Earth's Amazing Wonders series - Piece one - Kelly L Hendrickson

Can you believe it!!!  My first piece done and it isn't even the end of FEBRUARY (which is a short month even!)

Antelope Canyon - Arizona USA

The Navajo sandstone making up the walls of the canyon have colors that are almost jewel-toned.  I wanted to add a bit of sky to break up the bright colors. It is a sight to behold...even though I've only seen photos. The flow of the stone is accentuated by the quilting lines. At first I thought this would be mind-numbing but I went with a more organic feel and just let them flow at will.  It ended up being quite therapeutic! I have not quilted this much on a quilt in ages.

The binding on this one was a bear!! After cutting it to size (yes....before thinking about the binding....) I realized that every piece I auditioned for the binding was a distraction. I asked around and got a few ideas but none of them turned out like I wanted for this piece.  Well....there was no way of avoiding it.  I had to do a pieced binding to keep the flow of the lines and colors. I've done pieced bindings before but none quite as complicated with all the angles and everything.  Anyway, it took most of today but it is done and (if I do say so myself) I think it looks GREAT!!

So, my first in the series of Earth's Amazing Wonders for Voyage 2014.

ANTELOPE  CANYON - ARIZONA USA

Sorry about the less-than-clear photo. My good camera is in the shop and I had to take this one with my phone.  I miss my camera.........:-((((((

Morning Glory Pool, Yellowstone National Park

My first piece for 2014 is based on a photograph of Morning Glory Pool in Yellowstone Park, Wyoming (see below). 

In keeping with this year's theme of "Earth", each of my quilts will represent a place on this earth that has made a significant impression on me.  Instead of trying to just copy the image of each place in fabric, I will try to capture the impression of each place.

I was born and raised in southeastern Idaho, just 60 miles south of Yellowstone Park and 60 miles west of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Spectacular scenery was an everyday occurrence for me.  I was fortunate to visit Yellowstone Park two or three times each year.  My favorite sites in Yellowstone Park are the geyser basins.  Morning Glory pool always fascinated me.  The water is crystal clear and incredibly hot.  It seems that you can see through the water right down to the center of the earth.  The colorful pool looks so inviting, but as you step closer the radiated heat from the water pushes you away.  One can only safely observe from a distance.  Beauty can sometimes be very dangerous.

The blue pool is made of my own hand-felted material and a wonderful sparkly blue fabric that I stumbled across one day in JoAnn's Fabric.  I used a piece of my hand-painted silk for the first border around the pool.  I overlaid the fabric in the yellow area with organza "bubbles" to enhance the idea of water.  I hand embroidered French knots on the white strip and added a few crystals for some sparkle and interest.  I chose the bright orange and yellow fabric because it reminded me of the molten lava that is so close to the surface in Yellowstone Park. The little patches of green represent the plants of the forest that cannot live in close proximity to the hot pools.

Here is the photo I used as inspiration for my quilt:

Frances

Saltmines

The creative juices are flowing in abundance :-). Don't get nervous if you have not yet made a quilt this year, I am on a roll here. This picture - an aerial photo made by George Steinmetz -:

inspired me in making my 3rd quilt. This is how it turned out:

 

Some time ago I had bought a textured black felt. Not knowing what to do with it at that time I put it into my stash. It was the perfect background for this piece. I applied bronze and gold paint to it to get it more in the color I wanted. To create depth in it, I glued two layers together. The holes were cut out in a random way. The bottom layer slipped a bit while cutting creating a kind of shadow line.  

There is a lot of fabric in my stash, but I was not able to find one to my liking to resemble the mines. So I decided to apply paint to batting. This way I could play a bit with the colors and the texture would be visible. Here is a detail picture which shows this:

Tulip fields

 Here is my second quilt for this year:

I am focussing on aerial views and this one is a view of the tulip fields we have here in the Netherlands. The flowers are not yet blooming, it is too early for that but when they do it looks so ful of joy. All the fabrics I used for this piece are my own hand dyed ones.

Finished!!! Piece Six completed!!

And just in time!  Now the whole set is ready to package up and send to Elaine!

The final piece is from another of my own macro photos. Taken in a small East Texas town park. An old log cabin sun bleached to a pearly gray. The spiky green plants adding a great pop of color.

Here it is with its original macro photo.

TUCKED  IN  A  CORNER

Now I can breathe !  Whew!!

Wounded Tree Completed - #5

Here is number five for Beaujolais.  I really had fun with bark cloth and shiva sticks on this one.  Here it is with its original macro photo.

Wounded Tree

The sixth and final piece is well under way so I'll be mailing it by the end of the month as promised.

Voyager 2014

This year I would like my theme within "earth" to be trees. Especially those trees found within South Africa . Trees really feed my soul !!!  My first one will be the South African baobab which is different from the ones found in Madagascar .
I can't wait to start.
Margie

A Twist of Lemon

A Twist of Lemon – January 2014

For my quilts this year, I have decided to depict fruit and vegetables that grow in the “Earth” around where I live here in the south of France.

Lemons are one of the citrus fruits that grow very well especially along the coast on the Côte d'Azur near the town of Menton and one can buy all sorts of products based on the lemon.

I also want to include more of my own fabric, stencilled and stamped using the Gelli plate, as well as more hand embroidery. I am a fan of Jane LaFazio's work, an artist from San Diego, and have taken some inspiration from her.

I first produced lemon related drawings, made some stencils and masks and played for an afternoon producing a pile of fabric from which I selected pieces I wanted to use. I made a slice of lemon from evolon and felt and printed on fabric some information about lemons.

Putting all this together was fun and I always enjoy hand embroidery.

I started this year thinking I would do some work that challenged me and was a bit different from what I am naturally drawn to doing, so thought i would do the Earth - patterns theme. I made a small quilt based on the patterns at Giant's Causeway in Ireland. It was grey! I looked at it for a day or two and thought it was awful - just not me! so I made another one. Now I am much happier. I am going to develop the Earth - people theme and try to make 6 quilts all with faces on. This will really challenge me as I often try to miss out the faces and do a back view of people. Who knows - it might just be too much of a challenge. I might try an applique quilt next.
I painted the face and then appliqued the turban and clothes. A technique I have used a few times.
Gillian

Eureka!! I think I've got it!!

Have been mulling over the "earth" theme for 2014 and not getting inspiration at all. Didn't have much time to give it due to the deadline for the 2013 pieces I'm about to finish.

Then out of the blue....it came to me!!  I will be doing interesting and/or famous natural formations on planet earth.  Here is my list so far:  Morning Glory Pool (Yosemite National Park), Antelope Canyon (Arizona), Avenue of Baobabs (Madagascar), Redwood National Forest, Giant's Causeway (Ireland) and probably Skaftafell Ice Cave (Iceland).  These have been favorite images of mine for years.  Now I have the opportunity to memorialize them in my own art!  I might have to make a change or two along the way if one doesn't look like I want it to but this is the plan anyway.  The theme will stay the same.

Now back to work!!!