Art Bee Whisper Challenge 2020

The Burke QU Art Quilt Bee is a group of approximately 20 members who normally meet in person once a month to share our love of creating with fabric and art quilts.  We share techniques through demos, discuss upcoming events and participate in challenges.  During the pandemic we have been meeting virtually and just last week revealed the results of our third Whisper Challenge which has taken place over the last 10 months.   

What is a Whisper Challenge?  Well, it's basically a game of "telephone" in the form of quilts.  The first person in the chain chose an inspiration photo and made a quilt inspired by that photo. She passed her quilt to the next person in line, who made a quilt inspired by the previous one.  And so on down the line, with each person seeing only the previous quilt.  Each person had one month to make their quilt.  When the pandemic restrictions hit and we were no longer able to meet in person, we switched to sending photos of our quilts electronically to the next person.  Ten of us participated in this challenge.  The rules were simple:  all quilts must be 18 x 24" in portrait orientation, and any interpretation of the inspiration photo/quilt is allowed.  With that, let's get to the big reveal!

This is the inspiration photo chosen by Judy Grumbacher who made the first quilt.

Judy made a colorful interpretation of the windmill photo, then passed her quilt to Anna Willard.

Anna was inspired by the blades on Judy's windmill to make a windmill on a hill. She passed her quilt to Judy Albert.

Judy was inspired by the windmill shape to make "Lighthouse".  She also chose colors to tie in with the previous quilt, and passed her quilt to Linda Cooper.

Linda used the lighthouse inspiration to make "Souvenir Lighthouse".  She has been playing with painting and creating bubble and glass images, so set Virginia’s Assateague Lighthouse in a snow globe. She passed her quilt to Barbara Wise.

Barbara's "Safe Harbor" incorporated the colors of Linda's quilt.  She interpreted the lighthouse as a metaphor for safe harbor, creating a safe shelter for the bird.  She passed her quilt to Susan Price.

Susan focused on the idea of "shelter" in Barbara's quilt and used this collection of door photos to show that "There's No Place Like Home".  She passed her quilt to Barbara Sherwood.

Barbara's "Shelter" reflects a home in her neighborhood.  She passed her quilt to Terry Peckarsky.

Terry was inspired by the colors in Barbara's quilt and used them all in different values to create "Here Comes the Sun".   She passed her quilt to Willa Downes.

Willa liked the contrast of warm and cool shades in Terry's quilt and wanted to create the same feeling in her quilt which she passed to Janet Palfey.

Janet's "Sunflower" was inspired by the sunflowers in Willa's quilt.  Since it was fall and hers was the last quilt, she focused on sunflowers ready for harvest with seed heads heavy and bending over.  She also stayed with the same color palette.

Didn't these turn out great?  It seems to be a very cohesive group and it would be great to see them hanging together in an exhibit somewhere.  Barring that, we've put them all on one slide so the progression is easier to see.  (click on the image below for a larger version)

This is a fun challenge for any group - the hard part is waiting till the end to see the reveal!  What is your favorite type of group challenge?

Whisper Challenge

Well, here we are again.  A couple of months have gone by since our last blog post.  It seems once you get out of the habit, it's easy to let it slide.  But, this week Sue has results of an art group challenge to share.  For an annual challenge, our art bee decided to repeat a "whisper" challenge that we had done the year before.  It works like a game of telephone in that the first person chooses a photo and makes a quilt inspired by the photo.  Then their quilt gets passed to the next person, who makes theirs based on the first one, and so on.  Only the first person sees the picture, and each succeeding person sees only the quilt prior to theirs.  It is certainly interesting to see the results!

So, this was the inspirational photo for this go-round.

The next photo shows the first 2 quilts in the sequence.

As the first quilt maker explained, she was inspired by what was missing from the photo - specifically the leaves that had already fallen from the tree.  So she featured 5 different types of leaves in her quilt.  The second person focused on the fact that there were 5 items and came up with her design.

Quilts 3, 4, and 5 follow pretty closely with the colorful segments of quilt 2.  Quilt 3's colorful circles are representative of beach balls (or hard candies?); the beach balls inspired a beach umbrella with segmented colors; and the umbrella inspired colorful balloons.

In quilt # 6, the balloons inspired balloon flowers.  The balloon flowers became fractured flowers. And the fractured flowers led to an Asian inspired quilt.  What do you think?  Interesting transitions, eh?  It's fun to see how one piece led into the next, especially when you hear about the thought process of the maker.  

Have you guessed which quilt is Sue's?  If you have a guess, leave a comment on this post!  She'll do another post and share some process photos from making the quilt.

Inspired By....a Pair of Earrings?

Sue has written before about her art quilt bee and the challenges that are issued every other month.  In May, the challenge issued for June was to create a quilt inspired by a photo from another participant.  Each person's photo was passed 3 times to the right and after the last pass, that was the photo your quilt would be based on.  Most were calendar or magazine photos.  Sue, however, ended up with something a little different.  What she got was a pair of earrings that was passed around.

Some might consider this more challenging than a photo, but Sue was actually glad to have a shape to work with, especially since she knew there was a piece of fabric in her stash with a similar design.  Plus, she knew it was a shape she could work with for making a thermofax screen.  So she proceeded to make a screen using the image in 3 different sizes - to incoporate one of the elements of design - repetition.

The screens were printed on color catchers, a non-woven fiber product used in laundering to pick up excess dye.  As you see in the 3 pieces in the photo, they are varying shades.  We use them in washing hand dyed fabrics so you end up with a variety of colors.  Another plus is that the edges stay clean and crisp.  Next was figuring out an arrangement on the background fabric.

After doing some free-motion quilting on the background the prints were cut down and stitched in place.  Then Sue decided some embellishment was called for.  Each of the prints was overlaid with an embellishment thread or yarn that was zigzagged in place.  Then it was time for some hand stitching.

First was adding some more color, orange, to highlight the shapes on the background fabric that echoed the shape of the earrings.  These were stitched with a back stitch.  Finally, the last addition - which is still a work in progress - is adding random hand stitches (ricing, or chicken scratch) to the background.  Below is a close up of the start of that stitching.

This stitching will be used to fill up the background between the various motifs on the fabric.  The thread is a variegated perle cotton which Sue thinks adds texture and interest and a little more stability to the piece.  Time consuming, yes, but worth the effort.  And it's only a 12" square.  She also thinks this piece might be good for mounting on an art canvas as the final presentation.  We'll post another picture when its finished.

May Flowers

The art quilt bee that Sue belongs to issues a challenge every other month to make a 12" square quilt that interprets a theme.  The theme for May was "flowers".  Here's her story of how she created the finished piece.

I started with an approximately fat quarter yard piece of fabric that was already printed with the birds on a branch screen.  I intended to use it for another challenge, but didn't get to it before the deadline, so decided to revise the plan to fit the flowers theme.

First I overprinted with the cherry blossom screen.  I made small appliques from a hand dyed osnaburg fabric to fuse over the birds that were part of the original bird on a branch print. The part on the right side was extra that I didn't need.  I also printed some single cherry blossoms around the perimeter, keeping to the size for the 12" square dimension.  The cherry blossom branch was printed in white with some pink blended in; the single blossoms were printed in pink.   The extra fabric was trimmed off.

With the printing and birds fused in place, the next step was adding a border.  I had purchased a batik that I thought was the perfect border fabric, but because the color was so close to the purple background, it needed something to separate the two.

I used a darker blue batik to make a flange around the center block that gave some definition and separation between it and the border.  Then it was time for some quilting.  I layered it with a fusible batting but not backing because I intended to do some hand stitching and didn't want the back side to show.  But first I did some free motion quilting with the machine.

This close-up shows the machine stitching outlining the branches and blossoms, and also the start of the hand stitching.  I used a darker pink floss on the larger blossoms and a lighter pink on the smaller ones in a star shape.  Then I added french knots at the end of each point. 

I also did some stitching to add definition to the birds.  After adding the backing, label and sleeve, it was finished.