash that I have been waiting to use. I also had some strata left over from a class I took with Louisa Smith. I added in selected pieces from Pat's bundle including the burlap ribbon. I fussy cut around the motif of some of the red print Australian fabric and placed the strata in behind it. I like the contrast between the color values and the shapes.

Joan - Turtle Trio

For the background of this piece, I used a shibori dyed fabric I made. I then stamped with a turtle stamp my son made a few years back. My plan was to overlay one of the sheer fabrics from Pat's bundle but it was too dense. In the end I used 2 colors of tulle over the top. I hope to bind it with something from the fabric bundle.

Marcia - Silver Ripples

I tried to use as many of the fabrics as I could. I really wanted to showcase the slivery, pleated fabric with the cutwork at the bottom. I was able to use a lot of my sliver and clear, crystal beads as well as buttons on this piece. It was very difficult to bind! I ended up binding the top and sides and let the bottom be free.

Melanie - Guitar

For this impressionist guitar piece, I used one of my ice dyed fabrics for the background and a dark gold/bronze organza piece from Pat's bundle. For the side of the guitar, I used the organza double thickness. To define the side and sound hole, I couched yarn along the edges. 

Shelia Rae - Waterfall

Like Marcia, I used the pleated silver fabric. I thought it looked like a waterfall. I added some rocks in the fall and on the side and hand stitched each pleat down.