bodner027

I have finally opened my sewing machine for the first time since last June and it feels good! I have started my challenge and am having fun. here is a sneak peak of a start. I hope you are all having fun with it. My husband is doing so much better after a second visit to the hospital for 4 days to straighten out his meds so we are doing well. I have the incentive to get back to my machine and hopefully that will remain! ' I just checked all the #4 challenges again - what a creative group we have! Shirley

Finally - better late than never. I chose to create a background with the blue and purple and make a statement with the orange fabric. After all that has been going on in the world - uprisings, earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear accidents - I decided that a lightning bolt from the 'heavens' would be an appropriate subject. The background is fabric collage. I made the bolt dimensional and it stands out from the background a bit. For the binding I used my attempt at a Susan Carlson technique with assorted scraps glued in place.

Thank you Cheryl I am glad you have set the challenge. I look forward to seeing your challenge. I dread the challenge you have picked so it is going to be a very challenging challenge for me In saying that this is what the group is all about "Challenging Ourslves out of our comfort zone" Delia

Hi All, sorry I was awol. Taxes and spring break kind of took my breath away. I guess I wasn't paying attention as to how we selected the challenges, but I guess it is alpha order. We have people from all over the world in our group, some are neighbors and some we could walk by on the street and would never know it so how about a self portrait? Thoughts? Thanks for your patience! My challenge is almost ready! Cheryl

I'm honored and challenged to be a part of this group.  This is my first challenge in which I've been able to participate.  This challenge has also come at a busy time for me.  You would know that orange is my most challenging color to use - my orange section in my stash only consists of 4 or 5 fabrics. For this challenge, I turned to a pattern that I've been wanting to try, Ricky Tims' Caveman Quilting, the Chantelle Tulip flower.  My roots are in traditional quilting - so free cutting curves and making things uneven was a step out for me.  Though the picture doesn't show it, I quilted the center of the quilt with orange thread and the borders with purple thread - thus challenging me to be bolder in my thread selection.  This measures about 14x22". I'll enjoy this quilt hanging on my front door as I look forward to contemplating the next challenge.

Our challenge this month with our challenging ourselves group was working with primarily orange then blue and purple. We could use any shades and a little of some other color. So what I did was I decided to try to put in fabric a Tennessean' dream of a Superbowl....lol  I made the field out of orange and the post and yd lines blue. Then added mountains using fabric, texture magic and fabric paint. the sky was all shades of blue and purple....it was a challenge to only use those colors but all in all I think it came out ok. I used a white marking pen for the numbers and I wished that I did not but it was already too late so I will know next time that it is not good to use for something like that. For the TN Vols I tried just stitching it in blue but did not look dark enough so then I used fabric paint....I learned a few things on what not to use.  But I did overall enjoy trying to figure it out....on to the next one

I haven't quite finished my piece, just need to stitch the binding down but have taken a photo of the piece for the reveal. I will sit and stitch tonight while the football is on television. My piece was inspired by the fish in Susan Carlson's book Free Style Applique. I didn't follow her applique techniques though.  It measures approx 10 x 12 inches. As you can see the fish is made in various orange fabrics and the background is purple and blue. The seaweed is painted vliesofix.

I haven't done much art quilt work lately so it was fun to get back to it . My wall hanging is 18.5" by 11.5" and is a reprecentative of some of the flowers that are in my spring garden. If the snow ever goes away.The grape hyasinths are done with thread work on solvy and the sewn on to the background , the lilies are done with layers of fabric and wonder under and then I played with them to get the pettals to lay as I wanted them to be. The dementional lilies have painted floral wire as the stamens. I did enjoy this challenge. Margaret

I had some difficulty deciding what to do for this challenge. I rarely buy purple or orange fabric. I used my embellisher and worked on Irish Tweed fabric for the base of my piece. I love to work with sheers and tulles and so combined them with the tweed. I must confess I am not very keen on the background but do love the flower. I used lots of stitching and beading to finish it off. Miriam

                                                                        Hi Girls I also made two quilts for this challenge. His name is FRILLY. 21inches x 21 inches The frilly neck Lizard is my real one. The other was the first and I thought it did not have enough orange in it. The fabric for the Lizard was hand painted my me. I then made the lizard by cutting out the shapes and thread painting in the body and legs. I then set him on a rock and made the 3D frilly and face. I appliqued and machine embroidered in the leaves and grass before adding some quilting lines. This Celtic quilt is the first I made but then thought it did not have enou...

Oooops, mine isn't patchwork. My first thoughts were to do a piece of patchwork but I hope as it's my first one that the felting will be OK. I did make the felt myself. Marian