Seasons

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the challenge, Time, was the portrayal of a single element over time. I sketched this tree, free motion embroidered the same tree in all four seasons, and then placed them on the background of a gray landscape. Now to get started on the next challenge.

Over the rainbow

Look what I found early this morning opening the windows:
a complete dubble rainbow, beautifull. Its a pity that it only last for half an hour!

Time got away from me!

But here it is, a mere ll days late, hot off the sewing machine. Detail above.

What, you might ask does this quilt have to do with time. The agave shown is a Century Plant, one of my favorite plants and images of my home here in Pipe Creek. This year, after the drought broke in the fall, it seems that many of the agaves are blooming, sending up their 20 foot stalks almost overnight. The hummingbirds love them and fight over the bright yellow blossoms.

The story is, of course, that these spiny giant  "leafed" agaves grow for a hundred years before blooming -- that's an exageration, but many of the big plants will be 20 years old before blooming, depending on the weather and water conditions. And, after the stalk dries, the blooms turn to pods of thousands of tiny seeds, the mother plant dies, leaving behind a field of potential plants to start growing when it rains again.

So the time connection is the Century Plant and its blooms; the sunset and whirling fields of energy suggested by the colors of the background, the bones and fossil prints that can be barely seen in the strip of fabric at the bottom of the quilt.

On a technical note: the image was a photograph turned into a high contrast image with Photoshop, the red and purple fabric is a piece of soy wax batik. The other fabrics are all stamped images developed in my Petroglyph/Prehistory image workshop that was just held this past weekend at my studio here in Pipe Creek. The piece is fused, machine quilted and also has a tiny bit of Paintstick metallic rubbings on the surface. As with all my unmounted art quilts I zigzag the edges with multiple passes, colors of thread and sizes of stitch to finish the edge in a many I find works well for these raw edge fused applique works.

Meanings of Time

For this month's piece about Time I mulled over the different "attachments" people place onto time. The gears of time are always clicking away, any meaning we apply to that is purely our own invention. Are we psychic, or do we just so want to find deeper meanings in time?

The Mayan calendar "ends" in December 2012 and there is all sort of speculation that this means life as we know it is going to "end". The only thing we "know" about this date is that the Sun will be aligned with the Milky Way equator (something that only happens once every 26,000 years).

Many people around the world feel a compulsion to look at the clock - and the clock reads 11:11. They aren't looking for the time, they just feel an overwhelming need to look at the clock at that time. There are all sorts of books written about how these people are the "chosen ones to bring peace to our world" and how they are "light workers" or "angels". As one of those people who see 11:11 on the clock ALL the time, I have no idea what it means, but I'm all about bringing peace to our world!

12:34 is a very common number in numerology. The significance placed on this number is all about "progression". When you see this on the clock its supposedly a confirmation that the choices you're making at that time are the ones that will "move your forward". Getting confirmation that you're moving in the right direction is ALWAYS a great thing, whatever that source might be.

This piece was a total experiment. I took fabric that I didn't like that was in my stash, machine appliqued the gears, painted the numbers, stitched it in contrasting thread, then painted the entire piece with acrylic paint. For me, this piece was all about experimentation. I learned a lot, but it is definitely not a favorite (I prefer much brighter colors, but this piece and theme definitely called for a somber feel!)

On Beach Time

On Beach Time... by Gwen E. Goepel

"Slivers" of batiks make up the base for the seascape I have been fortunate enough to tell time by these last 27 years!

"My" time has been measured by the sun and moon, high and low tides and amazing colors throughout each 24 hour period of time. The sun, first arising and shining its light on a new day, continually peaking to high noon, eventually calmly, but brilliantly setting and finally resting in the evening...only to be replaced by the moon.

What a glorious way to watch TIME go by!

Flying By...

Time flies by so quickly anymore...
With "Flying By" I wanted to show movement, the stream of life with the clocks flying out as it goes by.

 I used my handwritten hand-dyed fabric, added another dyed as the stream of life.  I used organza as the roman numerals on the largest clock, there is an antique clock face, and the others are painted lutradur that was stamped or hand drawn.

Photo is click-able to see larger....

Free Time

One evening while sitting on the porch of my friend's house, I was entranced by the colors and the calmness of the Connecticut River. It inspired me to slow down and think about free time. The Connecticut River is a gorgeous inspiration.

Tempus Fugit

Tempus Fugit (time flies) is certainly the appropriate comment on my life. It most certainly flies when I am having fun, but it flies away before I have time to do the endless list of other stuff too!
This piece started with a a piece of fabric painted with thickened dyes. It was cut up, painted, stamped, g;ittered,  and appliqued on. Then I put it on my new longarm quilting machine (it looked a little lost there) and practiced quilting. I drew Father Time on a piece of paper and taped it beside my quilt, then used the laser pointer on the machine to follow the lines to quilt him in

Naturally, since time flies, it only got done late last night, so here it is

Our next assignment is going to be "FLORA". Its spring so you should have lots of inspiration. Lets make it vertical this time.

Due August 1.

These are the Oriental Poppies currently blooming in my yard. (If anyone wants seeds, let me know).

Have fun......................... Barb Gardner

Time Warp

I was thinking about how time usually flows on and on rather quickly.

Some time is crammed with so much to do
that you just want time to slow down a bit.

Some times are more memorable than others

This quilt is an illustration of these thoughts

Please let me know what you think!!!

Karen Loprete