One of the features of Quilting Arts magazine is a Readers Challenge. They pick a topic and challenge readers to make a small quilt that fits that theme. The sizes vary - 10 x 10, 8 x 10, 9 x 12; themes run the gamut from Passages to Hands, In the Park to In the Garden. You send in pictures of your quilt and they choose about 12 from all the entries. Odds of being chosen are pretty slim - they pick only about one tenth (or less!) of the entries, depending on how many entries there are. I've entered twice in the last year; not chosen yet, so it's safe to share my creations. I will keep trying.
Above is my entry for Passages, called "I Can Fly". The base is rusted fabric. Other techniques include gelatin plate printing, screen printing, transfer artist paper, and fusible appliques. The inspiration for this piece was my daughter, who, when she was growing up, often said "Guess what?" When I asked what, the response was "I can fly!" She's all grown up now and proved that she can fly.
For "In the Garden", I submitted 2 pieces. Above is a mini version of my Song Sung Blue quilt that you might remember seeing pictures of here. This piece is rubber stamped and screen printed with some beads added for embellishment. The piece below, Money Plant, is a quilt I made a couple of years ago as a sample. It was 9x12, but needed to be 8x10 for this challenge so I cut it down and did some additional hand stitching.
Even though I didn't make it to the pages of the magazine, I'm still happy with all 3 of these pieces.
Some areas came out really pale, and I really wanted more of the blue, so yesterday I did another round of ice-dyeing using only the blue to fill in those pale areas. Here is what is looks like now. Better, I think.
