Judy Ahlborn - 25 of 25

For my 25th and final post, I have one more piece that I did for Heather's 12 month design class.  For this assignment we were working with photo abstraction.  We had to take a photo and trace only the main lines, omitting the details.  We then added color to the original abstracted drawing.  We could use the same or similar colors as the original photo, or any colors of our choice.  I created my abstraction in Photoshop Elements, printed the entire image to fabric, and free motion stitched the entire piece.

Judy Ahlborn - 24 of 25

This is a piece I did for Heather's 12 month design class.  Our assignment was to make a piece inspired by an artist we wanted to study.  I chose Alphonse Mucha, a Czech Art Nuveau artist who produced many paintings, illustrations, and advertisements.  He often did women with long flowing hair and gowns surrounded by decorative lines and flowers.  I designed this piece of my daughter in Photoshop Elements giving her the hair from one of his paintings.  The design inside the circle came from a kaleidoscope I designed, and the flowers and lines around the circle came from a Dover art book.  The entire piece was printed to one 8.5" x 11" fabric sheet and stitched.  This piece was selected to be in the SAQA Small Visions Big Voice exhibit at Tactile Arts Center in Denver.

Judy Ahlborn - 23 of 25

Continuing on with the Paris theme, I made one more piece from my sister's fabric scraps.  This one and the last one could be hung together as a set.

Judy Ahlborn - 22 of 25

I had enough scraps of the Paris fabric my sister gave me that I decided to create another set of pictures.  This time I used different flowers and a different arrangement for the applique.

Judy Ahlborn - 21 of 25

Here is the second of these Paris pieces that I made from my sister's quilt fabric scraps.  I gave both of these pieces to her for her birthday.  I guess I gave her some of her scraps back.

Judy Ahlborn - 20 of 25

My sister went to Paris last year and bought some fabric to use in a quilt.  She gave me some scraps she had left over from the fabric which I used for the background of this piece.  The Eiffel Tower is part of the background fabric.  I stitched over that with black thread and did a swirl stitch around it.  I added the swirly strips and appliqued the flowers that I cut from another fabric.  The large 'S' swirl on the left was cut out of a textured wallpaper border that I painted.

Judy Ahlborn - 19 of 25

I liked my last piece so well, and it reminded me of the colors of springtime, I decided to make another one representing autumn.  I changed the image in Photoshop Elements by giving her new hair and a different dress.  I had a piece of commercial fabric with the sunflowers that I cut out and used to applique on top.  The background fabric I also already had.  It looks like it was marbled, and it was just the right colors for this piece.

Judy Ahlborn - 18 of 25

Switching gears a little, I created this piece as one of our assignments for Heather's 12 month design class.  The assignment was to create a piece using 3 of our monthly 'reorders'.  The reorders used in the piece are the marbled background fabric, the picture of the girl printed to fabric, and the flowers cut out of a commercial drapery fabric.

Ulla Westermann - Week 20 - Feeling blue



 

This quilt consists of three layers: a pieced background, a layer of lace, and yarn stitched on top. The piece is 14" x 10".

Judy Ahlborn - 17 of 25

This is the 10th of my floral series.  It is the last one I have completed for now.  I'll be switching gears next, but I am not done with these florals and will be doing more later.

Judy Ahlborn - 16 of 25

My ninth piece in this floral series.

Debbie Helser # 20

This encaustic has a hardboard base that I collaged papers on then added many layers of colored wax medium, more paper, a bit of burlap fabric, thread waste and fabric cut outs. I moved the colored wax around with the heat gun to help reveal some of the base layer of papers. It doesn't show up very well in the picture. I didn't plan the composition of this at all; it just evolved and I'm not thrilled with the focal point smack in the middle.

Debbie Helser # 19

I started with a birch board base and used layers of wax medium, collaged papers, cookie cutters and other carving tools, oil paint and pan pastels. I really like the depth the layers of wax allows.

Debbie Helser # 18

This is a little 3 1/2 X 5 inch ditty done on a wood base with the initial colored wax laid down with an iron. After a couple of layers of medium, I carved into the wax then put down some oil paint to darken the carved areas. It was distressed with various tools and more oil paint applied.

Debbie Helser # 17

This is an encuastic with a base of a small quilt that had been free motion quilted in a class. I "dry-brushed" color onto it after putting a thin layer of wax medium down. Seems that there is potential for this technique using a quilted base. 

Ulla Westermann - Week 19

The background for this piece is crazy quilted. On top of that is a knitted lace pattern. I like the interaction between the colors in the crazy quilt and the lace pattern but felt the piece needed something else. So I added what my daughter called the dinosaur head. This piece is 14" x 10".

Judy Ahlborn - 15 of 25

Another piece from my floral series.

Ulla Westermann - Week 18 - Spirals

I used one of my dyed fabrics as a background. I added different colored yarns to create the spirals and then quilted the empty space with a spiral pattern. This piece is 14" x 10".

Debbie Helser # 16

Another encaustic. The base was a pastel painting. Layers of wax, some of it laid over a stencil. A rusty found object was wired on with a tiny prayer flag with hand embroidery.

Judy Ahlborn - 14 of 25

Here is the seventh in my series of flowers.  This is one of my more favorite arrangements.