Deb's Transformation

Here's Deb's Transformation

Next Word-Environment

According to the original post, I'm next to pick a word. I've thought of lots,


but finally decided on one near and dear to my heart.



ENVIRONMENT



1.surrounded or being surrounded

2.surroundings

3.all the conditions, circumstances, and influences surrounding and affecting

the development of an organism.

Thanks also to everyone who commented on my piece.



Sandy

Transformation Finale

Unfortunately, "some" Blogger users are having issues with loading photos, & I am one of those. If you want to see my Transformation piece you will have to check my own blog, as I can still load there with Windows Live Writer!

transformation-

                   

 -inspired from the beautiful seed pods which are left behind when flowers die off. 

Silk fusion was used for the fabric and the seeds are polymer clay.

This is the first piece in a series of seed pods I'm going to be working on in the future

Winter into Spring

When I think of the term Transformation, I am instantly overcome with images of nature.  Caterpillars change into butterflies, coal turns to diamonds, riverbeds evolve into canyons,  cliffs erode into sandy dunes, and Winter turns to Spring.  I set my "transformation challenge" to use a pile of fabrics left over from a nature inspired project earlier this year (my Marshview quilt) and to make them into something entirely new.  I used only fabrics that had been cut and pieced (yet rejected) for that project with one addition... a shibori dyed fabric I had purchased from Connie Rose, another quilter in the Fiberactions challenge group.  The 6" x 9" block I designed has five pieces, but is rather hard to find because many of the scraps used in the quilt had been pieced for the other project already.  Although the quilt is "finished", I am not quite sure if it is "done".  I've been toying with thread painting a tree on top of it with buds of leaves, or adding some other embellishment.  The quilting is just basic, and it may benefit from patterns of wind... or maybe I'll just leave it alone.


That's the thing about transformation... it just never stops.

Transformation/Lone Star State of Mind

Actually it was Sue Bleiweiss' revelation that she had FINISHED her "transformation" on October 19 (!) that finally got me thinking about what I would do. After I played with my UFO bin for a bit, I discovered 8-9 paper-pieced Lone Star Block parts, leftovers from a long-ago completed fundraiser. Fodder for transforming, perhaps.

As I started thinking about my life in Texas.... and other locales... I remembered the effect/affect those locales had on our family. I thought about all those people I knew who had adapted to their new surrounds and cultures.....and those who had gone a step farther and adopted these new identities. Really transforming their lives.

Case in point: I have two brothers, a sister adopted from Japan and several friends who are also not from Texas. In fact, they may have spent decades in various other places. But that doesn't diminish the degree to which they would identify themselves as Texans. Maybe it's a "cowboy" thing.

Reconstruction

My "transformation" piece is called Reconstruction.  The background fabric is one of my favorite early hand printed cotton/linen pieces.  And the foreground fabrics are two manipulated digital images of the background cloth, one printed on homespun cotton, the other on raw silk.  I consider this to be a wholecloth construction because it is, essentially, one piece of fabric.

My entire life has been under "reconstruction" lately, hence the title of the quilt.  It has been mounted on painted, stretched canvas.  Read a little more about it and see another image on my blog.

"Eye of the Beholder"

Again, I have chosen to do two pieces. Since so much of my work is about the quilted design and often incorporates painted elements, the word “Transformation” seemed right up my alley. So I did two identical pieces, one white work, one with color. The same, yet different…

More information and photos on my blog.

Not Your Grandma's Flower Garden

Although this was 'my word,' and I had months and months to think about it, none of my original ideas developed into something I was satisfied with. As time for our reveal came closer, I settled for a transformation that's not exactly my favorite quilt!

I took a flea market bag of loose octagons ... those cotton calico tiny floral prints from the 60s? 70s? ... and slip-stitched some of them together in a rough 16x20 size. I gessoed this background, then added two acrylic washes to tone down the white. The leaves and flowers are stacked, raw-edge reverse applique ... 7 layers of fabric on the flowers and 3 on the leaves. To honor the woman who lovingly hand-stitched all those loose octagons so long ago, I assembled one flower as she would have and added it to the center of my quilt.

Commercial batiks and cottons, silk sari ribbon, glass beads, metallic thread.

Transformation

Here is my Transformation. I transformed a napkin to a wall quilt. The flower and grass are parts of a napkin.  See my blog http://focus-on-fiber.blogspot.com/ for the rest of the details.

The Offering

Here is my transformation piece. I had a picture that I took while I was in India last year of the elephant god Ganesh. I cropped a portion of the photo that I thought had an interesting look and then rotated it 90 degrees.

I then sketched it on cloth and painted it using my own color pallet. I used Stewart Gill paints and love the vibrant colors. I must have used at least 15 different threads for the quilting. It really is more heavy tread painting then quilting. I love heavy tread work and feel I need to add even more.









In this next shot you can see the details of the foot. I love the red Byzantia paint with the small silver thread stippling.

You can see the original photo on my blog.

Transformation

With this challenge I wanted to revisit the techniques that I used in the Communication challenge. I did that and made some improvements. So I suppose you could say that the transformations is happening within me. I am becoming more confident with the symmetry technique and starting to make them unique to me.....a little anyway.

I'll be honest, I am struggling with the themes. but that is OK, that's the whole point!

You can see a few detail shots on my blog.

transformation

Stamped, Screen printed, fusible applique, machine pieced & quilted

me too! finished, I mean...

I have officially finished my Transformation piece. Here is one tiny corner of it. I really had fun with this one. I am looking forward to reveal day!

Finished!

I love the shine of the metallic thread...Just a few more days until the reveal!

a sneak peek

almost finished!