Time to Vote – Project QUILTING Black and White Challenge!

I was excited when I first ready this challenge.  I had wanting to do a black and white and something project for awhile.  I’m glad to see others felt the same way and once again, my jaw has dropped in the amazingly creativeness of these entries!  Bravo everyone!  Bravo! For those of you just tuning in you can read more about Project Quilting Here: http://kimlapacek.com/2010/04/project-quilting.html and about the seventh challenge of Season 1 Here: http://kimlapacek.com/2010/08/season-1-challenge-7-black-and-white.html CHALLENGE WINNERS: There will be two winners for this challenge – one for the public vote and one for the ‘judged vote’ – Diane, Barb, Pam, and guest judge Sue. The winner of the JUDGES vote will receive 4 fat quarters (their choice) from FabricAlaCarte AND a $10 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop! The winner of the PUBLIC Choice will receive 6 fat quarters from ButtercuppityFabric AND a $10 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop! Voting closes at 7pm CDT on Friday, August 13th. OTHER BONUSES: One randomly drawn participant will receive a 3 month membership to the 30s block club from FabricNQuilts and a second randomly drawn participant will receive a copy of the book Pretty Little Mini Quilts published by Lark Books fromPennyFabricArt. Don’t forget! Everyone that enters can decide if they want their name entered in a drawing for $50 off the 2010 Quilts by Barb Quilt – Papercraft – Scrapbooking Getaway Weekend! I will also be sending everyone their rank (somewhere between 1 and 10 – be sure you’ve emailed me {lapaceksorchard@gmail.com} your email address) and any critique’s the judges have about your creation. The top 3 scoring projects will be posted on my blog this weekend. PUBLIC WINNERS: Yes, YOU can win a prize too! You’ll find out how to WIN at the bottom of this post after you’ve checked out each of our challengers entries. And now here are all the entries – in no particular order… ***Please note – I have left the images smaller than I normally do as I’ve received some feedback that my blog was loading slowly – hopefully this will help that issue. I strongly URGE you to take closer looks at the projects before voting by checking out their submittals on the flickr group:http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/  

Quilter:  Quilting Diva 

The Story:  I knew this week would be busy so I needed to something that I’ve done before 🙂 I made this purse out of black/white/red fabric. I bought the design from Sweet Pea Totes and I love it! The handbag measures Handbag 9” tall, 15” wide across the middle, 12” wide across the bottom and it includes one black and white polka dot pocket!
I made this scrunchie purse in Tampa, FL. Stacy Edell
~Quilting Diva  

Quilter:  PennyFabricArt

The Story behind ‘the Juggler’:  For this week’s Project Quilting challenge I was worried about too many work and vacation visitor obligations this week, and a friend commented that maybe I was juggling too many things. That sparked the idea of a juggling wall sculpture 🙂 I used a variety of black & white fabrics mixed with one teal fabric to make 12 3-inch patchwork star blocks. I then pieced them into figure 8 shapes to sew into balls, like a baseball. I stuffed the balls with shredded batting. I then took a pair of spandex gloves and ran wires into the fingers and palm to be able to shape them, and stuffed them with shredded batting also. I stretched batting & fabric over 5" canvas frames, and mounted the hands to the frames by running the ends of the wires through the fabric/canvas to attach to the frame back, and used fabri-tac to help hold them in place. I cut coathangers for the wire to suspend the juggling balls in mid air above the hands, attaching the wires to the frame backs.  

Quilter:  IlsaB (FlockOfRhino)

The Story: From IlsaB (FlockOfRhino): The front of "Makah Fire". It’s 25" x 16". Inspiration: I’ve been fascinated by how fire and coals look alive for many years. How would I paint that? Five years ago I started quilting, and ‘fell in love’ with the creative process. So earlier this summer I went backpacking for a week with my 17 yr old son and my mother to the Wilderness Coast in NW Washington State (25 miles north of Forks, for you "Twilight" fans). Sitting by the fire after dinner, Mom and I discussed how one might paint fire. I shared how I could ‘see’ some of the NW Native art shapes superimposed on the logs. One night, lying in the tent listening to the waves crash 20 feet away, I visualized how I might represent my ideas in fabric. Then the B&W challenge was posted – yes! I started out my B&W challenge project by doing some research on shapes that are used in NW Indian art pieces. I knew I had some spotty B&W fabric, and decided to do a ‘spotted owl’. Next I did some sketching in my notebook, trying not only owls, but also some of the life we saw on the hike: crows, eagles, otters, seals, deer. I went back to the owl idea. 3rd, I sketched my owl idea on freezer paper. I’m not a symetrical type of person, and I never follow patterns exactly, so I knew my owl would morph. 4th, I ironed the freezer paper to black fabric and Pellon, then cut it out. 5th, sewed a bunch (8) of B&W log cabins. All of my log cabins are "wonky" since we can’t do rectangles!! 5th, to the design wall – played and messed and scrapped and played some more. 6th, ironed it all down, also with a little spray fixative to Warm n Natural batting, then fixed the gray backing to the batting. 7th – used the cut outs on the back, because I also hate plain quilt backs. 8th – played with scraps and different quilting patterns, deciding on a swirly one. 9th – bias-cut binding. Voila’! Lots of "firsts" in this project. Not rectangular, bias cut binding, using Pellon, raw edge appliqué, small size, quilting on my regular machine (not on my long arm). I’ve got a LOT of new ideas to work on now!!! I’m very pleased with the binding, and how the point worked out. Oh, by the way, the Makah Indian Nation is where we were camping. Love love love their art!! Quilted in Lake Forest Park, Washington  

Quilter:  LoveBugStudios

The Story Behind Eco Friendly? 12" w x 18" l x 5" h
Hainesville, IL Chicago is a city that is rated #1 in green building, and is well known for its policies and programs that encourage green business practices. And yet, running right through the middle of downtown, is the polluted Chicago River. This was the inspiration for my piece, "Eco-Friendly?" which contrasts the ever-increasing occurrence of "green" construction with a river that is made up of 70% wastewater. This 3-dimensional piece sits on a base of a stiff interfacing, quilted with ribbons, couched yarn, and variegated threads. The base pedestal allows the piece to change shape and introduce additional curves to the buildings, giving them a more distorted perspective when viewed from different angles. The entire piece was modeled on a section of downtown Chicago, bounded by Michigan Avenue to the east, LaSalle to the west, Hubbard to the north, and Lake Street to the south. Each street is represented by a black & white ribbon, which cross the river at various points. Each of the 34 buildings was hand-cut & scuplted from a high density green upholstery foam, and then a casing was hand-stitched for each building. Where possible, I tried to replicate the shape of each structure, including the 5-sided Trump International Hotel & Tower. The two round buildings are the location of Ten Pin Alley & the House of Blues, made from black plastic buttons. I did take some liberties with the number of buildings; downtown Chicago is very densely populated and it was not possible to recreate every building. This is one piece where I really wish people could see it in person. I am staring at it from across the room, and it just looks really cool from a distance.  

Quilter:  Kathleen Quilts

The Story behind Party Sampler: Specs:
Title: Party Sampler
Size: 31" around
Location: Party Central (Cissna Park IL)
I decided on a modified circle shape – It’s more of a flower shape… a circle with a sort of a scalloped edge. Since the outside was circular I wanted circle blocks. As I was making the pattern for the background, I discovered it fit my round table just right. So I knew the finished piece would be a table topper and perfect for holiday parties. That meant red for my third color – a rich Moda Marbles Red. To tie the blocks in with the background, I added narrow bits of red anywhere the black and white would have laid next to each other. Having trouble selecting the block to use meant making a sampler. I made several basic square blocks then cut them into circles. This really changes the look of the block…. among these blocks is a four patch and a pinwheel. To jazz it up I added Fun Fur Yarn (not sure if I jazzed it up and made it ready for a bordello!). The blocks are echo stitched in red. I added fabric loops along the edges where the scallops indent and little metal rings to the "peaks" of the round part. Fun Fur is strung through these and a bottle of a favorite beverage can be wrapped up – instant hostess gift…. open the bottle and lay out the table topper and you’ve got a start on your party!  

Quilter:  Karen’s Crafty World

The Story Behind the Sign: I made an open/closed sign for the front door of my shop. What shop? you ask? My fantasy shop in my head, of course! At Karen’s Crafty World you can come and do art and craft and sew. We will drink coffee and /or wine. We will snack on morning glory muffins as the sun rises and cheese and crackers while the sun sets. Like-minded people will come from far and wide to see such a wondrous place! My shop will sell vintage crafts that I’ve collected over the years from thrift stores. Vintage fabrics, vintage linens and all sorts of gently used art supplies will be for sale. There will be several tables to spread out on for folks to do their work. There will tables with sewing machines and tables with art supplies. There will be a big comfy sitting area with a library of art books, quilt/sewing books,etc. Oh, and this fantasy shop will be in my big victorian house. The whole downstairs will be the shop and art areas and the upstairs will be our private living area. My husband is not yet on board with my fantasy but I plan to wear him down. I’ve been into quilt/mixed media collaging lately, so this project was really fun. I first sewed together 2.5 inch squares and stipple quilted it. I then cut out the shape of a sewing machine.The border was done using another new-to-me technique. I twisted 3 pieces of black yarn together and sewed them then sewed it to the quilt. Then the embellishments which was the funnest part! (is funnest a word?) The sign in the middle of the piece turns over to open and closed. I wanted the whole thing to look just a bit raggedy, and I think I achieved that. (Actually that’s not hard for me to achieve as most of my pieces are a bit raggedy….even if I’m not trying!) Supplies used:
Fabric, Heat &Bond, blue,black and white thread, black yarn, buttons, pins, sewing needle,dmc black and blue floss, letter buttons, navy blue ink pad, fabric glue, Black Zig pen. Measuring tape, pattern and scissors all fussy cut from vintage fabric. Techniques used:
Stipple quilting, couching of black yarn, thread painting (dress form), stamping. All supplies came from my stash. 0 dollars spent. This piece was happily made in Elgin, IL.  

Quilter:  KimsCraftyApple

The Story behind Rectangular Conundrum:  I started this challenge with a few ideas in my head. The thing I knew right away was that I wanted to put fabric on cording and twirl it to make a more dimensional piece. With the first idea I had I couldn’t decide if I wanted my accent color to be lime green or hot pink – it really felt like it needed both so I had to scrap that idea. At that point I decided to let this piece create itself organically. I decided on hot pink as an accent and I made a disappearing nine-patch base to work from with hot pink, black and white. I quilted it with fun circular, rectangular and triangular swirl patterns all over. I’ve really come to enjoy tight quilting. Then I created my swirls with my cord and fabric. I left bits of the ends loose so I had some flexibility in my design. I still had a rectangle for the base of the design so one night I decided to chop the corners off. I really liked the pattern and quilting in my original rectangle so I decided I wanted to incorporate even the triangular pieces I had cut off – so I bound all five. The last step was to decide how to arrange my four triangular bits and my five fabric swirls. I hand stitched all the swirls and their tales down – it took much more time than I had originally envisioned but I finally finished this afternoon. I forgot to mention – I personally love the contrast in the rectangular/circle shapes in the ‘background’ with the circular swirls – I love what mixing geometry can do! Approximate Dimension: 20" x 30" Created in Madison, WI
submitted by Kim Lapacek, KimsCraftyApple  

Quilter:  MoranArtandQuilts

The Story behind ‘Soul Searching’: 17.5" around I started out thinking about what shape I wanted to use. At first I thought a star but then decided on a circle. I’ve always wanted to make a quilt with a person on it so came up this lovely lady in an art nouveau style. Her hair flows around to compliment the circle shape. I started with 144, 2" black and white squares and sewed them into a square shape. Then I used a pin, string and marking tool to make the circle. I cut it out with a rotary cutter. Quite a challenge! I wanted the lighter squares to blend into the darker ones and it reminds me of night and day. I used raw edge applique to sew everything on and then used black and turquoise acrylic paint for her face. I decided to add the buttons and they seem to represent all the things she is soul searching as well as all the patterns in the fabrics. Made by: Catherine (MoranArtandQuilts)  

Quilter: SpringWaterDesigns

The Story Behind ‘Lime Light Candle Mat’: This week I’m visiting out of state at my daughter’s house (waiting for her baby to arrive) and I did not bring my sewing machine, so I knew if I was going to participate in the Project Quilting Challenge, it would have to be a project that I could make by hand. I decided to go with 1.5" Yoyos (made with the Large size Clover Yoyo maker). I used black and white scraps with just a touch of lime green that we found at a local fabric shop. I made flower shapes, and then arranged them into a diamond shape for a nice sized candle mat/table runner (20.75" x 13.75"). My daughter had a lime green candle so we called it Lime Lite 🙂
This time I created my project in Stafford VA
Dawn ~ Spring Water Designs  

Quilter:  Gayle B

The Story Behind Tea and Poppies: My project is titled Tea & Poppies. I pieced the black and white fabric and quilted it using stiff interfacing instead of batting. Although hard to see, I used a red stipple pattern for the quilting. After assembling the teapot. I made the flowers using a fabric origami technique I learned in Israel from a group of Jamaican quilters. I added a black button for the center and used white florist wire for the stem. I even have one wilted flower. This was made in Broken Arrow, OK Gayle B  

Quilter:  ArtfullySew

The Story:  I just finished up my quilt and was rereading your blog on where to send the pictures and I seemed to miss the part about "Your finished project can be any size, but cannot be a square or a rectangle in shape." Mine is a rectangle. Augh! I am attaching it anyway for you to see, but you don’t have to put it in the judging since I screwed up! Thanks! Angela For this project I wanted to use a photo and print on fabric, since I hadn’t done it before. Being that the challenge was black and white, finding a photo would be easy. I used an original photo that my 11year old son took with my little phone camera of our outdoor cat, Princess Daisy. I used pre-treated fabric to print on. It wasn’t fun at all! I think because it was so hot outside and the sticky glue was coming loose from the fabric so it kept getting jammed! Of the three sheet in the pack, one turned up kinda usable. I ended up using green/chartreuse as my third color because that’s the color of our kitty’s eyes. I thread painted her eyes, traced the outlines with black thread and added strips as I felt like it. Then I hand stitched the whiskers, added the batting and backing fabric and quilted with “invisible” nylon thread. It was fun and I enjoyed this project. ***Since a major portion of the challenge was missed this challenge will not be eligible to win the prizes and is not included in the public poll.  Even though it was disqualified it will still receive a critique from the judges and a ‘well done’ from me – it truly is a beautiful piece.  *** PUBLIC WINNERS: The winner from the Random Generator will receive a $20 gift certificate to spend on whatever you choose at TheApple!    Ring – Sterling Silver and Epoxy Coated Candy Drop Bouquet of Circles – Wrap Around – Size 7-1/2 A wide selection of fun, crazy, colorful and whimsical jewelry from earrings to necklaces to bracelets to rings can be found at theApple. Use your gift certificate to treat yourself or find the perfect gift for someone you love! Daisy Earrings – Jewel Toned with Glass Pearls SEVEN Chances to WIN! Entry 1: REQUIRED! Leave a comment on your favorite entry and vote for your favorite on the poll on the upper left hand side of the blog. – ***MUST DO*** Optional/Additional Entries – please note – if you want to qualify for these additional entries you must leave a SEPERATE comment for each – if you already follow or are a fan, etc just leave comments saying each. If you write everything in ONE comment you only will have ONE entry… Entry 2: Follow my blog. Entry 3: Tweet about this fantastic contest with hashtag #PQBandW(important or I won’t know you did it) Entry 4: Become a Fan of Project QUILTING on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/ProjectQUILTING Entry 5: add my Project Quilting ‘Grab my Blinkie’ to your blog or blog about my giveaway (link your blog or post in your comment, please) Entry 6: Head on over to theApple and let me know what you would get if you won this weeks prize! Entry 7:  Sign up for my newsletter in the upper right hand corner of my blog. ***Participants in project quilting ARE allowed to enter in the public poll/contest as well.*** This means you have SEVEN chances to win! I need you to write each of these entries as different comments in order to qualify you for all five entries and include your email address. If you don’t include your email address I won’t be able to contact you when you win and I will have to choose a new winner. I will be picking the winner at 7pm on Friday, June 4th.