Round Two, Challenge One

Primary, Secondary, Tertiary: A Color Wheel Challenge

At a recent workshop presented by Jane Dunnewold, participants were encouraged to explore color with intentionality; to be able to provide defensible reasons for their use of particular color combinations.  For this challenge, I invite us to reflect on why we use the colors we do, creating a piece that perhaps goes beyond our comfort zone using combinations of hue we’ve not previously considered.  Reveal Date: January 15, 2012

A new day, a new group...

Welcome to Round 2 of Fiberactions online quilt challenge group.

I want to say "Thank You" to the departing members who were with us for the last two years, for their wonderful contribution to the collected body of art quilts that Fiberactions has produced since late 2009.  They are Sue Bleiweiss, Vicki Welsh, Vivika DeNegre, Judy Alexander, and Deb Hardman.

And a hearty welcome to our new members, Susan Christensen, Deb Cogdill, and Susan Freund.  So now there are ten of us going forward.  And our new challenge round will be focusing on COLOR, lots of it.  We'll be doing color wheel exercises, focusing on specific member-chosen colorways, or anything else having to do with personal explorations of color in our work.

Thanks for joining us in creating a colorful quilting future!

Oak Structure

I'm happy to see so many 'nature' quilts here this time ... my favorite subject.  Surrounded by forest, it was natural for me to seek my inspiration outside my front door.  My oak was made from tiny snippits of fabrics, threads and dyed cheesecloth bonded to Tyvek and heated to give it its 3-dimensional structure.   

These two years have been an exciting learning experience for me.  I wouldn't have missed it for anything!!!  I will miss those of you who are leaving, but am looking forward to getting to know the new gals!!!

The Bee Hive

Inspiration for this piece came when we found a bee hive.  The structure of the tessellating hexagons was fascinating.  My hexagons were made with hand dyed fabric, edge turned, zig-zagged together and heavily stitched.

Extra batting was added behind the hive to give more dimension.  The trees and leaves were made from silk fibers and threads.

You can see more photos of this piece by visiting my blog here.

Leaf Structure

My piece for the structure challenge is called Leaf Structure and it measures 20 x 30 inches.  It's a bit of a play on words ~ most of my focus has been on eco dyeing lately, using leaves of various kinds, and having been a bit of a horticulturist in the past I've always been interested in the structure of leaves.  So I created this structure of leaf prints.

The fabrics are two old cotton fingertip towels complete with original embroidery and lace at the bottoms.  Eco dyed with eucalyptus leaves and rusty objects, backed with more eco dyed fabric, batted with flannel, and handstitched with rayon sewing thread.

See more photos on my blog.

Structure to me means something very organized and possibly rigid. This is my interpretation. Blogger insists it must be on it's side, but it works this way too.

Structured Landscape

I have had a fascination with the interior/exterior of buildings since I was a little kid. I have been working on a series of landscape quilts and this challenge word was a great way to continue that series.  I enjoy choosing the fabrics (I used all batiks and hand-dyed) and the quilting motifs for each tree or architectural element.

You can see more photos of the quilt on my blog - Kathleen Murphy Designs

Block by Block

Block by Block: The Building of a Great American City

Originally I had planned to focus my "structure" piece on a cellular or molecular level. Before I had a chance to explore that idea I had an overnight trip to NYC. Whilst downloading all of my graffiti, buildings, and interesting people photographs upon my return, I became more interested in the buildings. The NYC buildings compared to the Melbourne/Adelaide/Perth, Australia cityscapes were especially interesting. They were all built in essentially the same way, block by block. And block by block created personality, if one can attribute personality to stone, steel and glass.

Structure

My initial thought at the word "Structure" was to go to the basic elemental structure of atoms, molecules or DNA. My next thought was something like framework of buildings, houses, cities, etc., but then I thought about the simple Cairn. A rock structure that is built by hikers to mark safe passages to ford  rivers. The rivers in Alaska, are all glacial, & tend to be milky gray to turquoise. You can't see the bottoms, because of the glacial silt, so Cairns are set up on both sides of the river to show hikers safe passage.

All but one of the rocks are made from hand dyed & painted silk. Shibori dyed & wrapped on a pole with rocks inside until the fabric was dry, then the rocks removed, & the silk stuffed with bits of wool batting to help maintain the structure  of each rock. A fusible stabilizer was then fused to the back of the 'rocks' to make it easier to handle when appliqueing to the  background.There is one real rock, in a spot where there was too much of a gap in the rock applique.I put thread through a button then glued the button to the rock, & sewed it in place (ala Allie Aller's technique).

The ground was done with bits of silk & wool roving, & yarns, needle felted & stitched. The Raven, the Sentinel on the pathway, was made entirely  from thread on wash-away stabilizer. The background fabric was  painted with Dynaflow textile paints. The bushes were made from couched yarns, & raw edge applique' leaves, cut from my own straw dyed fabric.

I want to say thank you all for including me in these challenges. I have really enjoyed them, as well as getting to know each of you a little bit more.

Fall Interrupted

I loved the term "Structure" for this month's challenge.  It really got me thinking about how structured  my life really is, and how I rely on certain constants to keep me on track.  When those constants have changed, even slightly, the course of my life has been changed forever.

Detail

As I started this piece and was pulling the fabrics from my stash, my family structure was in turmoil.  We were beginning a new school year, our state had been hit by a hurricane, and we had just received power back in our town after spending nearly a week in the dark.  No power for us means no water, electricity, sewer, or refrigeration.  Our structure was shaken to the core.  Fast forward two months as I was quilting and binding the piece to the next natural disaster - a freak snow storm- which left our neighbors to the north in the same situation of turmoil.

I have experienced a natural disaster which change the face of a city:  the 1989 San Francisco Earthquake moved not only buildings, but the city planners as they had to redesign highways and public spaces.  I have lived through emotional shock waves as well, such as losing my parents, and have felt the pain of a young life cut short by a horrible accident.  All of these events, whether physical or emotional, have changed me, the world around me, and my family.  Some of the changes have been for the better, and others have not.  But they all have left their mark on the structure of my soul.

The working title of this piece was "Fault Lines", but I am naming it "Fall Interrupted".  It was inspired by a picture of a rock taken in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, at one of my favorite places in the world.  This is where I go to think, to feel the ocean breeze, and to cast my troubles to the wind.  You can see in the photograph where the granite is split with quartz, and where each sliver of stone has moved, its structure altered forever, by a moment when the earth moved and the strength of the stone was not enough to keep its structure intact.

This is my last quilt with the Fiberactions group.  Thank you all for a wonderful experience of working with challenges and deadlines.

Fault Lines:  Working Title
18.5"x18.5"