Saturday, March 1, 2014

Challenge 4 Art: Space

Today is the fourth deadline for our Challenge 4 Art project. The theme was "space"--nice and vague and open to so many different interpretations! I had a vision in my head from the start. The problem? Making that vision reality. First I'm going to show you what I didn't do:


I'm thinking of calling it "the volcano." I fused a purple circle onto a gray square and started quilting freeform circles around it. Unfortunately, I hadn't decided if I was going to quilt the center in the same way, so I started outside the purple circle. I'm thinking that led to the extreme warping, but who knows? maybe it would have happened anyway. Regardless, this became a dimensional project very quickly. 


My original vision looked something like this, and even though the center was acting up, I was planning to continue on, figuring I could "hide" the dimensionality in photos (or just fess up!). But I didn't like how this looked. So I ditched the volcano and went on to plan B.

(Backing up slightly, here's how I made those borders--I wanted the circles to be cut off, so I fused circles to a rectangle and then trimmed it into strips. As for the color scheme, I had all these fabrics pulled from a quilt I'm making for a friend, and since they were already out, I decided to use them again I wanted to try a palette outside my normal comfort zone (actually, both reasons are true!)

Here are the cut strips:

I used the plum batik to create "space" between the rows of appliqued circles. I tried lining the circles up and off setting them, and off setting won out. 

And here's my finished quilt top. Because of my first big fat fail, I ran out of time to quilt this before today's deadline, but I'll be back to show it again after I do! 

To see how the others in our Challenge 4 Art group interpreted the space theme, click on their links here:
Claudia of Machen und Tun
Susannah of fiberchick



p.s. I have to chuckle...I was looking back at my December challenge post, which was about snow, and I mentioned in it that I was hoping to see some snow here in Michigan soon. I guess the joke's on me, as we have about 2 feet of it right now, and have since early January! 

5 comments:

  1. This is gorgeous! I love how the vertical strips bisect your "planets". At this church that I drive by on my way, their sign reads " To whoever is praying for snow- Please stop!". Pretty funny! Your volcano could become a bowl if you keep going;)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lisa, seeing your first picture I was thinking "How is she going to improve this wonderful top??" but you actually did exactly that with your stripes-idea: brilliant! It is even more interesting than your first go, I really love it!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I really, really like your space quilt! So cool!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love those cut up strips! Just slice right through a circle - bam! I like your volcano, too. Save it for another day of inspiration; it may surprise you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love how you have created an extra dimension with your circles being off set when you sewed them with the strips in between - it looks fab! Sorry I have been quiet - I ave just returned home from a short break and am glad to have internet again!

    ReplyDelete