Pat: Luna Moth
This piece is really from last month. I finally finished it. I took a photo of a luna moth on my stone driveway. I printed some of the shots on paper to play with composition. When I was satisfied with the size and layout, I printed the images on fabric and enhanced them with colored pencils. I had some green fabric that worked well with the color of the moth and used it for the background. I carried the rock shapes into the background fabric with stitching, I used several different colored threads and quilted each stone several times around to give a lot of definition.
The labeling on the back includes some information about the luna moth and its life cycle. It is a beautiful and interesting insect.
Dresden Plate
For the 25th anniversary of the Willimantic Textile Museum, I along with several other quilters made an art quilt inspired by an antique quilt in the museum's collection. The antique and new quilts will be on display in a special show in April & May, 2014.
My quilt was a Dresden plate design. By now you know that I love Zentangle and use it a lot in my quilting so naturally, I made my Dresden plates with Zentangles. The quilt is double sided, including the binding! On one side, the each plate is decorated with stitched zentangle patterns in a variety of colors. On the reverse side, the tangles are enhanced with colored pens, pencils and markers to create "calico."
The pictures below are samples of one block. Come to the show to see the entire quilt!
Here are a few more zentangle projects. The black square is done with "moonlight" jelly roll pens that glow in the dark. I used some of them on the luna moth above as well.
Hope: A Fish Story
This is a piece I started in a class with Leah Allman. The technique uses broderie perse for the fish and other underwater elements. The upper background is a piece of my ice dyed fabric. I am really pleased with the bright colors in this piece.
Sheila Rae: Lady Madonna with Chickens at her Feet
This piece started with some Indian fabric I was given. It already had mirrors and embroidered birds on it. I added buttons, stitch and quilting - all by hand. The back fabric was also given to me. People know I am intrigued with religious relics so this fabric with the madonnas was meant for me. I thought the colors went perfectly together and made for a fun theme.
In-a-godda-da-vida
In this piece, the 60's era background fabric is strip pieced with raw edges. Other fabric, bakelite rings, dyed buttons, fake flowers, the turtle were all added by hand. I dye my buttons with "manic panic" hair coloring. I love multi-purpose products!
Marica: Orange!
This piece is a study in orange. I actually used the Joen Wolfrom color tool to get a palette of oranges. It was interesting to see how different colors looked on their own vs when they were placed next to other fabrics. In this piece the lace looks pale and golden yet on its own it was clearly orange.
The fabrics range from silk and taffeta to fake fur and upholstery. I again got to raid my extensive trim, button and bead collections and found plenty of orange to use.
Melanie: A New Sunrise
I am also participating in the Now and Then WIllimantic Textile Museum exhibit mentioned in Pat's piece. My inspiration quilt is a mariner's compass design. Since I love surface design and dyeing. I decided to paint my quilt with thickened procion MX dye. I drafted out a quarter of the design based on the original quilt. I masked off one section at a time with freezer paper or masking tape and over the course of 5 days, painted the various sections in colors inspired by those in the antique quilt but much more vibrant.
I then decided to mix up the composition. Instead of straightforward circles, I used a very contemporary layout of the 9 quarter square sections. I hope you can come to see the show in person!
