We had our 2nd reveal of the year, and as always it didn't fail to amaze! 

Challenge:  Ice Ice Baby

Icy Diamonds by Teddy Wenner
27"x 35"

Vanilla Ice did the song Ice, Ice Baby.  I used to watch him on HGTV when he did renovations on South Florida homes.  Ice can also be associated with diamonds.  

Big Blue by Lynn Tubbe
21" x 26"

The base fabric is an ice-dyed piece I made using the gravity dyeing technique.  the diagonal pattern looked like the radiation petals of a flower.  I used Terial Magic to stiffen the center of the flower as well as the "fringe' to prevent raveling.  After I stiffened the white fabric for the center, drying it into a dimensional shape, it was a challenge to hand sew through the unwieldy and really stiff fabric.  Lesson learned, along with bleeding fingers.  I trust gluing things only so far and felt sewing would be more secure.

Explosion by Marylee Drake
35" x 41"

Last year one of our Sierra Sisters' members, Sandra Mollen, showed us how to do gravity dying with ice and procion mx dyes.  I used some of the dyed fabric and added fused applique and free motion quilting.  I love this dyeing technique because you don't know how it will turn out until its done.  The fabric lends itself to a variety of uses in art quilting - backing, background or piecing.  

Picos de Europa by Michelle Peerson
20" x 17"

My ice dyed fabric reminded me of the colors of the Picos de Europa in Northern Spain.  I feel it needs a focal point and will put one on once I figure that out.  

Snow Globe Sojourn by Tracy Visher
22" x 13"

I actually thought I’d make an iceberg quilt but got distracted and by the time I came back to it, I had a vision of driving on a snowy night. I was seduced by the idea of trying to make the image look like you were looking out of a windshield. It is ice on the road that fits the challenge.  My inspiration is from living in a place that snows every winter. There is a long road out to my house where we have to pay particular attention to wild horses at night. It is often the first place I have to turn on the 4-wheel drive on my car when I leave home. It can be treacherous but is always beautiful too. Tulle was my friend in creating layers of depth. I used cotton commercial fabric, batiks, acrylic paint, monofilament thread. Glitter tulle and plain tulle. Hand couched metallic threads. Iridescent sequins. The biggest challenge was truly making the feeling of looking through a frosty windshield at night. I wanted ice build up and a foggy feeling. Beyond that, I wanted a road that felt like you had to pay attention, with snow and ice on it as well. All of that made harder because it was at night. Where I live, this is a regular occurrence, and I love it.

Challenge:  All Creatures Great and Small

5 Trees by Mary Stori
28" x 17"

Because the trees are mostly neutral fabrics, the 3 cardinals were added to draw attention to other areas of the quilt and add a few sparks of color.  The inspiration was the desire to use some of the popular 'grunge' fabric looks that I've created using my gelli plate.  I gelli printed the grunge style trees on cotton and raw edge.  I densely machine quilted and hand embroidered.  This piece is a continuation of my quest to crate my own unique fabrics through dyeing, painting, screen printing, gelli printing and other surface design techniques.  

Sunset over Heritage Placer Vineyard's ponds by Mari Stori
28" x 19"

The addition of geese and ducks in this landscape scene helps to draw the eye around the piece as well as echoing what one might see in nation.  The inspiration was a photo taken by a resident and published in our community online newsletter.  This was inspired by a Bobbi Jayne DeLozier photo and used with permission.  It's appliqued, thread painted and quilted, It uses ice-dyed and batik cottons, ultra-suede, gel printing on fabric, oil pastels & Prisma pencils. Orange is not a color I normally use, therefore there was very little in my stash.  Much of the quilt has been created using my gelli plate or over-colored with various marking tools.  

Fan by Elisabeth Baratta
24" x 30"

I like Japanese Fans.  I added flying geese to meet the theme.  This is foundation pieced and is all silk.  It does not have a heartbeat, but it is a fan.  Flying geese will have to do.

Breakfast by Bonnie Ellering
20" x 20"

Eagles are great and are pretty small.  

Challenge:  Native Cultures

Homage to the Chauvet Cave Artists by Kathryn Madison
39" x 29"

This is a rendering of ancient cave paintings.  The inspiration was Werner Herzog’s documentary, “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.”  I started with Muslin because I wanted the texture.  I used organza, organza, monofilament, Tsukineko inks and Inktense blocks.  I felt the pressure of trying to authentically render another artists’ work, to do it justice. As I learned about them and the environment they lived in, I had more and more respect for how difficult their lives were and yet they still felt making art was important.

 

Lost Tribe, Lost Art by Tracy Visher
51" x 32"

 This represents the lost Ariona tribe of the Southern Sinagua Indians, a cliff dwelling people.  I have visited this cliff dwelling sight in Valle Verde, between Phoenix and Sedona Arizona.  I have had a long fascination with the Anisazi Nation, of which the Sinagua were a part.  Their dwelling is on the edge of a desert, separated by a small river.  I was taken with the fact that there were so much energy and industry along the top of the cliff and along the river, but then there were miles of uninhabitable dry land beyond.  One half of the 'meaning' in this quilt is an homage to the lost handwork arts created by women over the centuries.  I have collected bits of old linens with embroidered, tatted and crocheted designs on them.  It is rare to see these kinds of handiwork in the world any longer.  You will find bits of it throughout the 'desert' portion of this quilt.  I used commercial cotton and batiks, decoulourant, decorative threads, embroidery thread, inktense pencil, hand dyed linen.  I was clear about my concept but wanted to move to more of an abstract representation of the topic.  I decided to try to make a continuous cured piece along the top, with the land strip and the sky strip.  It was hard to lay flat, but I got it!  I used decoulourant to create the white clouds in the blue batik sky.  I did a skinny insert strip for the river.  The entire quilt is PIECED, not collaged like I typically do.  It was overall, the most difficult piece I have constructed.  

Challenge:  Going in Circles

Going in Circles by Michelle Peerson
17" x 24"

I wanted to try a new technique.   I used a piece of thicken dyed fabric I made as the background. Circles were stamped using dye dipped toilet paper rolls and straight lines were made with the edge of a credit card.

Mooniversary by Sophia Day

I have many, many full moon photos.  My husband and I had our first date on a full moon and then bought a house where we can watch the moonrise. I have always wanted to use the photos in a quilt. Going in Circles was a perfect theme.  I found a perfect commercial ombre fabric for the background. I used a stamp and paint for the phases of the moon. I wanted to channel my inner collage artist and I didn’t totally succeed.  But I found a perfect ombre fabric which gave me a lot of inspiration.  I used fused circles this time instead of piecing them in.  

Out of Darkness, Hope Rises by Kathryn Madison
21" x 34"

I wanted to experiment with diluted spray Tsukineko inks on fabrics other than cotton. I used panne velvet, crystal organza, batting, cotton, mistyfuse, monofilament, soldering iron, crystals.  With all the horrible news of today, I wanted to create something that reflected my hopes that we, as a country, will rise from the darkness we are suffering in now.

Going in Circles by Robin Hart
40" x 34"

When I think of something going in circles, the planet Saturn comes to mind.  A banded planet surrounded by ice fragments of a lost moon in an orbital flat plane.  Circles around circles that are the jewels of the Solar System.  I was inspired by a closeup NASA phto of Saturn from the Casini mission a few years ago and did an Adobe illustrator rendering of the planet, it's rings and some of it's moons.  This was output on percale fabric by Real Graphics and then heavily thread painted.  Doung all the rings in tight formation was a challenge for this project and also getting it to lay flat because of the extreme parabola shape of the rings.  I had to block it twice.  

Circles Again by Elisabeth Baratta

The inspiration was the border print fabric.  I used African wax prints.  This quilt is made from a border print.  It has 36 10-degree wedges.  The border was made of the leftovers from the center.  

 We had a wonderful trunk show by our member Ann Sanderson, along with some show and tell by members and potential members.

Ann's Trunk Show

 We had our first reveal of the year. We choose 9 challenges a year + 1 wildcard challenge.  The 9 challenges are split into 3 for April, 3 for July and 3 for October.  The wildcard can be used for any of the 3 reveals.

12" x 12" - any subject

Willits Meadow 12" x 12"
by Mariah Bath

Machine and hand-stitched, hand quilted.  Inspired by a watercolor by a friend from Center for the Arts in Willits, CA.

White Lily 12" x 12"
by Mary Stori

I enjoy flowers.  This is raw edge applique, embroidered and quilted.

Aubergines & Alliums 12" x 12"
by Stephanie Bennett-Strauss

Sierra Sisters mini-group all made vegetables. A specific green fabric chosen by the group wat to be included in each quilt.  Mine is the green top-knot on the white eggplant.  This was quilted on a domestic Pfaff machine.

Cauliflower 12" x 12"
by Marylee Drake

The inspiration was to choose a vegetable and make it special.  I used a picture of a cauliflower for a realistic image.  I used cotton fabric, thread, puffy fabric, terial magic and fusible.  

A Squash of Many Names 12" x 12"
by Karin Polli

Other names for this squash are chayote (in Mexico and parts of the U.S.) pimpinela, christophine, choko, xuxu (Brazil), muchuachie, iskat, mango squash, mirliton (in Louisiana), chocho, custard mallow, vegetable pear, chuchu (Brazil), Buddhas's hand squash.  This squash is my favorite.  Called quisquil in Guatemala.  I use it in soups and stews.  Can be eaten raw, fried, pickled.  The background was printed using stencils and a gelli plate.  Quilt shows squash growing on the vine, the leaves and the inside.  the vines are durable, but flexible & used to make hats & baskets.

3 Beets per Measure 12" x 12"
by Jan Mitrovich

I used hand dyed/painted cotton, poly batting, backing & organza.  I used terial magic and tyvek for texture/3-d effects. I thread painted the beets.  Beets are one of my favorite vegies to eat.  When I lived in Washington, I learned that beet varieties come in many wonderful colors.

Eggplant & Peach 12" x 12"
by Sharon Rizatto

This is satire.  

Dancing Peppers 12" x 12"
by Carole Rossi

This quilt is part of a 12x12 group challenge for a "Square Foot Garden."  We all picked a vegetable to depict, in any style, using techniques of our choosing.  I picked peppers!  This was my own drawing & stencil or mask outlining the pepper images.  I used mono-printing techniques, with acrylic paints; white background hand painted using Derwent inktense pencils & textile medium; rayon treads (40 weight mettler poly-sheen); fused applique.  This was machine quilted.  Quilter's Dream cotton batting.  I challenged myself to create a piece with fanciful images of peppers, utilizing multiple techniques.  Specifically, I wanted to use mono-printing techniques which I recently learned in a class with artist Ana Buzzalino.  I also wanted to use inktense pencils.  I started with white fabric, and using acrylic paints, a brayer, gelli plate and masks, I crated the print.  Then, I used inktense pencils and Textile Medium to paint the areas around the pepper images.  I also fused a few "mini" peppers onto the designs in the corners of the piece, which are meant to reflect a square garden area!  I wanted a wild and cheerful setting.  

Carotte 12" x 12"
by Michelle Peerson

Several of us decided to make quilts of various vegetables, 12”x12” Category, each using the same focus fabric. I used Indigo dyed cotton background, Acid dyed wool fabric for the carrot, focus fabric for leaves It took three tries to get the color of the carrot right

Is Celeriac Celery Root? 12" x 12"
by Jane Haworth

The inspiration was a magazine article about cooking with celeriac, with an interesting painted illustration.  I painted the celeriac, used commercial fabrics, extra threads for the roots, hand-stitching and hand-quilting. The challenge was putting this together and adding the extra 3-D layers.

Lotus Root - Vietnam 12" x 12"
by Shelli Fried

A group of us decided to do a vegetable garden so we each chose a veggie. I love the interesting pattern of the lotus root and how pretty it is.  I used a modified photo of lotus farm we visited in Vietnam printed on fabric, commercial fabric, fusible, acrylic paint, and fresh lotus root. I used one of the watercolor styles from the photo app befunky to modify the photo then printed it on fabric at home. The photo was taken at a lotus farm outside Saigon where we sat under a gazebo on the boardwalk in the middle of the lotus ponds to have a fabulous lunch.  The lotus pattern was stamped by painting the lotus slices with acrylic paint.  I thought I would be able to make the root stamps stand out by stitching around them. Instead, because of the stiff paint, they stand out on the back!

Rhubarb - Fight or Food? 12" x 12"
by Lynn Tubbe

I have always loved the complimentary colors of rhubarb.  The taste, not so much.  In addition to the usual cotton fabrics and thread, I also used Terial Magic, to lock in the wrinkles of the leaves.  The quilting in the background proved to be a challenge.  It took about three tries before I was satisfied.  I was reminded why it is easier to quilt the background BEFORE fusing things down.  

Just Jay 12" x 12"
by Tracy Visher

I like to use this 12x12 format to create a "macro" image of a subject.  I have been feeding unsalted whole peanuts to scrub jay families in my yard for almost a decade.  This is one of the flock.  They raise two babies in our yard every year and the following year, we are visited by the parents and the kids.  I used hand-painted linen, raffia, velour fabric, commercial cotton fabric, batik fabric, inktense pencils, monk's cloth, fine-tip sharpie, embroidery thread, Modge-Podge dimensional magic, white pen, cotton/poly batting.  The biggest challenge was combining the different fabrics to give the feeling of feathers and the bark of the log, from the different patterns and textures of the fabrics selected.  

Modern Blooms 12" x 12"
by Sophia Day

I wanted to do something with curves and to use some fabric I had left over from another challenge.  I used Moda solids against inspirational word fabric.  I had the plan in my head, but trying to piece it all and have it come out close to what I wanted was challenging.  

Surfeit of Sunflowers 12" x 12"
by Carole Rossi

This quilt is part of a 12x12 group challenge, using any subject which reflected images from nature.  I decided to create my own design or sunflowers.  I used various batiks and hand painted fabrics. Derwent inktense pencils& Textile Medium were used for the painting; I used rayon threads (40 weight Mettler Poly-Sheen); fused applique-blanket stitch; machine quilting, quilter's dream cotton batting.  I challenged myself to crate a piece where the images of sunflowers were representational, but not realistic.  In other words, you know you are looking at sunflowers, but they are not like anything you've ever seen.  I also wanted to use inktense pencils to crate bright, eye-catching centers for the flowers.  I wanted them to look a little bit like the sun or perhaps planets.  I wanted the design of the piece to be balanced, cheerful and pleasing to the eye!

What the Bees See 12" x 12"
by Kathryn Madison

Bees and most insects see in ultraviolet light.  Photographers can now photograph flowers in ultraviolet light, showing us what the bees see.  I used PFD cotton, polyester, batting, soldering iron, inktense blocks and pencils, machine embroidery poly thread, cotton thread and monofilament.  I've never created an art quit this small before and this was a challenge.  To find an image that would fit the space and still tell a story was difficult.  Then I further challenged myself to align the mirror images of the star gazer lily on the front and back to accommodate the quilting.  

Women Heros

Yes, I Can! 30" x 29"
by Karle deProsse

I found a book of sketches of fifty famous “bad ass” women. I saw in this all the possibilities for a young woman to grow up to make a positive difference in the world.  I used Cotton fabric, cotton batting, wooden buttons, ribbon.  The free motion quilting of the figures was above my skill level.  I wanted to quit and throw it away more times than there are women depicted. I talked myself down each time with the thought that I needed to stick it out to increase my skill level. Not sure that worked. 

Red Tent
by Sara Lamb

This was inspired by the Covid lockdown and women helping women.  I used handwoven cloth, ink and beads.

Show & Tell

by Ann Sanderson

The poppies are hand printed with thickened dye.  I used hand dyed fabrics as well as commercial fabrics in my composition.

Rear Window 17" x 16"
by Mary Stori

A friend's long recovery from a bad fall generated time spent enjoying the scenic view from his home's rear window - documenting it day and evening.  This piece was crated solely by my own imaginative rear window view.  I used hand-dyed and batik cottons, appliqued raw edge motifs, machine quilting and facing.