A Song in My Heart

Our theme for this month was "A Song in My Heart." Choose a song, a line from a song, or even just a mood a song evokes.

Music in My Mother's House: Melanie Johnston
I love this song. I love the images and sounds of the song. I chose a line from the song: "There was music in my mother's house, there was music all around. There was music in my mother's house and my heart's still full with the sound." The words are printed around the swirl in the heart. I printed some notes on organza, trimmed the organza and placed it so it looks as though it is coming through the house door. I think the organza makes the music "float on air."

Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Marcia Kilpatrick

Although she appreciates music, particularly relaxing music, Marcia says she does not have musical talent. She says it was a stretch for her to rise to this challenge.She did a lot of research on rainbows  for this quilt. How many colors? What is the proper order? She covered the rainbow with sparkly tulle, hand stitched rain and sun rays with metallic thread and added charms to represent images in the song.

 

Secret 'O Life: Joan Johnson
Joan selected a line from this James Taylor song. The line is: "The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time."She chose to make a piece that represented the calm, peaceful feeling she gets from the song's message.

Parsely, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme: Linda Gardner
Linda has software to digitize embroidery. She used the words from the folk song, selected a font and graduated the sizes of the letters to create a wedge shape for each word. She stitched out 2 of each word and placed them mirror image to each other to simulate tree shapes.

Zen Music: Pat Ferguson

Pat has been exploring the use of Zentangles® in quilting. For this challenge, she "Zentangled" a G-clef and quilted it. Check our her website for more of her "Zen Quilting" ideas.

 

Photographic Inspiration

Our theme for this month is "A Photograph." The idea is to be inspired by a photograph and use it as a jumping off point. The photo may be used directly or just for inspiration.

Goldie: Pat Ferguson
This is an old photo of my grandmother. I printed it on fabric then "framed" it with fabrics and trims to match the feeling of the picture. The trim is from Germany. It is very heavy and contains actual metal.

Fish: Melanie Johnston
This fish was a photo printed out on fabric. I used Photoshop Elements to lighten and blur the background so that the fish would stand out. I printed the fish, then used some foil to accent certain colorful scales.

Historic Hampton: Melanie Johnston
These are photos from the Hampton Antiquarian and Historical Society. I printed them on unbleached muslin. Each photo has a different Photoshop Elements filter applied. The photo pf the graveyard has an overlay of the same photo printed on organza. "In person" this makes for a creepy holographic effect.

Colorful Nautilaus Shells: Melanie Johnston
Still experimenting with Photoshop Elements. Istarted with a photo pf a nautilaus shell then used the hue and saturation tools to duplicate it in other colors. I printed in on white satin (treated with BubbleJet Set 2000) and further enhanced it with Tsukineko Champagne Mist sparkly ink.

Poppy:  Marica Kilpatrick
This piece was inspired by a photograph I took at the CT Audubon Trail Wood next to the Information Shed where it grew among  grasses. The poppy has ruching on the edge to interpret the frilly edges of poppy. The button and black beads are to signify the dark center of the poppies.  The piece is hand done.

Waterlilies: Joan Johnson
I love waterlilies. Here are 2 quilts inspired by my photos of them. In the second one, I tried a sliced/convergence technique.

Landscape: Mary Oliver
I love landscape and collage. This piece was inspired by a photo of a landscape.

Stained Glass: Linda Gardner
I did not make a piece inspired by a photo, instead, I finished this stained glass piece I had been working on.

 

Organizational Meeting

Our organizational meeting! A group of 8 quilters from Hampton, Chaplin and Ashford have decided to act on our idea of starting a small art quilt group. Our idea is to keep the group to 6-10 members and meet once a month in member homes. At the meetings we will "show and tell" our projects, share ideas, interesting books, and new materials.  We will also select a theme for the following month. From time to time, we may go on applicable "field trips" togeher, invite a guest artist to demonstrate a technique or spend a day working together on a project or technique.