Mother Nature
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Linda Waddle
"Dance of the Fairy Shrimp" 25" x 32"
Source of design; original art work and screens. Cotton fabric, cotton batting, wool appliqué dye painted, dye silk screened. Hand dyed wool, rayon and polyester threads were used.
Deconstructed screen printing on white fabric-over dyed-screen printed with dye and paint. As I worked with this piece it came to remind me of the masses of fairy shrimp we find in the snow melt ponds on Donner Summit, thus the name and the quilting to resemble water. |
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| Patti Henderson "Majestic Moose" 36" x 40" Inspiration for quilt/source of design is to create a series of moose. I used hand and marble dyed fabrics. |
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| Ingrid Cattaneo "Trudy Turtle" 32" x 22" Batik fabrics, beads, tulle and wool batting were used. I used a fabric collage technique for the entire piece. Sea turtles are such graceful underwater sea creatures. I decided to make this particular turtle somewhat different by using a pink and floral theme. Can you imagine pink sea turtles in the ocean? |
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| Sandra Poteet "Mariner" 41" x 23" This is a challenge within a challenge. 1) to use Joan Dyer and Ann Sanderson's hand-dyed fabric and 2) the MAQ category. This was frustrating for me, because I no longer work very with cottons very much. I used it as an opportunity to experiment with acrylic paints applied with brush and using stencil, and to find ways to introduce more value balance into a field of largely medium values. The facing is also an experiment--fused down netting. |
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| Lynn Tubbe "Debra's Forest" 25" x 42" Source of design came from Debra Goley's artwork printed onto fabric-panel purchased at AQS Phoenix show. Cotton fabrics, cheesecloth, 80 wt. and 50 wt. polyester threads and raw-edged fused. When Mary Pavlovich and I attended the AQS show in Phoenix in February, we were both intrigued by Debra Goley's acrylic paintings that she had printed onto cotton fabrics. I quickly bought a panel before she was sold-out, and Mary helped me choose a few coordinating fabrics, some of which are in the border and binding. |
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| Cathy Stone "Falling Leaves" 18" x 30" I purchased a DVD of fiber artist Barbara Schneider showing how she makes dimensional leaves. I used a hand-dyed, sparkly burlap which I found on line, and thought it would be a great background for leaves. I used Soft & Stable as the batting, and quilted the burlap with 30 wt. rayon thread. A few leaves were highlighted with beads. I used two shades of Shiva paint sticks to enhance the tree trunk. |
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| Jo Hathcock "Spring" 11" x 14" All cotton fabrics were used. Flower was painted with acrylic paints, cut out and fused onto the background and then machine stitched. |
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| Darlynn Evans "Stormy Weather 2014" 45" x 30" Best Interpretation of Theme Inspiration for quilt; computerized forecast chart-Feb.22, 2014 storm that finally brought 12 inches of rain to Nevada County and snow to the East Coast. I wanted to do a meteorological forecast chart for a lifelong friend who is a meteorologist, and who loves my quilts. I had seen some of his forecast charts and was blown away by the beauty that is created by warm and cold air and the pressure systems. It was difficult because I had to make four overlays to create the colors, longitude/latitude lines, continent lines, and pressure lines. It was really fun to do. |
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Kate Grant
"Mother Nature Can Be a Bear" 44" x 44" A few years ago, bears broke into our cabin and did thousands of dollars worth of damage. I am still working through my anger. I used 15 different cotton fabrics, cut into 1/8"x 4" tiny strips to create the bear fur (latch hooking application), ultrasuede for the rug surround & corner bears, latch hook rug canvas as the structure for the rug, and beads in the border. I learned that the strongest strips were in line with the warp. I also learned that latch hooking on a diagonal warps the canvas to make it three dimensional. |
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Pam Berry
"Shadow in the Sea" 29" x 55" I have found that upholstery fabric has the weight and texture for interesting backgrounds. Leaves were made with a base of the netting that is used for table decorations and wreaths, with an overlay of shear fabric. Pearl cotton, commercial thread, and beads were used, along with felt on tulle and wool yarn. |
Wild for Spirals
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Ardy Tobin
"Ombre Odyssey"
32" x 37"
Viewer's Choice
All cotton fabrics including the ombres and one Kafe Fassett stripe were used. I started with a drawing, enlarged it to a big “cartoon,” then traced the pieces onto freezer paper, which I used as a pattern to assemble the quilt top with both piecing and "appli-piecing". This piece presented several challenges for me: 1) to get the pieces to fit, 2) to get the ombre gradations where I wanted them, 3) to work in a difficult triad color scheme of blue-green, red-violet and yellow-orange. I chose to use the word "odyssey" in the title as odyssey is defined as "a long journey full of adventures and/or a series of experiences that give knowledge or understanding to someone"--and making this quilt was certainly an adventure!
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| Edith V. Gregersen "Spirals Gone Wild" 24" x 31" I wanted the spirals to be three dimensional. I made them out of starched fabric, sewn and pushed together over dowels. Removing the fabric crinkling it together was the challenge. I learned this technique from making colored rice paper spirals the Japanese way several years ago while working in a museum. The other challenge was to sew them down in a decorative way. The background was sewn together first to give a solid base. |
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| Joan Toth "Spiral Mania" 30.5" x 30.5" I made a base of off-white log cabin blocks and stitched various spirals on top of the base using various cotton & rayon threads. |
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| Jan Reed "Introspection-The Inner Journey" 28" x 23.5" Best Design The design for this piece was inspired by a fractal that I saw on Google Image. As I was drawing all the different elements, the long, curvy lines began to remind me of eyelashes and eyebrows, so I couldn't resist putting an eye at the center of it all--one with the entire color spectrum, since that is what we art quilters are so fond of. Once the eye was in place, it seemed to be searching for something, and since I am forever second guessing my impulses and choices, I decided the eye was looking more inward than outward. |
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| Joan Dyer "Exploring Circles #4: Whirlwind" 24" x 20" Two hand-dyed fabrics were discharged by brushing the pattern on with discharge paste. The red line was triple stitched with heavy red thread and a walking foot. |
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| Heidi Emmett "Deep space Sparkle" 22" x 45" Starting with a whole cloth panel, I made spirals in different ways to show organized chaos in the space. It all comes down to the moths always looking for the light in a night sky. The spirals were made from fabric and manipulated in "spirally" ways to create spirals within spirals. Yarn and thread work were also done to create even more spirals. Swarovski crystals and other glass beads were used to add sparkle. |
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| Kari Hannickel "5000 Miles of Spirals" 36" x 46" The spirals were running stitched with hand-dyed Elin Noble thread in primary colors while camping for 5000 miles over 20 days in April 2014. The heavier commercially available yarns were threaded through the running stitches by hand. Cotton fabrics using hand-dyes, commercial batiks, stripes and plaids in yellows and greens in random widths make up the "broken-dishes" squares. |
One Color Fabric/One Color Thread
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Michelle Peerson
"W. W."
20.5" x 17.50"
Inspiration for the piece; Walter White from the TV series "Breaking Bad"
My challenges were thread painting and making a quilt without a binding. Both are firsts for me. |
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Pat Gillings
"Violet Sampler" 18" x 21.5" Having recently purchased a sit down Handiquilter, I have been practicing a lot. I recently took a class online through Craftsy with Cindy Needham in free-motion done on a grid. When I saw this challenge, I drew out a pattern on a large pad of graph paper, and pieced the top. I debated what thread color to use and I didn't want to use the expected, so finally decided on turquoise and turquoise beads. |
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Trish Morris-Plise
"The Same But Different"
21.25" x 35.5"
Best use of color and/or value
This quilt was a journey! I began with the challenge "Mother Nature,” but I was not satisfied with the development of that inspiration, so I looked over my options and chose to move into one color thread and one color fabric. Happier with the outcome after that incorporation, I then needed to develop the title “Same But Different.” I looked at Heidi Emmett's post on her wearable art jacket and decided to adapt her spiral cutout onto my hibiscus. Holy Moley, I have all the of the challenges represented to my total surprise!
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