Soft and hard edges

This month the theme for EB's masterclass is soft versus hard edges. For this theme I made the following 2 sketches:

Sketching is not my favorite part, so I added my fabric ideas with it as well :-). For the seed pods I intend to use different values of green/brown fabric. The seed pods in the background will be covered with sheer fabric to make them more softer. The circles I intend to make with only black/white fabric. I have rather a big stash of these :-). There will be small black circles on the black background and small white circles on the white background. The circles which are the focus will have black fabric on white background and white fabric on black background.

Here are EB's comments:

- Seed pods are such a wonderful shape - and poppies in particular are lovely.  It's because there is a great contrast between the star/flower shape on top and the soft round belly beneath.

I think you'll be able to lose some of the "belly" portion in the background with careful use of values so that the "star" on top really stands out.

and:

- I like your idea of gradually making the edges softer, less distinct, until they melt away into the background using layers of organza...I think it will work very well.  You could expand some of the circles so that they begin to overlap in places and some of the edges gradually disappear into the background.  It's definitely a good idea to begin with a simple concept and see how far you can push the device within the constraints of the simple idea - well chosen!  

Now my problem will be do I make one or do I make both quilts. As it is Friday, I am linking this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday

Abstracted nature is completed

For Voyage - one of my online quilt groups - the theme this year was abstracted nature. My 4 quilts are all based on plants. Okay, I admit, plants with a twist :-). For this quilt my inspiration was cattails, not the animal type, but the type you find in the water. In Dutch we call them cigars. The fun part with the abstract is, that you do not have to follow the rules of reality. In this case I used rectangular red/pink fabric for the seed pods.

All fabrics used are my own hand dyed or snow dyed ones plus some strips of Ugandan barkcloth. Size is 17"x24". All the abstracted nature quilts will be on show in Minneapolis and Prague in 2016 and Maastricht in 2017.

Old work

We all have work that for some reason we are not satisfied with. I have a couple of canvasses with little quilts on it which I made a couple of years and knew that they needed more. Here is a picture of one of them:

Yesterday I decided to apply some paint on to it. I used a combination of 3 different Golden fluid acrylics and now it looks like this:

Not certain if it is completed now, but it looks better :-).

TAFA contest

Every month TAFA has a photo contest. For July the theme is Window to the World and one of my quilts is in it. Click on this link to go to the page. Voting closes in about 10 hours.

Peas in a pod

For Voyage the theme this year is abstracted nature. The fun part of this theme is that the abstract gives you all the space to be bold and change whatever you want. In this case my peas are different shades of blue, a color I have never seen for peas in real life :-).

All the fabrics I used are my own hand dyed / hand painted ones. Size is 17"x24".

Tequila

For Stitched, one of my online groups, I picked the theme beverages for this year. Here is my first quilt:

It may not look like a beverage, but it is based upon a microscopic photo of tequila. I used a combination of hand dyed and commercial scraps on top of a black background. Size is 12"x24".

Wordless Wednesday