Cocktails

I chose Tequila Sunrise as my cocktail hence the yellow background against which I placed the cocktail glass cherries and orange pieces . The glass is covered with netting in order to get a shine. I felt it needed to be outlined in order to show up more. Here it is:

Cocktail Teaser

    

I'm afraid my quilt is going to be a little late.  I've been working on it most days, but despite that, it's taking me longer than planned. At the same time I've been doing a course with Cas Holmes via Fibre Arts Take Two over the last two months, and I have been really enjoying it. It has enabled me to overcome my problems with freemachining: I will probably be freemachining everything in sight from now on! I gave up on using my newer machine, as I've never managed to get it to freemachine for me and in fact it had put me off. Instead I dragged out my old mechanical machine, which had been stuck in the attic for the last 16 years. I didn't think it would work after not having been used for so long, but with a good oiling it's working perfectly.

THE NEXT Challenge from BETH

My choice of theme is "Cocktails". Be inspired by the colours, the shape of the glasses and even their names. I look forward to seeing the results. 

Regards

Beth

Book Titles

Book Titles

I am having to do my comments in this unusual way as I cannot get the blog to accept my comments in the usual way. So here goes.

Jinnie. The Hidden life of trees by Peter Wohlleben

I thought that your muted choice of colours very effective in creating a mystical feel to this quilt certainly enhancing the "hidden life " aspect .

Hilary. Fifty(-ish) Shades of Grey by E.L .James. The greys were contrasted very well with the yellow background and your placement of the grey pieces excellent . I think you are amazing to start and finish a quilt so quickly. I would be in a complete state of anxiety with so little time ahead . It became a very interesting piece.

Beth. Tequila makes her clothes fall off by Cara North . I have never heard of this author  or book before but it sounds like good fun . You created some fun with it showing the unclothed back of your lady in the picture. Your background quilting seemed to emphasise her.

Momo. Fantasy Flowers by Keigo Higashino. This was a delicately created design so very suitable for the book title . It had a feeling of restfulness about it which I really enjoyed . Flowers are so good to interpret in a quilt and you did it really well.

Phil. The Last Beekeeper by Siya Turabi. Only you could have had the energy to create a book of quilts  for this theme. Very clever to be able to peel away the layers (pages) and have a different quilt exposed each time . Very apt for this theme.

Patricia. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I loved this book when I read it and you have made it come to life . I love the painted vines of flowers which you created instead of just ordinary kite tails. It really makes the kite fly . What a super piece and you must have so enjoyed making it.

The hidden life of trees

  At first I was daunted by this challenge, until I remembered reading the book "The hidden life of trees" by Peter Wohlleben several years ago. I was fascinated to learn about the symbiosis between trees and mycorrhizal fungi, the trees receiving essentials nutrients from the soil and the fungi receiving sugars and fats from the trees that trees derive from photosynthesis. Most of my sketchbook work, printing and sampling I have done in the past couple of years has been to do with the trees I have observed in our neighbourhood. I thought this would be the chance to actually make something other than a sketch or sample! I printed the grey fabric with a piece of loosely and crazily interwoven natural fibre of some sort (no idea what it was as a friend gave me a scrap of it) that was perfect for the mycellium. I used silk organza for the tree roots, and a fabric that I printed and cut up for the forest floor. I used bondaweb, which didn't bond very well despite it not being that old, and I had trouble getting the forest floor to stay in place. When I had finally attached the tree trunks, I realised that I didn't like the arrangement of the branches of the tree on the right. As the bondaweb wasn't sticking very well, I thought that I could remove one of the branches, but of course that piece stuck perfectly!

Fifty(-ish) Shades of Grey by E L James

Sorry, Jinnie, that's just me being chaotic.  I actually landed on my title ages ago but all the other projects that I get myself involved in seem to crowd in and demand attention.  Like you, Beth, I decided to have a bit of fun - and no, I haven't read the book, but it was a bit of a cause celebre. 

One downside of leaving it the last minute is that I had to piece the yellow background.  The piece measures 16" square.  The wadding is acrylic felt.  The icons are raw edge fused and the quilting is machined with a variegated thread.  The edges are satin stitched.  All fabrics are commercial cottons.

I will have to go back to the library and show the ladies the finished piece.

Roll on the next theme!

Hilary

TEQUILA MAKES HER CLOTHES FALL OFF

 

Book title:Fantasy Flower

 I chose the title of the book: "Fantasy Flower" by Keigo Higashino.

This time I am going to try quilting + macrame again, a combination of both techniques. Therefore, the background is made of plain silk blocks to support the main character, the flowers. The shape of the flower is based on the spring flower, cherry blossom, and the macrame weaving method is used to weave four different degrees of flowering - bud, slightly open flower, blooming flower, and fading petal - in order to present a mood of flowering and flowering.

The most tiring part of doing this work is the knitting of the flowers, the 4 different knitting methods really made me think out of my mind!

What I am not so happy with is that the color of the flowers is different from what I imagined, maybe a lighter color would have a more fantasy feeling!

And the background may also need to add some knitting, so that the flowers will be more integrated! 

Overall, I've gained a lot from doing this quilt !

                                                             Momo 

THE LAST BEEKEEPER

 

I had just finished this book when the challenge was put up and I immediately knew what I was going to do.  Although the challenge was to use the cover as your inspiration I still wanted my piece to represent a book hence there are three layers to my work. The 'back page' is 3 layers and fully quilted. Whole cloth, applique, paint, crystals and stitching. I have corded the edge. The next layer is a cut out held together by a grey netting. The cut out is avalon, painted, appliqued and stitched. The final layer is painted lutradur and using a soldering iron and scissors I cut out the design. I would have preferred something more delicate but this was the most I could do to keep some of the structure. The left side is bound and the three layers are held together with a button. 

The top pic is the complete 'book'. The next pic is with the top 2 layers opened and you can see the back of the avalon cut out supported with the netting. The final pic has just the top layer of lutradur turned back.  The middle layer edge is also corded.  I have used the 'peebles' again which I used in my previous challenge and so have included a pic of them. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge, so much so, I think this was a record for me finishing it with a full month still to go. 

THE KITE RUNNER

 The book title I chose was "The Kite Runner".  I liked the idea, but after starting it I would have to give it a bit of a twist, hence the flowers which I aimed to give the impression of floating out of the two sides.  As I had chosen "flowers" I then decided that instead of ribbons or string at the sides of the kite I would turn them into vines for fun.  Patricia

Book Titles

 My choice of book title was Lucinda Riley's " The Butterfly Room " and here is the finished piece which I really enjoyed making. Rosemary

 Before we all post our Book Title quilts onto the blog on the 31st March I thought I would pull a name out of the hat as to who would be the next person to choose a theme . Beth Barkus it is you ! So we shall all look forward to the postings and also to learn what our new theme will be . Rosemary