Next Challenge - TIME

Marlis chose the new theme: TIME (in a horizontal orientation). Nobody has enough time, everybody is in a hurry, managing our time is really hard. I guess, everybody has to tell a story…

O Canada!!!

When this "MUSIC" challenge was first posted, I thought of how to make music visual....then the Olympics happened and for the first time in my life, I saw how Canadians were LOUD & PROUD with our anthem.
So, here is my take on the music theme - I call it "O Canada!"
The white background is monoprinted (THANKS Melanie Testa for the challenge), I reverse appliqued the large maple leafs and then stamped the smaller ones with a stamp I cut out of sticky back foam. I wrote some of the words of our anthem all over, quilted a heart around (not sure I'm liking that part though). I laid the red chiffon over the whole piece, then stitched around the title - I printed off the letters on the computer and put them on tracing paper to sew around them. The music has stitched lines but hand painted notes. I used two different colours of red to quilt but I am still thinking of adding another one.....its been on my design wall talking really loud! So, before the facing is done more will be done I think.
THANK YOU for being patient with me. Some detail shots on MY BLOG.

Blue Sky Serenade

Blue Sky Serenade is inspired by a song that my husband wrote for me. This artwork is a digitally manipulated photo of my husband playing his guitar printed on cotton. The lyrics to to his song, Blue Sky, are written in the background. Interestingly enough I made the background purple, not blue! This piece is bright and happy -- the way I feel each time I hear him place my song.

I have not yet stitched this piece, but when I do, I will post an image of the final piece.

To listen to the song, Blue Sky, that inspired this piece, visit my husband's website www.patrickkeating.net

MUSIC

Dear Ladies, Have I hit Eureka?
tHANKYOU FOR all you help regarding the post of this..if in fact it is posted
Music
The first thing I thought of was sweet rock and roll and my ticket to see Bruce Springsteen! These are the first few notes of "Backstreets"
I had great fun with the materials I used inclusding a scarf, felt, plush zebra fabric rock and roll makes me feel free to do WHATEVER! In a colorful way of course

pianisimo, lentamente, forte, staccato = mah jong music

Music is everywhere....everyday sounds create a symphony. One night while playing mah jong I was struck by the constant staccato sound of the tiles and the soft whooshing of "washing the tiles". The tempo of the tiles changed but the refrain of the "washing" was the same.

Musical Text

As I noted in my previous post -- this was a difficult theme for me. But, nudged by my development of an online course, I took a quite literal approach using the letters M, U, S, I, C and tried to develop a jazzy kind of composition that has auditory noise and rhythm to give it that musical quality.

This art quilt  was pieced with ink-jet transfer designed fabrics, hand dyes and some scraps of soy wax batik fabrics. I love the painterly quality of the letters blurred by the transfer method.

Lady Bug Tracks

We've experienced devastating weather in the Northeast these last two months. So much of what we heard was the crack and crash of falling trees and limbs, the howl of the wind, and the harsh pound of rain pelleting down. Mother Nature was overpowering and overwhelming. Two weeks ago, however, the weather turned. We heard gentle breezes, bird song and the whir from wings of newly hatched lady bugs. It was all music to my ears. Eureka! This is what I wanted to represent on my piece. The many lady bugs who hitched a ride on my piece as I quilted it inspired both the final look of the piece and its name. I celebrate the music of spring.

This piece is a hand-painted cloth, quilted with rayon and metallic thread and embroidered.

Feeling the Beat

Wow, there's music everywhere! Great stuff, everyone.
"Feeling the Beat" is my way of referencing the rhythm and pure joy of moving to music.  The background is woven strips, with ecstatic dancers appliqued into their own spotlight, coming from the musical notes embedded into the background, the visual record of sound and feeling. Lots of glitter and shine to echo their joyful abandon.

Looking forward to working on "time."

"Everywhere"

This is my response to the music challenge. If you listen, you can hear music everywhere. This composition is an appliqued landscape with an inset frame. The G clef, staff, and notes in the inset are free motion embroidered. The notes scattered across the piece have been printed using a stamp.

Dancin' Dogwood

My original creation began as a portrait of my son playing his guitar...however... upon seeing this dogwood fabric...I envisioned its tree bark with numerous blossoms moving all around, distant "musical hills" and a musical symbol replacing smaller trees.

To walk through the woods and hear nature's music...whether it be the stream, birds, or leaves and flowers swaying in the wind is truly magnificent to me, "especially when the trees are alive and dancing"!

Cotton fabric, batting and thread, Misty Fuse, organza, silk, lame, tulle, metallic mesh.

Collage pieced, curved pieced, raw edge applique (with "fingernail fraying"), machine quilted, hand beaded and embellished with a found electrical wire!

And what I tried new this time?...very little quilting for me!

I must admit Music was not a theme I found easy the way to represent it. I love all kind of music but since a long time a go I get piano lessons, I ever preferred classic music when I needed to slow down, to meditate and relax.

Rock and Roll is more for when I have to clean up the house!

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist who lived from 1770 to 1827.He was a crucial figure in the transition from classical to romantic era and remains the most acclaimed and influential composer of all time.At the age of 20 he’s hearing begins to deteriorate, caused by a « tinnitus » (a ringing » in his ears) that made it hard for him to perceive and appreciate music and even to do conversation, but he continued to compose even after becoming completely deaf. So he composed the ninth Symphony, one of the most known all over the world, in complete deafness.

My work « Homage to Ludwig van Beethoven » is done with black fabric, discharged with bleach, I added a little stripe of music from Beethoven, extrapolated of the 4. movement of the ninth Symphony « Ode to Joy ». Its entirely machine stitched.

Vivaldi - The Four Seasons: SPRING

When Phyllis announced the new theme MUSIC in February, it was terribly cold and we had snow here. I was longing so much for spring. So, when I have been thinking of MUSIC, my very first thought was The Four Seasons by Vivaldi - and of course the spring theme. Vivaldi is one of my favorite classical music composers. If you are not familiar with The Four Seasons and would like to listen, pop over to my blog, I have posted a short video.

I put the CD in my player and started pulling out my hand dyed fabrics – the colors which reminded me of spring. I printed sheet music and a poem** (see below) on fabric, pieced and quilted by machine and added some machine writing and beads.

In the meantime, spring has been here for a while … but it is cold and wet and grey again. The quilt is now on my design wall and it makes me happy every time I enter my studio.

It’s my term to choose the new theme: TIME (in a horizontal orientation). Nobody has enough time, everybody is in a hurry, managing our time is really hard. I guess, everybody has to tell a story…

** When Vivaldi's The Four Seasons was first published in Amsterdam in 1725, each of the concertos was prefaced by an Italian sonnet which acted as a "program" for the work following it. They may well have been written by Vivaldi himself.