Saturday, May 4, 2013

April Stash Busting Challenge! "Brights"

Brights!  Uh Oh. I'm in trouble!  Or so I thought.  I am usually very reserved with colour choices and not entirely free with my creativity.  I think a little "OCD" comes to play with me there. Many of my quilting friends do Art Quilts and I am so structured I have a very hard time just letting go and cutting fabric.  So when I was given the chance to take a class with Kim Caskey, I jumped at the chance.
Then I panicked!  What will I bring?  Well, in the end, I rummaged my stash for fabric that I really wanted to have in a project and had no clue how to use, committed my favourite saying to memory and bolted to the class.
Over the course of the day we talked about all sorts of ideas that were foreign to me, like cutting lines with no rulers and slashing random cuts in fabric. YIKES! But as the day went on and I let myself cut and sew with no real rules, it became.... fun. Yes, fun! So here is what I ended up with so far:
It is BRIGHT!  It is happy. There is so much movement and detail. You need to see some of it up close. Click on the pics if you want to see better.
Dancing squares technique (on Left)

My favorite quote stamped on it!

Flowers, water, grass (yarn too!)

A good look at the "no straight lines" that I struggled with.

The SUN!!
I love the sun!  It was done with a tracing of a cake plate using Shiva paint sticks.  (Another "New to Me" technique) Then I overlaid it with two layers of this weird crinkly sheer fabric, quilted in the lines and then cut the top layer so that it will fray some and have more depth.

The water is done with the same sheer fabric only in blue.  I used a piece that was too big then quilted in waves so that there would be wrinkles and bulges.  I love the end result, it looks like water rippling on the picture!

The flowers are all different and have a lot of texture and depth too.  All of this is VERY new to me!  Ideas kept popping into my head and it was hard to focus on one at a time and get anything finished.  So as you can see, it is not quite done, but I am so close.  A little more quilting and a back and that baby will have earned a place on my wall.  My very first Art Quilt!  I love it!
Thanks for coming by!
Wonder what creative doors will open next month?

2 comments:

Lisa said...

Mamma it's gorgeous!!!!!! It's creative, colorful, full of demention and I LOVE IT!! It deserves to be hung on your wall - job well done my bestie !!!

Barb said...

Ohhhhhh I love brights....

love it!