Thursday, March 22, 2012

Leopard

Kruger Park was GOOD!

leopard

 

More Later- Beth

Sunday, March 11, 2012

2 Things….. with the Kwetterkwilters

Last week I mentioned that I wished I had taken pictures of the other Dragons that were shared for the 12x12 Challenge…

Marina took pictures of all of them… which I will share here because I think they are all so creative… and great vision for the word ‘DRAGON’! (scroll down for mine, its in the last post)

The first one up is Laetitias… she pieced the background and then and using her sewing machine stitches (specifically the tail) created the dragon on ‘wash a way stabilizer’.

Laetitia se draak

Next up is Lynette, she used Lizard from Australia (Frilled Lizard), for her dragon… foundation pieced…. and I can just see him puffing up as a warning to leave him be!

 Lynette se draak

Marina’s is all sparkly with silver threads and a very awesome geometric background, backed and bound in satin… 

Marina se draak

Hester also chose to foundation piece her dragon…. Reminds me of the dragon in Shrek…. movies!

Natasja se draak

and lastly is Susara's Dragon--- which I think I like the best…. because her view is different……. just the essential parts!

Susara se draak

The next word is ‘PASSION’!!!

The other thing was a color class yesterday, given by another South African Quilter, Marian. She did a wonderful class and covered in better detail and more concisely than a well known name quilter in the US did in a 2 day class!!!

The exercises were more fun…. and we all came away with a billion… little 2 inch squares to play with in a color wash or a postage stamp quilt…. or backgrounds for 12 x 12 quilts.

Our work table about halfway through the class… .we were on a ‘Tea Break’

color-work

Marians Color play quilt …

Marians-color-quilt

Next up?   Good question… but as always…. More Later!  Beth

Friday, March 2, 2012

A Small Quilty Project

The small group of South African Quilters that I belong to…The Kwetterkwilters, is doing a 12” x 12” challenge this year… based on a word. You must interpret the word in your challenge piece any way you choose. These are to be worked on in secret… no sharing until the unveiling. I didn’t commit to doing the last one, and I don’t think I will commit… to doing any, but if I get the inclination, the idea and the time I will make one.

The last one was ‘Dragon’ and last week I looked for an image that inspired me. Not only did I find one, I found 3. I asked my DH which one he liked best…. he liked the simplest one, which I seriously considered, since time was an important element. But of course I did, something totally female and picked the complete opposite…. the most complicated image and the race was on.

cr-12x-Dragon

Once I saw the design -the process slipped into place. It is fused, reverse applique, the black over a batik. I tried to find a suitable black batik to use for the top, to stop the edge fraying, but I did not have one that didn’t look dirty. So I used a Kona cotton. The hardest part was cutting out the design…. and I have a few things in mind to maybe make it easier in the future, (if I were to do something like this again). I was so afraid I would snip the wrong piece. I quilted with Free Motion to secure all the black, and to give it some sparkle I used a gold Superior Flat metallic thread over a variegated Rainbows for the ‘fire’. The eye is an antique (faceted) black jet bead. Of course I couldn’t just add a black binding… I decided it needed a bit more orange, so I made piped binding.

dragon-detail

I wish I had thought to take pictures of the other ‘Dragon’ because all of them were simply inspired!!!

Looking forward to the next… word!!!

More Later…. Beth