The Book Page Project

Early this year, we decided to do another group project.  We had been discussing doing a project using a photograph.  You would select a small portion of the picture, enlarge it, and use the shapes, lines, colors... as the design for your project. Kathi had been working on a book page for an online swap, and we all thought it might be fun to make this project into pages for a book!  The "due date" was kind of left open, but some of us need deadlines, so finally we decided to present them at the July meeting.

Elaine's magnificent interpretation of a glass window from the cruise ship!

Lori's old silo!  We all loved the fibers she used behind the tree!

Kathi's is based on her Kaffe Fassett crazy quilt block.

Martha had some leftover patchwork and made a small companion piece.

Martha's inspiration photo

Thanks go to Sandra Meech for being the inspiration for this project!

"X"

This is my finished, first attempt at this Susan Carlson, Serendipity Quilts book technique. Marylee introduced us all to this in one of our meetings and all of us have been working on our pieces. I truly enjoyed the process of sitting and gluing bits to fabric. I didn't play with value here, since value is always a stumbling block for me. I found Susan Carlson's first book online and want to do one of the fish from it next! Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

The finished leaf.........Serendipity style

In my last posting I talked about the method we used at our last ArtCGirlz meeting.   I have continued the method into the background, covered the whole thing with tulle, machine quilted feathers in the leaf and spirals in the background and added metallic ribbon for the veining in the leaf.   I also plan to add some sparkly beads to the background.   Why?? Well..just because that is what I do.

5/10/2011

Tonight's group, led by Mary Lee was such fun.   We all played in the glue and glued fabric in a design that we drew with sharpie markers.   I believe this is explaine din a book called "Serendipity Quilts by Susan Carlson.     A fun time was had by all!!!!!

 We just began our projects tonight, but here are some pictures.

This is my leaf..........I like all the different colors - this was "pre-glue" and somehow it has changed a little in the glueing process.   That couldn't be because I forgot where things went, could it?

Lori's daughter, Beth, joined us tonight.  ( I hope she comes every month).   Lori is making a big purple swirl and Beth is working on a crescent moon.

Martha, (the overachiever) came with a pieced background to which she is adding a purple flower.   The rest of us have only a dream of what our background might look like!!!!

Karen is working on a butterfly.   (That's my next project)

Martha's mosaics

I had some time to play with my mosaics again.  Two of them are now finished.

The first one, which I have decided is named "Ithaca Tree" in reference to the tree which was my inspiration one was almost done last time.  I added a line of decorative stitching in the border instead of the beads, which I didn't like once I started sewing them on.

I had fun playing with the glitter, beads and a few hotfix crystals on the "Galaxy" one. I wish they'd show up better in a picture!
I'm still not sure if this one really has a right side up.










The last one is still a work in progress, since I'm not sure what to do next.

I hope anyone who reads this may be inspired to try one.  They are a real blast.  Thanks again, Kathi!

Happy Birthday Kathi!

Elaine's card to Kathi

The other side of Elaine's card!

There was a reason ( excuse?) to party at the meeting of the Art C Girlz this month!  So we did!
Each member brought a card and a small gift in honor of Kathi's special day this month.  Sort of a surprise party!

Kathi had a blast opening the gifts, which were all items shared from our personal stores.

After the presents we had Elaine's yummy Pumpkin cheesecake bars (previous post).








Then we had show and tell!

Kathi's excellent freeform curved piecing!

Mary's spiral WIP drew lots of oohs and ahhs!

Mary will be sharing this technique with us at a future meeting.  It comes from the book, Serendipity Quilts by Susan Carlson.

Stained Glass Window to the World!

This is my final version of the mosaic for Kathi's class.   Not as inventive as some, but it does appeal to me.   The borders to me represent a landscape scene - waters, sky, grasses......the rest is a stained glass window!!  

Cream Cheese Pumpkin bars

As requested - I decided to post here in case you lost the e-mail at any point  (hey, don't act like it hasn't happened!!!!)

1 pkg. Pumpkin Quick Bread Mix
3/4 cup water
3 tablespoons oil
2 eggs

1 8-oz pkg cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 in. square baking pan.
In a large bowl, combine pumpkin bread mix, 3/4 cup water, oil and eggs. Mix well
Pour batter into baking pan
In a small bowl, combine cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar and vanilla, mixing until smooth.
Pour cream cheese mixture over top of batter and swirl through batter with a knife to create a marble effect.
Sprinkle nuts over top and bake for 35-40 minutes.

Enjoy!!!!   (And yes - easy!!!)

More Mosaic Fun!

I had
some fabric leftover from our mosaic meeting, and decided to play with it.  First I took all the sort of directional pieces and laid them out on a grey background. I had envisioned looking out from a tunnel, but I think it looks like one of those pictures they get from the space telescope!  I'm seeing spirals with beads and maybe some glitter.

The rest of the squares were mostly all orange with some cloudy bits, so I went with that!  Not sure where this one's headed, but I'm remembering a drive through the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge at sunset about a year ago...

Then it was time to play with my original piece, which I had known almost immediately what I'd do.  Here is the result.
I  plan to add some beads around the edge just for an accent.  I dislike a vacuum as much as nature does.

(more about this one at my blog)
-Martha

My Mosaic Project

Art C Girlz had a Mosaic project night, led by Kathi. I was home sick, so I didn't get to do it with everyone else. So, I tried it on my own tonight. OK, I'm a bit too "Type A" because I grew increasingly frustrated with trying to get my shapes to exactly line up - they wouldn't and didn't seem to be all the same size - supposedly 1" square. Anyway - my attempts are shown below.

This is my orignal fabric - a batik.

This is the new arrangement of all the fabric squares. I left black showing between all the tiles for 2 reasons - to even out the squares and to make it look like stained glass. I don't know if this is the intent of the project, but it is what I came up with.

Mosaic Project

Kathi and Sharon discuss fabric choices

At the February meeting, Kathi asked the rest of us to test a project she is developing.  We all agreed this is a winner!





Each of us selected a fun piece of fabric and applied fusible webbing.

Then we cut it up into little squares.

Then we arranged and rearranged them until we liked it.

Kathi had some she had started while developing the process to share with us.  This one just sparkles!  There are more on her blog.

Martha

Mary

Now we have a neat canvas to play with! 

We apologize that none of us thought of taking pictures of the fabric before we cut it.  (and an apology to Sharon as there isn't a picture of hers after she fused it)

Lori

Kathi

Come back soon to see the completed works!

New Project!

Our newest Art C Girlz venture is to create a page for a book with texture as the main theme. The idea is to take a collage or a photo and isolate a small section - then enlarge it and create it as if that were the entire fabric or quilt....with an emphasis on texture.

This is one of my ideas - the big picture that I chose.

To the right is the isolated section. I love the possibilites!!!

This is a glass mosaic picture from the ship on our last cruise.

To the right is the isolated section!

Now...........which one do I choose!!!!!