November. Escape from grayness.

I could not cook up where or from whom to escape for a long time. I broke down my mind… So finally I decided to forget about this theme for a while. 

But time runs so quickly and suddenly I realized that there is only one week remains till reveal day. I haven’t started to sew yet… I even don’t have any idea… I can not postpone this any more!

So, I was sitting in my sewing room with a cup of coffee, the weather behind the window was hateful: rain, cold, everything is totally grey and black… I hate such weather! Such days in our sunny city usually happen in November so I don’t like this month.  

And in my sewing room was warm, a lot of bright patches around and a cup of coffee. WOW! This is an idea! 

“November. Escape from grayness.”

I have an idea and it’s time to sew! And it takes two days to make!

January 2014 Theme..... "Balance"

When I read everyone's weekly updates especially when deadlines are looming, there are some common themes that come out.  Usually they reference that time is running out and that projects are still unfinished. So, this challenge theme will be "Balance", something we all strive for, but is hard to do.

Enjoy, Katie

If Not Here, Then Where?

The theme of escape can bring many different things to mind, some pleasurable, some fanciful and some more dire. I think that it would be a rare individual who never wished for an escape from one thing or another.

In my quilt I wanted to ask the question “ Escape to where?” Simply put, if I were having a perfect day, where would I be? What would I be doing? Who would I be with?

The answers to these questions would probably vary depending on the situation that I wanted to escape. If it were the cold of winter, I might want to be on a tropical island. If it were from the tedium of everyday life, I might want some place exciting or stimulating. If it were from the noise and chaos of a big city, I might want to be in a tranquil and serene place. The possibilities, like the reasons, are infinite and personal.

In this quilt I have created a map of an imaginary place to represent all of the imaginary places that I might wish to be. My presence is represented by an abstract copper coloured symbol which symbolizes a compass for direction but with a central square which represents me. I am, therefore, the heart of this desire and the chooser of the destination.

The outlined compasses represent some of the possibilities of where I might want to be.

Tempus Effugere

 

 

Escaping time is one of the joys of creating your own fabric and working with it. It is time consuming but brings pleasure as the imagery and texture develop and the final touches are added.

The quilt was an escape from the tumult of daily life as the various processes and hand quilting required focussed attention. It was also an exploration of several new processes, and a way of working with art cloth to transform it into a quilt.

 

Techniques:

Tray Dye with Procion dyes; screen print using textile inks and thickened Procion dyes;  discharge with Jaquard Discharge Paste; Stamping; screen print through freezer paper stencil; gold leaf; hand and machine quilting

 

Sunset at Jimbaran Beach, Bali

So many differnt interpretations came to my mind when I learned about our new theme. Quilting in itself is an escape for me, as it is probably for the other members of this group. But also reading, listening to music, dreaming can be ways to escape the demands of everyday life. And of course traveling.
My husband and I enjoyed traveling before we had children. My favorite place of all we have been to is the indonesian island of Bali, and not only because of the wonderful batik fabrics produced there. The people are so friendly, you really get the feeling it still comes from the heart and not because as a tourist they hope you will buy something or leave a good tip. As we were staying in a hotel in Jimbaran we often went to some fishermen's restaurant directly on the beach in Jimbaran. There we would sit at the table, barefoots in the sand and enjoy a wonderful meal while watching the sun sut in front of us.
I hope to return to this wonderful island one day when our children are older. For the present time I can only escape there in toughts. The memories of our vacation are still very present.

The background is made of commercial hand dyed fabrics by Heide Stoll-Weber. The black horizont line, the clouds, the sun and its reflection in the water are wool felt and machine felted to the background. The sun reflection is quilted with metallic thread to add more glitter.
Materials:
cotton fabric
wool felt
polyester batting
metallic and polyester threads.

Sabine

'Escape Plan' by Linden Lancaster

After reading about collage process used by Valerie S. Goodwin, I decided to make an ‘Art quilt map’ to fit in with this theme of ‘Escape’. The building plan I have used is fictional and has no particular significance. It is up to the viewer to decide if it is a prison, castle or a house. 

My primary intention of this piece was not so much in interpreting the theme, but to present a visual buffet of shape, line, texture and colour.

The collage process was quite an enjoyable one:

1.      Light coloured fabric were cut (or torn) and sewn onto a substrate.

2.      Chunky hand sewing was then added in a random way to give this background some extra texture.

3.      Fabric paint was added sparingly with a brush to unify patchwork pieces together. I also added a stencils throughout the process.

4.      A few sheer fabrics were then applied with misty fuse.

5.      The linear and rectangular elements of the plan were then fused into place and thread painted/quilted.

6.      More hand sewing was then added to give the piece more interest.

I think I would like to make another piece of a place that I identify with– something with paddocks, rivers and dirt roads. I also like the idea of adding your own poetry, like a Haiku.

'Escape Plan' by Linden Lancaster 2013

'Escape Plan' detail 1

'Escape Plan' detail 2

Escape

At first glance, this was an interesting theme. But when I started working with it, I had problems how to solve it as a quilt. I decided to go abstract, focusing on this:
Escape = an act of breaking free from confinement or control.
We live in a world where, in certain environments, being "out of the box" is not always a good thing.  You have to fit in. So, I've tried to show this by breaking it all down to squares - in rows - with military precision, except for the one escaping and blooming. Because these people are sometimes regarded like    a weed, like a dandelion. They are strong, beautiful, full of colour, they have freed themselves from the rules of the garden and pop up wherever they want!

Dichotomy

I had about 25 things on my suggestions list for the theme of Escape. I chose to go with the theme of cages. Aside from the literal idea of keeping wild birds in cages or setting them free, it seemed like we are all in cages. Sometimes we make our own bars, by creating a home, an environment, where we are cocooned from the wildness of nature. Sometimes other people put cages around us to protect us, and sometimes we are truly imprisoned by others' desires for power and control.

When we have the chance to escape to freedom, not everyone chooses that path.

Birds are naturally free in the elements, but they then have the 'prison' of finding food, shelter and avoiding predators.

Life is never entirely black or white, and that's why I chose Dichotomy as my title.

This quilt can be hung either in the black or white orientation.

The technicalities were that I drew the basic outlines of the cages and birds on soluble stabiliser and stitched it from the white side. I then washed the quilt to remove the soluble before more stitching and applique. The advantage of the outline stitching was that I had the exact placement for both sides of the quilt. The main stitching was done with 30 weight thread, while the quilting was done with very fine thread. Even though there are little 'ticks' of fine black thread on the white side where I changed direction, I find they add a certain pattern to the stitch.

Escape

When this theme was announced there was only one thing that appeared in my mind. It was our plot with olive trees and the view from our house in Greece. This really is the place to which I can escape and use my time to all the things that make me happy and creative and with very little "musts".

I chose to make a piece showing the wonderful  view I can enjoy and look at every day when I am there with the olive trees in the foreground and the Messenia Gulf  and the peninsula, on the other side of the Gulf with the high mountain top, the Prophet Elias, 2400 meters over above sea level.

The background is  whole cloth, painted with Dye-na-Flow paint and four patches are sun printed with Dye-na -flow paint, screen printing ink and fabric paint with letter masks made from freezer paper  with the letters esc , as the word esc on the PC keyboard.

On top of this I have printed some olive trees on ExtravOrganza and fused them using white Misty fuse.

Finally the piece is quilted with running stitches and seed stitches with cotton and metallic threads. In order to emphasize the trees I put some paint with Shiva paint sticks on top of the embroidery stitches on top of the trees.

ESCAPE

This was a rather fun piece for me. It is a self portrait at 10 years of age. References include a menagerie of much loved characters such as Stormy Misty's Foal, Kavik the Wolf Dog and cast members of Peterson's field guides to birds, insects, reptiles and amphibians.
Perched on my shoulder is what was my ever constant companion, a hand-raised starling named Chicken Hawk.
Today I live with yet another orphaned starling named Birdy and I still love to escape into books. Not much has changed really!

Hand drawing (portrait)
as well as photo transfer for the starling, frog, butterflies and wolf.
Hand and machine stitching.
Prisma color pencil and textile medium throughout.

With special thanks to Laura Kemshall who taught me that sketching is not just for paper.

By Heidi Wulfraat

Escape Route

November 2013 Challenge "Escape"

My challenge is called "Escape Route".  I find that one should always know a way out of something.  Be it a back door, a friend you can call at the last minute to help or having a time-out.  Everyone needs to know where to go and the route.  

I have used crazy blocks as my foundation as it conveys that life is busy and in each square I have filled them with seed and bugle beads, pearle cotton threads and silk ribbon for the embellishments.  Only one pink ribbon has a clear path to the flower, oh an "Escape Route”.

Escape Route - Katie Pidgeon

Escape \Route - detail

Escape challenge quilt

The ESCAPE theme for a challenge.  And right after I had faced my own challenge being alone, snowed in without electricity and no possibility for escape for several days.  

My list of materials to use for this piece started with a stencil of tree branches that I really wanted to use.  How could I fit that into an image of escape? I toyed with painting several colored leaves on the branches with one slowly falling to the ground.  That could symbolize changing seasons and the coming winter.  But the stencil was a negative shape of the tree with the color to be applied on the outside of the shape rather than a stencil of the tree branches.  Harder to deal with but I really wanted to use that stencil.  And I did--with acrylic paint over a fabric that was perfect for portraying tree bark. I then had a great stencil on a very stiff piece of fabric (from the acrylic paint) that would need to be quilted someway.  With acrylic painting on fabric every needle punch leaves a hole and if something had to be taken out there might be a lot of holes.  I left that problem for later and found a good image of geese flying south in their V-formation and stenciled that on with markers.  Stencilled the letters for escape with a marker and all was solved except the quilting method.

Snowflakes would be good--French knots or beading.  I settled on some clear crystal beads.  I was aiming for a random sprinkling of beads to tack the layers together and to appear as light snow.  

There was more thinking time about how to create the small quilt and reacting to each step than time spent stenciling and beading which isn't the way I usually  proceed but it worked.

Materials:  cotton fabric, stencils, acrylic paint, markers and glass beads.

Our Next Theme: ESCAPE

As I think fondly back to the summer months just spent with my children, I'm reminded how exciting it was to travel to new places.  This summer I was lucky enough to go on two separate trips: one to France and one to Wyoming.  I had vastly different experiences on each trip.  In France I immersed myself in history, beautiful architecture and delicious food.  In Wyoming, I stood in streams in the middle of gorgeous countryside, listening to the sounds of running water, birds, and the occasional whoop of delight as my son or I caught a fish.

Both adventures were so different from my every day life that it felt I'd left it all behind.  I'd escaped to a new reality for a bit.

The word escape has an interesting etymology.  It stems from Medieval French and Latin words meaning "out of the cape".  A theory is that the word references how Romans might slip off their capes to avoid capture.

From there it's not hard to imagine that "escape" came to mean "getting away".  And it isn't simply a physical act.  A sigh of relief can escape our lips or we can try to escape a memory. Escape can be used as a noun, as in a daring prisoner escape or, according to one source, a cultivated plant run wild is called an escape.

I'd like us all to explore the word "escape". Will you show how you escape on vacation or by reading?  How the escape velocity enables rockets to push beyond the Earth's gravity?  How refugees escape the ravages of war?

How will you show "escape"?

Photo by Vivien Zepf

Anticipation

Do you know that moment when you hold your breath, wondering what will come next?  Or when you ask yourself, Can I .... ?  Or, when you hope .....

That pause, filled with possibilities and bursting with energy, is what I wanted to convey with my piece; the anticipation that's experienced in the silence before something comes into being or happens.

The yellow color palette is a nod to the phrase, Silence is golden.  I wanted to create a feeling of multiple possibilities, hence all the different shapes bubbling to the surface.  I used all manner of materials including commercial cottons, hand painted fabrics, and paper towels that were tinted with watercolors.

ETERNAL SILENCE

I could not find the idea for this challenge for a long time. I've started from thinking when we meet silence:

• When baby is sleeping;
• When it is snowing in the forest;
• When leaves are falling in the autumn;
• In early morning, when birds are still sleeping…

 No any visual idea… So I decided to leave it for a while.

One day when I've been putting my fabric stash to order, I saw a little piece of fabric which I had painted few years ago. “Wow! It is exactly what I need!” - was my shout. MOUNTAINS!

I live very close to the mountains and go hiking often. When you get there really high where there are no trees and birds you can feel this sound of silence. So the idea was found!

I quilted this little piece of fabric. It looks exactly as the lake that is situated at 3000 m above the sea level and 40 min drive from our house.

I choose dark blue background as night sky at the mountains and this kind of quilting as an air flowing. If you ever been high at the mountains you understand what I’m talking about.

Creative Silence

 

This has been a hard quilt to complete. So many ideas were discarded as problematic.  It came together in a week by combining two elements:  reading, for me a solitary and quiet pursuit and taking pictures of buildings on a recent trip. The church that the window is based on was closed and silent as I walked past but the walls were full of rich detail and from the notices it has a vibrant life at other times.

 

 

In keeping with the theme “Sounds of Silence” I tried some hand work: Hand appliqué ( not such a silent pastime as the little pieces kept wriggling around in spite of the liberal use of pins and rulers), hand embroidery and hand quilting. I did use some machine work but aimed to keep the machine quilting “quiet” and understated. The book pages came from two books I have had for many years, rereading them until they are falling to bits. These were scanned and printed onto fabric using Bubble Jet 2000. Other techniques: Raw edge appliqué using Bond a Web, piecing and embroidery with perlé cotton

Trying to Find My Silent Space

When contemplating "the sound of silence" my thoughts settled on... how do I find some of that?!
For me, this project developed into a light-hearted look at the hectic lives that so many of us lead.
Techniques involved a simple free form quilting process with feed dogs engaged, as well as hand painting.

    by Heidi Wulfraat

Sounds of Silence

Sounds of Silence

September 2013 Challenge – “Sounds of Silence”

Title:    “Sounds of Silence”

There is nothing better than a drive in the country on a summer’s day, and this inspired my “Sounds of Silence” piece.  Even with the radio blasting my favourite tune, birds singing in the background, and the wind whistling with the window down, I find my mind can just peacefully absorb the surroundings in silence.

This piece is done with confetti size pieces of fabric from my stash bag.  I’ve fused them down and machine stitch down with tulle.  This was a very much improvised exercise with only a photograph to work from.  I didn’t test the techniques, rather, I just sat down and started cutting small pieces of fabric and “painted” as I went.  The one thing I didn’t do was step back a few times, so afterwards, I needed to readjust the perspective a bit.

Katie Pidgeon

Techniques:    fused collage technique, tulle and machine thread painting

Materials:       commercial cottons

Date:               September 30, 2013

Size:                15 inches x 15 inches

Silent Dance

After reading the title of our new theme the first thing that came to my mind was the image of a sleeping child.
But I decided to think a bit more about it. This summer neighbours remodeled their house across the street. Sometimes in the late afternoon while sitting outside I would suddenly realise how silent it is as the days work at the house was done. I was able to hear all the quiet sounds from nature.
We have an almost 35 years old gingko tree in our garden and in october as soon as the night temperatures go beyond a certain point all the leaves come down within a few hours. From our living room windows it looks like a silent dance toward the ground.
For the background I used a hand dyed cotton sateen by Heide Stoll-Weber in blue and brown shades. I quilted gingko leaves free motion and used a gold painstick inside the shapes. I then cut gingko leave shapes from gold painted vliesofix (bondaweb) and fused them to the background. Thoose shapes were also free motion quilted. I decided against quilting the background as I was afraifd to loose the wonderful visual structure of the fabric.

Sabine

'All is Silent' by Linden Lancaster

The ‘Sounds of Silence’ was a tricky theme, as there are very few situations where there is no sound. What is it like to be deaf? Is it silent on the moon? Then I thought of the saying ‘All is Silent on the Western Front’. Being an avid reader of first and Second World War history, I remembered the pictures of pastures and woodlands turned into a muddy wasteland. This piece is meant to reflect the silence after the catastrophic winter battles on the Somme. At the recent anniversary of 9/11, I heard about a man who dug his way up and out of a collapsed tower. When he crawled out and looked around, he said what he remembered most was the absolute silence.

Using some reference pictures from books I drew up my own composition. I decided to have a large land mass and small sky. Using a piece of mottled hand dyed grey fabric as my starting point. I then discharged all the parts I wanted white (the sky and the craters). I then masked them off and applied a Shiva stick rubbing over various handmade collograph plates. The reflections were added with Inktense pencils. The trees, wheel and fence posts were fused on lastly.

I quilted horizontal lines in metallic and rayon threads for the water. To offset this, the sky was done in vertical lines. The ground was quilted in a heavier variegated thread in a squiggly pattern that got smaller and more horizontal towards the horizon.The barbed wire was added using bobbin drawing with Pearl 8 thread.

This was a quick and satisfying quilt to make and one I would like to make into a larger and more considered piece. This would be especially significant as the centenary of the first landing at Gallipoli (and subsequent First World War events) is coming up in 2015. My great grandfather was in the first landing of Australian soldiers on April 25^th, now our national day of remembrance, Anzac Day.

'All is Silent' by Linden Lancaster 2013

'All is Silent' detail 1

'All is Silent' detail2