Thursday 19 July 2012

Work collated in categories

Well done Will. I think it is a great addition having each of the challenge entries shown in separate folders.

I thought the last challenge Dreams was difficult but our current one is even more challenging.

Irene MacWilliam

Wednesday 18 July 2012

My take on Those were the days

As Kelly mentioned in her post, we are on a quilting roll :-). This is my version of the challenge. I have to admit I did not know the movie, but Google is a great help. My interpretation of this theme was more literal.
The red background represents wine. The roses are painted on the fabric using a template and for the text I used foamies and paintsticks. Because of the color of the background no matter which red I picked they all did not show up enough, so I had to convert to white wine. A piece of rust dyed fabric had just the perfect pattern. Organza was used for the falling glass.
It was a difficult theme, but I loved the challenge of it.

Saturday 14 July 2012

Shattered Lives

I remember "The Days of Wine and Roses" movie.  (Yes...I'm THAT old!). A very sad movie. I was stumped at first and didn't think I could even get my head around this one. But that is the advantage of having another artist in residence with you.  REALLY in residence...Wil is visiting me for several weeks. We were brainstorming and first one thing and then another and we came up with ideas for both our quilts. She was gracious enough to let me post first since so far I've always been the LAST one!! ;-)  And it is so much easier to get stuff done when someone else is working along side you sometimes. We do tend to spur each other on. 

Having seen the devastation of the subject of the movie in real people. I chose a "shattered" dark background with a spilled glass of wine on it. All the fabric (except the organza for the wine glass) are from my hand-dyed stash. I was thrilled to find the piece for the wine. A little fussy cutting and overlapping and I love the way it seems to splash onto the quilt.

So, the challenge is met.....and I'm not last!!!!!!!

Shattered Lives
12" X 12"


Thursday 12 July 2012

OPEN ROAD

Finally completed this for DREAMS. Had a bit of a think because the things I dream of are mostly very difficult to express in a tangible form. However, one morning over coffee with my husband, he mentioned the topic which immediately struck a chord with me and I KNEW I had my DREAM art quilt. 

One of my great joys was riding my motorcycle with my husband and often groups of friends who ride.  Off we would go on the open road hunting down beautiful back roads to explore.  A few years ago, due to circumstance beyond my control, I had to sell my "baby". It is something that is difficult for me especially every spring when up here in the frozen tundra we finally have nice weather and the bikes are out in droves!......but I'm not with them. I miss riding more that words can say but any rider would understand. My dream is one day to have a bike and take off on the open road once again. Hence the title of this piece: OPEN ROAD.  This is my view from my bike on the open road with hills and lakes and beautiful sky....

OPEN  ROAD

Now my mind is working on our next theme!!


Wednesday 11 July 2012

Dreams

My 'sweet dreams' shows my happy holiday destinations


Dreaming of Summer


We seem to have had so much rain over the summer months here in the UK that my dream is of a warm summery evening, just lazing around. The background fabric is one I screen printed, with sheer fabrics bondawebbed in place, leaves made from hand dyed and commercial fabrics free machined into place.
I must apologise to everyone for being so late in posting this.


Tuesday 10 July 2012

My dream ......

is to live in a red barn like this. In the middle of nowhere, surrounded by nature. In reality I live in a town in a crowded small country. Unfortunately I cannot yet retire, so for the coming years this will remain my dream. Unless of course I win the lottery :-))
Background and garden is made from commercial batiks, the barn and the sky from handdyed fabrics and the windows are made from mulberry bark.

Saturday 7 July 2012

new theme

Well done to Irene and Ann for their Dreams.They are very inventive.I have finished mine and just need to photograph it and post a pic. Thank you for inviting me to choose a topic.Our new theme is "the days of wine and roses" Regards Hilary

Friday 6 July 2012

Tree of dreams shedding its leaves


This has been my most difficult challenge to date, I have eventually come up with a piece but mainly thanks to a friend in another group who fed me an idea that I expanded upon!
The piece is a batik background with the attached tree having been cut from a lovely piece of screen printing that I did a while ago, I have concentrated on the free machine quilting which I find challenging when I attempt to use a different style.  This one is the falling leaves from the tree!

Monday 2 July 2012

As I said yesterday I found this theme very difficult. My first thought was what am I going to do as I do not remember any dreams. I sleep and wake up ready to go with no memory of dreaming. In desperation I decided to just use the word  - Dreams. I played with it in photoshop and then printed out the variations so I could trace them onto bondaweb. I tried various backgrounds and liked this one best. However I took a photo of the words on another background and then decided I would do a companion piece. The piece is quilted with quarter inch vertical lines in red, with a few red spots on top of the words.

Here is the second one to the theme on a printed black and white striped background. It has horizontal black line quilting following the stripes. I think I will call them- Shattered Dreams or Fractured Dreams if I ever show them. I can not decide which I prefer.


Sunday 1 July 2012

Dreams
I found this the most difficult of the challenges so far but eventually managed to do something. Will photograph it and put it up.
Irene MacWilliam