Playing

Lately, I've been working with monoprinting, and my favorite so far is this, of my favorite Viking boat Saga Oseberg, an exact copy of the Oseberg ship, newly built in Tonsberg.

Picasso's mark making

It was great to meet up with Vivien and in such a great location. After she left, I went to see the modern art gallery and this picture by Picasso seemed to made up entirely of 'marks'.

Connecting New Zealand with New York

Today, art and the internet made it possible for two members of our group -- from opposite sides of the globe -- to get together and enjoy an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Julia from New Zealand and I (Vivien from the US) met today and went to the Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity exhibition.  I think we may the first of our far-flung group to meet and we had a great time.

The exhibition was incredible and both our brains were on overload from all the beauty and facts thrown at us.  I know I'll be reflecting on it all for a long time.

Julia and Vivien at the Met

Aren't the benefits of modern life cool?

NewChallenge

Hi, our next topic is

Leave Your Mark

From earliest times people have left their mark on stone, bricks, walls and fibre. Sometimes we know nothing about the person and sometimes their lives are well documented and we have an insight into their imagery. I had the joy of finding cave paintings as a child, they are present all around the world as are beautifully ornamented buildings. Pathways, foot prints, hand prints and the written word all leave their mark.

What mark do you choose to make and leave on record.







 

 

Hope you all enjoy the next challenge.

"I wish you HAPPINESS every single day!" by Lyuda

The first thought after announcing the name of the next theme was: “WOW! So many options!”.

But these options make it too difficult to choose just one. So, I've decided to write down (as some of us also did) things which happen every day and list looks like this:

• Sunrise- sunset
• Day – night
• Food
• News
• Household chores
• Favorite things
• Love to different things
• We get older
• Beauty of the day: flowers, sky, nature
• Happiness – sadness
• 24 hours – seconds, moments

What to choose? That is the QUESTION!

I like to make positive quilts; I like to use bright colors. So finally I decided to choose “happiness, 24 hours, moments”.

After choosing words I made colors’ choice. Happiness for me is only bright rainbow colors.

Next step was to draw draft. 

First I've wanted to make 24 squares as 24 hours but it didn't feet in 15 inches. Finally I decided to use circle for 24 hours as time go on and on.

The circle was made as spiral from rainbow colors and is divided in 24 segments which symbolize hours and time.

White and black beads symbolize good and bad moments which happen every single day.

Thin threads which end the circle are the time which disappears without being seen. 

I weaved background from different scraps to show that our life and every day consists from pieces of joy, happiness, sadness…

And finally “I WISH YOU HAPPINESS EVERY SINGLE DAY!” 

Tidal flats

Every single day the tide comes in and out, people walk their dogs and people fall in love.
The graphic image really appealed to me, and I like the way the light reflects on the water and the sand flats that appear as the tide goes out. I only added the people to give a sense of scale and to highlight man's insignificance in the wider scheme of natural forces. It is mainly fused applique and I intentionally chose to use satin stitch to accent the curves and the graphic quality.

Hope

 

                                                     Every Single Day
                                               Hope by Margy Johnson

There are many things that happen every single day. Headlines and the news come at us continuously and every now and then you find a positive article, plants grow, birds fly, life continues with it's joys and pains. I wanted to capture hope; its what the flowers represent, all that potential and hope encased in a small seed.
 It was interesting scouring the news papers to find positive headlines and pictures to build up the first layer of the quilt and create a record for that period of time. Matching up fabrics and then threads, all had to balance and co-ordinate to complete the picture

 

 

Daily Tasks - Vivien

I had a great idea when Heidi announced the challenge.   I worked, consulted with friends, worked some more, and failed.

Unfortunately, I worked so long and hard that I left myself with little time to create a new piece.  Fortunately, I rediscovered velcro at the sewing shop and a new idea was born.  In my piece, Daily Tasks, I have a number of labelled medallions secured to the surface with velcro.  Some are in the center, representing the tasks I have on my "to do" list today.  Others wait on the outside frame because it's certain that I'll be transferring them to the center at some point soon.   I can rearrange the medallions to meet the demands of most of my days, though I realize that some tasks are missing, such as gardening.  I suspect that's because I created this while snow was still on the ground.  I suppose there's always room for more to do.

I hope I'll remember always to put the Be Thankful medallion at the top of the list.  And, in the event I drop the ball and forget to do a task, I gave myself an Oops! medallion, too.

Daily Tasks - Vivien

"OMNIPRESENT" - Deborah Wirsu

The concept of something that occurs, or that we do 'every single day' proved a great challenge for me.  At first, so many different ideas raced through my mind - from daily activities or events to concepts such as birth and death, growth and decline, which occur every day, somewhere, sometime.

After discussing this theme with a friend, and tossing around several possibilities, eventually the concept of 'omnipresence' settled in my mind. Omnipresence, to me, represents 'presence everywhere, at all times' - therefore - every single day.

My friend (of the aforementioned discussion) has long wanted me to create a quilt based around the Fu Dogs (Lion Dogs) that guard the entrance to many Asian temples and monasteries, but after weeks of shuffling paper and designs, nothing was falling into place that satisfied me. In the end, after sifting through and seeking inspiration in photos of my Asian travels, I arrived at the idea of using Buddha to represent 'every day', an omnipresent being, rather than for any religious interpretation. Wherever there is a statue or representation of Buddha, there is the suggestion that Buddha is present everywhere - simultaneously all-knowing and all-being.

Somewhere along the design process, I found myself drifting towards Manga style, which is a very unusual direction for me. However, I found that the simplified, cartoon style allowed me to represent the simplicity and tranquillity that I wished for this Buddha.

The traditional 'Om' symbol in the background is used to represent the physical, mental and conscious worlds. For me, as a musician, it also resonates simply as a sound or vibration - a part of one’s being.

The piece is worked in cotton fabrics with raw edge machine appliqué, using satin stitch and free-motion edge stitch. The background is free-motion quilted.The piece measures 15" x 15".

My other quilts can be seen on my blog.

Crazy days

Crazy Days

When I learned about our new theme the first thibg that came to my mind was crazy. As evryone who has taken care of young children knows, always expect the unexpected, be always prepared for any kind of interruptions. But a traditional crazy quilt was not what I wanted to do. So I decided to make a modern crazy quilt. I didn't want the quilt to look to busy so I choose light colours in green, blue and grey-blue for the block. I included a few orange strips for contrast and also for the interruptions that happen at any time. The quilt has a border as even when the days are kind of crazy we try to have a constant schedule for the children with almost fixed meal hours, TV-time, bedtime... I included a small crazy block and an orange strip since on some occasions like birthdays or other special days the schedule might be overruled. The spiral quilting in the crazy block represent the fact that time goes by like a whirlwind with children at home.
Fabrics: Batiks, cotton
Thread: 100% cotton (piecing), rayon (quilting)
Batting: 80% cotton, 20% polyester
machine piecing and quilting
Sabine

'every single day' collage

I tried several ideas for this theme but wasn't happy with any of them. As I make 'five minute collages' every day (as you can read here on my blog), I thought I could use them for my Latitude quilt. I thought of having a collage from my 'five minute collages' printed onto fabric by Laura Kemshall, but wasn't sure how long it would take to deliver and weather it would be in time for this challenge.
There had been a discussion on our Yahoo group on which materials can be used in making an artquilt and whether paper could be used. So I thought I could do something completely different and make a paper quilt. I chose nine of my 'five minute collages' and stitched them together. I used sturdy vilene as a batting and stitched all over the piece. It wasn't easy to control the stitching on this thick paper surface. I added a backing fabric, finished the edges with a zigzag stitch and added a hanging sleeve.