Bottle Caps, Challenges & Art Quilts

What do bottlecaps have to do with art quilts you might ask????   Stay tuned to find out how they are transformed!   Hint:   It has to do with our quilt guild annual challenge - this year's theme is "literary".....anything to do with books.

The challenge quilts are due in January!   Usually 90% of the members who enter start after Christmas!!!!   I'm way ahead!!!!!!!

L'Autumno - now completed!

This is my latest quilt - now completed and ready to be handed over to show organizers for entry next year.  This was completed for a RAFA (Rochester Area Fibre Arts) challenge called "Nature Behind Bars"!

I had an original photo I took at Longwood Garens in West Chester, PA printed onto cotton fabric by Julie Brandon of http://red-dogenterprises.com/.  I then printed a portion of music reflecting Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" - specifically the movement called "Autumn" onto organza which was overlaid and quilted into the picture.  The photo represents "nature" - the music represents "bars"!   The idea is that the music fades down into the picture portion of the quilt.   You can see specific detail of the music below...

This is the original photo that I took last year at Longwood Gardens.

ArtCGirlz - 2nd Art Quilt Group show at the Arts Council in Batavia, NY

2 years ago, our newly formed art quilt group in Batavia, the ArtCGirlz, presented their first show to the public.   We were 5 members strong.  Now we have grown to 11 members and this morning we hung our second show which will be up during November and December!   Here are some overall pictures.

This hangs a bit wonky - but is truly represenational of a group project that 4 of us finished.   Each person took a small segmentof a photo of their choosing and enlarged it to 8 x 8 and mounted on upholstery fabric.  Mine is on the bottom and is taken from a photo of the ceiling light on the Carnival cruise ship in September 2010.

 The end wall - two of the girls did the same quilt - in their own colors.   I love them both.

 Kathi Everett did more book pages which hang in a row on the left.   Mary Ellen's Carnival horse is one of my favorites.  Mary Lee and I both did leaves.

 This one is mine - Alice in Wonderland Goes To the Tea Party.   This is from our Round Robin challenge - I handed off a piece of snow dyed fabric and 6 different members in our group took turns adding their own embellishment ideas.   I did not see it again until they were all done.   I added stencil painted flowers around the edge and the quilting  - also flowers.

 The bottom one - also mine - The Edge of the Gorge - Stony Brook.   Threadpainted leaves and lots of orange beads to represent lichen.

These 2 are mine.   The top one is a depiction from a photo of an Oakleaf Hydrangea taken at Genesee Country Village.   Love the leaf colors on that plant.  I used hand dyed and painted fabrics, along with paper and transparent leaves.  

The bottom one has been on my blog before - Bermuda - The View from the Ship!