Blue -- Blue Rivers

The center of this quilt was made with organza folds, and the supplemental units were cut out of a scrim cloth that I dyed. Quilting  made in circles represent  the pebbles. 

Lines -- Broken Line

Lines
Broken Line

After many trials I reached the final result which – for me – represents the fine life line that can break in an instant.

Fabrics were hand-dyed by me, and were cut as reverse applique. Quilting was made on a regular home sewing machine.

Sketch -- Lace

This work too was made from a whole recycled piece of cloth I colored specially for this purpose.

The pattern sketch was drawn on a paper glued to the back of the fabric. The entire print was made in one line and so it was cut. The quilting was done with my new sewing machine.

Finished with all seven!!!

Here's my blue quilt:

Blue Mountains  (details below)

Made like my sketch quilt, with some fabric stitched directly to a canvas backing, and some areas just thread on the canvas.  I just love the effect, and the process.

When we set up the ground rules for Intl Threads I said I wanted the themes or prompts to be broad enough that I could use these quilts as etudes or experiments for things I wanted to check out.  I have been pretty consistent in sticking to this approach, and have already come up with some ideas that have been springboards to larger pieces.  I think these last two pieces have opened up a huge new area that I plan to work in this year.  So thank you to everybody!!!!

Sketch -- Kathy

I had a hard time with "sketch" because I never make sketches.  But I doodled around with this idea, a design I have toyed with in the past with my daily collages.  I used the second and third sketches on the top row for my piece.

For a long time I have been intrigued with the idea of stitching directly onto canvas, because the stitching line would become so important.  This was an opportunity to do something very different from what I had ever done in the past, yet it reflected some elements of my previous work.

The solid black was composed of selvages, which I have used a lot in the past.  And the very dense stitching reminds me of my sew-off squares, which I have used in many previous projects.
I like the fact that the canvas bulges and ripples in the unstitched areas, and that the stitched areas aren't totally flat (you can't really see that from the photos).  The detail shot below shows the scribble pattern of stitching, and if you were to look at the back of the quilt, this is exactly what the solid black shape looks like on the back.

I have been using the International Threads quilts as experiments, ways to try out in small scale what I might have already been thinking of.  This one was so exciting that I suspect I will be doing it again soon on a larger quilt.

6 Done, 1 left to complete

 'Red'  and 'Repetition and Pattern'

 ' Black to Grey with dash of colour' and 'change of Scale'

 ' Proof of sketching' and 'Blue'

'Lines'

I'm currently packing up  stitching and painting projects for my retreat next week at Rydal Hall in the Lake District and have hanging sleeves and labels to attach to 6 out of 7 of my quilts and hand stitching to complete on the 7th.

Filling in the details of the insurance form was an interesting exercise as several of my pieces have changed what challenge they're for  e.g. the 'Lines' quilt was originally going to be for 'repetition'; the 'blue' was originally going to be 'lines' ) and as Uta pointed out , my 'Change of Scale' could equally have worked for 'Black to Grey'.  They're fixed now however and all have titles.

I've really enjoyed working to this size and  have tried to work towards the edge of my comfort zone, in some cases anyway.  I've also found unexpected links between pieces e.g. 2 doors and   using photo of my fingerprint and using finger painting. I think I would sum up my collection as 'ripples and marks'  

From what I've seen of others work I think this will be a really interesting exhibition.



Missing image

Here is the image that wouldn't post the other day.

Sketch

And here are 6 of my finished quilts. The "Red" is missing.

They all look very different. 

Gillian

"Lines" is finished -- or maybe it's "blue"

We have snow and very cold weather this week and all my meetings and social obligations were cancelled, so I have gotten in lots of sewing time.  Here's my latest quilt:

Sargasso





















The background is one of Uta's hand-dyed fabrics that she gave me a couple of years ago and I have been saving for the perfect opportunity.

My objective was to practice making very skinny pieced curvy lines.  I have made many quilts with very skinny straight lines, but only one with curves, and I wasn't thrilled with that one.  I liked this one better.  I will probably give the fish machine-quilted eyes.

One of the things I've learned about the curved lines is that it's very difficult to predict how wide a finished pieces is going to be.  I gave myself extra width at the start to make sure I would end up with the right dimensions, but ended up with too much.  If I hadn't been working to size the fish would have had better tails.

I first thought this would be the "lines" quilt.  But I realize that this could very well be the "blue" quilt.  I reserve the right to re-categorize it!

Today I'm about halfway through my "sketch" quilt, and then I will do either "lines" or "blue" to finish out the series.

------

Update: this one turned out to be "lines."

No. 7 - LINE

.Another example of my work straight on the batting.  With this one I finished my line of duties.

It was a very good experience for me

Sketch

This is my Sketch quilt and the last one - making up the set for Prague. It is a poor photo and I will retake it using by camera rather than my iPad mini when I get all my technology back working properly.

Challenges are all about pushing you out of your comfort zone. Over the lat couple of years I have making quilts based on Indian men and women often avoiding the faces so i decided I would try painting a face.

We were lucky enough to go to an Indian wedding when we were in India in Jaunary. I set about sketching her using my photos on to paper, and then thought - just work directly on to fabric.
When I set the challenge I said you should include or post the drawing, so I don't have a drawing.

I have used lots of metallic thread here. I never use metallic thread and bling but here it seemed appropriate.

Overall, yes I am happy with it but I am not sure she looks exactly like the bride and her face looks a little wrinkled due to the quilting. Lessons learnt.